MICA takes pride in the reputation and professional experience of our faculty — and in their accomplishments. Following are just a few of the faculty from the College recently garnering recognition for their work as visual thinkers and creators.
Kerr Houston, faculty in History of Art, Design, and Visual Culture, is one of three recipients of the 2023 Lois Moran Award for Craft Writing. The honor is sponsored by the American Craft Council and given annually to writers who thoughtfully write a dynamic individual article or essay on an aspect of American Craft. Houston was honored for his work, "Close Looking: Edward Duffield’s BMA Clock, in Context," which appeared in BMoreArt. The essay examines an 18th-century clock located at the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Erin Johnson, faculty in Film & Video, is an inaugural Working Artist Fellow at Pioneer Works. Part of the Rockefeller Foundation’s The Artist Impact Initiative, the Pioneer Works fellowship provides support to artists who are exploring new approaches to advancing social cohesion through creative solutions. Johnson’s work blends documentary, experimental, and narrative devices and foreground the ways in which individual lives and sociopolitical realities merge. Through immersive installations and short films, she explores notions of collectivity, dissent, and queer identity.
Jump In!, by Illustration faculty member Shadra Strickland, was selected as one of "2024 Books All Georgians Should Read" by the Georgia Center for the Book. Published in 2023, it was also named a "Best Read Aloud" by Kirkus Reviews, and was recently spotlighted by library superfan and social media sensation Mychal Threets. A bright, joyful picture book that celebrates an intergenerational community at play, Jump In! joins Strickland’s portfolio of acclaimed works. Her books have been recognized by the American Library Association and Junior Library Guild, while her illustrative work in the picturebook, Bird, garnered her the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009. She also co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award.