YSU Awards First MFAs in Art
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Among the more than 1,500 graduates at spring commencement for Youngstown State University on Saturday include the first two graduates of the Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts.
Kathleen Gallagher, Massillon, and Devid Belgrad, Canfield, are the first to earn the degree. The two-year program is the first of its kind in northeastern Ohio, according to a YSU release. It was designed to be small to allow students access to faculty who are experienced in multiple artistic processes and methodologies, said Christine McCullough, professor of Art and coordinator of the program. The goal is to produce informed artists and innovators to contribute to the ever-changing dialogue of contemporary art, she said.
The latest artwork from Gallagher and Belgrad is on display at YSU’s McDonough Museum of Art. The exhibit closes May 11.
In 2015, Gallagher earned a bachelor’s in Fine Arts from YSU and plans to apply to artist residencies while working on her art. Her work investigates the paradox of anxiety, exploring the manifestation of global and personal anxiety as seen through the process of emergence found in biological and psychological systems, according to the release.
Belgrad earned a bachelor’s in Fine Arts from Syracuse University. He plans to do commission work, apply for artist residencies, enter art shows and perhaps teach. His work at McDonough is titled “The Story of Re-creation,” which is an animated, narrative video that portrays the evolution of the natural world to the current digital, mechatronic environment, according to the release.
In addition, a large, longitudinal charcoal drawing that reads from left to right by Belgrad follows the manipulation of a ball of clay.
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