Congratulations to Associate Professor of Art and Area Chair for Jewelry and Metals, Mary Hallam Pearse, who has been awarded a research fellowship from the Willson Center for Arts and Humanities. Pearse received a Willson Center Research Fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year which will allow Pearse time dedicated to her creative practice. Specifically, Pearse will expand upon her current body of work entitled, “Following the Matter”.  

Pearse will spend her time traveling to battlefields with intentions of collecting civil-war era lead artifacts, which she will melt down to use to construct a necklace comprised of lead. This necklace and other, related objects, will form the basis of her one-person exhibition to be held in July 2022 at Stove Works Gallery in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which is a new, contemporary art venue whose mission is to serve the Chattanooga community by providing local, national, and international artists a venue for the production of, exhibition of and education through contemporary works of art.  

Pearse noted the following in her proposal about her research and body of work,

“Following the Matter continues to explore the connotative and associative dimensions of jewelry. In particular, this body of work focuses on the shared humanity of sensory experience, desire and the dark side of human experience. I am particularly interested in the capacity of the object to link experiences that are not often associated with one another, such as desire and grief. Because of these, each of the three pieces I’m constructing draws from the forms of familiar cultural artifacts associated with significant interpersonal moments such as the bouquet, the pearl necklace and the charm. Cutting against these associations is the material in which such forms are cast. As noted, these objects are all comprised at least partially of lead, a dangerous material not typically associated with adornment.”

Mary Hallam Pearse received her M.F.A in Metal from SUNY New Paltz and a B.F.A in Jewelry+Metals from Kent State University. Recent and upcoming exhibitions include Wordsmith/Metalsmith: Text in Contemporary Jewelry at Rhode Island College in Providence, Rhode Island and Sieraad: International Contemporary Jewellery Fair in Amsterdam. Mary has taught workshops at Anderson Ranch, 92nd Street Y, Kent State University, Humboldt State, East Carolina University and University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Pearse serves as the Area Chair of Jewelry+Metals. Her work is represented by J. Cotter gallery in Vail and Beaver Creek Colorado.