Culture
Ceramics Prof Receives Baker Fund Grant
< < Back toA professor in Ohio University’s School of Art + Design has received a Baker Fund award.
Tom Bartel, associate professor of Ceramics, was one of six faculty members to receive funding during the spring cycle of the awards, which are intended to help bring projects to completion. Up to $12,000 is available to faculty and staff through the program, and the Baker Fund committee selected six proposals totaling $56,781.
Bartel’s proposed project, entitled Memento, will be comprised of ceramic and mixed media, including figurative sculptures that will range in size from 3-6 feet tall. The professor expressed both excitement and relief upon receiving the grant.
“I am even further excited about the work ahead of me,” Bartel said. “It is an honor to have this opportunity.”
Bartel, who serves as the chair of the Ceramics Department at the University, described his work as “an ongoing re-examination” of where the human form and surrogates for the body (such as dolls, toys and figurines) merge. Critics have described his pieces, which often take the form of fragmented human figures, as “challenging” and “unnerving.”
“My artwork explores the human form as representational subject matter, manipulated to explore charged topics like fertility, mortality, identity, sexuality, beauty and our attitudes toward them,” Bartel wrote in his proposal.
Bartel intends for Memento to be exhibited at the Northern Clay Center, a Minneapolis venue specializing in contemporary ceramics, in 2016.
Established in 1961, the John C. Baker Fund was started to support staff research, scholarship and creative projects. Baker Fund Awards are given once a semester and support staff research, scholarship and creative activity. The deadline for the next round of Baker awards will be in October.
Other recipients of the spring Baker Fund Awards included: Nicholas Kiersey (Political Science); Jared DeForest (Environmental and Plant Biology); Harvey Ballard and Sarah Wyatt (Environmental and Plant Biology); Fabian Benencia (Biomedical Sciences); and Charlie Morgan (Sociology & Anthropology).
Bartel received his BFA from Kent State University and his MFA from Indiana University-Bloomington. He has received artist fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, the Kentucky Arts Council and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. His work has been featured in more than 300 exhibitions across the world, including at the Sherrie Gallerie in Columbus.