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UA Art & Art History Outstanding Students Named for 2021

The UA Department of Art and Art History is proud to announce the recipients of our Outstanding Student Awards for 2020-2021. This is the department’s most prestigious award of the year, only given to a single graduate and undergraduate student in art history and in studio art.

Outstanding Students in Art & Art History

Student holding an award plaque, underneath a tree.
Nadia DelMedico.

Nadia DelMedico: Outstanding Graduate Student in Art History Award

Nadia DelMedico is an MA candidate (2021) in American art history with a graduate teaching assistantship, from Marina Del Rey, California. Her master’s thesis, titled, “Prejudice and Privilege: Artistic Interaction between Free People of Color and Italian Immigrants in Nineteenth-Century New Orleans,” discusses the creative relationships between Italian immigrants and free artists of color in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century New Orleans. Her recent research presentations include “Eras of Iconography in Manuel Hughes’ ‘Arkansas Memories’ Series,” at SECAC 2020; and “Finding Religion in Genre: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Moroccan Scene,” at the 26th Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Art History, for which she won first prize in the Harrison Awards for Excellence in Research in 2021.

Kelsey Meadows: Outstanding Graduate Student in Studio Art Award

Student holding an award plaque, under the trees.
Kelsey Meadows.

Kelsey Meadows is an MFA candidate (2021) in ceramics and sculpture with a graduate teaching assistantship, from Sykesville, Maryland. Meadows presented her thesis exhibition, The Somewhere in Between, at The University of Alabama Gallery in April and it will be on exhibit through May 12. Meadows’ work consists primarily of ceramics in conjunction with other materials. Her MA thesis exhibition presented unglazed ceramic sculptures which she created after studying a variety of objects under the scanning electron microscope. Recent artworks were accepted into three juried exhibitions: in Laguna Beach, California; Portland, Oregon; and Loveland, Colorado. Meadows was the recipient of a full-tuition scholarship for a three-week intensive summer workshop at Anderson Ranch Art Center.

Emily Morgan: Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Art History Award

Emily Morgan with her award.

Emily Morgan is a senior double major in art history and English with a minor in French, from Hayden, Alabama. She has been on the Dean’s List from 2017 to the present with a 4.0 GPA in her major and a 4.0 GPA overall. Morgan’s research paper, “Those Who Challenge the Southern Belle: The Hidden Face of Alabama Sex work,” was accepted for presentation in the highly competitive Hunter Museum of American Art’s 2020 American Art Symposium and was published in the Blount Literary Undergraduate Journal. Her research project, “Dismantling the Bible Belt: Religious Diversity of the American South,” won first place in the National Society of Colonial Dames of America (NSCDA) – Alabama Division and represented UA in the national NSCDA competition. She has held two internships at the Birmingham Museum of Art, and one each at the Warner Foundation and the Kentuck Art Center. She served as senior editor of Her Campus online magazine, president and vice-president of the General Art Club. Morgan has been accepted to the MA program in art history at UA.

Ally Thomasson: Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Studio Art Award

Ally Thomasson with her award.

Ally Thomasson, from Inverness Florida, will graduate summa cum laude with a BFA in digital media and painting and a double minor in Spanish and social innovation and leadership. In 2020, her graphic design work won a gold ADDY in the student category for Tuscaloosa chapter of the American Advertising Awards and was selected for WORK: National Juried Student Design Exhibition, sponsored by Jacksonville State University’s MFA in Visual Communication Design program. For the summer of 2020, Thomasson was selected for an internship at the “ZxLerator,” Anheuser Busch’s ZX Ventures, for her designs in adaptive fashion. Thomasson won the 2019 Apple Award for the Best Magazine Spread by the CMA Spring National College Media Convention. She was graphic designer and creative director for the Capstone Agency, UA Women’s Basketball Team and Alice Magazine. She served as inaugural president of the UA AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) student group from 2019-2021.

For more information about the programs in the UA Department of Art and Art History, go to this page or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.