2026 MFA Merit Awards

Dear MCAD Community,

Please join the MFA Program in congratulating the following first-year MFA students for winning our 2026 MFA Merit Award Scholarships & MFA 2020 Fund Award.

Spring 2026 MFA Merit Awards of $2,000 each: 

We also want to thank Emma Beatrez (MFA 2020) and Lucino Sosa Montaño, who together took on the task of co-jurying these awards, based on all MFA first-year students' Mid-Program Review work installed in the MFA Gallery in recent weeks.

Judges' Bios:

Emma Beatrez (b. 1995, New Prague, MN) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. They graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2020 with a MFA in Interdisciplinary Visual Studies and received their BFA with an emphasis in painting at North Dakota State University in 2018. Beatrez is the co-founder/curator at Night Club gallery in St. Paul alongside artist Lee Noble. Represented by Hair + Nails gallery in Minneapolis, MN

Lucino Sosa Montaño is a multidisciplinary artist and a curator based in Minnesota, whose work centers storytelling as a form of resistance, healing, and collective memory. As the founder of Undocustories.com, he creates platforms that amplify narratives often excluded from dominant cultural spaces, weaving together poetry, visual art, and community collaboration. His curatorial practices prioritize accessibility, anonymity and care, inviting audiences to engage with stories beyond traditional labels or authorship. Sosa approaches exhibitions as living spaces, where silence, material and presence hold equal weight, fostering dialogue, reflection and connection across communities.

Thanks to all the MFA students, faculty, mentors and community members who helped make MFA Mid-Program Reviews such a success this year, and congratulations again to our awardees!

My best,
Sarah