BFA Senior Receives Award from International Sculpture Center

Bethel senior Krista Anderson has been awarded the prestigious International Sculpture Center's Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award for 2016. The Rockford, Illinois, native will graduate this December with a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) in Art.

The International Sculpture Center (ISC) established the annual "Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award" program in 1994 to recognize young sculptors and to encourage their continued commitment to the field. It was also designed to draw attention to the sculpture programs of the participating universities, colleges, and art schools. The award program's growing publicity resulted in an exceptional number of participating institutions; including over 148 universities, colleges, and art school sculpture programs from six countries for a nominated total of 376 undergraduate and graduate students.

According to an ISC news release, a distinguished panel made up of Monika Burczyk, acting director/president of the board at Post Contemporary, Troy, New York; Paul Hubbard, professor of MFA studio art and fine arts at Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia; and Emily Nelms Perez, sculptor, Princeton, New Jersey; selected 16 recipients and 23 honorable mentions through a competitive viewing process of the works submitted. The selection of the recipients from a large pool of applicants, including international students, is a great accomplishment and testament to the artistic promise of the students' work, according to the ISC.

The work from the 16 award recipients will be shown in the Grounds For Sculpture's Fall/Winter Exhibition, on view from October 2016 through April 2017 in Hamilton, New Jersey, adjacent to the ISC headquarters. Anderson’s piece is featured in the October 2016 issue of the International Sculpture Center's Sculpture magazine as well as on the ISC website, www.sculpture.org.

Anderson’s awarded work, “Histories” explores mental illness and its treatment in women. It is part of her larger series of sculptures examining the different architecture and fixtures of the bathroom. “I am investigating the psychology behind the bathroom as a space, and how it is often the only truly private space a person has growing up, or even into adulthood,” she explains. “This plays a key role in our development psychologically and sexually, and I am displaying this visually through found object sculptures using fixtures like soap dishes, towel rack holders, cast-iron bathtubs, radiators, and toilets in arrangements that reference the body through positioning or color.” Visit Anderson’s personal website to see more.