FIT Illustration major Michele Floria is the recipient of the prestigious Will Barnet First Prize, given by the National Arts Club. With the award comes $2,500 in prize money, as well as a space grant to present a solo show in the galleries of the National Arts Club, founded in 1898 and located on Gramercy Park in New York City. Floria, who will graduate this May, is from Flushing, Queens.
The winner is selected from work displayed in the National Arts Club’s Annual Student Exhibition. The 2014 winner was Adam Bohemond, also an FIT student, making this the second consecutive year that FIT has taken the prize—and marking a first in the history of the show.
Over his long life and career as an artist, Will Barnet dedicated himself to arts education. It is in his honor that the National Arts Club has reestablished its annual student exhibition, which had been suspended for almost a decade. In conjunction with the exhibition’s relaunch, the National Arts Club created, through the generosity of its members, the Will Barnet First Prize.
Schools participating in the 2015 exhibition were the Art Students League, the Fashion Institute of Technology, Lehman College, New York University, Parsons The New School for Design, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts.