Awards and Achievements

Students and Faculty from the Department of Design, School of Communications, School of Music and Department of Dance Are Awarded Top Prizes From National Contests

Eight CFAC Faculty Are Awarded University and College Awards During the Annual University Conference 2023

CFAC Students Are Among Those Awarded Top Ratings and First-Place Prizes at National and International Contests

The Kennedy Center for International Studies has chosen its Kennedy Research Fellows for fall semester 2022. This program has for some time provided research funding for students doing research on international topics; Fall 2022 is the first time the fellowships have also been made available to faculty as well. …

For BYU Homecoming each year, descendants of George H. Brimhall sponsor an essay contest honoring a BYU founder. The 2021 honored founder was longtime BYU Program Bureau director Janie Thompson. Below is an excerpt from the winning essay, by design major Shannon G. Spencer (’23).

The BYU Art Department announced student recipients of scholarships and awards on April 8

Audrey Hancock wins the 2021 AIGA national Command X competition

Madison Casagranda submitted photos from her project, The Black Stories Project, to Communication Arts magazine and placed as a finalist

Hunter Young’s design video illustrating the words of a poem won the CA typography award. This is his second award from Communications Arts.

Emma Squire is a freshman at BYU with a passion for telling new, unique stories BYU freshman Emma Squire is a photographer, a storyteller and a finalist of the Fujifilms Students of Storytelling competition. Squire’s photo series about the history of prosperity is now being displayed on her own personal Fujifilms profile page. “The idea came during an art history class. I noticed in some paintings that items which symbolized wealth a couple hundred years ago are much cheaper and easier to come by today,” Squire said. “It started with just one specific image in mind, but it soon turned into a series.” Squire’s photo series was done in two parts. First, she researched different periods of history in various countries to identify items that portrayed wealth and status. She then photographed her interpretation of the modern equivalents of those items. Then, Squire shot images of modern prosperity, after interviewing individuals to get a feel for current symbols of affluence. “My art is either telling a story or trying to make a statement. I want the viewers to be caught up in the narrative, or to reflect on the message the image is trying to convey,” Squire said. Squire is one of 600 students to submit a project proposal to the contest. The 30 applicants who were chosen each received equipment to use in the preparation for their photo stories. Fujifilms held this contest as a way of discovering America’s next great storytellers. “I hope to be able to create work that I care about and can make a living off of. I don’t know what that looks like yet, but my ultimate goal is to create meaningful art that I’m proud of,” Squire said.

Hansen’s winning piece “Scale the Globe with Help from the Gilman Scholarship” was chosen as one of 300 winners from 8,700 submissions

BYU vocal grads Jonah Hoskins and Dylan Glenn spotlighted as finalists in prestigious national vocal competition

Borja’s winning piece “Fish Out of Water” was inspired by her experience adjusting to a new culture

BYU Art alumni Jane Christensen and Bryan Hutchison have been named by the Utah Division of Arts & Museums as visual arts fellows for 2020. As two of four Utah artists awarded this recognition, Christensen and Hutchison each received $5,000 to support their careers. “These fellowships are intensely competitive,” said Art Department Chair Gary Barton. “Jane and Bryan represent a long list of BYU alumni who have received this prestigious award over the years.” For Hutchison (BFA ’13), whose work spans various mediums and formats— including photography, installation, sculpture, sound and video — the fellowship feels like a stamp of approval. Read the full article by Abby Weidmer at art.byu.edu.

Graduating photography student’s winning shot will be published in acclaimed Photo District News magazine

Designers explain the thought process behind their project “Unity & Division”

Florence Pestrikoff flew from her remote home in Akhiok on Alaska’s Kodiak Island to have her picture taken. Her BYU photographers came even farther—driving more than 40 hours and riding a ferry for 10. And now her image is on display 3,500 miles away in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. Pestrikoff is one of the last speakers of Alutiiq, an endangered language in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and one of 16 people photographed so far by recent BYU photography grad Jordan K. Layton (BFA ’17) and professor Paul S. Adams (BFA ’94) for their ongoing project, Vanishing Voices. Vanishing Voices began as Layton’s capstone project, inspired by his realization that hundreds of languages are disappearing in North America alone. Read more at magazine.byu.edu http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=_1tll0J8GCY&feature=emb_logo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=_1tll0J8GCY This fall a new exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum features 46 portraits taken from photographers all across the country. But only one of the 46 pieces of art displays not one, but two artist names: Paul Adams, a BYU professor, and Jordan Layton, a former photography student. Their work will be presented in “The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today,” a major exhibition premiering at the National Portrait Gallery. Every three years, artists living and working in the United States are invited to submit one of their recent portraits to a panel of experts chosen by the museum. The works of this year’s 46 finalists were selected from over 2,600 entries. The BYU duo’s portrait that is accepted for display in the Smithsonian is called Florence, one of the last speakers of Alutiq. It is a piece from their project “Vanishing Voices” and will hang in the National Portrait Gallery for a year and a half before going on tour for two years. Read more at news.byu.edu