On Saturday, February 22, Ringling College of Art and Design’s First Year Program hosted the First Year Figure Drawing Competition with guest juror Charles Miano. This year marked the fourth iteration of the annual event. The competition lasted five hours and was followed by an awards ceremony reception at Miano Academy of Art on February 28, where the winners were announced.
The event was conceived by First Year Program faculty Nate Gaefcke, who organized it with co-faculty Yvonne Holmes and their Department Head Karen Sullivan, among others, as a fun and exciting event that would also introduce students to a side of the art world they might not know existed. Gaefcke shared, “This year’s Figure Competition was a great success! The students had a great time, and I was very impressed with everyone’s drawings. This is such an exciting and wonderful opportunity for students to experience a professional competition environment. And we packed the Miano Academy for our award ceremony, which was also a very special night.”
Before judging the competition, Miano gave an artist talk on Wednesday, February 19, in the Morganroth Auditorium. He is the founder and director of the nearby Miano Academy of Art and an advocate for representational art. In addition to giving an artist talk, judging the competition, and hosting the students for the awards ceremony, Miano also donated scholarships to the Academy as competition awards.
Figure Competition Winners and their awards:
- 1st Place: Annie Hua ’28, Illustration
- 2nd Place: Alex Cui ’28, Computer Animation
- 3rd Place: Katya Nalitkina Nalitkina ’28, Motion Design
- Honorable Mention: Clara Campbell ’28, Illustration
- 2nd Honorable Mention: Alain Mogena ’28, Illustration
The competition was open to first-year students from every major. Winners were awarded credit to the Ringling College Art Store and a Scholarship to the Miano Academy. Learn more about the First Year experience online.
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