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<\/a>From left, Deborah Orloff, a professor of art, Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio, an assistant professor of U.S. ethnic literary studies, and Jordan Buschur, an instructor in the department of art.<\/p><\/div>\n
Bonifacio received $3,000 and Orloff and Buschur each received $1,500 as part of their awards.<\/p>\n
Bonifacio was born in Santiago De Los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, and raised in East New York, Brooklyn. Using Spanish, English and Spanglish, his creative writing explores themes of race, immigration, citizenship, Dominican identity, memory and loss. His writing is published in The New York Times, Slate, Juked, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Acentos Review, The Black Scholar, ASAP\/Journal and The Hellebore. He is the author of \u201cDique Dominican\u201d (2017) and \u201cTo the River, We Are Migrants\u201d (2020). His writing has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the Ohio Writers Series, the Association for Equality and Excellence in Education (AEEE) and the Sacramento State Festival of the Arts.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a poet who writes about marginalized communities, support for my writing goes beyond me and extends to countless unnamed people,\u201d Bonifacio said. \u201cThe Merit Award is validation that our stories matter \u2014 that we matter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orloff\u2019s artwork has been included in numerous exhibitions at national and international venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, and her current work,\u00a0\u201cElusive Memory,\u201d\u00a0was selected by Chicago\u2019s Museum of Contemporary Photography for their Midwest Photographers Project. Her latest work, \u201cElusive Memory: Lost Histories,\u201d explores the relationship between photography and memory while evoking the universal experience of struggling to recall the past. The images allude to lost family histories \u2014 particularly as they relate to forced migration (the case for her ancestors who fled Russian pogroms) \u2014 and speak to the ephemeral nature of memory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so grateful for the Art\u00a0Commission\u2019s award for my new work,\u00a0\u2018Elusive Memory: Lost Histories,\u2019 \u201d Orloff said. \u201cThe funding is indispensable to the production of a new series, and I am so honored by the recognition. This award allows me to take the series in a new direction and advance the project in truly meaningful ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Buschur\u2019s work has been shown widely, including exhibitions with the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids, Mich., Center for Book Arts in New York and Field Projects in New York. She participated in residencies at the Wassaic Project, Chashama North and the Vermont Studio Center. Awards include the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award and the Kimmel Foundation Artist Award. Her paintings have been featured in print in New American Paintings and UPPERCASE Magazine. She is a co-founder of Co-Worker Gallery and has curated exhibitions at Cuchifritos Gallery, Spring\/Break Art Show and the Neon Heater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Merit Award is a gift encouraging experimentation in my studio practice and reaffirming my commitment to building community through artist-led initiatives,\u201d Buschur said. \u201cIt is an honor to receive a Merit Award to support my work and foster my ability to pursue artistic paths yet unrealized.\u201d<\/p>\n