2024 Norma Hongisto Fine Art Scholarship Winners

June 25, 2024

The Norma Hongisto Scholarship fund was created in order to support future Art students at Laney college in their careers and studio practices. Awards will be presented annually to selected students as part of the annual juried student exhibition.

Starting in the 1970s, Norma took art classes at the Berkeley Adult School, Merritt College, College of Alameda, Laney College, Berkeley Senior Center, and Feather River College. She loved the Laney College art program, where she studied under the well-respected June Steingart. Norma continued her artwork well into her mid-80s (circa 2010). She loved acrylics, oil, pastel, and watercolor painting and making ceramic bird houses and planters.

Hongisto Winner bios:

Chai Rawithiwakul

Instagram: @chaideestudio

My sculptural body of work functions as an antithesis to my pre-ceramic life through the slow-paced and methodic nature of its formation. Working alongside a community that wholly understands failure and the importance of time and persistence, I have re-discovered a medium from my past with which I no longer hide from various persisting life circumstances and major life events. My intention is to create a tactile and visual manifestation of a memory or experience for myself to confront, and which the viewer may identify with. Whereas feelings may be fleeting or forced inwards, I cannot ignore the sculptures before me.

Callan Porter-Romero

Instagram: @hands4yomama

I grew up in a Black, Japanese, and Mexican household in Oakland, CA, and have a BS degree in Ecology. Each experience has a substantial impact on my art practice. My paintings capture how people in my community interact with their environment while nurturing their well-being. I create scenes where hands are the main focus as their function allows room for labor, action, and rest. Using recycled materials, such as cardboard, I carve and build hands-on canvas or paper to enhance dimensionality, encourage human connection, and give meaning to life beyond what society dictates.

Norma & Donald Hongisto with Family