Sweeney started her art career at age five with children’s classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art. By 14 she had progressed to Saturday classes at CIA, where she would learn from future professors Paul Travis ’17, Frank Meyers ’51 and others. And at 16, she enrolled in CIA as an undergraduate, earning a diploma in portrait painting with a minor in ceramics.

“I have been making art for 70 years. I may not have called it art back when I was five but nevertheless, I’ve been working at it that long,” Sweeney recalled. “One of my high school art teachers, Anthony Eterovich (CIA class of 1938) was the gentleman who encouraged me to go to CIA for summer classes and then for college.”

In addition to Travis and Meyers, other faculty influences were goldsmith and design professor John Paul Miller ’40 and ceramicist Toshiko Takaezu.