Alumni

In the wake of a forgotten 20th-century genocide, Shadows of the Past explores the fragments of memory, identity, and resistance left behind by the Herero and Nama peoples after German colonial forces carried out one of history’s earliest acts of racial extermination. Weaving together personal testimony, archival imagery, and experimental forms such as dance and collage, the film meditates on generational trauma and the struggle to be heard. As debates over Germany’s recent reparations deal expose deep political and emotional rifts, Shadows of the Past asks what it means to seek justice when history has tried to erase you.

The award for Third Place and recipient of the $500 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Eleanor Mahin Thorp (M.F.A.’22). Thorpe was featured on Yellowstone Public Radio in 2025. Her work has been featured in the Washington Post and published in Anarchist Review of Books. She currently teaches at City College at City University of New York.

The award for Second Place and recipient of the $1,500 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Luis Vasquez La Roche (M.F.A.’20). La Roche is an artist and educator who resides between Trinidad and Tobago and Virginia. They hold an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. They are a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at George Mason University in Northern Virginia.

The award for First Place and recipient of the $3,000 prize in round one of the inaugural, 2026 Capital Square Prize, goes to Natalia Mejía Murillo (M.F.A ‘23). Murillo, (b. Bogotá, Colombia), is a visual artist whose work explores the notions of territory, repetition, trace and time through correspondences between astronomy, cartography and archaeology. She holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University, an MA in History and Theory of Art and a BFA from the National University of Colombia.

“Montrose Forest” by Butcher Brown, arr. Andrew Randazzo, performed by VCU Jazz Orchestra and Butcher Brown at Spacebomb Studios.

“Infant Eyes” by Wayne Shorter, arr Andrew Randazzo, performed by VCU Jazz Orchestra and Butcher Brown at Spacebomb Studios.

“Dinorah Dinorah” by Ivan Lins, arr. Taylor Barnett performed by VCU Jazz Orchestra and Butcher Brown at Spacebomb Studios.

As I reflected on our senior year together and the time we spent creating alongside each other, it struck me how lucky we were to have wound up here together, in this space and time. To share our backgrounds and learn from one another. Thus, the title To Think We Were Ever Apart was born.