The U.S. Mint has announced the selected participants in its expanded Artistic Infusion Program.
The new associate designers are Lyndall Bass of New Mexico, Barbara Fox of New York, Anatole Honczarenko of New York, David Malan of Utah, Donna Weaver of Indiana, David Westwood of California and Mary Beth Zeitz of New Jersey.
The new student designers are Margaret Lauren Henry of New York, Laura Klopp of Florida, Mark Kuettner of Wisconsin and Joshua Wahila of New York.
The master designers retained under contract are Justin Kunz of Utah, Richard Masters of Wisconsin, Neal Garland Taylor of Oklahoma, Joel Iskowitz of New York, Susan G. Gamble of Virginia, Thomas Scott Cleveland of Texas and Stephen Clark of Idaho.
?I want to congratulate and welcome our new associates and student designers to the program and thank our master designers for their contributions to U.S. coinage,? said United States Mint Director Edmund C. Moy. ?We look forward to sharing their creative energy with the nation in the coming years.?
The newly selected artists will attend a three-day orientation symposium at the Mint in Philadelphia Feb. 21-23, hosted by the Mint?s design staff there. In addition, the student designers will participate in a summer internship with the sculptor-engravers at the Mint in Philadelphia.
AIP artists have submitted successful designs for high-profile programs such as the Westward Journey Nickel Series, the 50 State Quarters Program, the American Eagle Platinum Coin Program, the Presidential $1 Coin Program, the First Spouse Gold Coin Program, and other commemorative coin and medal programs.
Although the U.S. Mint has used outside artists before, the AIP was specifically designed to develop and train a pool of talented outside artists ready to work with the Mint?s staff of sculptor-engravers to create new coin and medal designs. Sculptor-engravers will continue to model the designs submitted by the AIP artists and submit designs under the program.
For purposes of the AIP, master designers are those who have proven themselves as valuable AIP artists for at least two years. Associate designers are professional artists who are new to the program. Student designers are those enrolled in undergraduate or graduate level visual arts programs.
Under the program?s new provisions, each master designer submitting designs will receive $1,500; associate designers will receive $1,000; and student designers will receive $500. Each will receive an additional $2,000 per design selected. They will be invited to create and submit at least one design candidate annually for a coin or medal program.
