Alumni Opportunty and Spotlight

William Downs

An award-winning contemporary American artist, William Downs is a graduate of the Fine Arts Center, born and raised in Greenville. He works in a range of mediums, but focuses primarily on drawing. He received a Multidisciplinary M.F.A. from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore and a B.F.A. in Painting and Printmaking from the Atlanta College of Art and Design.

Downs taught Foundation Drawing at the Maryland Institute College of Art from 2002 through 2010. He taught Advanced Drawing at Parsons The New School for Design, Foundation Drawing at The Cooper Union and Tulane University. He is represented by Sandler Hudson Gallery in Atlanta and was chosen by Artadia as their 2018 Atlanta awardee and by MOCA GA WAP (Working Artist Project) for 2020. Downs' work has been presented at numerous venues in the United States and abroad.

https://williamedowns.com/home.html

https://www.foxcarolina.com/video/2023/08/28/one-upstate-artist-is-returning-his-old-stomping-grounds/

KATIE POTERALA

FAC alumna Katie Poterala is partner in MakeMade, the new jewelry store in downtown Greenville, SC. There, she makes custom jewelry, teaches classes in the adjoining studio, and sells a curated selection of hip jewelry and objects in the boutique. Katie is a master maker, teacher, and designer. She earned her MFA in Metals from Arizona State University in 2012 and her BFA in Metals from Winthrop U. in 2009. While teaching jewelry classes at Upstairs Art Space in Tryon, NC, she met fellow jewelry artist Danielle Miller-Gilliam, and together, they developed their shared dream of creating a one-of-a-kind jewelry store and maker space. You can check out MakeMade in person at 241 N. Main St, Suite C, in downtown Greenville, and online at https://makemadejewelry.com/pages/our-story

For more info about Katie Poterala, check out her website at http://www.katiepoterala.com/artist and her instagram #fortheloveofbling

Sean Anderson

Fine Art Center Alumni, Sean Anderson is Associate Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Architecture program at Cornell University. Previously, he was the Associate Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art. A Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, he has practiced as an architect and taught in Afghanistan, Australia, India, Italy, Morocco, Sri Lanka and the U.A.E. He has written books on South Asian ritual sculpture as well as on the modern architecture of colonial Eritrea and edited an issue of A+U Journal dedicated to contemporary architecture and design in Sri Lanka. In 2020, he co-curated the exhibition On Muzharul Islam: Surfacing Intention at the Dhaka Art Summit. At MoMA, he has organized the exhibitions Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter (2016- 17) and Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959-89 (2017-18). As part of the museum’s reopening in 2019, he collaboratively worked on a number of contemporary-focused galleries. His next exhibition, co-organized with Mabel O. Wilson, Reconstructions: Architecture and Blackness in America, will open at the end of February 2021 and is the first exhibition at MoMA to focus on the work of African American and African Diasporic architects.

Sean Anderson, Associate Curator, Department of Architecture and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, NY. Photo: Chloe Burton Photography.

SHARON MASSEY

Sharon Massey is an Assistant Professor of Jewelry and Metals at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP). In 2016 she was the only American chosen to exhibit in the 25th Legnica International Jewellery Competition in Legnica, Poland. Her jewelry was selected for both Schmuck 2014 and Schmuck 2015 in Munich, Germany. From 2012 to 2015 Sharon served on the board of directors of the Society of North American Goldsmiths (SNAG) and she currently serves on the board of trustees of the Enamelist Society. In 2009 she received the Art Jewelry Forum (AJF) Emerging Artist Award and was included in Lucca Preziosa Young. Images of her jewelry have been published in both American Craft and Metalsmith magazines, as well as nine books, including The Art of Enameling, Art Jewelry Today 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Editions, and New Brooches. Sharon’s work is included in the collection of the Enamel Arts Foundation in Los Angeles, California, the Racine Art Museum in Racine, Wisconsin, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England. She received her BFA from Winthrop University in 1999 and her MFA from East Carolina University in 2006.

Her work can be viewed here: http://www.sharon-massey.com/

FRANKY TRAN

After graduating from the Fine Arts Center, Franky Tran attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While a student there, he won the CFDA/Teen Vogue Scholarship in 2014, as well as The SAIC Walk Scholarship. That same year, he interned for Prabal Gurung. Franky’s work has been featured in Teen Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, Cake Magazine and The Chicago Tribune. He is currently the Development Manager at Area in New York City, a new fashion label. When asked why he chose a career in fashion, he says, "at the end of the day it's really exciting to see someone live, or wear, or perform in something you've made!"

KATE ROBERTS

Kate Roberts is native of Greenville, South Carolina and a 2010 BFA graduate of Alfred University with a major in Ceramics and minors in Art Education and Art History. She has traveled extensively and completed Residencies and Internships at Art Centers around the world including Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado, La Meridiana in Italy, Cite International des Arts in Paris, Project Art in Massachusetts and Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts. Her work has been exhibited in museums such as the Tampa Art Museum and Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY and included in major exhibitions such as Scripps Ceramic Annual and Ceramic Top 40. She received her MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University. Kate has taught at University of Wisconsin- Madison and the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. Currently, she is Assistant Professor at the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN.

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