Congratulations to Professor Kevin Vanek’s Foundry students on winning the crowd over with their Cupola Furnace at the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices.
Undergraduate students and recent alumni in the School of Art foundry arts classes traveled to Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, AL to participate in the National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices the first week of April.
![](https://vpa.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_7724-200x300.jpg)
![students pouring molten medal](https://vpa.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_7626-225x300.jpg)
![](https://vpa.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_7724-200x300.jpg)
![](https://vpa.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_7725-200x300.jpg)
![](https://vpa.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/IMG_7728-225x300.jpg)
These students, under the guidance of their faculty mentor Kevin Vanek and the leadership of co-captains Summer Zolling and Aryana Norris, built an iron melting Cupola furnace and competed in the Student Cupola Contest. Their furnace did wonderful and they won the Crowd Favorite award.