CONNECTICUT COMMISSION ON CULTURE & TOURISM
ANNOUNCES ARTIST FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

36 Artists Across the State Recognized for
Their Talents and Contribution to Their Communities

HARTFORD, Conn. (February 5, 2008) – The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism (CCT) has awarded fellowships to 36 visual artists to support their continuing artistic development and enable them to devote substantial time to the creation of new work. 

Grants in the amounts of $5,000 and $2,500 were awarded in the categories of craft, new media, sculpture/installation, works on paper, painting and photography. The single review criterion was artistic merit. 

“The Commission on Culture & Tourism is firmly committed to furthering the professional development of individual artists,” said An-Ming Truxes, director of CCT’s Arts Division. “Artists are at the core of Connecticut’s rich cultural heritage and make notable contributions to their communities. Supporting artists in the creation of exciting new work ultimately benefits everyone.”

The 2008 Artist Fellowship recipients are as follows:  

Panels of experts in their respective fields reviewed images of approximately 400 applicants’ work during this highly competitive process.  Panelists included:

Craft
Lawrence Bush is the chair of the Department of Ceramics at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a member of the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts.  Fabio Fernandez is the exhibitions manager at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. Born in Uruguay, Fernandez received his MFA in sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art and has frequently served as a guest juror and visiting critic. Jennifer Mecca is a fiber artist who uses non-traditional materials and fashion design within her work. Having received a Master of Science in architecture studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mecca brings unique qualities to the way she approaches the craft medium.

New Media
Copper Frances Giloth is an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts in the Department of Art and the director of Academic Computing in the Office of Information Technologies. Giloth received an Outstanding Service Award from ACM SIGGRAPH and a development grant from MIT. Nick Rodrigues teaches for Artists for Humanity in Boston.  Rodrigues has received several commissions throughout Massachusetts for interactive performance works. Teri Rueb is an associate professor of digital media at Rhode Island School of Design and is currently a doctoral candidate in design at Harvard University. Rueb has received research support fellowships from the LEF Foundation and the Puffin Foundation, among others.

Painting
Lucy Beecher Nelson received her MFA from the School of Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in Boston, where she now teaches, and studied abroad at the Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, Scotland. Shana Dumont is the assistant director and assistant curator at the Montserrat College of Art Gallery and Visiting Artist Program at the Montserrat College of Art.  Dumont is also an educator and has served as a guest juror, lecturer and presenter. Yu-Wen Wu is an artist and educator and has received three grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Wu has worked as a freelance illustrator for scientific papers, journals and books and has artworks featured at the Miller Block and Howard Yezerski Galleries in Boston.

Photography
Leslie Brown is the curator at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University.  Brown received the ADDY design award and an Award of Excellence from the Tennessee Association of Museums. Bonnie Donohue is a professor at the School of Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in Boston. She has received several honors, including a grant from the LEF Foundation and several travel grants from SMFA for her work in Puerto Rico. Darrell Matsumoto is an associate professor and the chair of the Department of Photography and Media Arts at Chester College of New England. Matsumoto was a recipient of the Diverse Forms Artists Project Grant sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation.

Sculpture/Installation
Jeremy Boyle is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was an artist-in-residence at the Mattress Factory. Bolye was showcased as the Emerging Artist of the Year by the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in 2002. Tadashi Hashimoto is an internationally recognized sculptor who has created several large scale artworks. Hashimoto is the recipient of two Pollock­Krasner Foundation grants and was selected as an artist-in-residence at Socrates Sculpture Park. Amy Podmore is an associate professor at Williams College and has received numerous honors for her sculpture/installation works. Podmore has frequently served as a guest juror and visiting artist and was an artist-in-residence in Siofok, Hungary.

Works on Paper
Lynne Allen is a professor of art and director of the School of Visual Arts at Boston University.  Allen is a master printer and has received several honors, including two Fulbright Scholarships and several travel grants from the College Art Association. Kristen Carbone Boyle is a curatorial consultant for special projects with the Francis Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College. Boyle previously worked as a curator for the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, NY. Young Min Moon is an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Moon recently published a Korean-English bilingual catalogue for a curatorial project of contemporary South Korean Art.

The Fellowship program awards grants on an alternating annual basis. Visual arts were recognized this year, and in fiscal year 2009, the Commission on Culture & Tourism will offer Artist Fellowships in the categories of choreography, poetry, playwriting, fiction, music composition and film/video. Guidelines and application forms will be available on the Commission’s Web site (www.cultureandtourism.org) in the summer of 2008. The tentative deadline is September 2008.

About the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism
The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism brings together tourism, film, history and the arts. Its mission is to preserve and promote Connecticut’s cultural and tourism assets in order to enhance the quality of life and economic vitality of the state. The Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism is located at One Constitution Plaza, Hartford, Connecticut. For more information, log on to www.cultureandtourism.org.

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