2023 International Awards: Caroline Yi Cheng Joon S. Moon Distinguished International Alumni Award
Caroline Yi Cheng is the 2023 recipient of the Joon S. Moon Distinguished International Alumni Award, which recognizes alumni who came to MSU as international students for their outstanding leadership and contributions in or to the international field or international communities, organizations, companies, agencies, individuals, and/or governments.
Cheng is an artist and curator, whose decades of promotion of Chinese ceramic arts has earned renown in China and throughout the world. She earned a bachelor’s in fine arts and in zoology from Michigan State University in 1986.
As an artist, Cheng has held solo exhibitions in Sotheby’s Hong Kong (2013) and New York (2015). Her work has been collected by the British Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, San Francisco Asian Art Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Art. Cheng has received prizes for her work in the Keramiek Museum in Westerwald, Germany (2010), Clay and Glass Film Festival in Montpellier France (2010), Mino International Ceramic Award 2017 and also received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the American National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts in 2014 and the Japan Good Design Award for Community Development in 2020.
She is the owner of the Pottery Workshop, a ceramic art education and communication center established in Hong Kong in 1985, with locations also in Shanghai, Jingdezhen and Dali. Its mission is to educate and promote the art of handmade ceramics. Cheng is also the co-founder of Yi Design, currently working on ceramic waste as a new material.
She was nominated by Mike Lindhout, senior director of International Advancement in International Studies and Programs. “Caroline is a true innovator and creative, and she has trained, mentored and inspired countless global artists and students. Through her current work in sustainable design products, she hopes to engage MSU faculty and students in solving global problems by tapping into local resources and knowledge,” said Lindhout.
Read more about Cheng’s work:
