Lisa Hostetler, Curator-in-Charge at the George Eastman Museum, wrote in her juror’s statement: “As usual with CENTER awards, there were a number of strong submissions that made selecting the finalists difficult. The ones that I chose seemed to me to be the most effective combinations of concept and form; in other words, the idea for the project and its execution were equally matched in quality and originality… Balancing Cultures, the project I chose for first place, combines family photographs and memorabilia with images of signage and ephemera related to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The works are poignant meditations on the intertwining of personal and political history during a particularly grim era in our country’s past. Given the force of rhetoric about immigration and ethnicity in today’s public discourse, the project is a timely argument for an open and humane approach to nationality and citizenship.”

An exhibition, Full Circle: 2018 CENTER Award Winners, is scheduled for the Turchin Center for Visual Arts in North Carolina in December this year. Publication in Lenscratch is forthcoming.