2025 “Meeting of the Minds” Award for Artistic Excellence
Congratulations to the following undergraduate student winners of the 2025 “Meeting of the Minds” Award for Artistic Excellence!
Matthew Blankley, “Bears, Bears, Bears”
“Bears, Bears, Bears,” a 60-minute stage adaptation of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, explores the nature of empathy in an age of self-involvement. When a paleontologist-turned-au-pair switches bodies with his host family, he must juggle their dysfunctional lives while securing a “Proof of Reliability”—or risk his own future. In this workshop production, the audience will watch as Mitchell (the evening’s Goldilocks) attempts to secure a “Proof of Reliability,” the essential document to his alternative, empathy driven study of dinosaurs, while he switches bodies with a family of three, lifestyles he had never been able to empathize with. Through multimedia storytelling depicting on-stage video calls and digital footprints combined with dinosaur puppetry, “Bears, Bears, Bears” comedically examines how constant digital connection impacts our ability to empathize, all while painting a surreal portrait of modern family dynamics through a classic fairytale.
Sarah Kang, “Past Days”
Sarah Kang’s video and print work is the most recent contribution to a multi generational habit of archiving, journaling, and photographing their family history. The work has two main sources: Her grandfather’s compiled journals detailing his life as a soldier in the Korean War through his family’s immigration to the United States as well as her father’s archive of family photos, videos, and documents. Her work explores the purpose and impacts of record-keeping as a method for remembering, immortalizing, and honoring past generations as well as personal reflection on how those histories shape identity.
Rebecca Kim, “Insectevo: Kinetic Sculptures of Insect Evolution in Motion”
Kim’s interdisciplinary project bridges mechanical engineering, art, and nature to explore the dynamic intersection of motion, evolution, and artistic expression. Originating from the desire to bring paintings to life, the work evolved through studies of gear systems, kinetic motion, and ecological relationships, resulting in a series of kinetic sculptures. Inspired by insect evolutionary principles, the project highlights the parallels between biological adaptations and mechanical systems through visualization, physical computation, and diverse motion. Methods include extensive research into insect behavior, material experimentation, and integration of sensors and motorized mechanisms to create responsive sculptures. In the series of artworks, one project transforms an image of Monarch butterfly to caterpillar through gears that change speed and according to temperature and humidity inputs. This project illustrates the complexity and sensitivity of a threatened species during the metamorphosis. Another project is a kinetic jewelry design inspired by the Oriental Hornet, which mimics its body segment movements through mechanical linkages. This work exhibits appreciation for the species that is viewed as threats, by adjusting the speed according to the light input like their unique ability to use sunlight for physical activities. The ultimate goal is to foster dialogue on ecological preservation, human-nonhuman connections, and interdisciplinary creativity. In the future, this work can incorporate advanced robotics, AI, and large-scale installations to deepen its impact, aiming to address pressing environmental and social challenges while inspiring future transdisciplinary innovation.
Sapna Tayal, “Creating Furniture-Scale Deployable Objects with a Computer-Controlled Sewing Machine”
We introduce a novel method for fabricating functional flat-to-shape objects using a large computer-controlled sewing machine (11 ft / 3.4m wide), a process that is both rapid and scalable beyond the machine’s sewable area. Flat-to-shape deployable objects can allow for quick and easy need-based activation, but the selective flexibility required can involve complex fabrication or tedious assembly. In our method, we sandwich rigid form-defining materials, such as plywood and acrylic, between layers of fabric. The sewing process secures these layers together, creating soft hinges between the rigid inserts which allow the object to transition smoothly into its three-dimensional functional form with little post-processing.
Lillian van Veen, “The Clothes Make the Man”
“The Clothes Make the Man” was an exhibition that ran at The Frame Gallery from March 21st - March 23rd, 2025. The show examined the relationship between queer bodies and the clothes those bodies wear, transforming garments into unwearable art objects. Each piece of clothing used in the show was owned and worn by the artist.