Studio Arts Newsletter
2026 Studio Arts Newsletter
Message from the Program Head
Spotlight Stories
Faculty Kudos
Alumni Class Notes
Message from the Program Head
There is no better time than now to dedicate yourself to your artistic pursuits. In complicated cultural moments, we often turn to creativity and artistic action to make sense of the world we live in. The work of artists is more urgent than ever, and we’re thrilled that you are part of our community and the Corcoran’s long history of artistic impact.
We are continually proud of the students, alumni and faculty who move through our studios and inspire us every day. Recent New Media Photojournalism alum Hanna Leka was awarded the Kit King/Jimi Lott Scholarship from the National Press Photographers Foundation, and current first-year MFA student Lorenzo Holder is presenting the ongoing collaborative project One Stroke at a Time with Dr. Vincenzio Holder-Perkins at Washington Project for the Arts.
Earlier this year, Joey Enríquez, Fine Arts alum and current faculty member, presented as I look towards what could have been mine, a solo exhibition at MOCA Arlington. Tina Villadolid, a 2023 Social Practice alum, is currently an Artistic Research Fellow at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and Gabriela Passos, NMPJ 2025, was selected as an artist-in-residence at MASS MoCA through an opportunity for recent graduates funded by Corcoran Studio Arts.
Our faculty also bring meaningful and active art practices into the classroom. Professor Allyson Vieira recently returned from research in Greece as a Fulbright U.S. Scholar, Professor Maria del Carmen Montoya’s collective Ghana Think Tank is engaging communities in Detroit through American Riad, and Professor Matt Eich’s final photobook in his Invisible Yoke series was selected for the PhotoNOLA Photobook Grand Prize.
No matter how art, making or artistic thinking appears in your life, I hope you are building a creative life fueled by the urge to imagine the world differently—and to make the one you hope to see.
Spotlight Stories
Research + Practice Connects Students with Creative Leaders
The Research + Practice series continued this spring, bringing artists, designers and creative practitioners to campus for conversations on contemporary practice across the arts and design. Launched during the 2023–24 academic year, the series creates opportunities for students to engage directly with working professionals, gain real-world insight and explore the connections between research, creative production and public life.
This semester’s speakers included Mary Calvert, Bella Varela, Margaret Boozer, Kiel Mutschelknaus and Artur Galocha, whose work reflects a wide range of creative fields and approaches. Held in the Corcoran’s Flagg Building, the series supports interdisciplinary exchange and highlights the role of diverse, free expression in shaping culture. Through Research + Practice, students and the broader D.C. arts community come together to share ideas, build connections and expand the possibilities of arts and design scholarship.
Studio Arts Students Explore Care, Identity and Civic Imagination
At NEXT Festival 2026, Studio Arts students presented work that reflected the urgency, complexity and possibility of contemporary creative practice. Across media and approaches, students explored care, protection and human connection, considering motherhood, love, emotional wellbeing and the bonds that link individuals to broader communities.
Many projects examined identity, history and reclamation, revisiting personal, cultural, gendered and queer narratives while making space for overlooked or marginalized perspectives. Others turned a critical eye toward social, political and economic systems, questioning how structures such as capitalism, technology, labor and power shape everyday life and visibility. Together, these projects demonstrated how art and design can foster dialogue, civic engagement and new ways of imagining more connected, equitable futures.
Faculty Kudos
- Congratulations to Kara Braciale, whose work with students in the first-year drawing course Drawing + Surface was recently featured in an article published by the National Gallery of Art.
- Congratulations to Dean Kessmann, whose work is featured in a Photography Resident Exhibition at The Bascom Center for the Visual Arts, presenting a body of photographs that explores the threshold between abstraction and representation through sustained attention to everyday landscapes.
- Congratulations to Kerry McAleer-Keeler, whose work is featured in Women Artists of the DMV, a landmark multi-site survey exhibition of nearly 500 contemporary women artists from the Greater Washington, D.C. region.
- Congratulations to James Huckenpahler, whose recent drawings are featured in Assisted Living at REVOLVE, presented alongside the companion exhibition Influencer, which brings together artists whose creative practices and conversations have helped inform his work.
Alumni Class Notes
- Mica Scalin, BFA ’99, is a managing partner at Another Limited Rebellion, an art and innovation studio. They took part in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit in DC and met with Virginia lawmakers including Sen.
- Vian Borchert, BFA ’96, has been internationally recognized as one of MSN’s “Top 10 Most Creative Artists of 2025” and was named by Art Market Experts as one of the most investable artists of 2025/2026. In 2025 and 2026, she exhibited at major international venues including the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris, BANK Art Fair in Seoul, Art3f International Contemporary Art Fair in Monaco, AVA Art Festival in Osaka, and Art Basel Miami Beach. Her solo exhibition, Elevation, is on view at Vika Gallery through March 2026, with upcoming exhibitions including the Venice Biennale. Borchert also teaches art classes for adults at Arts Club of Washington and Yellow Barn Studio. Her work is available on Artsy and 1stDibs.
- Elizabeth Mckemy, BA ’85, retired in June from 23 years of teaching Visual Art and AP Art History in a large suburban HS. She and her husband, Hal, have two adult girls and hope to move from spending 35 years in PA to NC in the next 2 years.
- Leslie Rose, AFA ’09, used her photography as a basis for printmaking. Screenprinting and Relief Printing are her two favorite mediums. She is a member of a co-op gallery in Washington, The Washington Printmakers Gallery.
- Chris Combs, BFA ’06, is this year's artist-in-residence at the Sanford Underground Research Facility, a particle physics laboratory 4,850ft underground in a former gold mine in the Black Hills.
- Emily Springer, ‘25, recently had her first solo exhibition Emily Springer: The Holds of Legacy at Montpelier Arts Center, Laurel, MD.
- Jordan Tovin, ‘26, was awarded the Thomas Hardin and Mary C. Hardin Documentary Photojournalism scholarship by the National Press Photographers Foundation.
- Jamille Wallick, MFA ‘21, was selected as a resident artist at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center.