Iron Bonds

The UNCG Cupola Team 

May 23 - 27, 2023

Reception: Saturday, May 27th, 6-8PM

"Iron Bonds" is an exhibition to highlight the immense hard work put in by UNCG students, and recent alumni, during their spring 2023 independent study class on Iron Furnace Construction and Operation. 

Under the instruction of Foundry Director Kevin Vanek, these students worked over the semester to construct their very own iron melting Cupola blast furnace named VATRA. This furnace was taken to the National Conference on Contemporary Art and Practices to compete against 6 other schools in the Student Cupola Contest. The student team, led by co-captains Aryana Norris & Summer Zolling, ran their furnace with great success and won the community choice award for their efforts. 

In this exhibition you will see the cupola they built and ran, work created using or based around that furnace, images from their time constructing and operating the furnace, and other significant items related to the very laborious class. 

Featuring UNCG Student Artists & Alumni:

Aryana Norris (co-captain)

Summer Zolling (co-captain)

Viktoria Banovic 

Bjorn Bates (alum)

Peter Deligdish

Sophia Dominici (alum)

Fred Patrick 

Ellison Rauch (alum)

Loucks Sorrell

Vinny Verburg (alum)