Outstanding Alum: Exceptional Professional Success
Since graduating from the University of Hartford in 1973, Carole P. Kunstadt has immersed herself in the world of art and expression as a collagist, painter, book artist, and fiber artist whose works often invoke a metaphysical quality of contemplation and timelessness. An artist in the truest sense of the word, her work is an exploration of materials, history, memory, and time, which merge in a hybrid form.
After earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Hartford Art School, Kunstadt continued her postgraduate studies in the field of tapestry design at the Akademie der Bildenen Künste in Munich, Germany, in 1977. In the early 1980s, Kunstadt and a fellow artist started their own tapestry workshop in an architect’s office in Chelsea, New York City. Thereafter she worked as a freelance interior decorator, while continueing to pursue her own muse—drawing, painting, and making collages.
In addition to notable group exhibitions at galleries across the country, Kunstadt is known for her PRESSING ON series that honors abolitionist/feminist Hannah More's writings. Antique sad irons reflect More’s efforts to elevate the female experience in the domestic realm, as well as the hardships, tensions, and demands on women historically. Kunstadt was also featured in the segment “Transforming the Sacred” in a PBS Off Book mini-documentary, Book Art.
A proud UHart alumna, Kunstadt remains connected to the Hartford Art School (HAS). She has served as board corporator of the Hartford Art School Endowment, Inc. since 2016, and has returned to campus to serve as a panelist at the HAS Alumni Forum.
Her outstanding artistic achievements have been recognized with awards that include the National Association of Women Artists Florence & Irwin Zlowe Memorial Medal of Honor Award and the Kuniyoshi Fund Award of the Woodstock Art Association.
Kunstadt resides in West Hurley, New York, with her husband, Robert. Kunstadt has two adult sons, Scott and Kevin ’17 (also an HAS alum) .