Ten $15,000 fellowships are awarded to graduating university seniors or fifth year students on the basis of artistic merit, the future promise of the individual's work, and potential for the applicant to make a contribution to the advancement of their field.

The program is open to students with a focus in book arts, ceramics, design, drawing, fiber, glass, metals, mixed media, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, textiles or wood nominated by U.S. universities (53) invited to partner with the UNC Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, administering the program. Each University nominated two students in December 2005, who then participated in an on-line narrative and image application process, reviewed by a panel of jurors, for awards announced in April 2006. This is the first year of a three year pilot program.

Images  Online Journal	Joshua Copus, University of North Carolina - Asheville - Ceramics
The primary objective is to set up a professional ceramics studio in western North Carolina, using funds to construct a large wood-fired kiln and obtain the necessary equipment to process wild clay and glaze materials that are native to my particular region. This builds on research into local and non-industrially processed materials in contemporary ceramics begun as an Undergraduate Research Scholar in the summer of 2005. BFA fall 2006.
Images  Online Journal	Jenny Fine, University of Alabama - Photography
I have become engaged with the history of my grandmothers' stories, their generations of telling and retelling. It is important to me that the surface of my photographs carry that same sense of history. Because of my desire to preserve history, it seems natural that I return to the laborious photographic processes of the early 19th Century. With this grant I will learn the process of wet-plate collodion. I plan to attend a collodion tutorial with Mark Osterman, in Rochester, New York. For the 12 months following the tutorial I will convert a traditional 8x10 camera into one that will hold glass plates and make a body of work originating from the wet-plate collodion process. The images I create will involve both the tintype and ambrotype processes.
Images  Online Journal	Bryn Hughes, Kansas City Art Institute - Mixed Media
As the daughter of a hunting guide, I grew up in a household full of taxidermied animals. I make characters out of found objects and animal parts. These hybrids are meant to create intrigue about the mystery of coming into existence and to investigate the role of the artist in provoking wonder. With the Fellowship I will 1) make a film journal documenting the complexities of these creatures and their interactions; 2) explore the genre of meta-fiction: the fusing of real and imagined elements; 3) Use the archetypal family unit to discuss relevant concepts; and 4)access a larger audience for the work by submitting the film to producers, film festivals and museums.
Images  Online Journal	Ben Johnson, Kent State University - Glass
This grant would allow me to acquire the tools and materials necessary to create a sculptural body of work in glass. It will provide the means to take a two week workshop at Pilchuck Glass School to help develop my artistic goals of working on conceptual sculptural glass. The material speaks as a metaphor for natural occurrences with all of its contradiction and layers of fragility, sharpness, transparency, translucency, opacity and an interior visual surface. This grant will allow me to develop my ideas and experiment with more complicated techniques. I use traditional glass blowing techniques as a means to achieve sculptural forms with the material, then change the glass further by cutting it apart and grinding it so that I can rearrange its orientation and add other glass elements to the form in the cold state.
Images  Online Journal	Rachelle Lim, San Diego State University - Metals
In my work I have wanted viewers to explore the conceptual and material content of the pieces, creating a dialogue that challenges them to re-think the role and implication of body adornment in contemporary society. I want to begin a deeper, more personal exploration of my own self-identity and what it means to me to be a Chinese American female. The project will include travel to Chinese American Museums to conduct research, to pursue technical training that will benefit my work in residential summer programs such as Haystack, Penland or Arrowmont, and allow me to buy necessary equipment for my own studio to continue my art making in a larger scale and incorporating fiber and mixed media along with metal to create an installation.
Images  Online Journal	Aaron McIntosh, Appalachian Center for Craft, Tennessee Tech University - Fiber
My project seeks to research, document and respond to the unique intersections of cultural character, gender identity, and fiber art. The project includes: 1) research in museums, textile collections, and galleries for fiber art whose primary historical or conceptual purpose is to convey to the viewer the essence of gender roles in a particular society; 2) three workshops that relate specifically to the issues of gender and identity in quilt-related fiber techniques - Chungie Lee and Jiyoung Chung offered at the Quilt Surface Design Symposium, two Arrowmont workshops, Exploring Identifty through Layered Surfaces with Lisa Jruber and Borrowed Images: Mixed media Collage with Wendy Huhn; 3) interviews with three fiber artists who have made prominent fiber works concerning gender identity - Bean Gilsdorf of Portland, Shawn Quinlan of Pittsburgh, and Wendy Huhn. Also I will attend the International Quilt Study Center's Symposium, Traditions and trajectories, where I hope to network with the foremost quilt researchers on the topic of gender in quiltmaking. From these three components I will create an insightful body of work.
Images  Online Journal	Joel Queen, Western Carolina University - Clay
I am the ninth generation of potters on the Bigmeat side of my family, whose work as potters can be traced back to before the Cherokee Removal of 1838. With the grant I would expand on traditional Cherokee stamped pottery to create new work, both art pieces and functional pieces. In 2002 Cherokee potters began to make hand built, thin-walled, functional pots, stamped with designs from carved wooden paddles in the Qualla tradition. The objectives of this project are 1) to locate and identify traditional blue clay sources in western North Carolina; 2) to experiment with traditional clay and determine what is required to turn clay into a high-fired functional ceramics; 3) experiment with traditional stamped patterns and modern glazes, and 4) to further develop interest in the traditional Cherokee culture and artwork.
Images  Online Journal	Mark Reigelman II, Cleveland Institute of the Arts - Design/sculpture
The "Stair Square" project addresses the potential for a synergistic relationship between social interaction and "public furniture." Inspired by the multitudes that gather daily upon the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this projects acts as a catalyst for additional social interaction, as well as furthering art and design's impact on what can be considered marginal public spaces.
Images  Online Journal	Ameila Toelke, SUNY New Paltz - Metals
As a jeweler, I find there is a unique relationship between wearer, viewer, and maker that encourages a dialogue distinct from other art experiences. My work aims to reflect people and society as a whole, more specifically it touches on aspects of consumer culture and art's accessibility to the audience, questioning long-standing status issues within a culture or society and the human impulse to interpret those meanings. This grant will enable me to purchase tools and equipment and allow me to spend more time on my studio production following a December 2005 BFA in metals. The grant will also create a small gallery space within the collective studio space shared with four other artisans each in different artistic fields. This is increasingly important as more contemporary artists cross disciplines in material and concept.
Images  Online Journal	Austin Willis, University of Florida - Mixed Media
The project I propose investigates the process by which contemporary video and new-screen media works are interpreting and representing space, and will manifest itself in the form of a kinetic installation and accompanying dissertation. It will begin with an investigation into recent texts concerned with the role of video and new-media arts in installation and performance genres. The research will include traveling to film and video festivals, media arts festivals and other appropriate performances and installations of work by contemporary artists dealing with mediated space. Accompanying the text and travel based research will be equipment based research and experimentation with multiple video cameras and media projectors.
ALTERNATES If any of the selected Fellows is unable to undertake their project as proposed, alternates were identified by the panel to fill the Fellowship.
Images	Ian Arenas, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee - Sculpture
With the Fellowship I would attend the two month Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in the summer of 2006, followed by focus on creating a portfolio suitable for submission to an outstanding graduate school, then attending the five-week study abroad at the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art in Pont Aven, France in summer 2007. By developing a solid foundation in technical skills, critical theory and art history, I believe that my work will become influential within my field. In addition to producing my art, I am interested in writing critical theory and curating exhibitions. I see the lines between artist, curator, and critic becoming increasingly blurred.
Images	Maria Fomich, Cleveland Institute of the Arts - Metals
With a Windgate Fellowship I plan to spend a 6-8 month period in India to research the condition of women within the Indian culture. By living within the Indian society, I will become familiar with the history, art, and customs that represent the rich story of these women's lives. My goal for this experience is to present a body of work to the art community as well as the general public that will represent global concerns for women.