SSU Creativity Awards Celebrate Student Achievement

SALEM, MASS. – Salem State University’s Center for Creative and Performing Arts held its annual Creativity Awards and Celebration of the Arts Wednesday, May 6, celebrating 10 students and their artistic achievements in the soon-ending school year while also issuing a lifetime achievement award to Newburyport-based Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay. 

The Creativity Awards, the top arts award at the university, recognizes the outstanding achievement of 10 students across the disciplines of art + design, creative writing, dance, music, and theatre. 

“We are so fortunate to be able to gather and celebrate our talented and hard-working student creatives along with our annual recognition of an individual or organization with the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award,” said Karen Gahagan, director of the Center for Creative and Performing Arts. “Probably no surprise that it’s my favorite night of the year, but it's also a reminder of how integral the arts are in the culture of Salem State and what the arts bring to our communities at large.”

The students who received awards this year include:

• Art + Design   

  • Eve Dizio, of Essex, an art + design major   

  • Kallyn Lavallee, of Haverhill, an art + design major and sociology minor 

• Creative Writing   

  • Valerie Flanigan, of West Wareham, an English major and minor in film studies   

  • Jazmin Hopkins, of Stoneham, an English major and a minor in media and communications 

• Dance   

  • Eliza Crook, of Colchester, CT, a dance major, with a minor in education and a dance certificate in education   

  • Jack Newton, of Lowell, a dance, music and theatre major   

• Music   

  • Aidan Auditore, of Medford, a music major and a minor in film studies 

  • Ava O’Brien, of Whitman, a music major   

• Theatre   

  • Lauren Abramson, of Salem, a theatre performance major   

  • Cameron Holmes, of South Hadley, a theatre major in playwriting   

Student award recipients are chosen by the faculty in their respective disciplines for their outstanding achievements in their creative discipline, as well as their contributions to their departments. Ten students are chosen annually across the disciplines of art + design, creative writing, dance, music and theatre.

In addition, the evening honored Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay as this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award. For 25 years, Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay has been a fixture in the region’s cultural calendar.  Each year, this event turns Maudslay State Park in Newburyport into an open-air gallery, bringing the work of local artists to people in a public space. The exhibition is entirely artist-organized, with no jury process, giving it a uniquely open and democratic character. It has featured more than 950 works by more than 340 artists across its 25 years of exhibitions.

“Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay was started by two artist friends in 1996, and has grown into a welcoming annual non-juried show, still put on by the artists themselves,” said Bert Snow, director of Outdoor Sculpture at Maudslay. “We believe we all have potential as artists, and love seeing the excellent, surprising work that gets created each year by our artists, new and experienced.”