News

By Karen Sandstrom

Cleveland Institute of Art students took home more than $8,500 in awards and prizes, as the 71^st Student Independent Exhibition opened Feb. 17 with a bustling gallery and ceremony honoring the best work of the show.

Seventeen artists received awards for their work in the exhibition, an all student-run show that this year featured 74 works of art. This year’s SIE committee was led by Bianca Breed, Zachary James, Noelle Richard and James Waite.

Sage Byham, a sophomore majoring in Sculpture + Expanded Media, won the top award, the Board of Trustees Grand Purchase Prize, for “Perception.” This two-piece work, which also received the Sculpture Center Award, will be purchased for the CIA Study Collection. Byham said he has been working on it since his first year at CIA.

“One is an image, holding the beauty of virtual potential in our minds to create anything. The other, a sculpture that actualizes the unrecognized potential of these materials to function for a purpose,” said Byham, of Townhill, Pa. “Together they symbolize the infinite potential of the human mind to cognize reality into one we have intended. If you experience the world as a reality that is cruel, unfair, hopeless, or distasteful in some way, know that you have the power to change your individual perception and can learn to recognize that potential life holds.”

Junior Photography + Video major Dagen Shellenberger also had a notable night, walking away with a CIA Board of Trustees honorable mention and Prizm Sponsorship Award for his photograph “The Stage,” and the Nunes Family Prize for “I Don’t Care About Your Opinion.”

Here’s a list of all the winners:

Cleveland Institute of Art Board of Trustees Awards

Board Grand Purchase Prize
Sage Byham
“Perception”

Board 2nd Prize
Brandon Secrest
Untitled

Board 3rd Prize
Erika Grauzinis
“Marguerita”

Board Honorable Mentions
Bex Fuller
Untitled II

Katie David
“Perfume Vial Talisman”

Aundraya Dain
Untitled

Dagen Shellenberger
“The Stage”`

Alex Overbeck
“Hallucination”

Riley Kemerling
“Ghost Town”

Tingting Sha
Untitled

Alison Klein
“Avocado”

David and Ann Deming Award
Mariah Klagge
“Feel This”

Mary Ann and Jack Katzenmeyer Award for Outstanding Craft
Katie David
“Perfume Vial Talisman”

The Nunes Family Prize
Dagen Shellenberger
“I Don’t Care About Your Opinion”

Prizm–The Artist’s Supply Store Awards

Sponsorship Award
Dagen Shellenberger
“The Stage”

2nd Prize
Synthia Anderson
“Baltic Transfer series”

Honorable Mentions
Morgan Barnhizer
“Beady Eyes”

Spencer Cowan
“Dur da dur”

Riley Kemerling
“Glass House”

Cris Rom and Alan Rocke Award for Excellence in Craft
Drew Galletta
“Jaw Bracelet”

The Sculpture Center Award
Sage Byham
“Perception”

Karen Skunta & Company Design Excellence Award
Brandon Secrest
Untitled

Sue Wall Painting Award
Austin Turner
Untitled

Almut and Gary Zvosec Award
Alison Klein
“Smile”