New Jersey State Arts Council Announced 2023 Individual Artist Fellowships

The New Jersey State Arts Council recently announced 2023 Individual Artist Fellowships. Assistant Professor Ruth Borgenicht will receive a craft fellowship and Adjunct Professor Wendy Letven will receive a sculpture fellowship.

The Individual Artist Fellowship Awards are highly competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 different arts disciplines, awards solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples submitted. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. This program is carried out in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts.

Ruth Borgenicht received an undergraduate degree at Rutgers University in math, but the discovery that she could be far more creative with clay than with math came to her during the last year of undergraduate schooling. She completed her MFA at Montclair State University, which launched her in a new direction of socially engaged and participatory projects. This opened up a broader context for both her role as an artist and my artwork. Her residencies include: Hunter College in NYC, Anderson Ranch in CO, Greenwich House Pottery in NYC, Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts in ME, William Paterson University in NJ, Chester Spring Studio in PA, and University of the Arts in PA.

Wendy Letven is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, and painting in the New York area. Her paintings and sculptures are in many private collections across the US, in Europe and in China and she has created installations for Riverside Park, Brookfield Properties in NY, the Flatiron Prow Artspace, Art on Paper Fair, Market Art and Design, and The Sheila R. Johnson Gallery at the New School, among many others. Wendy is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a recipient of a Workspace Grant from Dieu Donne Papermill in New York. Raised in Philadelphia, she received a BFA from Tyler School of Art and an MFA from Hunter College. She teaches Art and Design at Parsons School of Design and at Montclair State University.