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The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) at the ɫ����Ƶhas announced its highest annual faculty honors: the 2024-2025 Ludcke Chair of Arts and Sciences and the Distinguished Academic Service Award.

Stephen Burt, M.F.A., professor of art, has been named Ludcke Chair, while Sarah Gorham, M.F.A., M.A.T., assistant academic director of the School of Arts and Humanities and teaching professor of art, is the recipient of the Distinguished Academic Service Award. 

Funded by a generous bequest from the estate of Eleanor Ludcke (Westbrook College Class of 1926), the Ludcke Chair honors senior faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences who are among ɫ����Ƶ’s most distinguished scholars and teachers. The Ludcke Chair recognizes CAS faculty members who connect and infuse their scholarship within the teaching mission of the college to a level of excellence beyond the typical use of scholarship in teaching and who model that activity for their students.

Additionally, Burt’s work has been acquired for inclusion in many public collections, including those of the New Britain Museum of American Art, the Portland Museum of Art, the Fogg Museum at Harvard, the New York Public Library, and the Library of Congress. 

Burt holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design and a Master of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Purchase. He was nominated for Ludcke Chair for his comprehensive approach to research, scholarship, and creativity while encouraging students to engage in their own creativity, a hallmark of the Ludcke teacher/scholar model.

Burt said the award would not have been possible without the support of fellow faculty, professional staff, and administrators, including those who encouraged him, wrote letters of recommendation, informed him of exhibition opportunities, and collaborated with him on creative projects. 

“There are far too many to name here, but every one of them has my sincere thanks,” he said.

“I look forward to expanding my creative footprint with the funds awarded and to taking the lessons learned in my work back into the classroom to assist students in finding their creative voice,” Burt added. “Everyone has creativity at their fingertips; they just need to learn how to unleash it, and doing so can be surprisingly easy once they give themselves over to the process of paying attention.”

Since 1986, the Distinguished Academic Service Award — also known as the “Kenneally Cup,” after the award’s first recipient, Raymond Kenneally — has provided the opportunity for members of the College of Arts and Sciences to recognize one of its own for their exceptional performance or contributions in at least two of the following areas: teaching and advising, professional or program development, and service. 

She has won awards for these works, which she has displayed in both group and solo exhibitions throughout New England. 

Her recent works include a series of sculptural paintings created from nautical charts, which are cut, adorned with landscape paintings, and resewn. They are then accordion-folded, dipped or brushed in encaustic wax medium, then attached with various Japanese Stab Bound stitching methods onto wood.

As a scholar, Gorham has worked on an interdisciplinary research program connecting artmaking and anxiety relief and has co-authored two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles on the topic. In 2009, Gorham founded the Coalition for Creative Culture, later called the ARTSci Coalition, to highlight the work of interdisciplinary researchers and the connections between the arts and sciences at ɫ����Ƶ. 

Most recently, Gorham has coordinated across University entities to form the Hannah Fields Lenehan Award.  The award honors the legacy of Tim Lenehan ’71’s mother, Hannah Fields-Lenehan, by celebrating the value of artistic and creative expression in all people. All undergraduate students are invited to submit artwork to be voted on by ɫ����Ƶ community members. So far, two events recognizing the award have been hosted, one in 2023 and one in 2024.

Gorham said she was humbled and honored to be awarded the 2024 Kenneally Cup, adding that much of the work she does for her students happens behind the scenes in a quiet, yet intentional, way. 

“I have always been guided to leave a place better than I find it or at least make hearty efforts to do so,” she said. “I seek to improve, enrich, and envision new practices for my own pedagogy to help my students and to reach beyond the bounds of my own program to create unique and interesting collaborative projects.”