Essay, Series

The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at The New School is pleased to announce the winners of the 2012-2013 Vera List New School Art Collection Writing Awards. In a first, this year’s competition applied an expanded notion of “essay,” and accepted non-text based, visual entries. Submissions were garnered from across four New School divisions-Parsons, Lang, NSPE, and NSSR-by students from such diverse programs as Urban Design, the Institute of Retired Professionals, Economics, Creative Writing, Poetry, Politics, Anthropology, Sociology, and Fine Arts. Like the Art Collection itself, the award provided a cross-divisional platform for creative and critical thinking and making.

Award winners actively engaged The New School Art Collection-a distinctive component of the educational experience at The New School-and found inspiration in the Vera List Center’s 2011-2013 focus theme, “Thingness.” Addressing this theme deftly by focusing on the material aspects of art, the winning submissions honor the conclusion of the current thematic issue before the Vera List Center upcoming, 2013-2015 focus theme, “Alignment.”

The 2012-2013 Vera List New School Art Collection Writing Awards were bestowed on the following students:

First Prize, Creative Response ($400)
Raven Jackson, New School for Public Engagement, MFA in Poetry
For her poem “Mississippi”
Inspired by Brice Marden, Untitled #4, 1979
On view at 65 West 11th Street, 5th Floor, Wollman Hall

First Prize, Critical Response ($400)
Thomas J. Ashley, New School for Public Engagement, Institute for Retired Professionals
For his essay “Helmsboro Country and Me”
Inspired by Hans Haacke, Helmsboro Country (diptych), 1990
On view at 66 West 12th Street, 4th Floor

Second Place, Creative Response ($200)
Andrew Williams, Parsons The New School for Design, BFA Photography
For his photo essay
Inspired by Berenice Abbott, Fulton Fish Market, 1938
On view at 66 West12th Street, 7th Floor

2012-2013 Jury
Carin Kuoni, Director/Curator, Vera List Center for Art and Politics
Joshua Mack, member, Vera List Center Advisory Committee
Rosemary O’Neill, Associate Professor of Art History, School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons The New School for Design
Robert Polito, Director, Writing Program and MFA in Creative Writing, The New School for Public Engagement
Collection
Juliet Tarantino, student representative and candidate for M.A. in Anthropology at The New School for Social Research
Wendy Walters, Assistant Professor, Literary Studies, Eugene Lang College The New School for Liberal Arts