Future Arts Awards: Ecosystem X

Congratulations to Upper School visual arts educator Ivy Guild, a recipient of the Future Arts Awards: Ecosystem X. She was selected as one of 10 featured artists out of hundreds of submissions from across the country.

The third edition of MOZAIK Philanthropy’s Future Art Awards encouraged all art mediums to submit an arts-based reimagining of life on planet Earth. The submissions “expressed an aspirational vision of humanity by illustrating the principles, processes, or practices of a just world, where the interrelationships between living organisms and their physical environment represent freedom, sustainability, and new futurities for planetary change.”

An independent jury of artists and arts professionals assessed the submissions in a blind review. Selected artists earned a cash prize, and winning artworks will be featured in a curated virtual exhibition opening in February.

Ms. Guild’s winning submission, The Keeling, “is an amalgamation of aloe corpses with steel prosthetics, speculative organisms, and contemporary fossils. The works in the exhibition speculate on pre-PTSD of the Sixth Great Extinction and the artifacts we may leave in our wake as a ruinous race.” Her thesis exhibition is displayed at the Contemporary Arts Center, University of California, Irvine, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in studio art.

In Upper School Studio Art, Ms. Guild’s goal is to guide students in processing the 21st century through creativity and empathy in their own way. She believes that art is crucial to a holistic education because it teaches students new ways to perceive and transform the world around them.

“When an artist receives news about the inclusion of their work into a curated exhibition, it is an affirmation that one's perspectives are being heard,” shares Director of Visual and Performing Arts Cindy Bravo. “It helps students understand how important it is to value your artistic perspectives and put your work out into the world.”