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NEW YORK, NY (June 26, 2001) — New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), New York’s largest grant provider to individual artists from every discipline, is proud to award over $1 million to recipients of the 2001 NYFA Fellowship. The $7,000 NYFA Fellowship has been awarded to 161 artists chosen from over 3,200 applicants by a peer panel review process in the following eight fields: Computer Arts, Crafts, Film, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, Performance Art/ Multidisciplinary Work, Printmaking/Drawing/Artists Books, and Sculpture.

Each year, NYFA awards more than 150 NYFA Fellowships — each carrying an unrestricted grant of $7,000 — to artists of New York State.  Sixteen disciplines (8 each year, on a rotating basis) are considered.

"NYFA Fellowships allow artists the time and resources necessary for them to think, work, and create," says Theodore S. Berger, Executive Director of NYFA. "While NYFA is delighted to award NYFA Fellowships to 161 artists, we wish we could have offered support to the other 3,200 artists that applied. NYFA will continue to strive to provide more money and more support for more artists."
 
Recognizing the interdisciplinary way in which many contemporary artists work, NYFA allows artists to apply in more than one category, although they can receive only one award in a given year. This year, a record three artists were selected by independent peer review panels to receive NYFA Fellowships in two categories.

“As barriers disappear between sculpture and multi-disciplinary art, between poetry and performance art, and with other category-bending art works, NYFA’s cross-disciplinary approach is the best way to address the changing nature of art and the artists who create it,” said Theodore Berger.

Since NYFA began the awards in 1985, more than $18 million has been awarded to nearly 3,000 artists in New York State. NYFA Fellowships allow artists to devote time and energy to creating art.

"As an artist with a family and a full-time job, it is often difficult to balance the many demands on my time, money and energy," said Lynn Duggan, a 2001 NYFA Fellow in Crafts. "This grant will allow me to buy materials and equipment for my studio and to explore some new directions in my work. Having professional recognition reinforces my motivation. I am very excited and look froward to this year with renewed energy and commitment."

The 2002 NYFA Fellowships will include the following eight fields: architecture/environmental structures, choreography, fiction, music composition, painting,  photography, playwriting/screenwriting, and video. The deadline is October 2, 2001. For more information on this year's artists, the NYFA Fellowships, or to obtain an application, please visit www.nyfa.org/artists_fellowships/index.html.

This year, the first time  winner of  the  $25,000 NYFA Prize went to Monteith McCollum, a 2001 NYFA Fellow in Film. The NYFA Prize consists of a $25,000 unrestricted award in addition to the $7,000 NYFA Fellowship also awarded to Mr. McCollum. With the support of a generous anonymous donor for four years, the New York Foundation for the Arts has established the NYFA Prize to be awarded annually to an artist of exceptional promise. A panel drawn from NYFA’s Artist Advisory Committee selected six finalists from the recipients of the 2001 NYFA Fellowships. A Board of Trustees committee made the final selection. In addition to rewarding artistic promise, the NYFA Prize seeks to dramatize the need for substantial unrestricted grants for artists and to encourage other donors to fund additional prizes and fellowships.

The NYFA Prize was presented at NYFA's Annual Champions of the Arts Awards Benefit on June 11 by NYFA Board President Margaret C. Ayers who said:  “NYFA is very pleased to award this first-time NYFA Prize for exceptional promise to a gifted filmmaker, Monteith McCollum.  For thirty years NYFA has nurtured artistic creation through its support of individual artists.  We hope that this new NYFA Prize will not only help provide the time and freedom essential to enable Mr. McCollum and future artists to fulfill their talents but that it will also encourage other grant givers to follow our example.”

NYFA Fellowship Recipients will be sharing their art with the public throughout New York State in the coming year through NYFA’s Artist & Audience Exchange. This program encourages fellows to give back their time and talent to their community and to broaden the public’s understanding of contemporary artists and their work.  Fellows are encouraged to present their work through free public events  readings, workshops, lectures, performances, demonstrations, or other activities in collaboration with a community host organization.

NYFA’s Fellows also play a part in NYFA’s other public programs. "Buying Time: Nourishing Excellence," an exhibition of work by the 2000 NYFA Painting Fellows, will be on view at Sotheby’s through July 2. Four of the painters will give a guided tour of the exhibition on Thursday, June 28 at 6:30 p.m. This event is free and open to the public. In the Fall, NYFA Fellows will be participating in "Artists in the Branches," a program that will bring artists into New York City Public Libraries.

Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) gives more money and support to artists of all disciplines than any other comparable organization in the country: nearly $8 million in grants and services annually.  NYFA Fellowships of $7,000 each go to more than 160 New York artists each year from a field of 16 disciplines, covering the visual, performing, and literary arts.  NYFA also gives special opportunity grants to artists and small arts organizations, and provides career development support via hotlines and print and electronic publications.

NYFA's annual budget of nearly $12 million comes from individual, corporate, foundation, and public sources, as well as NYFA's fiscal sponsorship/management services for artists and emerging organizations.

To learn more about NYFA and its programs and services: www.nyfa.org.