Our Students
In reviewing our MFA recipients over the past five years, it is apparent that our students complete their degrees with exceptional skills, knowledge, and professional accomplishments. While enrolled in the MFA program, our students have been recognized as fellowship award winning artists-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center and at Ox-Bow School of Art.
Brian Shaw, Joe Kopfler, and Ashlynn Browning received prestigious $10,000 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grants and exhibited their work at the Cue Foundation in NYC. Izumi Ryono and Peter Goff both received the International Sculpture Center’s Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award. Peter Goff also received a Fulbright Scholarship to Zomba Malawi. Phoebe Briley, Izumi Ryono, and Maurice Moore received scholarships or residencies to Penland School of Crafts for two-week workshops. Eric Kniss recently recieved the increased $15,000 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant.
Graduates apply for and receive summer graduate assistantships between their first and second years in the program. Several graduate students have begun to build their professional exhibition records by entering juried regional and national exhibitions, including the College Art Association’s Lowe Gallery exhibition at the University of Georgia Athens.
After receiving an MFA in Art from UNCG many of our graduates teach art at the college level; attend residency programs throughout the US; exhibit work regionally, nationally and internationally; become directors at art galleries; and receive commissions and grants in the arts.