Students Shine with Scholarships, Exhibitions
The School of Art presented nine students with Kimberly D. Iles Scholarships this academic year: Sara Caoile, painting and drawing; Adele Ferguson, painting and drawing; Elle Hoytt, cinema studies; Abbie (Bea) Moore, photography; Rachel O’Donnell, sculpture; Grace Russell, printmaking; Benjamin Sechrest, time-based art; Laura Smith, art history; and Emma Mae Toledo, ceramics
Rachel O’Donnell (’24) was awarded a 2024 Dianne Komminsk Scholarship from the Mid-South Sculpture Alliance.
Multiple art students, cinema studies students, and alumni had films screened at the 2024 Film Fest Knox: Crue Smith, Eli Heaton, Callie Bacon, Leigh McTeer Shields, John Thomas Dickson, and Shannon Ferguson. Angel of Light, a feature-length film directed by Smith (’18), received an honorable mention in the Made in Tennessee Competition.
Ceramics MFA student Shelby Reed had nine sculptures selected for inclusion in the 2024 Juried Student Exhibition at the 58th annual conference of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in Richmond.
Printmaking MFA student Eliza Frensley won the 2025 Frogman’s Graduate Student Scholarship, becoming the fourth UT student to receive the nationally competitive award from one of the world’s largest and most prestigious printmaking workshops.
Painting and drawing MFA student Chase Williamson had a painting included in the 28th Biennial Carroll Harris Simms National Black Art Competition and Exhibition at the African American Museum of Dallas.