Judges Panel

Courtney Chapman is the Gallery Director at Marshall University’s School of Art & Design, where she oversees three galleries within the Visual Arts Center, curating and coordinating exhibitions and events.

In 2016, she earned her BFA from Marshall University and has since maintained an independent art practice while curating a large range of exhibitions. Among her curatorial highlights are Appalachian Dirt, which debuted at the Visual Arts Center in 2016 and expanded in 2018 for the 52nd National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts Annual Conference (NCECA), and Machina | Minutiae shown at Yellow House RVA for the 58th NCECA in 2024.

Courtney’s art practice has led to exhibitions at various galleries and museums including Apartment Earth Gallery, Lamp Light Gallery, the Juliet Art Museum and the Huntington Museum of Art. She has also exhibited at NCECA and in the 2016 ArtFields. Working within clay, textiles, and recycled materials, her practice is guided by unconventional mark-making to explore themes of modern motherhood and domestic spaces.

Courtney Dodd was a Core Fellow at Penland School of Crafts from 2006-2008. She then worked for Devin Burgess, a former resident at Penland. Dodd holds a MFA from VCU with an emphasis in glass and a BFA from Missouri State University with a dual emphasis in graphic design and illustration.

In 2012, she completed a residency in photography at Oregon College of Art and Craft in Portland. In the fall of 2015, Dodd was the glass residence at STARworks in Star, North Carolina. She has studied and worked at Penland School of Crafts, Corning Museum of Glass, Urban Glass, Denmark Design School in Bornholm, and Pilchuck Glass School. Courtney was also nominated in 2015 and 2016 for the Irvin Borowsky Prize in Glass Arts. She has demonstrated at STARworks and the Chrysler Mu- seum of Glass and been a visiting artist at the University of Louisville and RIT, NY. She had the pleasure of assisting Pablo Soto at Desoto Glass Design in Penland, North Carolina from 2013 to 2015. In the fall of 2017, she was an Emerging Artist in Residence at Pilchuck. Dodd has taught classes at Corning Museum of Glass, Urban Glass, Sawtooth, Haystack, and Penland School.

Currently, Courtney works as the Programs Manager at Penland School of Craft. She continues to make work and live in the mountains of Bakersville, North Carolina.

Austin Sheppard’s mixed media sculptures and drawings are self-reflective and phenomenological in the sense that he begins from his personal experiences as an individual. But through the vehicle of the human figure, he also explores the shared human condition by expressing emotional experiences like anxiety, anguish, endurance and resilience. Austin earned his BA in Studio Art from University of North Carolina, Pembroke in 2007 and his MFA in Sculpture from East Carolina University in 2010. Previously, he's been an Artist-in-Residence at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, Franconia Sculpture Park, Salem Art Works, and has participated in International Sculpture Symposia in the UK, Germany, Finland, Costa Rica and Latvia.

As an educator, tinkerer, and artistic investigator across a wide variety of media, Austin is keen to provide platforms for a diverse array of under-represented voices and stylistic approaches. In 2023 he worked in conjunction with Coker University, where he currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Art and Director of the Cecelia Coker Bell Gallery, to pilot a program that brought artist Michaela Pilar Brown to campus for a month-long residency. Austin is currently producing new work for a solo exhibition at WilsonArts in the Fall of 2026.

Lauren Jackson Harris is an independent curator and consultant from Atlanta, GA. She earned her BFA in Graphic Design and Art History from Howard University and her MA in Creative Leadership from SCAD. In 2019, she co-founded Black Women in Visual Art, an organization that connects, cultivates, and serves Black women arts professionals. With BWVA, Harris builds partnerships and develops programs that create further visibility and opportunity for Black women in art.

As an independent arts worker with over 15 years of professional experience, Harris has managed special projects, curated exhibitions, and produced art experiences with organizations and art spaces such as the High Museum of Atlanta, Atlanta Art Fair, For Freedoms, Facebook, The Gathering Spot, Stay Home Gallery, Living Walls, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Frieze Los Angeles, SoHo House and more. She also serves on the Board of Directors for Dashboard and is the Beltline Public Art Advisory Council's Co-Chair.

Harris is the Program Director for The Black Embodiments Studio and an active art advocate consulting with artists on their practice and career-based opportunities.