PAFA Announces 2014 Winners of Prestigious Travel Scholarships

and Museum Purchase Prizes

Over $170,000 in scholarships competitively awarded to students

PHILADELPHIA (May 23, 2014) – The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is thrilled to announce the 2014 recipients of its most prestigious travel prizes and museum purchase prizes. Each year, PAFA competitively awards more than $170,000 in prizes and scholarships, including travel scholarships, exhibition nominations, and purchase prizes. The award-winning works are included in the 113th Annual Student Exhibition (ASE), on view through June 1, 2014 in PAFA’s Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building (128 N. Broad St.).

The 2014 recipients are:

Madeline Peckenpaugh of Wauwatosa, WI (MFA) is the winner of the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Travel Scholarship. First awarded in 1902, the scholarship recipient receives funding for European travel and full-tuition to PAFA for the two terms after s/he completes his/her travels. Peckenpaugh plans to travel to Norway; Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Paris. Peckenpaugh is also the recipient of the Benjamin Lanard Memorial Award, the Fellowship Juried Prize, the Alexander Prize Special Notice, and the Woodmere Art Museum Purchase Prize, which has been awarded annually at the ASE since 2011. The Woodmere's Collection Committee selects a work of art to be accessioned into Woodmere's collection that adds a new dimension or compliments, through its contemporary resonances, the strengths of the collection.

Drew Kohler of Clemonton, NJ (BFA) is this year’s recipient of the Richard C. von Hess Memorial Travel Scholarship. The von Hess Travel Scholarship is a one-year, full-tuition and travel scholarship for a third or fourth-year student exhibiting competitively in the ASE, on the basis of merit and financial need, and is selected by PAFA’s appointed faculty. Kohler plans to travel to Belgium, France, Italy, and Spain. Kohler is also the recipient of the Henry C. Pratt Memorial Prize in Printmaking, the Robert T. Wickersham Memorial Purchase Prize in Lithography, and the Woodmere Art Museum Purchase Prize.

Anna Hodges of Baltimore, MD (BFA) is the winner of the Lewis S. Ware Memorial Travel Scholarship. First awarded in 1938, this scholarship affords recipients funds dedicated to European travel. Hodges plans to travel to Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Florence, Berlin, and London. Hodges is also the recipient of the Lambert and Emma Wallace Cadwalader Prize for Portraiture, the Philadelphia Water Color Society Prize Special Notice, the Historic Yellow Springs Prize Special Notice, and the Lorraine S. Riesenbach Artists’ House Award. Upon her admission to PAFA in 2010, Hodges was awarded the Caldwell Scholarship, which granted her a 4-year, merit-based, full-tuition scholarship.

Alexandria Douziech of Sherman Oaks, CA (BFA) and Brian Van Camerik of Novato, CA (PAFA-UPenn BFA) are winners of the J. Henry Schiedt Memorial Travel Scholarships. First awarded in 1949, this scholarship is awarded based on outstanding merit and faculty recommendation. The scholarship grants recipients the ability to travel abroad. Douziech plans to travel to Georgetown, Guyana, and the surrounding area. Douziech is also the recipient of the Charles E. Dutrow Award, and the PAFA Faculty Award. Van Camerik plans to travel to London, Granada, Spain; and Istanbul and Bursa, Turkey.

Sara Noa Mark of New York, NY (Certificate) is the winner of the 2014 Women’s Board Traveling Scholarship. First awarded in 2006, the Women’s Board Travel Scholarship is awarded to a third year Certificate/BFA student for travel and related expenses in the summer months of the year of the award, plus a partial tuition scholarship for the subsequent academic year.  In addition, there is a flexible component of the award that the student can choose to spend toward the summer travel, or apply toward additional tuition funding. Recipients are required to return full-time in the following year to complete the Certificate/BFA requirements. Mark plans to travel to Barcelona, Toulouse, Padua, Bologna, Vienna, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, and London. Mark is also the recipient of the Catherine Grant Memorial Prize Special Notice, and the Second Prize winner of the Lambert and Emma Wallace Cadwalader Prize for Landscape. Mark also received the Sylvia G. Wexler Memorial Award, the Benjamin Lanard Memorial Award Special Notice, the Hobson Pittman Prize, the Louis and Estelle Pearson Memorial Prize for Landscape with Figures, the Historic Yellow Springs Prize, the Susan Carlen Brown Memorial Prize for Aqueous Media on Paper, and the Lois and Charles X. Carlson Landscape Painting Residency.

Ryan Ward of Alburtis, PA (MFA) is the winner of the Murray Dessner Memorial Graduate Travel Prize, PAFA’s first travel prize at the graduate level. A noted Philadelphia artist, Dessner served as a PAFA faculty member for over 40 years. Dessner received his Certificate from PAFA, and was the recipient of a Cresson Traveling Scholarship and a Scheidt Prize from PAFA, as well as a Philadelphia Art Museum Purchase Prize and a PAFA Purchase Prize. First presented this 2014, this prize honors Dessner’s legacy and ensures that PAFA’s Master of Fine Arts students of outstanding merit benefit, as Dessner did, from domestic or international travel. The award is presented in consideration of the quality and originality of the student graduation, wall as well as his/her achievement over a two-year period in both classroom and studio. Ward plans to travel around the U.S. and investigate American historical sites and their modes of information dissemination and presentation, including the Antietam National Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD; Ford’s Theatre, Washington, DC; The Alamo, San Antonio, TX; Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, NV; Yosemite National Park, CA; and Graceland, Nashville, TN.

Read Lockhart (MFA) of Lake Bluff, IL is the recipient of the Judith McGregor Caldwell Purchase Prize for PAFA’s permanent collection. First awarded in 1999, this prize is given to one or more recipients whose artwork is identified as being of special significance, and therefore, worthy of inclusion in PAFA’s permanent collection. The work is chosen from the ASE with the selection to be made by PAFA’s President, Dean of the School, and Director of the Museum.

Since PAFA’s first travel scholarship was awarded in 1902, recipients agree that the opportunity to travel internationally has enriched their perspectives and artistic practices in profound ways. Former winners of PAFA’s travel awards include Bo Bartlett, Moe Brooker, Vincent Desiderio, Billy Blaise Dufala, Barkley Hendricks, Orit Hofshi, Alex Kanevsky, Elizabeth Osborne, and the late Ellen Powell Tiberino.

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Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is America's first School of Fine Arts and Museum. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of Arts presented by the President of the United States, PAFA is a recognized leader in Fine Arts education. Nearly every major American artist has taught, studied, or exhibited at PAFA. The institution's world-class collection of American art continues to grow and provides what only a few other art institutions in the world offer: the rare combination of an outstanding Museum and an extraordinary faculty known for its commitment to students and for the stature and quality of its artistic work.