Source: Jessi Smith | UF College of Arts
When Eugene Ofori Agyei (MFA, ‘23) immigrated to the U.S. from Ghana in 2020 to pursue his MFA in ceramics at the University of Florida College of the Arts, he arrived at a lonely time to be a newcomer on campus—let alone, a 15-hour transatlantic flight away from home.
“I moved here during the pandemic. I don't have family here, so I spent my first Christmas holiday alone in my room,” Agyei recalls.
But Agyei is not one to sit idle. Not when he has clay to mold and a career to build. So, he outlined a plan to be seen and known in his new country of residence. His objectives: get into a residency every summer; show in an exhibition every month.
“I started thinking about how to stand out. I used that time as an opportunity to do research; to discover myself and what I was going to do with the materials I wanted to use in my work,” Agyei says.