{"id":72254,"date":"2020-05-20T08:20:17","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T12:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=72254"},"modified":"2022-08-02T14:04:18","modified_gmt":"2022-08-02T18:04:18","slug":"bu-today-feature-2020-kahn-career-entry-awards-go-to-six-cfa-graduates","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2020\/bu-today-feature-2020-kahn-career-entry-awards-go-to-six-cfa-graduates\/","title":{"rendered":"BU Today feature: 2020 Kahn Career Entry Awards Go to Six CFA Graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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May 20, 2020<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\"2020Originally published in BU Today on May 20, 2020. By Megan Woolhouse<\/em><\/p>\n

With the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown now in its third month, even the most talented professional theater, fine arts, and music graduates are peering into a professional void.<\/p>\n

Broadway is closed until at least September. Large galleries, concert halls, and theaters across the country have canceled programming. And auditions and fellowships disappeared overnight as coronavirus shook the foundations of a profession that relies on audiences being able to gather. That has left artists like set designer Saskia Martinez (CFA\u201920), a School of Theatre grad, wondering when opportunities will return. She was supposed to be heading to western Massachusetts for a summer fellowship as a scene painter at Williamstown Theatre Festival, after receiving her bachelor\u2019s degree this past weekend. That fellowship has been canceled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely jarring,\u201d Martinez says from her parents\u2019 home in Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, winning the grand prize in this year\u2019s College of Fine Arts Esther B. and Albert S. Kahn Career Entry Award<\/a> competition offers considerable solace. Martinez will use the $20,000 award to fund a one-of-a kind effort to bring technical expertise to middle schools where theater arts are underfunded.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany people in prominent roles in our side of the industry are white men, so role models and trailblazers for people who aren\u2019t white or male are few and far between,\u201d Martinez wrote in her proposal detailing how the award would assist in her transition from student to professional. \u201cThis disparity is also due to a pipeline issue, where only well-funded school districts can afford theater technology, let alone any arts program period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Funded by a $1 million endowment from Esther Kahn (Wheelock\u201955, Hon.\u201986), the competition is open to both undergraduate and graduate CFA students in their final semester. In addition to Martinez winning the grand prize, five other students received $2,500 stipends: School of Theatre grad Nicholas Walker (CFA\u201920), School of Music grads Eric Carey (CFA\u201920) and Tak-Cheung Hui (CFA\u201920), and School of Visual Arts grads Alex Stern (CFA\u201920) and Diana Walsh (CFA\u201920). Harvey Young<\/a>, dean of CFA, announced the winners in late April.<\/p>\n

Young says that while COVID-19 has disrupted the arts world, people\u2019s appreciation for what the arts have to offer has only grown as demand for streaming films, plays, music, and virtual exhibitions grows.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocieties everywhere are realizing that a fulfilling life cannot simply be about work and grocery shopping,\u201d Young says. \u201cAs doors to arts organizations reopen, that demand will translate into a need for new creative works\u2014works being created in our graduates\u2019 studios right now\u2014to attract and engage newly liberated and newly artistically awakened audiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in BU Today on May 20, 2020. By Megan Woolhouse With the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown now in its third month, even the most talented professional theater, fine arts, and music graduates are peering into a professional void. Broadway is closed until at least September. Large galleries, concert halls, and theaters across the country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13703,"featured_media":72255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[329],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/72254"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13703"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72254"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/72254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88804,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/72254\/revisions\/88804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=72254"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=72254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}