AICAD
236 Hope Street
Providence, RI 02906
The Association of Independent Colleges of Art & Design (AICAD) is pleased to announce the nine fellows who have recently been selected to participate in a year-long, post-graduate teaching fellowship at participating AICAD institutions during the 2015/16 academic year.
The Fellowship program seeks to provide professional practice opportunities to high-achieving alumni who have recently graduated from AICAD member schools, while also increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of faculty at these institutions. AICAD institutions aspire to create a climate that recognizes and values diversity as central to excellence in art and design education.
AICAD Fellowships include structured and unstructured mentoring and professional development opportunities along with direct teaching experience, health benefits, and other monetary supports.
Selected fellows:
David Alyala-Alfonso (MA Critical Studies 2015, School of the Art Institute of Chicago) placed at Art Center College of Design. David is an artist, curator, researcher and Editor in Chief for {{em_rgencia}, a peer-reviewed journal on contemporary art. He has published books and articles on interface theory, Latin American art history, artist-run spaces, performance studies, and artistic interventions in the public realm.
Francisco Alonso (MFA 2013 Print Media, Cranbrook Academy of Art) placed at Pacific Northwest College of Art & Design. Francisco was awarded the Mercedes Benz emerging artist of the year award for 2013, which came with an artist residency at Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, Germany.
Tia Blassingame (MFA Printmaking 2015, Rhode Island School of Design) placed at the California College of the Arts. Tia is an artist and educator who initially got her start in architecture. Now her work focuses on printmaking and letterpress, producing beautiful works which exhibit a clear vision and a commitment to research.
Shiraz Gallab (MFA 2015 2D Design, Cranbrook Academy of Art) placed at California College of the Arts. Shiraz is a graphic designer with an acute interest in how language can be activated and altered through typographic means. Her experience and passion lies in identity, publication and photographic design, and she has a strong interdisciplinary practice with experimental and commercial threads.
Carolyn Jean Martin (MFA, Painting / MA, History and Theory of Contemporary Art, 2013, San Francisco Art Institute) placed at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Carolyn’s research and writing directly connects to her visual art practice of painting in traditional and non-traditional materials to create work that interrogates narratives of race, “Americanness,” and contemporary culture.
Helina Metaferia (MFA 2015, Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) placed at San Francisco Art Institute. Helina is an interdisciplinary artist working in performance, video art, installation, and mark-making. As a first generation Ethiopian-American, Helina’s work has been informed by an interest in diaspora, transnationalism, and gender studies.
Malcolm Rio (MArch 2015, Rhode Island School of Design) placed at Maryland Institute College of Art. Malcolm is a designer, architect and theorist originally from Baltimore, Maryland. He was recognized with the 2015 Alpha Rho Chi award for his leadership, professional merit and promise in the field. His thesis work explored the overlap between mobile technology and the structuring of bodies and architectural space.
Sheida Soleimani (MFA 2015 Photography, Cranbrook Academy of Art) placed at the Rhode Island School of Design. Sheida is Iranian and was raised in the Midwest by parents who are political refugees. Her work focuses on the “geography of refugees,” diasporas, and the multiple and shifting definitions of the Middle East. She has a particular interest in the consequences of new media practices and the distribution of information on the internet on social movements and revolutions.
Kelly Walters (MFA 2015, Rhode Island School of Design) placed at the California College of the Arts. Kelly is a multimedia designer, researcher and curator. She has always been inspired by graphic design and the power it has to impact people on both a local and global scale.
