Student Art and Design Exhibition Brings Honors and Cash Prizes

Twenty third annual SDSU Student Award Exhibition moves online to give awards and opportunities to students during COVID- 19

by Mara Parker

March 25, 2021

Since 1999, the SDSU Student Award Exhibition has demonstrated the University’s support of artistic excellence and diversity in student artwork. The annual exhibition features a juried collection of upper-division and graduate student artwork. In addition to the honor of being selected to participate in the show, the Student Award Exhibition (SAE) also offers students opportunities to win cash prizes and the chance to have their work included in the University’s permanent collection.

This year’s SAE runs through April 30, 2021 and takes place entirely online using a virtual gallery program called KunstMatrix. The SAE is open to the public.

Students whose work is selected for inclusion in the exhibition are eligible to receive cash awards from sponsors across campus including the President’s Office, the Dean’s Office for the College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts (PSFA), the Dean’s Office for Arts and Letters, the Dean Emerita for PSFA, the Dean’s Office for the Fowler College of Business, and Aztec Shops. Additional awards are given by SDSU’s Art Council Ambassadors and the School of Art and Design. Art Produce, a local Gallery, will also award a solo art exhibition. In addition to cash prizes associated with each award, student artwork chosen by on-campus entities is then permanently displayed.

Annie Buckley, director of the School of Art and Design is eager to expose the University community to student talent, and the SAE provides a wonderful opportunity. “We are thrilled that so many stakeholders from across campus are participating in the Student Award Exhibition through granting awards and the purchase and exhibition of original works by our students,” said Buckley. “This experience simultaneously offers students a valuable professional opportunity, and gives the university community expanded access to the beauty, meaning, and depth of art and design in the spaces in which they work.”

The prestige of having their artwork selected is not lost on the students. Last year, Art and Design student, Sepideh Shamloufard, was the recipient of the Jury Award at the Student Award Exhibition.

“I was so honored to have been recognized last year,” said Shamloufard. “My SAE award was not just about the validation of my work, it was a celebration of what I have done with the help and support of my mentors, faculty, and family. I think this award inspired me to represent a better version of myself.”

Work in the Student Award Exhibition represents a broad variety of media and practice. The SDSU School of Art + Design has degree programs with emphases in Ceramics, Furniture and Woodworking, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Graphic Design, Interior Architecture, Multimedia, Painting and Printmaking, and Sculpture.

Accepted artwork will be on display online through April 30, 2021. The annual awards ceremony will take place via Zoom on Wed., April 7, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. PDT, and will include presentations by Director of the School of Art + Design, Annie Buckley, and other campus leaders.

Public Online Awards Ceremony:

April 7, 2021

4:00 – 5:30 P.M.

School of Art + Design

Please email artinfo@sdsu.edu for Zoom link and passcode

The content within this article has been edited by Lizbeth Persons.

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