Alfred Ceramic Art Museum awards inaugural Jerome Ackerman Internship

The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum has awarded the inaugural Jerome Ackerman Internship to Frank E. Pecoraro-Frayre, a third-year student from Sacramento, CA, studying art and design with a focus on ceramic art and a minor in mathematics.

The Jerome Ackerman Internship is a paid internship that supports the Museum’s mission as an educational resource for Alfred University students. The Ackerman Internship offers undergraduate students from the School of Art and Design in-depth exposure to museum professional practices as well as deep insight to creative processes across history. The Internship also is designed to further each intern’s professional goals while helping the Museum address its multifaceted organizational needs.

“The Alfred Ceramic Art Museum acknowledges with much appreciation its newly established role in celebrating the extraordinary Ackerman legacy with the Jerome Ackerman Internship,” Wayne Higby, Director of the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, said in announcing Pecoraro-Frayre’s Internship award.

Pecoraro-Frayre, also the recipient of an Alfred University Art Portfolio Scholarship, is a Cadet Staff Sergeant with an Army ROTC Scholarship in the University’s ROTC program.

“Franky, as he is known on campus, is a remarkable, aspiring artist with an ambitious range of interests,” Higby added. “His forthright, intense engagement of his studio practice and his curiosity concerning the history of art and Museum practice, as well as his commitment to the rigors of the ROTC program, has him fully immersed in his studies here at Alfred University. The Museum is very pleased to have this opportunity, thanks to Laura Ackerman Shaw, to have Franky working in our archives under the guidance of Susan Kowalczyk the Museum’s Curator of Collections and Director of Research.”

Laura Ackerman-Shaw established The Jerome Ackerman Internship at the Alfred Ceramic Art Museum in honor of her father Jerome “Jerry” Ackerman (MFA ‘52) a designer-craftsman whose artistic collaboration with his wife, Evelyn Ackerman, was at the heart of California's Midcentury Modernism movement.

According to Higby, Ackerman’s career is emblematic of the potential of ceramic art to trigger creative adventure in all art and design disciplines. He and his wife made a life-changing decision in 1949 to move west, where they saw the work of Los Angeles-based designers Charles and Ray Eames in "For Modern Living," an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The couple subsequently opened Jenev Design Studio in West Los Angeles, and as highly visible artists participated in every edition of the influential California Design shows at the Pasadena Art Museum, from 1954 to 1976.

Applications for the Ackerman Internship are accepted in person at the Museum’s front desk or by email – applications must include a letter of interest, resume and two professional letters of recommendation. Preference is given to sophomore applicants applying to begin their internship in their junior year. Applicants should have good organizational skills with strong attention to detail as well as good written and oral communication skills and a proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Photoshop. For additional information, call the Museum office at 607-871-2421.