Cranbrook Academy of Art Announces 2025 Student Awards
2025 Commencement of Cranbrook Academy of Art. Photo by PD Rearick.
BLOOMFIELD HILLS, MICH., May 6, 2025 – On Friday, Cranbrook Academy of Art conferred MFA degrees upon 56 graduating students during its annual commencement ceremony. The Academy is also pleased to announce several awards presented to our students. The awards are all designed to support study at the Academy and to aid our 2025 graduates in the transition from student to practicing artist. We are grateful to the individuals and organizations who continue to see the importance of supporting today’s artists, architects, and designers.
The Robert C. Larson Venture Award was given to current Academy students: Chiedza Pasipanodya (Sculpture 2025), Rachael Cox (Fiber 2025), and Sophia Larsen (Print Media 2025). The shared award recognizes and supports the work of innovative and inspired Academy students. Bonnie Larson established the endowment fund to celebrate Robert C. Larson’s commitment to Cranbrook. Robert Larson was a long-time volunteer leader and donor at Cranbrook and served as the Chair of the Board of Trustees from 1996–2002. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of the Academy and Art Museum from 1986–2000.
The 2025 Cranbrook Art Museum Purchase Award was presented to Chiedza Pasipanodya (Sculpture 2025) for her work “Kunyoresa (Scores).” selected for purchase by the Museum Committee. The work will be accessioned into the permanent collection of Cranbrook Art Museum.
The Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts Scholarship was presented to two students this year. Emily Dormier (Fiber 2026) will use it to take the workshop “Introduction to Creative Exploration in Wood Turning” with Aaron Hammer. Myiesha Gordon Beales (Ceramics 2025) will take the workshop “Cross and Twist: Beginning Bobbin Lace” with Sasha Baskin.
The Anderson Ranch Scholarship was awarded to two students, Sam Taylor (Print Media 2026) and Rebekah Hurst (Sculpture 2026).
The Ox-Bow Summer Scholarship was awarded to Cara O’Connor (Print Media 2025). They will receive funding to take the class “Art Making for the Living and the Dead” with Anders Zanichkowsky at the Ox-Bow summer program based in Saugatuck, Michigan.
The Stewart Thomson Fellowship at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was awarded to Ziqi Yuan (Metalsmithing 2025), who will take the workshop “Second Skin: Leather Jewelry Wearables,” taught by Kerianne Quick.
The Gallery A Award was presented to Emily Dormier (Fiber 2026). This award provides funding for a student to exhibit their work in the entry space in the Academy of Art Administration office. Dormier plans to install the work, “Once It Was Home,” a large fabric installation with a dye-sublimated image reminiscent of her home in Chicago.
The Meredith Beau CAA 1997 and Scott Beau Materials Fund Award was awarded to first-year students James Baxter (Fiber 2026), Ju Hyun Jung (Sculpture 2026), and second-year student Corinne MacInnes (Ceramics 2025). This gift is to be used to assist students in any discipline with purchasing materials.
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation Materials Award was awarded to first-year students Emily Dormier (Fiber 2026), Ivan Flores (Fiber 2026), Rebekah Hurst (Sculpture 2026), Hayley Morrison (Painting 2026), Irene Perez (Fiber 2026), Aaron Porter (Painting 2026) and second-year students Stina Baudin (Fiber 2025), Nemo Belvalkar (Ceramics 2025), Julia Chai (Ceramics 2025), Nomaki Etsu (Industrial Design 2025), Jenn Gerrity (Ceramics 2025), Savannah Jackson (Fiber 2025), Sophia Larsen (Print Media 2025), Caleb LeFevre (Print Media 2025), Chiedza Pasipanodya (Sculpture 2025), Daniel Ribar (Photo 2025), Fanni Somogyi (Metalsmithing 2025), Chanel Vinet (Architecture 2025), Shu Wang (Industrial Design 2025), Casey Wheeler (Fiber 2025), Songer Yang (Graphic Design 2025), and Ziqi Yuan (Metalsmithing 2025). The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation funds grants for materials to students working in craft disciplines.
The Award for Sustainability recognizes artists engaged in environmental sustainability projects. This year, Cindy (Yanqing) Pan (Sculpture 2026) received the award, which she will use to support her work, “Echos of Drift,” a meditation on the interplay of labor, time, and natural forces that uses silkworm cocoons and organic dyes to create a piece that is a testament to environmental stewardship
The Watershed Center for the Ceramics Arts Award was awarded to Rachel Albee (Sculpture 2026). Watershed’s Summer Residency sessions in Edgecomb, Maine, offer artists who work with clay uninterrupted time to focus on their practices in their state-of-the-art ceramics studio.
The Hope Award was awarded to Sophie Russell-Jeffrey (Photography 2025). The award provides funding to students who demonstrate studio practices that conceptualize themselves as anti-capitalist/pro-humanity in the spirited tradition of historical materialism.
Together, these awards represent tens of thousands of dollars in earned gifts for our current students, and we remain grateful to all who have contributed to their continued funding.
