Inaugural Alfred University Faculty Catalyst Grant awarded
The Inaugural Catalyst Grant in honor of Alfred University School of Art and Design Professor Emeritus Ted Morgan supports a collaboration between Jonathan Hopp, assistant professor of ceramic design, and Rob Reginio, associate professor of English.
ALFRED, NY – The Inaugural Catalyst Grant in honor of Alfred University School of Art and Design Professor Emeritus Ted Morgan supports a collaboration between Jonathan Hopp, assistant professor of ceramic design, and Rob Reginio, associate professor of English.
The inaugural grant in honor of Ted Morgan was funded by Alfred University alum Rebekah Modrak (BFA ‘92), Nick Tobier, both professors at The University of Michigan's Stamps School of Art and Design and Traci Molloy (BFA '92). Tobier taught Foundations in the Alfred University School of Art and Design until 2003, when he joined the University of Michigan faculty. Malloy is an independent artist and an education activist.
The Ted Morgan Catalyst Grant honors the legacy of Art and Design Professor Ted Morgan (1952-2016) who, by his own description, grew up in the midwest and got a first-rate education from second-rate schools. Ted believed in the transformative power of curiosity and, although trained as a printmaker, saw the world through many mediums, from the pinhole cameras he meticulously crafted, to his appreciation of Italian cooking and really good stereo systems, to his continual project of working on a car that was more an object to behold than a means of transit. Hundreds of students were influenced by Ted's attention to the ways that visual fields overlapped with cultural references in the vernacular landscape, including his observations of how the weed wacker found a circle inside the square previously mowed by a push mower, and the persistence of the fountain pen in an era of rapid communication.
The Catalyst Grant program was created to encourage a spirit of curiosity, empathy, and collegial partnership across campus. The faculty selected from the School of Art and Design and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences will create a project generated and developed through time spent working and talking together, enabling a shared sense of discovery in each other’s ideas, knowledges, and perspectives.
A public presentation of the work will be scheduled prior end of the spring 2023 semester.