Alum earns international exposure and fellowship for art photography
- Nina Barbero
- Bower School of Music & the Arts
- Contributors: Quinn Miller, Photos
6 – minute read
Even with months still to go, Quinn Miller would call 2026 a very good ride.
“I feel like I’ve been on this rollercoaster,” the Florida Gulf Coast University graduate said with a laugh, “but I keep getting to the good parts.”
The Palm Beach County-based artist and high school educator has a lot to celebrate. He’s working on his master of fine arts in photography through the Savannah College of Art and Design. He’s a top-200 finalist in a prestigious international photography program called Critical Mass where artists’ work is reviewed by photography professionals around the world including museum curators, gallerists, publishers and other artists.
To top it off, Miller was one of just 10 artists awarded an Artist Innovation Fellowship earlier this year by the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County. The fellowship and its accompanying $10,000 grant support his work on a photography series.
“What’s great about the grant is it’s basically permission to play,” Miller said. “It’s an investment in artists, where we get to try out ideas that we were probably never going to do otherwise because of funds or because of time. It’s surreal to have this kind of support from your community. I am forever humbled and determined to do well.”
FGCU mentors made a difference
Some people might look at this as a lucky year for Miller. James Greco, the University Marketing & Communications photo lead and longtime photography instructor at FGCU, knows otherwise.
“Quinn was probably one of the most creative and hardworking students to have gone through my class,” Greco said.
Miller graduated with an art degree in 2015, but the two still keep in touch. Greco said he finds inspiration in the work Miller posts on social media, especially sketches showing his original idea for a photo before he shoots and edits the final product.
“He was always impressive as a student, and to see him grow as an artist and as a person has been wonderful,” he said. “Quinn’s work has grown tremendously and has just gotten better and better.”
Miller credits Greco and all of the art faculty in the Bower School of Music & the Arts with helping him become a well-rounded artist and guiding him toward the medium he wanted to pursue.
“I took every single art professor at FGCU because I wanted to be exposed to everything,” Miller said. “Every single one of them influenced me in a way.”
Growing confidence as an artist
One of Miller’s most memorable moments in school was winning a juried art exhibition. Ten years later, he still has his winning project, a set of ceramic cups etched to illustrate different fears.
“They’re all the same shape and height, and I used this sgraffito technique to carve away the black slip and reveal the white underneath it,” he said.
“Some of them are quite literal. Like for the fear of heights, I made a little guy hanging off the edge of the cup. Then I have more abstract ones, like for fear of failure, I had actually messed up one of the cups on the wheel, and I was about to throw it away but I kept it.”
Winning the exhibition gave him more than a confidence boost. It earned Miller an internship at the Rauschenberg Residency on Captiva, during which he worked directly with the artists-in-residence and taught art classes to community members.
“It was very foundational in my perspective of what it means to be an artist,” he said.
“I was constantly exposed to people who have the same ‘disease’ that I have, where every second all you can think about is art — and that’s OK. The exposure for me at the time when I really didn’t know what I wanted to do was indescribable.”
Exploring roots in rural Florida
The Palm Beach County fellowship is one more piece of proof for Miller that he can be a professional artist without being a “starving artist.”
His work for the series called “Bloom/ine” centers on his favorite medium, conceptual photography. He starts with a hand-drawn sketch that includes some fantastical elements, then stages and shoots a photograph based on it. Through editing he adds the final artistic touches.
The focus of his photo series is close to home. It explores his identity, his hometown experiences in Clewiston, Florida, and the sugar cane industry Clewiston is famous for.
“Growing up, I was trying to navigate life as a closeted man in a small town where everyone knows each other,” Miller said.
“I came out in my late 20s. When I did, I realized all those fears of Clewiston and the sugar cane fields judging me were all in my head, and I was accepted.”
It was in Clewiston where Miller discovered his love of art. His great-grandmother used to request drawings from him. He also has strong memories of his father drawing for him and helping him create wooden Pokémon badges, just like the ones from his favorite game.
He feels that same sense of awe and joy when he creates art today — and he tries to share that with students as they create art in his classes and grapple with artificial intelligence.
“Especially with AI now, my students sometimes say ‘What’s the point?’ But at the end of the day, what you have created didn’t exist until you made it. And I think that’s just the coolest thing.”