Introducing the 2016 Bienenstock Furniture Library Scholars

Today, we would like to introduce you to the Bienenstock Furniture Library’s 2016 #BienenstockScholars.

Each year, the Bienenstock Furniture Library awards 4 scholarships, in partnership with the American Society of Furniture Designers [ASFD] and the American Society of Interior Designers [ ASID ], Carolinas chapter and an esteemed panel of volunteer judges, to deserving students in the fields of furniture design and interior design.

The awards are judged blind, meaning that the Library’s judges do not know the name of the students nor the name of their schools until the judges have turned in their individual scores and votes to the Library’s executive director.

In addition, each year, every student entering is given a program to follow. This year, the furniture design students were asked to design a chair, and the interior design students were asked to design a holistic spa, and its accompanying logo. Read more about the particulars in this article in Home Furnishings News magazine.

Since the inception of the Library’s #BienenstockScholars awards, the Library has underwritten and awarded more than $400,000.00 in scholarships to deserving students at schools across the country.

[ To our new readers who may not be familiar with the history of the Library and its Hadley Court Center For Design Collaboration, please click here to learn more. ]

This year’s 2016 winners are extremely talented, as you will see below, and if any of you are interested in possibly hiring them upon their graduation, please email the Library’s executive director, Karla Teague Webb, at [email protected] for their contact information.

Ms. Heather Seto, a student at Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferriss State University in Michigan, is this year’s 1st place winner in the category of furniture design for her Nocturne lounge chair.

See some of her original sketches for Nocturne and her presentation for it below and do not miss a visit to her gorgeous website to see more of her work, here.

Heather has also won many other distinguished awards over her student career. Keep your eye on this rising star!

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The Library’s 1st place winner in the category of interior design was Mrs. Kim Wypasek – Young, a student in the Interiors Architecture program at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.
As you will see below from Kim’s presentation to the judges, Kim pays meticulous attention to detail.

Here is Kim’s presentation below for her holistic spa, which she named the Prana Spa.
The Library also gives out two second place scholarship awards, for $1500.00 each, and this year’s winners of those were Ms. Corrine Vassallo, an interior design student at Virginia Tech and Ms. Adimara Pratesaya, a furniture design student at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

Both Corrine and Adimara are also extremely talented. This is a rendering that Corrine did, not for the competition, but one that is included in the online portfolio of her work, here.

And Adimara wrote this very informative and useful e-magazine about the history and use of decorative upholstery tacks, in collaboration with her professor.
Click here, to read it.

Each of the first place winners will also be given a membership in their respective professional organizations and will be awarded their scholarship funds at special ASID and ASFD dinners being held to honor them there.

The details for the 2017 student scholarship competition will be announced by the Library’s executive director, Mrs. Karla Teague-Webb, in May.

Readers, if you know of a talented student enrolled in a program for furniture or interior design anywhere in the USA, that would like to participate in next year’s scholarship competition, please have them contact Karla at [email protected] for further information.

Lastly, please meet the Library’s volunteer board of directors below and its executive director. Each of these individuals plays a critical role in the Library’s ability to award these scholarships, but none more so than Russell Bienenstock, pictured top row, left, whose grandparents founded the Library. Russell is the chairman of the volunteer board of directors and the editor in chief of Furniture World magazine, the longest running, continuously published magazine in the history of the American furniture industry.

http://furninfo.com.

And a special shout out to volunteer board member, Christi Spangle of High Point based, Barbour Spangle Design, pictured bottom, 2nd from left, who heads up the volunteer committee that awards the scholarships and who donated her time to design the Hadley Court Center for Design Collaboration at the Library.