Darrell Finnegan

Serving the Client

Presented by Provost Martin Schmidt:

"The next recipient of the Serving the Client Award is Darrell Finnegan. The colleagues and students who recommended him for this award agree that Darrell has created an extraordinary oasis at MIT, one that nurtures the creation of art—and the wellbeing of the artist.

As one of his nominators wrote, “All of us can recall multiple occasions when Darrell spent hours with us in the ceramics studio, hands-on, helping us resolve some difficulty in making a piece…frequently missing his late-night bus home. With his encouragement, many of us have come to rely on the studio for artistic growth and development, community, and even improved emotional health when we have undergone a particularly rough period of life. In our years at the studio, we have seen countless stressed-out undergraduates come to Darrell’s classes and blossom—artistically and socially—from his encouragement and the collegial atmosphere he has created.”

It’s clear that Darrell’s ceramics studio has played an important balancing role in the lives of hundreds of MIT community members through the years. And that the Institute would be less creative, less collaborative, and less of a community if not for his efforts."