GOLDEN TOUCH Collage announces Creative Expression Award winners for fall 50th anniversary issue
Fall 2018 Collage staff members present at the final editing meeting are (l–r): front, Katelin McVey, Katrina Scott, Briyana Dyer, Rebecca Clippard, Bea Dedicatoria, Destiny Seaton, Hannah Tybor, and Stacy Yabko Misra; and back row, Moose Williams, Heaven Morrow, Nathan Wahl, Anthony Czelusniak, Jake Garrette, Emma Cryar, Todarius Morris, Simone Strange, Elizabeth Clippard, Lisa Hardie, and Kate Carter. (Not pictured: George Boktor, Jordyn Starks, Grace Hollowell, Miranda Herrell, Nibraas Khan, Kaylee Schilling, and Jake Bruce)
Six submitted works were selected to receive Creative Expression Awards from among over 500 entries to the 50th anniversary issue of Collage: A Journal of Creative Expression in the Fall 2018 semester. George Boktor and Kory Wells captured Martha Hixon Creative Expression Awards for their literature submissions, while Jasmine Weatherspoon and Sisavanh Phouthavong-Houghton were awarded Lon Nuell Creative Expression Awards for their visual submissions. Will Banks and John Lane won in the audio and video categories, respectively. The Collage staff selects approximately 60 submissions for publication each semester based on the results of a blind grading process. Creative Expression Award winners are selected by the staff and the Collage Faculty Advisory Board from among the highest-rated entries. Creative Expression Awards are awarded for each of six areas: prose, poetry, art, photography, audio, and video.
Aftermath/Debris: Secret War on Laos by Sisavanh Phouthavong-Houghton
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ARETÉ MAGAZINE | Spring 2019
Art Sisavanh PhouthavongHoughton, an associate professor of Studio Arts in painting and winner of an MTSU Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award in 2014, received a Creative Expression Award for her work Aftermath/Debris: Secret War on Laos. The 16-by-8-foot acrylic painting on canvas was installed at the Nashville International Airport from March through August last year. Born in Vientiane, Laos, in 1976, Phouthavong-Houghton and her family immigrated to the U.S. from Nong Khai refugee camp in Thailand. She holds an M.F.A. from Southern Illinois University and has had numerous honors and exhibitions. Her research has been funded several times by the Tennessee Arts Commission and MTSU grants. Phouthavong-Houghton has partnered with the Frist Museum, Oasis Center, and Center for Refugees and Immigrants of Tennessee.