Thanks to the fine work of our Institutional Engagement division and their enthusiasm for my priority to build greater support for scholarships and scholarly work, I was happy to visit the Lenore Tawney Foundation last month in New York to personally thank them for their generous creation of a fine arts scholarship to support our legendary Textile Department as led by Prof. Anais Missakian.

As I toured the studio of the late Ms. Tawney, I was struck by the incredible richness of vocabulary in which she practiced and lived. Natural elements like bones, feathers, shells, rocks were abound and placed in direct harmony with found objects from all over the world. There were a multitude of little cabinets like the one I show in the video above. Cabinets of mystery. Cabinets of the incredible mind of Lenore Tawney.

We are so proud to honor Ms. Tawney’s memory with this new fine arts scholarship. -JM