For over half a century, SUNY New Paltz has been widely known for its highly professional art studio program and its distinguished faculty of practicing artists. Instructors mentor students in their pursuit of creative interests and for careers in the arts. The art department offers a variety of professional and liberal arts course work for undergraduates and graduates. Art studio’s comprehensive MFA programs in ceramics, metal, painting/drawing, printmaking and sculpture serve 50 candidates. The department facilitates a studio practice in traditional and innovative technologies within and across disciplines.
Building on its solid tradition and rigorous pedagogy, the metal program has earned the distinction of being ranked number one by US News and World Report. The program is co-directed by Professors Jamie Bennett and Myra Mimlitsch-Gray, with Arthur Hash and Barbara Smith among its faculty. Professor Matthew Friday, the Graduate Coordinator, oversees the interdisciplinary critical studies component of the art studio curriculum. The program’s outstanding alumni maintain continually active careers and many teach at university programs across the United States.
SUNY New Paltz inspires and challenges students to combine making and thinking toward dynamic outcomes. Faculty encourage students to have a strong sense of responsibility, self-reliance and confidence. With the intellectual capability and motivation to move the field in new directions, New Paltz students determine their own course of study while forming a vital community of inquiry and action. Faculty, students and alumni collectively invest in speculative approaches to studio practice in ways that both define and expand the field. The community carries these values forward through active scholarship that is sustained and highly regarded. All recognize and scrutinize craft’s relationship to the fields of design, the arts and cultural studies, sometimes celebrating productive convergences with trans-disciplinary outcomes. This environment fosters the passion for making, regard for skill, knowledge of the history of this discipline and the significance of our actions as metalsmiths and jewelers.
The Staff
Jamie Bennett is currently Professor of Art at SUNY New Paltz. He is a three-time recipient of the prestigious National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and has received a New York State fellowship twice, as well as numerous other awards. He has exhibited extensively in the United States and abroad. His work is in permanent collections in over 20 museums around the world, including the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Kunst Museum in Oslo, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D C, the Gallery of Western Australia in Perth and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. One of the pre-eminent enamellists in the world, Jamie’s work is known for its meticulous use of color and ornamentation. His participation in many pioneering exhibitions such as Jewellery Moves at the National Museum of Scotland, New Times, New Thinking, Jewellery in Europe and America at the National Museum of Wales, as well as a traveling museum exhibition of his solo works through 2010, underscore his influence and impact on contemporary jewelry.
Myra Mimlitsch-Gray is currently Professor of Art in the Metal Program at SUNY New Paltz. She received her MFA in 1986 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and her BFA from Philadelphia College of Art in 1984. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including Individual artist fellowships from the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (1995) the National Endowment for the Arts (1994) and the New York Foundation for the Arts (1997, 2005). In 1998 she was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at the State University of New York. In 2004 she was invited to London, to teach the Masterclass Programme at the Royal College of Art and to produce a silver piece for their study collection. In 2007 she completed an arts/industry residency at Kohler Company, where she explored sculptural work in cast iron and brass.
Mimlitsch-Gray’s artwork is included in the following permanent collections: the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Cranbrook Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Greater Lafayette Museum of Art, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Mint Museum of Craft and Design, the Museum of Arts and Design, the National Museums of Scotland, the Racine Art Museum, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Royal College of Art, the Renwick Gallery-National Museum of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Her work has been published in 100 Treasures (Cranbrook Art Museum, 2004) Skilled Work- American Craft in the Renwick Gallery (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998) Women Designers, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference (Yale University Press, 2000) and One of a Kind: American Art Jewelry Today (Abrams, 1995). A feature article, 'Of Hammers, History and Household: The Metalwork of Myra Mimlitsch-Gray,' was written by David McFadden and published in Metalsmith, Spring 2005.
Arthur Hash received his MFA in metalsmithing and jewelry design from Indiana University in 2005 and his BFA in Crafts/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2002. Currently Arthur works for the Metal program at the SUNY New Paltz. In 2007 Arthur was awarded his second fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond Virginia and named a Searchlight Artist by the American Craft Council. In 2010 Arthur completed his third solo exhibition entitled Arthur Hash: Jewelry and Wearable Objects at the Ross Museum of Art in Delaware, Ohio. Other exhibitions include Signs of Life 08 at the Facere Gallery in Seattle, From Minimal To Bling: Contemporary Studio Jewelry at The Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, Virtual Tangible 2.0 at Velvet da Vinci in San Francisco and NEXT ICONOCLASTS at the Oregon College for Art and Craft. Arthur’s work is included in a number of private and public collections around the United States.
His work can been seen in such magazines as Metalsmith, American Craft, Domino and Niche. Arthur’s work comes from a commitment to participate in the contemporary exploration of what jewelry is and can be, while retaining the sense of elegance and beauty found in the long tradition of body adornment. His recent work has incorporated digital fabrication technologies such as laser cutting/engraving, 3D scanning, CNC routing and rapid prototyping to make one-off art jewelry pieces, large archival ink-jet prints and vinyl sticker installations.
Barb Smith received her MA in Photography and Related Media from Purdue University and her MFA in Metal from the State University of New York at New Paltz. Her work has been exhibited in shows at Sienna Gallery, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, CoCA Seattle, AG Gallery in New York, the Contemporary Craft Museum, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, The Forbes Galleries in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston and the Dorsky Gallery Curatorial Programs in New York. She was recently awarded a solo exhibition in the MCA Project Room at Mesa Art Center in Arizona and a 2011 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Crafts/Sculpture. Her writing has been featured in the Shawangunk Review and Metalsmith as well as being published on the AJF website and The Journal of Modern Craft Online. She currently lives and works in New York.
