A Denison University student has been selected as a winner in the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio (AICUO) Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts. Nathalie VanBalen, a senior studio art major from Pataskala, is one of six winners in the program, including students from the Art Academy of Cincinnati, Columbus College of Art and Design, Oberlin College and Ohio Northern University.

As a winner, VanBalen is a finalist for the AICUO Grand Award and its $2,500 cash prize, as well as the People’s Choice Award.

VanBalen notes, “For the last couple of years I have been actively engaged with bookmaking—specifically in the poetic sequencing of images. Each image is an entity with its own meaning, and when strung together they create an extended statement.”

View VanBalen’s artwork and cast your vote for the People's Choice Award. Voting will be closed on Friday, March 20. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will be announced April 20 during a reception in the Canzani Center at the Columbus College of Art & Design.

In 2008, VanBalen won the Juror’s Award in the Five Colleges of Ohio Student Biennial, a juried exhibition featuring work by students from Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University and the College of Wooster. Her winning work was a painting titled “Tiny Realizations.”

Last year’s AICUO People’s Choice Award winner was Madeline Mohre, Denison class of 2008, from Dewitt, Mich.

The Very Nature of Things (book) by Nathalie VanBalen

Tiny Realizations (painting) by Nathalie VanBalen

About Denison:

Denison University, founded in 1831, is an independent, residential liberal arts institution located in Granville, Ohio. A highly selective college enrolling 2,100 full-time undergraduate students from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries, Denison is a place where innovative faculty and motivated students collaborate in rigorous scholarship, civic engagement and the cultivation of independent thinking.

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