Clark College art instructor receives Guggenheim Fellowship

For Immediate Release
April 10, 2018

For additional information (news media inquiries only):
Hannah Erickson, Communications & Marketing
T: 360-992-2954 E: herickson@clark.edu
High-resolution images of Stephen Hayes’ paintings available upon request.

Stephen Hayes awarded prestigious prize for painting project focused on gun violence

VANCOUVER, Wash. — Clark College is proud to announce that adjunct art instructor Stephen Hayes has been named a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow in Fine Arts. Hayes is one of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists from the U.S. and Canada to receive this honor from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 

“As one of the few community colleges in the state to offer an Associate in Fine Arts degree, Clark College takes pride in the high level of quality of the faculty members who teach in our studio arts programs,” said Professor Lisa Conway, chair of the college’s art department. “We are thrilled, though in no way surprised, by Stephen’s latest accomplishment.”

Hayes has taught classes including drawing, color design, and two-dimensional design at Clark since 2012, shortly after he presented a lecture during the college’s popular Clark Art Talks series. Besides Clark, his teaching experience includes Oregon State University and Yarmouk University. As an artist, Hayes has held over 35 solo exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad, and his works are housed in the collections of the New York Public Library, the Frans Masereel Centrum voor Grafiek in Kasterlee, Belgium, The Portland Art Museum, The Hallie Ford Museum, The Gates Foundation, Lewis and Clark College and more than 100 private and public collections in the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Hayes, who lives in Portland, will use the fellowship’s funding to pursue a project titled In The Hour Before, in which he uses Google Earth to view places that have been affected by gun violence and paints them as they would be seen in the hour before the violent event took place.

“It is both exciting and humbling to be awarded this fellowship,” said Hayes. “So many artists are as deserving of this kind of recognition. I have worked with focus for a long time and have gotten a few breaks over the years with exhibitions, grants, and awards. This one feels as if it can not only be a recognition for past efforts, but also can open doors to new possibilities.”

More information about Stephen Hayes is available at www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/stephen-hayes/ and at his website, www.stephenhayes.net.

About Clark College

Located in Vancouver’s Central Park and serving more than 12,000 students per quarter, Clark College is Southwest Washington’s oldest public institution of higher education. The college currently offers classes at two satellite locations: one on the Washington State University Vancouver campus and one in the Columbia Tech Center in East Vancouver. Additionally, its Economic & Community Development program is housed in the Columbia Bank building in downtown Vancouver.

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