September 4- October 10                                 

2019 Miami University Young Sculptors Competition for the $10,000 William and Dorothy Yeck Award

Thursday, September 26, Juror Lecture: 5:50 p.m., Art 100

Friday, September 27, Reception for the Artists:  4:30 – 5:30 p.m., Award Ceremony: 5:00 p.m.

Through the generous gift from William (MU1936) and Dorothy Yeck of Dayton, Ohio, Miami  University has a unique opportunity to provide students and the community at large to develop a critical understanding of sculpture in the 21^st century. The competition winner will be awarded the $10,000 William and Dorothy Yeck Award and the sculpture will become part of Miami University’s permanent collection.

2019 Juror: Don Desmett, Curator, Director, Writer, Kalamazoo, Michigan.  

Don Desmett was Founding Director of Exhibitions for the Richmond Center for Visual Arts (RCVA) at Western Michigan University (2006-2016). In 2005, he was a design consultant for SmithGroup (Detroit), working on functional design elements for Western Michigan University’s RCVA.  From 2000 to 2004, Desmett was Director of Collections and Exhibitions at The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (again as Interim Curator from 2018/19). He also served as Director and Curator of The Tyler Galleries at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia (1990-98). Career highlights include organizing major exhibitions for ArtPrize 8, 9, and 10 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, The Museum for Contemporary Art, Cleveland; The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He has also served on numerous panels and review boards including The National Leadership Grant Review Panel for The Institute of Museum and Library Services in Washington, D.C., The Ohio Arts Council and Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Visual Arts Review Panels, a panel member for The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums & The New England Museum Association and, Independent Curators International/Chicago Expo Curatorial Forum 2019. Desmett received his M.F. A, from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and his B.F.A. from the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio.

Finalists for the 2019 Miami University Young Sculptors Competition: Zac Benson, Yellow Springs, Ohio; Céline Browning, East Grand Rapids, Michigan; Eric D. Charlton, Meadville, Pennsylvania; Nathaniel Foley, Indianapolis, Indiana; Amy Hoagland, Austin, Texas; Kahlil Robert Irving, St. Louis, Missouri; Benjamin Larose, Chicago, Illinois; Joseph Paushel, Lexington, Kentucky; Vincent Stemmler, St. Louis, Missouri; Zac Weinberg, Maumee, Ohio.

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