This year’s 44th annual Whitewater Valley Art Competition (WVAC) boasts a new collection of stunning artworks by talented award-winning artists and entrants.

Originating in 1978 with open judging, the WVAC has hosted prestigious artists and art experts of national acclaim for the jurying.

Pamela of Columbus by Antonio McAfee, Richmond, Indiana
Jurying for this year’s event was held on September 30. The prerecorded event is available for viewing on IU East Facebook Live.

Artwork was selected by this year’s jurors Elizabeth M. Claffey, associate professor of photography at Indiana University in Bloomington; Shaun Thomas Dingwerth, executive director of the Richmond Art Museum; and Michael Goodson, chief curator and director of programming at The Contemporary Dayton.

Jurors selected the awards and entries for the WVAC announced during a reception on October 14.

The 44th Whitewater Valley Art Exhibit is on display now through December 16 in the Tom Thomas Gallery and Meijer Artway, both located in Whitewater Hall. The exhibition is presented by First Bank Richmond.

IU East’s 44th Annual Whitewater Valley Art Competition Top Entrants
First Place: ($2,000 in addition to a 2023 Solo Exhibition Invitation)

• Antonio McAfee, Richmond, Indiana – Third 2, digital C-print; Students, Workers, and Elder, acrylic medium and pigment ink; and Pamela of Columbus, acrylic medium, pigment ink, and pigment print

Second Place

• Caitlyn Clark, Bloomington, Indiana – Load, charcoal on paper

Third Place

• Francis Schanberger, Dayton, Ohio – Ground Meat Polystyrene Tray (Verso) (Alberta Street, Dayton), silver gelatin print; Sugar Cone Polystyrene Packing Material (Roswell, New Mexico), silver gelatin print; and Folded Twelve Ounce Cup (Forgotten Location, Dayton), silver gelatin print

Honorable Mention

• Megan Caldwell Chandler, Carmel, Indiana – Exploration III, artist’s book, acrylic, ink & collage with Coptic binding
• Joseph Swanson, Richmond, Indiana – The Great Silence, mixed media

Chancellor’s Choice Purchase Award (IU East Campus Collection)

• Justin Carney, Bloomington, Indiana – You Can’t Take This With You, v.2, archival pigment print and Breath, archival pigment print
• Nancy Taylor, Richmond, Indiana – Midday Market, tapestry, hand-dyed wool

In addition to the award winners, work from the following artists is included in this exhibition:
Walt Bistline, Richmond, Indiana; Lori Brubaker, Flora, Indiana; Gregory Bryant, Lafayette, Indiana; Justin Carney, Bloomington, Indiana; Caitlyn Clark, Bloomington, Indiana; Hector Del Campo, Westfield, Indiana; Jeanne Freibert, Louisville, Kentucky; Rodman Goodwin, Chicago, Illinois; Jeanette Hammerstein, Bloomington, Indiana; Nicholas Hill, Granville, Ohio; Sungwon Hong, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Sonimar Maldonado-Alvarado, Ann Arbor, Michigan; Valerie Mann, Saline, Michigan; Taylor Mazer, Grand Rapids, Michigan; Jeffrey Meyer, Fort Wayne, Indiana; Jill Miller, Lambertville, Michigan; Jennifer Murray, Columbus, Ohio; John Puffer, Vincennes, Indiana; Ali Rivera, Richmond, Indiana; Madha Siraj, Westfield, Indiana; Christina Stayton, Russiaville, Indiana; Wendi Smith, Corydon, Indiana; Ashley Speelman, Dayton, Ohio; Nancy Taylor, Richmond, Indiana; Laura Teste, Bloomfield, Michigan; Barbara Triscari, Lebanon, Indiana; Mark Van Buskirk, Richmond, Indiana; Sishi Wang, Bloomington, Indiana; Clinton Wood, Cincinnati, Ohio.

About the Jurors
Elizabeth M. Claffey is an associate professor of photography at Indiana University in Bloomington and a 2019 – 2020 Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She has an MFA in Studio Art from Texas Woman’s University, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies.

Before joining the faculty at IU, Claffey participated in The Eddie Adams Workshop and freelanced for various organizations and publications, including The Dallas Morning News, NBC Universal Studios, and the United Nations Women’s Fund. In 2021, Claffey was awarded an Outstanding Junior Faculty Award and an IU Presidential Award for Research and Creative Activity. Claffey’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and focuses on identity, kinship, isolation, issues of the body, family history, and cultural/institutional practices.

Shaun Thomas Dingwerth is currently the executive director of the Richmond Art Museum, where he has been since 1998. He has organized and curated numerous art exhibitions, including several historic Indiana artists. Most recently, he curated the exhibition, “Impressions of Love: J. Ottis and Winifred Brady Adams,” and provided an essay for the corresponding exhibit catalog for the David Owsley Museum of Art’s 100th Anniversary, located on the campus of Ball State University.

Dingwerth is considered an authority about the Richmond Group artists. He wrote The Richmond Group Artists, published by Indiana University Press, selling out of the first printing. He has also written articles in both the Plein Air Magazine and Fine Art Connoisseur over the years. Dingwerth has also given numerous lectures throughout the state about the development of the Art Association of Richmond and the Richmond Group.

Michael Goodson first studied sculpture at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, continuing at the graduate level at Cranbrook Academy of Art. He began his career in the New York gallery world as a preparator at David Zwirner and eventually as manager of exhibitions at James Cohan Gallery. Goodson then returned to Ohio to serve as director of exhibitions at the Beeler Gallery at Columbus Collage of Art & Design.

In 2020, Goodson took the position of chief curator and director of programming at The Contemporary Dayton, first presenting Nari Ward’s work, “We the People,” in the summer of 2020, which is the last exhibition in the gallery that The Contemporary Dayton had occupied for over 10 years. He transformed the galleries into a voter registration center in a collaboration with the League of Women Voters. Goodson organized the inaugural exhibitions in the institution’s new, multi-gallery location in April 2021 with “Zachary Armstrong: Grids and Abstracts”; “Curtis Barnes, Sr.: Love and Peace”; and “Cauleen Smith: Remote Viewing,” among others.