Spring 2021 Awards - Art, Art History, and Film Department - MCAS

Awards and Honors

Departmental Awards and Honors 鈥� Spring 2021

We enthusiastically congratulate you, the Class of 2021 Art, Art History and Film Majors and Minors! Your college career took an unexpected turn when the pandemic hit, but you have responded with creativity, compassion, courage, determination, inquisitiveness, and resilience. Learning and creating in community with you has strengthened us all. We applaud you for your intellectual, creative and personal achievements during your entire career at Boston College and celebrate this auspicious moment with you. We recognize our Seniors who are receiving departmental awards and honors, and the Studio Art Majors and Minors who are participating in the annual Senior Art Exhibition. We will miss you. Please stay in touch!

Richard and Marianne W. Martin Memorial Award

In recognition of high academic and creative achievement in Art History in this year of 2020. Established by the Boston College Friends of Art, this award is given annually in memory of Marianne W. Martin, Professor of Art History at Boston College from 1976-1989, and her husband Richard.

Amy Li

Studio Art

鈥淭hrough her rigorous studio art practice combined with her degree in applied psychology, Amy Li embodies what it means to be an 'artist for others.' Amy鈥檚 unusually strong ability to integrate knowledge from across multiple disciplines was evident in her senior project, 鈥淎rt in a Box鈥� which brings together students and professors from design, neuroscience, education, and psychology to create an at-home art therapy program for Chinese children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their caregivers. Amy鈥檚 example of using art to forge creative and purposeful lives is a model for us all.鈥�

Matthew DiBenedetto

Art History

鈥淢atthew DiBenedetto has a manifest passion for art history. He offers illuminating contributions to class discussions, and writes thoroughly researched papers, demonstrating understanding of the interpretive frameworks of art history. He evinces a rare breath of interest in the many diverse aspects of the field, in attendance at most art history events at Boston College. There could not be a more ideal recipient of the Richard and Marianne W. Martin Memorial Award.鈥�

Allison R. Macomber, Jr. Award

This award was established and supported by gifts from the Horbach Fund for outstanding work in the Fine Arts in honor of Allison R. Macomber, Jr., Artist-in-Residence at Boston College.

Soo Ji Kim

Studio Art

鈥淎n accomplished photographer, video editor, and mixed-media artist, Suzy Kim鈥檚 nimble mind, voracious curiosity and fearless willingness to experiment have enabled her to create sophisticated works which ask us to look harder. In an age of quick and slick visuals, Suzy bypasses superficiality and creates labor-intensive artworks which do a deep dive into the relationship between language, emotions and representation. The Martin Award is awarded to Suzy in gratitude for reminding us of the role that art plays in understanding what it means to be human.鈥�

Olivia Zerbino

Art History

鈥淥livia is a curious and engaged student, fully present in the classroom as well as serious about her research and writing. In her research paper on Jacob Lawrence, she was especially good at drawing meaning out of formal analysis, making smart connections between form and the social and artistic themes that concerned the artist.鈥�

Jeffery Howe Art History Award

This award, established by the Boston College Arts Council in 2011 to honor Professor Howe鈥檚 outstanding service to the Arts at 51茶馆, recognizes a Boston College senior who has demonstrated outstanding scholarship in the area of art or architectural history.

Ethan Starr

鈥淓than Starr has an unusual ability to combine fine-grained, meticulous research with big-picture thinking about the significance of art in American society. Ethan exemplifies the outstanding scholarship and enthusiasm for art and architectural history of Professor Emeritus Jeffery Howe for whom this Art History award was established.鈥�

Mary Armstrong Award

This award was created in honor of Mary A. Armstrong (1948-2020), who taught painting and drawing at Boston College for thirty years, to recognize a student who has developed an artistic practice of outstanding quality, and who presents the highest level of commitment and personal involvement with his/her work.

Stephen Anglim

鈥淪tephen Anglim has developed a richly layered body of work that draws from a range of sources, chief among them his sketchbook in which he notates every-day life, journeys taken and imagined, as well as ruminations about art, life and school. 鈥� His self-portraits expressed a sense of yearning for human connection during the past year, when we lost so much but gained new insight into ourselves.鈥�

Costa-Gavras Award

Costa-Gavras, director of socially conscious films such as Z, The Confession, Missing, and Amen, has provoked his international audiences to reflect more deeply about issues of social justice. This award in his name acknowledges the work of a graduating Senior in Film Studies who follows in his footsteps with an original film on an issue of social justice.

Angelos Bougas

鈥淎t the end of the film Casablanca, Rick says to the French officer Captain Louie, 'I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship鈥�' A chance meeting with Angelos several years ago marked not only a beautiful friendship, but a professional collaboration that led this highly gifted student to Germany, France, and Lithuania in pursuit of social justice narratives. With grants from the Jacques Salmanowitz Program, he produced footage that is visually striking and socially enlightening.鈥�

Screenwriting Award

This award is given in recognition of excellence in screenwriting in the Film Studies Program.

Andrew Biondi

鈥淎ndrew Biondi has been an astute student of screenwriting and is most deserving of this award. Throughout my experience with Andrew, he showed superior ability to create character, work through scenes and define story. He worked hard to enhance his voice for character and ear for story, resulting in well-written scripts. Andrew's growth in the craft of screenwriting is to be applauded, as he has shown exemplary screenwriting skills throughout the program.鈥�

Cinematography Award

This award is given in recognition of excellence in cinematography in the Film Studies Program.

John Mohler

鈥淛ohn Mohler is a born cinematographer. He was able to quickly take lens shots that gave not only text but the ever-important subtext to his stories. Through production coursework and even on several projects outside of class, including his award-winning 72-hour horror festival film, John has consistently shown organization, discipline, and undying passion for the truth. I hope to work with him in the future, as he is now much better than I am.鈥�