Skip to main content
Awards and Achievements

Graphic Design Graduate Wins Award from Kennedy Center

BYU graduate Madalyne Marie Hymas recently won one of the 12 awards of excellence and a $2,000 prize in the Kennedy Center’s 2013 VSA/Volkswagen Group of America Exhibition Program. The program aims to showcase and support emerging artists with disabilities, and Hymas’ artwork, “The Dyslexic Advantage,” will appear alongside the works of the 15 other finalists in the exhibition In/finite Earth, showcased at the Smithsonian Institution’s S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C., this fall.

The VSA and Volkswagen Group of America established the exhibition program to support and promote young, emerging artists with disabilities, who are living in the United States. Every year, fifteen artists are selected for the exhibition and share $60,000 in cash awards generously provided by Volkswagen Group of America. As part of the award, recipients also take part in a gala dinner and reception on Capitol Hill, professional development seminars, and meetings with directors and curators of prominent contemporary galleries in Washington, D.C.

Hymas, who received her BFA in Graphic Design in 2013, is excited about the exposure her prize-winning work will receive, but not simply because that exposure will further her career.

“I think the message that it carries is extremely important and am excited that more people will be able to experience it while it is exhibited in Washington, D.C.,” Hymas said.

In her artist’s statement about the work, Hymas explained that “At seven I was placed into a special education class. . . . I grew up believing I was stupid and even worse – I was treated this way.”

Hymas believes that her prize-winning piece can speak to more than simply those who struggle with dyslexia.

“Everyone can relate the universal feelings that come from being mislabeled and treated like less,” she continued. “This show evokes these emotions in others as a medium to help the viewer become engaged and educated.”

Fittingly for an award that aims to validate the “life-defining choice” of becoming a professional artist, the VSA/Volkswagen Group of America Exhibition Program represented a significant personal victory for Hymas: “I became emotional as I reflected on the number of sleepless nights, hot baths, and tears I went through creating it, and then to think about it becoming part of an exhibition at the Smithsonian – it was a very empowering moment for me.”

Adrian Pulfer, Hymas’ mentor at BYU, was proud and unsurprised by Hymas’ success.

“Her research was meticulous, deep, and scholarly. Coupled with her outstanding execution of the design of the installation, it became an award-winning combination,” Pulfer said. “It is our expectation that our students will do well because they compete with the very best student talent in the country.”

Hymas, in turn, attributes a large portion of her success to her education at BYU, noting that the graphic design program “had a huge impact on my artistic development. It has helped me cultivate my creativity by teaching universal principals like quality, truth, and beauty.”

For more details about In/finite Earth, download the exhibit postcard.

Exhibit Postcard