Where Land Meets Art: Maya Miller ’26 Awarded a 2026 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship</h1> <article> <h1>Where Land Meets Art: Maya Miller ’26 Awarded a 2026 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship</h1> <p>kviancou — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 20:35:12 +0000</p> <span>Where Land Meets Art: Maya Miller ’26 Awarded a 2026 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship</span> <span><span>kviancou</span></span> <span><time datetime="2026-04-06T16:35:12-04:00" title="Monday, April 6, 2026 - 16:35">Mon, 04/06/2026 - 16:35</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Maya Miller ’26 has been awarded a 2026 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, a one-year grant that supports purposeful, independent exploration outside the United States. </strong></p><p>A double major in <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/gsfs">gender, sexuality, and feminist studies</a> and <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing">creative writing</a>, with minors in studio art and comparative American studies, Miller will travel to New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Iceland, Japan, China, and the United Kingdom. </p><p>Along the way, Miller will work with farmers, ceramicists, and artists whose practices engage both land and material, as part of a project that explores “the intersection of agriculture and art, and how clay, soil, and ceramics preserve cultural traditions.” </p><p>Miller answered these questions about the Watson project:</p><p><strong>Can you describe what your Watson work will entail?</strong></p><div class="image_resized align-left media-embed-resized" style="width:314px;"> </div> <p>My Watson starts with an admittedly broad question: How can art-making reflect, repair, and reimagine our relationship with the natural world? Clay, soil, and earth are inextricably linked. For millennia, humans have harvested, cured, and shaped earth into vessels essential to daily life. While ceramic and agricultural technologies share origins, they have grown into more disparate practices in the United States.</p><p>During my Watson year, I want to explore how the intersections of ceramic and land-based work might offer frameworks, rituals, and methodologies for regenerating our ecological and social soils. I’ll spend time with farmers, ceramicists, and artists working at these intersections, learning from their practices, ecologies, and communities.</p><p><strong>In what ways does what you’ll be doing build on your existing work—and in what ways does it open new pathways for you?</strong><br><br>I’ve been working on farms on and off since graduating from high school. It’s actually what first brought me to the Midwest—to a farm in rural Illinois. Farming opened up a new sensorial language for me, one rooted in relationships with the nonhuman and the material, and one that challenged my preexisting ideas of personhood and agency.</p><p>I love the care work of tending to plants and animals. It can be meditative and is similar to clay work—both invite collaboration with materials that are agentive and demanding of care.</p><p>This past summer, I worked as a farmer at an artist residency in the Adirondacks. I spent much of my day digging in the soil, running after sheep, carrying water to the chickens, or repairing pig fencing. In the evenings, I was in the clay studio, writing, or just talking, laughing, and cooking with the artists in residence. </p><p>I started to ruminate on the parallels that typically get drawn: Pottery makes dishes, farming makes food; potters and farmers alike work with their hands. And true, there is also something deeper.</p><p>My honors thesis in GSFS explores clay as a material with epistemological agency. In its way of being, clay can act as a kind of ontological mirror and a creative methodological tool for queer and disability theory. It shows how slowness, decomposition, and bodily negotiation can be generative conditions, foregrounding interdependence and undoing myths of autonomy and control. </p><p>This work is rooted in my own experience and thus somewhat autoethnographic. The Watson year will allow me to expand my thinking outward—to learn from other people, practices, and cultural relationships to land and material.</p><p>There is a pathway at the intersection of land and ceramics that I’ve only just begun to glimpse. We are all of this earth, whether our connections feel deep or tenuous. I’m interested in living into that idea and seeing where it leads.</p><p><strong>How did �鶹��Ƶ shape or influence you to pursue this fellowship? </strong><br><br>The Watson was suggested to me while I was trying to narrow the focus of my honors research. Rather than dismissing my too-big set of questions, I was encouraged to consider the fellowship as a way to explore them. </p><p>More broadly, I’ve been lucky to study with professors who encouraged me to think creatively and across disciplines. In a GSFS class with Thao Nguyen, I was encouraged to pursue a project on disability studies and ceramics practice, even when I couldn’t find existing scholarship at that intersection. That work became the seed of my honors thesis. </p><p>My thesis advisor, <a href="/kj-cerankowski">KJ Cerankowski</a>, has encouraged me to push against [conventional] academic writing and explore connections that might not seem obvious at first. I love the GSFS department and how it encourages and teaches us to think in expansive and experimental ways.</p><p>I’ve also taken <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art">studio art</a> and <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing">creative writing</a> classes with amazing professors such as Amanda Hodes, Sam Cohen, Katherine Berta, and Abby Sherrill. They have encouraged me to see art as a space of inquiry—of searching, becoming, and imagining. </p><p>I also spent three winter terms working with �鶹��Ƶ alumnus Theo Helmstadter in his pottery studio in Santa Fe. A lifelong potter who harvests his own clays, Theo has been an incredible mentor. I’m grateful for the broader �鶹��Ƶ community and these kinds of connections.</p><div class="image_resized media-embed-resized" style="width:533px;"> </div> <p><strong>How does pursuing the Watson align with your career goals and trajectory?</strong><br><br>I am interested in many things—perhaps too many. I want to work in the arts, work with my hands, write, and create. A year spent exploring both art and land with artists and makers is a great gift. I also imagine some version of my future self tending to a flock of sheep, so I do intend to spend time in the hills with sheep along the way.</p><p>More abstractly, this fellowship comes at a liminal moment between student life and whatever comes next. The Watson gives me the chance to stay in that in-between a little longer—to live inside the question of trajectory, rather than trying to resolve it too quickly. </p><p>It’s a privilege, and I hope it helps me find ways of living with the kind of curiosity, care, and attention that the world, like clay, continually asks of us. </p><hr><p><a href="/fellowships" target="_blank"><em>Connect with Fellowships & Awards</em></a><em> to learn more about opportunities for �鶹��Ƶ students.</em></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Miller will travel to five countries to explore how ceramics and agriculture can repair our connection to the land.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2026-04-06T12:00:00Z">Mon, 04/06/2026 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Office of Communications</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4080">Fellowships</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4148">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4269">Studio Art</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2373">Awards and Honors</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-programs field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25361">Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?program=25326">Creative Writing</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/gsfs" hreflang="und">Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">courtesy of Maya Miller</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>Crossing Mediums</h1> <p>awillia2 — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 20:56:14 +0000</p> <span>Crossing Mediums</span> <span><span>awillia2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2025-08-25T16:56:14-04:00" title="Monday, August 25, 2025 - 16:56">Mon, 08/25/2025 - 16:56</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-subhead field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Virginia Wagner ’08 tells immersive stories through her art.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2025-08-26T12:00:00Z">Tue, 08/26/2025 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Lucy Curtis ’24</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Virginia Wagner ’08 is an artist in the truest sense of the word. A double major in <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" target="_blank" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="014a68a0-b89e-4246-bb1f-649f1b194b96" data-entity-substitution="canonical" title="Creative Writing">creative writing</a> and <a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" target="_blank" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="99006c99-de8f-4a3c-8569-53995b102253" data-entity-substitution="canonical" title="Studio Art">studio art</a>, she exhibits paintings in galleries across New York City, founded an online journal called <em>Painters on Paintings</em>, and is working on a graphic novel. After teaching at Pratt Institute for eight years, she is now a full-time lecturer of painting and drawing at Purchase College.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2368">Alumni</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2360">After �鶹��Ƶ</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4148">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4269">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/art" hreflang="und">Studio Art</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Chris Banks Carr</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-flex-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden vertical-spacing--basic field__items"> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43042" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>“My interests are—and have always been—at the intersection of different media,” she says. “I started as an actor and I danced and I sang, I write, and I’m interested in film. When I have an idea, it doesn’t necessarily sit squarely in one medium.”</p><p>Fittingly, one of Wagner’s explicit goals with her art is to capture a narrative. Her surreal paintings are rich with texture, featuring layers upon layers of shapes and colors that instill a level of emotion in the viewer. </p><p>“I’ve always loved stories that can transport you and take you out of your head into a new realm where you can grow or be challenged or escape,” Wagner says.</p><p>Her recent solo show <em>Backdrop</em>, which focuses on the Newtown Creek area, a toxic and ecologically problematic river where the Radiator Gallery sits between Brooklyn and Queens, explores multiple mediums and immersivity.</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43043" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-figure paragraph--view-mode--default"> <figure> <figcaption> <div class="figure__caption"><p><em>Drift</em>, 2023, single-channel video. </p></div> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43044" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>“The imagery within the paintings pictured those fractured, fragmented green spaces,but also the actual paintings themselves—which were seven feet tall—were built out of found wood from those sites,” Wagner explains. “The backs of the pieces were visible because everything stood like a backdrop for theater. People could walk around and interact with the paintings, and also become ‘on stage’ because of the way that the paintings position bodies within the space.” </p><p><em>Backdrop </em>also featured an animation that Wagner made; in it, she used trash that she found in the area. It included an ambient soundtrack by the musician OHYUNG that “oozed through the space and helped connect all the different works,” she explains. “There was a lot of mixed media because I found it to be the best way to capture all the senses and to really draw people into this space.” </p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43048" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-cont-img-section paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <div class="image-grid image-grid--single-caption pull"> <div id="obj-43047" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-image-row paragraph--view-mode--default"> <div class="image-row"> <div class="image-row__images" data-cols="2"> <div id="obj-43046" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-figure paragraph--view-mode--default"> <figure> <figcaption> <div class="figure__caption"><p><em>Stage Right</em>, 2023, Ink and oil on canvas, 88 x 64 inches.</p></div> </figcaption> </figure> </div> <div id="obj-43045" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-figure paragraph--view-mode--default"> <figure> <figcaption> <div class="figure__caption"><p><em>Stage Right</em> (back view).</p></div> </figcaption> </figure> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43049" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>While Wagner has always been a storyteller, at �鶹��Ƶ she honed her skills and found both her individual voice and a sense of community. </p><p>“The creative writing program is quite strong because there’s so much individual focus and attention between the students and faculty,” she reflects. “Because of the small class size and the community nature of the program, we all grew very quickly together.</p> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43050" class="paragraph paragraph--type--pb-el-bq paragraph--view-mode--default"> <blockquote class="blockquote--quotemark" data-text-color-red> <p>The art education that I received at �鶹��Ƶ was very supportive and helped me develop my individual voice. It was a ‘yes, and…’ program ... [as well as] expansive and playful and community oriented.</p> </blockquote> </div> </div> <div class="field__item"> <div id="obj-43051" class="paragraph paragraph--type--para-el-copy paragraph--view-mode--default o-flex--basic-copy basic-copy"> <p>In fact, her time at �鶹��Ƶ continues to fuel both her career and work. Wagner met two of her best friends in an art history class her second year; today, one of those friends is curating at MoMA, and the other is the director of development at PS1. For about seven years after her graduation, she also worked under a number of artists, particularly painter Julie Heffernan, whom she’d originally met by bringing her to �鶹��Ƶ as a visiting artist; Wagner later taught under Heffernan at Montclair State University. </p><p>“If you learn how to learn, which �鶹��Ƶ is good at teaching, and you get into a dedicated and sustained way of working, then you can carry that forward,” she says. </p><p>To Wagner, “the best part about �鶹��Ƶ is the people and the rigor of thinking and the richness of ideas,” she says. “We live in a time where imagining a different political system or imagining a brighter ecological future feels difficult. I feel that the �鶹��Ƶ community was more willing to go out of their comfort zone and take time out of their day and make decisions to bring a slightly better world forward.”</p><hr><p><em>�鶹��Ƶ’s </em><a href="/arts-and-sciences/ba-bfa" target="_blank" data-entity-type="node" data-entity-uuid="3b72b3d9-2465-48c8-9c21-0dd1037a3a87" data-entity-substitution="canonical" title="BA+BFA in Integrated Arts"><em>BA+BFA in Integrated Arts program</em></a><em> combines the rigor of an arts school with the well-rounded, interdisciplinary education of a liberal arts college. Learn more about this five-year program that’s tailored to each student’s academic and artistic interests.</em></p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-article-header field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">0</div> </article> <article> <h1>Maya Denkmire ’25 Shares Love of Writing at The Telling Room Internship</h1> <p>lcurtis2 — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 17:34:09 +0000</p> <span>Maya Denkmire ’25 Shares Love of Writing at The Telling Room Internship</span> <span><span>lcurtis2</span></span> <span><time datetime="2024-07-31T13:34:09-04:00" title="Wednesday, July 31, 2024 - 13:34">Wed, 07/31/2024 - 13:34</time> </span> <div class="text-content field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Describe what you’re doing this summer in your internship.</strong></p> <p>This summer I am interning at The Telling Room, a nonprofit organization based in Portland, Maine, whose mission is to “empower youth through writing.” Throughout the school year, they conduct residencies within schools as well as many after school programs that give kids the chance to learn new literacy skills and encourage them to share their stories with the world. For my internship, I am working in their summer camps (with themes ranging from world building and map making in sci fi and fantasy to comic making to essay writing). With the guidance of The Telling Room’s Teaching Artists, I am able to plan and teach writing-based lessons, exercises, and games, as well as help kids prepare for an end-of-week performance of the writing they have generated during camp for their families.</p> <p><strong>How did �鶹��Ƶ shape or influence you to pursue this internship? (For example – was there a particular class you took or a professor that inspired you? Did you discover a particular area of study you didn’t realize before?) </strong></p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-left"> <figcaption>Photo courtesy of Maya Denkmire '25</figcaption> </figure> <p>I have always known that I wanted to study creative writing at �鶹��Ƶ, but it was my experience in my Teaching Imaginative Writing class with <a href="/node/361186">Professor Rogers</a> that encouraged me to explore ways I could combine my love of writing with my love of teaching and working with children. During my residency for this class, I was given the opportunity to teach the practice of poetry to the middle schoolers of Langston Middle School. This experience not only inspired me to pursue my internship, but gave me the skills and confidence that have allowed me to feel successful and prepared in the internship thus far.</p> <p><strong>How does pursuing this internship align with your post-college life and career goals?</strong></p> <p>After college, I would love to pursue a career that engages with both my love of creative writing and my love of working with children. The Telling Room does exactly that by allowing children to use the art of writing to express themselves!</p> <p><strong>Is there anything you’ve learned this summer from your internship that has been particularly noteworthy or surprising?</strong></p> <figure class="captioned-image obj-right"> <figcaption>Photo courtesy of Maya Denkmire.</figcaption> </figure> <p>Having begun this internship, I feel like I have a much better idea of the philosophies I want to bring to working with children in the future. The Telling Room has provided me with invaluable examples of how play can be intertwined with learning, imagination can be fostered, and children can be met where they are in order to encourage growth.</p> <p><em>If you're interested in a summer internship, connect with the <a href="/node/4521">Career Exploration & Development</a> team to learn more about exploring career interests, gaining real-world experience, and developing a professional network.</em></p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-type field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item">News Story</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-date field--type-datetime field--label-hidden field__item"><time datetime="2024-08-26T12:00:00Z">Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:00</time> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-author field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">Communications Staff</div> <div class="text-content field field--name-field-intro-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Maya Denkmire '25 is a <a href="/node/3221">creative writing</a> major with a concentration in <a href="/node/25226">education</a>. She has spent the summer working at The Telling Room in Portland, ME, to assist with their summer youth writing programs. Here, she discusses her experience and how her interest in writing evolved to include education.</p></div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4097">Internship+ Program</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4096">Summer Internships</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4148">Creative Writing</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=4149">Education Studies</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news?tag=2403">Career Exploration & Development</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-faculty field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/elizabeth-rogers" hreflang="und">Elizabeth Lindsey Rogers ’07</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-departments field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/arts-and-sciences/departments/creative-writing" hreflang="und">Creative Writing</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Maya Denkmire '25 at her internship with The Telling Room.</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-pin-school-page field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">Off</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-photo-gallery-top field--type-boolean field--label-hidden field__item">false</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-image-credit field--type-string field--label-hidden field__item">courtesy of Maya Denkmire</div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-media field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__item"> </div> </article> </main></body></html>