Alumna is finalist for $25,000 Sondheim Artscape Prize
Cheeny Celebrado-Royer, a 2014 alumna of McDaniel College, has been selected as one of seven finalists for the 14th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. Baltimore’s most prestigious artist award, the Sondheim Artscape Prize awards a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or visual artist collaborator living and working in the greater Baltimore area. A multidisciplinary artist, Royer, who was born in the Philippines, uses art packaging materials, recycled and found objects, and studio trash to create her installations, sculptures, paintings and drawings.
Cheeny Celebrado-Royer, a 2014 alumna of McDaniel College, has been selected as one of seven finalists for the 14th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize. Baltimore’s most prestigious artist award, the Sondheim Artscape Prize awards a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or visual artist collaborator living and working in the greater Baltimore area.
A multidisciplinary artist, Royer, who was born in the Philippines and resides in Havre de Grace, Md., uses art packaging materials, recycled and found objects, and studio trash to create her installations, sculptures, paintings and drawings. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from McDaniel, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where she is currently the artist-in-residence for the post-baccalaureate program.
As an undergraduate at McDaniel, she exhibited in the Honors and Senior Capstone exhibitions and was awarded both the M. Louise Shipley Art Award for Excellence and Eloise B. and Lowell S. Ensor Award for Graduate or Professional Study upon graduation. Her work was also showcased in McDaniel’s Rice Gallery in the 2017 alumnae exhibition, “Notion of Place: Four Alumnae, Four Interpretations.”
She served at the Refugee Youth Project as a collaborative member artist from 2016–2017 with the AmeriCorps Program at MICA and received a 2017–2018 Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (AICAD) Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship at Pratt Institute in New York. Royer has accepted a full-time teaching position as an assistant professor in drawing at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
Bobby Coleman, a 2009 alumnus of McDaniel, was named a semifinalist for the 2019 award. Royer was previously named a semifinalist for the Sondheim Artscape Prize in 2016. Mindy Hirt, a 2008 McDaniel alumna, was a semifinalist in 2011 and McDaniel Art professor Steve Pearson, Art professor and chair of the Art and Art History department at McDaniel, was a semifinalist in 2012.
The Sondheim Artscape Prize is held in conjunction with the annual Artscape festival and produced by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts. Finalists’ work will be exhibited at the Walters Art Museum June 15– August 11, and the winner will be announced July 13.
Cheeny Celebrado-Royer, "Bad Fate," 2018, mixed media installation, 8'x13'x27'
