MFA-VA Candidates Awarded Fine Arts Work Center Scholarships, Graduate Production Grants

Mad Green, MFA ’24, and Carmen Ribaudo, MFA ’25, were awarded scholarships by the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ MFA in Visual Art program to attend workshops at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The Work Center is an artist-led organization dedicated to nurturing artists and shaping culture. In addition to its world-renowned fellowship program, the Work Center offers a series of more than 60 week-long workshops in visual arts and creative writing. The scholarships cover tuition, on-site housing, and up to $500 in travel expenses.

Green plans to attend the Work Center’s Queer Week, which includes a variety of programming in different genres presented through a queer lens. Queer narratives play a vital role in Green’s work, and they are currently working on their social practice thesis project, “Queer Fight Club.”

Ribaudo, who has been exploring integrating visual and written creative modes, will attend writing workshops. “With a deeper dive into writing, I will be able to strengthen how the linguistic element integrates with the multitude of material possibilities offered at the Sam Fox School,” she shared.

Additionally, Ribaudo and Emily Elhoffer, MFA ’24, were awarded graduate student production grants through the school. These grants provide funding for students to engage in collaborative or individual creative work. Ribaudo’s project is called “The Haunting of John Habit, and Other Tales and Songs,” and Elhoffer’s is called “Uncanny Home, Entangled Bodies.”

Students in the MFA-VA program will show their work in exhibitions this spring. Second-year students will share their thesis work at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in an exhibition titled “Slingshot,” opening May 3. First-year students will show work at G-CADD, the Granite City Art and Design District, beginning April 20.