School of Art graduate students Mac Balentine, Jordan Dopp and Ronika Mcclain received Willson Center for the Humanities & Arts Graduate Research Awards during the Spring 2020 semester. The Willson Center Graduate Research Awards are merit-based grants given to University of Georgia graduate students to support expenses for arts and humanities research projects. Students submit applications to fund their continued research on a range of projects, and the School of Art is excited to highlight the well-deserved awards of three of its students. Despite the unprecedented and unexpected Spring 2020 semester, Balentine, Dopp and Mcclain were all able to adapt their proposals and research and found unique ways to continue their research.

Mac Balentine

Balentine was awarded funding for materials costs for the production of an exhibition of new paintings, video and sculpture. This exhibition, titled Chronos Eats Kids, was located at Camayuhs Gallery in Atlanta, GA. While he had originally requested funding specifically to produce sculpture with latex rubber, his loss of access to UGA’s fabrication lab due to coronavirus required a shift in exhibition design. This resulted in increased focus on watercolor paintings as well as use of sculptural materials that did not require specific studio/lab access.

Jordan Dopp

Dopp was awarded to fund the travel associated with being a Trench Supervisor on an archaeological dig in Petra, Jordan, scheduled for May/June 2020. While the dig was canceled, Dopp plans to allocate the funds towards work at the Georgia Electron Microscopy to conduct microscopic analysis on one of the case studies in her dissertation.

Ronika McClain

McClain was awarded funds originally to travel to Los Angeles and research at the ONE Archives at USC, the largest LGBTQ+ archive in the world. In addition, it houses old publications from the 40s and 50s through now. McClain wanted to particularly research party flyers, sex work ads, pornographic magazines and erotica from the 80s and 90s for my video work on queer femme construction. McClain was unfortunately unable to research at the ONE due to travel however she pivoted and used the funds to purchase archival magazines, books and films in order to continue her research at home.