UB Students Receive Art Department Awards

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Nine students in the UB Department of Art have received 1999-2000 departmental awards for their work.

Karisa Centanni of Troy, a junior in the photography BFA program, was selected by the art department to receive the Rumsey Award.

Established through the generosity of Buffalo painter Evelyn Rumsey Lord, the award is to be used for travel for artistic and personal enrichment or for tuition assistance for a summer studio art program outside of UB.

Centanni will use the $2,500 award to return to Russia, where she spent two semesters last year.

Roseanne Lazar of Canisteo, a junior in the painting concentration, has received the Sally Hoskins Potenza Memorial Scholarship. The Potenza scholarship was established by the family of Sally Potenza, who was a promising young painter pursuing graduate studies in the UB art department at the time of her death.

Matthew Quirk of Rochester, a BFA candidate in the painting concentration, was selected to receive the Philip C. and Virginia Cuthbert Elliott Painting Scholarship for his outstanding ability and interest in the area of artistic painting. The cash award is based on the ability and overall merit of the student.

The scholarship was established with a grant from Virginia Cuthbert Elliott. She and her late husband, Philip C. Elliott, served for 30 years as artists and art educators in Western New York, including lengthy tenures at the Albright Art School and at its successor, the UB Department of Art.

From 1941-69, Philip Elliott served successively as director of the art school and the first chair of the UB art department. Virginia Elliott taught art at both institutions from 1941-61. Both were a strong force in shaping the UB art department during its formative years.

Brianna Sylver of Carthage, a junior in the communication design program, is this year's recipient of the Julius Bloom Memorial Scholarship for excellence in typographic study.

Toby Bloom Schoellkopf established the Bloom Scholarship in memory of her father, who worked for several well-known printing companies, had a lifelong interest in the typographic arts and helped organize the first international conference of typographical arts in the mid-1960s.

Tullis Johnson of Grand Island and Sarah Mortenson of Port Jervis, both of whom will graduate this month, are the recipients of the Eugene L. Gaier Printmaking Awards established last year by Gaier, UB professor emeritus of counseling and educational psychology who has had a long-time interest in the arts.

Jon Michael Hallock, Jr., of Williamsville, a junior in the printmaking program, is the recipient of the Eugene L. Gaier Excellence in Drawing Award.

Tiffany Stark of Newfane, a BFA candidate in the painting program, received the Carl E. and Virginia W. Sentz Memorial Award.

Kenneth Garee of Seneca Falls, a junior pursuing a BFA in computer art, received the Dennis Domkowski Memorial Scholarship, awarded to juniors in the communication design or computer art program who show excellent potential for design. The award was established by Professional Communicators of Western New York.