{"id":96997,"date":"2026-02-06T03:45:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T07:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/?p=96997"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T17:27:07","slug":"3-faculty-receive-ohio-arts-councils-individual-excellence-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/02_06_2026\/3-faculty-receive-ohio-arts-councils-individual-excellence-award","title":{"rendered":"3 Faculty Receive Ohio Arts Council\u2019s Individual Excellence Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three University of Toledo faculty members in the Judith Herb College of Arts, Social Sciences and Education<\/a> received the Ohio Arts Council\u2019s Individual Excellence Award<\/a>, which recognizes outstanding accomplishments by 77 artists statewide in a variety of disciplines.<\/p>\n

Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio, an associate professor of English specializing in U.S. ethnic literary studies, received the award for fiction; Dr. Matt Foss, a professor of theater, received the award for screenwriting; and Dr. Joey S. Kim, an assistant professor of English, received the award for poetry.<\/p>\n

\"Headshots

From left, Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio, an associate professor of English specializing in U.S. ethnic literary studies; Dr. Matt Foss, a professor of theater; and Dr. Joey S. Kim, an assistant professor of English.<\/p><\/div>\n

“These accomplishments are a direct reflection of the immense creativity and productivity of our talented faculty in the Judith Herb College of Arts Social Sciences and Education,\u201d said Dr. Melissa Gregory, dean of the Judith Herb College of Arts, Social Sciences and Education. \u201cNot only are they experts in the classroom, they’re successful and practicing artists who make valuable contributions to their fields. Our students and community are made better through their work.”<\/p>\n

“I am truly honored and humbled to be a recipient of the Individual Excellence Award for Fiction,\u201d Bonifacio said. \u201cThis recognition helps me complete \u2018ParaFlora,\u2019 a novel that examines Dominican anger as a force that binds together generations fractured by exile and marked by Haitian ancestry. The award, in my view, is also a testament to the support writers have in Ohio.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ohio Arts Council Award is an incredible program where you not only get support, but fantastic and actionable feedback on your creative work in service of learning more and improving craft,\u201d Foss said. \u201cWe\u2019re incredibly lucky to have statewide agencies like OAC and our hometown Arts Commission that truly support and advocate for artists of all kinds.<\/p>\n

My submission was a new indie feature that we will be shooting this summer in Toledo with Department of Theatre and Film students and faculty participating, and this award will be a great help.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m honored to receive this award for my body of poetry,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI am eagerly working on my next collection,\u00a0\u2018Pork Belly,\u2019 which is an intimate yet clinical account of motherhood and the Korean American experience in Ohio.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"Headshots<\/a>

Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio, Dr. Matt Foss and Dr. Joey Kim were honored. Each will receive a $5,000 award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":878,"featured_media":96998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50,498,1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/878"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96997"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97006,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96997\/revisions\/97006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}