Visual Arts NOCCA Alum receives Award of Excellence from Kennedy Center
Visual Arts alum, Emilie Gossiaux has won an Award of Excellence from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., it was announced this week. In addition to a monetary award, she will be one of only fifteen selected artists whose work will be part of the In/finite Earth exhibition organized by VSA, the Kennedy Center’s international organization on arts and disability, opening at the Smithsonian Institution’s S. Dillon Ripley Center in Washington, D.C. in September. While any student recipient of a national art award would be exceptional, for Ms. Gossiaux it can be seen as recognition for perseverance, determination and courage. Ms. Gossiaux’s has won the award for “Bird Sitting,” a sculpture she created two years after a traumatic street accident left her completely blind during her senior year in 2010. In spite of this she returns in autumn to complete her degree and graduate with the class of 2014.