Departmental Awards and Honors - Spring 2022
We enthusiastically congratulate you, the Class of 2022 Art, Art History, and Film Majors and Minors! Your college career took an unexpected turn when the pandemic hit, but you have responded with creativity, compassion, courage, inquisitiveness, and resilience. Learning and creating in community with you has strengthened us all. We applaud you for your intellectual, creative, and personal achievements during your entire career at Boston College.
Richard and Marianne W. Martin Memorial Award
In recognition of high academic and creative achievement in Art History in this year of 2020. Established by the Boston College Friends of Art, this award is given annually in memory of Marianne W. Martin, Professor of Art History at Boston College from 1976-1989, and her husband Richard.
Peyton Wilson
Art History
“Peyton Wilson is deeply passionate about art and architectural history. She is a generous and thoughtful participant in class discussions, writes well-researched and carefully argued papers, and has demonstrated great flexibility in applying theoretical frameworks across different fields of art history. She is a great writer and an excellent team-player, showing leadership skills that are truly exemplary.”
- Art History Professor Emine Fetvaci
Xinying Wang
Studio Arts
“I was lucky enough to have Xinying her first semester at BC in my Art of Creativity class when she was a very quiet freshman . Her sensitivity to materials was evident then, and while she remains soft spoken , she has become a confident maker without losing any of her delicate touch. Working primarily in fibers, her artwork speaks volumes of a transcendent vision , a desire to use the material world to capture the unseen and uncatchable. We will miss Xinying and her beautiful ability to think through her hands, to weave dreams, to cause us all to pay attention to the details. Congratulations, Xinying!"
- Professor Sheila Gallagher
Allison R. Macomber, Jr. Award
This award was established and supported by gifts from the Horbach Fund for outstanding work in the Fine Arts in honor of Allison R. Macomber, Jr., Artist-in-Residence at Boston College.
Anne Taylor
Art History
“Annie is a brilliant critical thinker with an eye for the political stakes of art, particularly when it comes to issues of identity. Her longstanding engagement with the work of Louise Lawler is a case in point: How, she asks, have advanced feminist practices of appropriation and institutional critique, like Lawler’s, mobilized humor to activate and engage the spectator? Beyond her skills as a writer, however, what has impressed most over the last few years is Annie’s intellectual generosity in the classroom. She is always a leader in complex debates around thorny issues, but she never seeks to win arguments or stifle conversation; rather, her aim is to build on, push forward, complicate, and affirm the positions of her fellow students. She is a true collaborator in every sense of the word.”
- Art History Professor Kevin Lotery
Eden R. Dalton
Studio Arts
“In an age of quick visuals, Eden Dalton has shown fearless willingness to experiment which has enabled her to create accomplished works which ask us to go slower, look harder. Her ambitious series of large paintings on unprimed canvas are sensitive layered compositions which evoke the largeness of the ocean and the tiniest patterns of a vascular system. Eden’s work ethic and way of being in our art community reflect so many of the ideals of Boston College. Her orientation to the common good and willingness to be accommodating, to share materials, to see beyond competition to collaboration has elevated the atmosphere of the Studio Program. A loving and attentive team player, Eden reminds us that no one becomes an artist alone. Her presence will be greatly missed at Murray Carriage House.”
- Professor Sheila Gallagher
Jeffery Howe Art History Award
This award, established by the Boston College Arts Council in 2011 to honor Professor Howe’s outstanding service to the Arts at BC, recognizes a Boston College senior who has demonstrated outstanding scholarship in the area of art or architectural history.
Yifan Wang
Art History
“Yifan Wang is a philosopher of art and history. Over the course of her studies in art history and her service for the Arts Council, Yifan has developed an approach to art historical inquiry that sees art-making as a form of idea-making. Her work impresses for not only the complexity of ideas but also the way in which Yifan grounds her thinking in the most carefully observed formal qualities of the work of art at hand. Yifan Wang embodies a blend of infectious, generative enthusiasm and high seriousness about art and art history. She is the ideal recipient of this award founded in honor of Professor Emeritus Jeffrey Howe who was instrumental in founding the Arts Council and whose scholarship was driven by an enduring enthusiasm for art and art history.”
- Art History Professor Kevin Lotery
Cinematography Award
This award is given in recognition of excellence in cinematography in the Film Studies Program.
Sheila Barrett
Film Studies
“During the peer review session of the first edited assignment in the course Working Cinematographer, which was adding b-roll to recorded interviews, Sheila Barrett submitted a video that had such high production values that I questioned if she actually did the video or if it was a company’s corporate video. Since then, I came to expect that same level of polish from her.”
- Film Professor Robert Heim
Mary Armstrong Award
This award was created in honor of Mary A. Armstrong (1948-2020), who taught painting and drawing at Boston College for thirty years, to recognize a student who has developed an artistic practice of outstanding quality, and who presents the highest level of commitment and personal involvement with his/her work.
Iria Gutierrez-Schieferal
“Through her rigorous studio art practice combined with her degree in neuroscience, Iria’s ”sophisticated series of paintings embodies what it means to use art to do a deep dive into one’s societal concerns, aesthetic passions, and personal unconscious. Mary Armstrong was a real “painters’ painter” and would be so pleased to see this award being given to Iria who devoted herself this year to understanding the language of paint and how it can be used to manifest some of the deepest unknowns. Iria has shown a dedication to expanding her visual language by looking closely at the work of other artists, and putting in the time to hone her craft . It has been a huge pleasure to work with Iria for many reasons, but her willingness to give and receive criticism with an open heart and a sharp intellect has made her an invaluable member of the senior class. We wish Iria all the best as she begins her graduate work in neuroscience at Georgetown University this fall.
- Professor Sheila Gallagher
Screenwriting Award
This award is given in recognition of excellence in screenwriting in the Film Studies Program.
Mary C Daly
“Mary C Daly writes what she knows with enthusiasm and power. Her relentless work ethic to get her story on the page showed with every draft. I no doubt feel MC is at the beginning of an amazing career in screenwriting.”
- Film Professor Mary Conroy
Meghan Schlageter
“Meghan Schlageter has an exceptional eye for animation storytelling. Her screenplays exemplified the hard work and perseverance of a committed screenwriter. It was an honor to watch her craft excel over these past two years.”
- Film Professor Mary Conroy
Costa-Gavras Social Justice Award
Costa-Gavras, director of socially conscious films such as Z, The Confession, Missing, and Amen, has provoked his international audiences to reflect more deeply about issues of social justice. This award in his name acknowledges the work of a graduating Senior in Film Studies who follows in his footsteps with an original film on an issue of social justice.
Marie de Roualle
“Marie has always been an accomplished scholar in all of my courses. Beyond that, she has completed two Independent Studies on the political and sociopolitical films of Greek-French director Costa-Gavras. She has also been a major French connection for the research for the Professors Michalczyk’s forthcoming book with Bloomsbury Publications in London, Costa-Gavras: Encounters with History.”
- Film Professor John J. Michalczyk
Excellence in Editing
Robert Clark
“Robert (Bobby) Clark is a sharp, clever, and skilled editor. He is able to take a story, add the nuances and special effects that take his productions to the next level for everyone's enjoyment. I know he has a bright future in front of him! Bobby has already shown this with his superior editing skills as Assistant Editor to professional faculty productions.”
- Film Professors Kris Brewer and John Michalczyk
Mary Armstrong Award
This award was created in honor of Mary A. Armstrong (1948-2020), who taught painting and drawing at Boston College for thirty years, to recognize a student who has developed an artistic practice of outstanding quality, and who presents the highest level of commitment and personal involvement with his/her work.
Iria Gutierrez-Schieferal
“Through her rigorous studio art practice combined with her degree in neuroscience, Iria’s ”sophisticated series of paintings embodies what it means to use art to do a deep dive into one’s societal concerns, aesthetic passions, and personal unconscious. Mary Armstrong was a real “painters’ painter” and would be so pleased to see this award being given to Iria who devoted herself this year to understanding the language of paint and how it can be used to manifest some of the deepest unknowns. Iria has shown a dedication to expanding her visual language by looking closely at the work of other artists, and putting in the time to hone her craft . It has been a huge pleasure to work with Iria for many reasons, but her willingness to give and receive criticism with an open heart and a sharp intellect has made her an invaluable member of the senior class. We wish Iria all the best as she begins her graduate work in neuroscience at Georgetown University this fall.
- Professor Sheila Gallagher