THE NEW YORK FOUNDATION FOR THE ARTS (NYFA) AWARDS 94 FELLOWSHIPS TOTALING $658,000 THROUGH THE ARTIST FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM
Folk/Traditional Art category included for the first time
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the recipients of its 27th annual Artist Fellowships, including, for the first time, recipients and Finalists in the Folk/Traditional Arts category. A total of 94 Fellowships of $7,000 each were awarded in the following disciplines: Fiction; Film/Video; Folk/Traditional Arts; Interdisciplinary Work, and Painting. In addition to the Fellows, three Finalists, who do not receive a cash award, were named in each of the five categories. The Fellows and Finalists were selected by state-wide panels of their peers from 4,317 applicants.
Click here for a complete list of Fellows and Finalists and their counties of residency and discipline-specific panelists.
The inclusion of Folk/Traditional Art marks the first new discipline added to the Fellowship program in 15 years. ''We continually evaluate the categories and workings of the Fellowship program to ensure it stays relevant to the needs of New York State's artists,'' said NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce. ''Over the past several years, we had seen an increase in the number of applications from folk and traditional artists being submitted in other categories. As we looked at the depth of this field, and in conversation with our partners at New York State Council on the Arts, we felt it was imperative that we include this category and we are thrilled with the quality and variety of work which was submitted.''
Fellows in the Folk/Traditional category cover an extremely broad range, from visual artists such as Hongyi He, who practices Jianzhi, traditional Chinese paper-cutting, and Kesler Pierre, who makes Hatian Vodou bottles to performing artists, such as Vit Horejs, who performs Czech marionette theatre, and Jagannath Lairenjam, a practitioner of classical Indian Manipuri drum-dance.
When asked about being selected as one of the inaugural group of Folk/Traditional Art Fellows, fifth generation ballad singer, Colleen Cleveland of Warren County, said, ''I am absolutely thrilled. For many of us who practice a folk art of any kind, we make a living doing other work and our art is relegated to spare time and spare finances. A program like this allows us to accomplish things that we would not be able to produce without this kind of support. All I can say is thank you so very much.''
First launched in 1985, NYFA's Artist Fellowship Program, has provided over $27 million in unrestricted cash grants to artists in 15 disciplines at critical stages in their careers. Past recipients include the winners of five Academy Awards, five Tony Awards, eight Pulitzer Prizes and 15 MacArthur ''Genius'' Fellowships. The funds can be used in any manner the artists deem necessary to further their careers.
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) was founded in 1971 to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. Each year we provide over $1 million in cash grants to individuals and small organizations. Artspire, our fiscal sponsorship program is the largest and most established in the country and helps artists and organizations raise and manage over $3.5 million annually. Our NYFA Learning programs provide thousands of artists with professional development training and our website, NYFA.org, received over 1.5 million unique visitors last year and has information about more than 9,000 opportunities and resources available to artists in all disciplines.
Artists' Fellowships are $7,000 cash awards made to individual originating artists living and working in the state of New York for unrestricted use. Grants are awarded in 15 artistic disciplines, with applications accepted in five categories each year. Since the fellowship program's inception in 1984, the Artists' Fellowship Program has awarded more than $27 million to over 4,400 artists. Among those who received support at critical stages in their careers are: 2011 Pulitzer Prize
winners Jennifer Egan (Fiction) and Zhou Long (Music); Doug Aitken; Junot Diaz; Todd Haynes; Barbara
Kruger; Spike Lee; Christian Marclay; Marilyn Minter; Lynn Nottage, and Julie Taymor.
The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) was founded in 1971 to empower artists at critical stages
in their creative lives. Each year we provide approximately $1 million in cash grants to individuals and small
organizations. Artspire, our fiscal sponsorship program, is the largest and most established in the
country and helps artists and organizations raise and manage over $3 million annually. Our NYFA
Learning programs provide thousands of artists with professional development training and our website,
NYFA.org, received over 1.9 million unique visitors last year and has information about more than 8,000
opportunities and resources available to artists in all disciplines.
Want to know more about Artists' Fellowships and learn about the next deadline to apply? Join our email list!
2012 Fellowship awardees, Finalists and panelists have been anounced and are listed here.
To be eligible for a NYFA Fellowship, applicants must be a resident of New York State for at least two years prior to the application deadline and cannot be enrolled in a degree program of any kind.
Funding Support
NYFA's 2012 Artists' Fellowships are administered with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State agency.
Major funding has also been provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional funding has been provided by the Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Milton & Sally Avery Arts Foundation, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation, the John Burton Harter Charitable Trust, an anonymous donor, and individual donors.
You can add your support for this and all of NYFA's programs by clicking here.
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