UNH Photo
Joseph Smolinski
The University of New Haven has announced that two members of its community, Joseph Smolinski and Noel Sardalla, have received artist fellowships from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development’s Office of the Arts.
According to its website, “the Connecticut Office of the Arts … has awarded FY12 fellowships to 46 artists to support their continuing artistic development and creation of new work. Grants in the amounts of $5,000 and $2,500 were awarded in the categories of craft, new media, painting, photography, sculpture/installation and works on paper. The single review criterion was artistic merit.”
UNH Photo
Noel Sardalla
A university news release indicates that “Smolinski, a UNH lecturer in the Art and Design Department, earned a fellowship in the works on paper category. Noel Sardalla, a university student majoring in art who is also an administrative assistant in the Communications and Public Affairs Office, won the fellowship for sculpture installation. Each received $2,500.”
“I am interested in exploring the intersection of nature and technology. Many of my works question human impact on the environment and envision the future of the natural world with a dark sense of humor,” Smolinski said in the news release, which quoted Sardalla as saying, “My goal is to make the arts relevant to non-artists by making people understand that creativity and expressive literacy can have profound and beneficial effects in other fields such as engineering and medicine.”
A complete list of the Connecticut Office of the Arts artist fellowship recipients, about half of whom reside in the New Haven area, can be seen here.