SCAC announces four new fellowship recipients
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COLUMBIA, S.C. – The South Carolina Arts Commission is announcing four South Carolina artists from different artistic disciplines as the recipients of its $10,000 individual artist fellowships for FY25.
The SCAC awards four fellowships per year to artists working in rotating disciplines. At its latest meeting, the SCAC Board of Directors approved panel recommendations of artists who exhibit hard work, exceptional ability, and dedication to their discipline for the agency’s fellowships. Those receiving awards in FY25 are:
- Evelyn Berry of Columbia for Poetry.
- Robbie Robertson of Columbia for Choreography & Directing: Film.
- Eric Schultz of Myrtle Beach for Performance: Music.
- Andy Brooks of Liberty for Folklife & Traditional Arts: Folk Music.
“The South Carolina Arts Commission is excited to recognize these four fellows for demonstrating a high level of artistic excellence, and we hope all South Carolinians join us in taking pride in their accomplishments. Each of these four is deserving of the prestige and financial benefit that a fellowship brings. We are full of anticipation for what they will do next with our support of their creative pursuits,” SCAC Executive Director David Platts said.
“The fellowships program directly impacts artist development and spotlights our state’s creative talent,” SCAC Artist Development Director Tanisha N. Brown said. “It recognizes an artist’s dedication and achievement, and the financial resources provided by a fellowship give them the ability to focus on creating art.”
Out-of-state panelists who work in each year’s disciplines are recruited to review applications and make recommendations to the SCAC board of directors. Applicants are not anonymous, but panelists solely consider work samples, artistic merit, noted achievements, and commitment to the discipline in which artists apply. Artists may apply in multiple categories with separate applications, though they may only be awarded in a single category.
The panelists serving for the FY25 cycle were Rick Duplissie and Scarlet Sims for poetry applicants; Stephanie Nerbak and Dara Silver for choreography and directing applicants; Mollie Flanagan and Delia Ibañez for performance applicants; and Joey Brackner and Kim Nguyen for folklife and traditional arts applicants.
This fall, the SCAC will open applications for FY26 Individual Artist Fellowships to artists working in: Poetry; Spoken word/Slam poetry; Choreography and Directing (film, theatre, and/or opera); and Performance: Dance, Music, or Acting (film or theatre). To be eligible, artists must be at least 18 years old and a legal U.S. resident with permanent residence in South Carolina for two years prior to the application date and throughout the one-year fellowship period. For more on discipline rotation, eligibility requirements, and the application process, please visit https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/grant/fel/.
About the FY25 Individual Artist Fellows
Evelyn Berry (Poetry) is a Southern writer, editor, and educator. She’s the author of Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2024) and Buggery (Bateau Press, 2020), winner of the BOOM Chapbook Prize. She’s a recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, South Carolina Review, Gigantic Sequins, Moist, Taco Bell Quarterly, and elsewhere. She lives in Columbia.
Robbie Robertson (Choreography & Directing: Film) is a playwright, screenwriter, and graduate of UCLA’s professional screenwriting program. His first short film as writer/director, WHISTLER’S MOTHER (a dark fable based on the iconic painting), was produced and funded by the SC Indie Grants Program and enjoyed an active festival run. Robertson also wrote, directed, and produced his latest short film, COMMON AS RED HAIR, in 2023. The script was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival Screenwriting Competition. The produced film has won international acclaim with screenings and awards at the Big SYN International Festival in London, the Social Justice Film Festival in Seattle, the Durham Region International Film Festival in Ontario, the ILGA Europe Conference in Slovenia, the US Embassy in New Zealand, the Festival of the Moving Image in NYC, and the Colombia Embassy in Washington, DC. Robertson’s latest feature screenplay, JUST IN TIME, is currently in development with European-based DEAL Productions.
Eric Schultz (Performance: Music) is an American clarinetist in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and interpreter of new music. He was recently selected as a quarterfinalist for the 2024 Grammy® Music Educator of the Year Award. As a performer, he has appeared with preeminent artists such as Valerie Coleman and Joshua Bell in top halls across the world. He can be seen on Netflix and heard on National Public Radio. Schultz is known for his liquid, soulful tone quality and singular abilities on the instrument, including an unrivaled five-octave range, limitless facility of technique, and improvisations that span many dialects. As an artist-teacher, Schultz is known for his transformational masterclasses and encourages a project-based creative approach to music learning while advocating for living composers and expanding repertoire lists toward a more intentionally inclusive and relevant future model. Schultz currently serves as assistant professor of music at Coastal Carolina University, where he coordinates the woodwind area and serves as director of the Edwards Center for Inclusive Excellence. As a founding research fellow in the center, he coined the phrase and created The [Represent]atoire Project, a play on the words repertoire and representation. The project advocates for including a diversity of composers in collegiate music curricula by intensely focusing on living composers. Schultz completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in clarinet performance at Stony Brook University.
Andy Brooks (Folklife & Traditional Arts: Music) first plucked the strings of a banjo when he was 4 years old. Since, he’s picked up guitar and fiddle and gone so far as to win the 2016 S.C. Fiddle Championship while placing second in banjo that year. His passion for traditional Southern music has resulted in a collection of hundreds of tunes he knows and plays by heart. An avid educator, Brooks has taught for the Young Appalachian Musicians After School Program and the Oconee Heritage Center, and this summer teaches Appalachian banjo at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. Brooks plays for dances and hosts jams where musicians of different skill levels and repertoires share and learn from one another. In 2016, he co-founded the Old Keowee Contra Dance to benefit the Oconee Heritage Center’s music program. Brooks’ art form, old-time music, blends historic influences from Africa and the British Isles and features sacred and secular songs. Brooks, who calls Liberty home, considers old-time music a community-based tradition, in which everyone contributes to the music, through dancing, playing or singing. He is a 2019 recipient of the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award in the artist category.
About the South Carolina Arts Commission
The mission of the South Carolina Arts Commission is to promote equitable access to the arts and support the cultivation of creativity in South Carolina. We envision a South Carolina where the arts are valued and all people benefit from a variety of creative experiences.
A state agency created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the SCAC works to increase public participation in the arts through grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in artist development, arts industry, arts learning, creative placemaking, and folklife and traditional arts. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the SCAC is funded by the state of South Carolina, by the federal government through the National Endowment for the Arts, and other sources. Visit SouthCarolinaArts.com or call 803.734.8696, and follow @SCArtsComm on Facebook, Instagram, and X for #Arts4SC and #SCArtists content.
