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S.C. Arts Commission announces six Emerging Artist grantees

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Six emerging individual #SCartists are benefitting from grants and career mentorship courtesy of the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Emerging Artist grant in FY2023, providing them valuable development as arts entrepreneurs.

The SCAC defines emerging artists as being at an early stage in their artistic career development with no basis in age. Six South Carolina artists were selected to each receive Emerging Artist grants ranging in amount from $1,500 to $1,800 from the SCAC in the current fiscal year (2023). They are:
  • Zeynep Gedikoglu of Clemson (multimedia sculpture)
  • Jordon Mack of Orangeburg (visual art)
  • Amanda Nicole of Liberty (music/composition)
  • Jessica Swank of Easley (photography/sculpture)
  • Shaquelle-Elijah Wiley of Columbia (music/performance)
  • Rolf Anthony Young of Charleson (mixed media)
In addition to financial support, artists benefit from mentorship and professional support facilitated by the SCAC and Deputy Director Ce Scott-Fitts. The combined benefits are intended to deepen artistic practice and foster artistic excellence; encourage career growth, advancement, and sustainability; and provide professional development and opportunities for collaboration.
  • “I'm so grateful ... not only for the funding but also for the community, accountability, and access that it will provide to this new group of southern artists,” Easley-based photographer and sculptor Jessica Swank
  • Charleston mixed media artist Rolf Anthony Young anticipates growth from his participation. “Receiving the grant not only fills me with more confidence in my art practice but connects me to a valuable network of grant winners who inspire me.”
  • Music artist Shaquelle-Elijah Wiley said it is overwhelming to be recognized this way. “I intend on representing the state with class and innovation,” he said.
The SCAC awards a new cohort of emerging artists each fiscal year. An online gallery of representative works by this class is available now on SouthCarolinaArts.com: https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/artist-development/programs/emerging-artists/ Individual artists who reside in South Carolina and fit the criteria of an emerging artists are encouraged to apply for the FY24 round of the Emerging Artist grant now. An applicant coaching session via Zoom is scheduled for Feb. 22, 2023 to offer advisement on the process of applying. Registration for the coaching session and full grant guidelines are available at https://www.southcarolinaarts.com/grant/emerging-artist-grants/. The deadline to apply for FY24 funding and mentorship is April 12, 2023.

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 by providing 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 Twitter for #Arts4SC and #SCartists content.
South Carolina Arts Commission News Release, Media Contact: Jason L. Rapp, Communications Director. jrapp@arts.sc.gov or 803.734.8899

Jason Rapp

We’re looking for some jolly good fellows

Furman Music Professor Mark Kilstofte receives coveted Copland House Award

Note: Mark Kilstofte received South Carolina Arts Commission Music Composition Fellowships in 2001 and 2012. Furman University Music Professor Mark Kilstofte has received a 2016 Copland House Residency Award. The award was granted to nine gifted American composers from nine states, and marks Kilstofte’s fourth time to be honored by Copland House. The Copland House prize consists of an all-expense-paid stay at Aaron Copland's National Historic Landmark home in New York's Lower Hudson Valley. The honor provides composers the opportunity to focus on their creative work in the same inspiring environment enjoyed by Copland himself for the last 30 years of his life. The honorees were selected out of nearly 100 applicants from 25 states by a jury including composers Pierre Jalbert (a two-time Copland House Resident), Carman Moore, and Robert Sirota (Former-President of the Manhattan School of Music). On an individual basis, the Residents will live and work for three to eight weeks in the prairie-style, hilltop house near New York City that Copland called "my hideaway, my solitude," and was his home from 1960 to 1990. In addition to three previous Copland House Residency Awards, Kilstofte's honors include the Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, ASCAP's Rudolf Nissim Prize, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His music has been featured on NPR's “Performance Today” and “From the Top” and performed by the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, New York Virtuoso Singers, New Amsterdam Singers, and Dale Warland Singers. His song cycle, "The White Album" (commissioned by the Fromm Foundation and developed during a previous Copland House Residency), will be premiered by Musiqa (Houston) this January. As a Copland House Resident, Kilstofte will become eligible for post-residency awards, commissions, and various performance and recording opportunities from the Music from Copland House ensemble. Possibilities include the Sylvia Goldstein Award, Borromeo String Quartet Award, Hoff-Barthelson Music School Commission, and others. He is a graduate of St. Olaf College and the University of Michigan where he was a Rackham Predoctoral Fellow. A resident of Greenville, Kilstofte teaches music composition and theory at Furman, and is guest researcher at the University of Oslo's Center for Ibsen Studies, where he is writing an opera based on Ibsen's "Brand." An official project of the federal Save America's Treasures program, Copland House is the only composer's home in the United States devoted to nurturing and renewing America's rich musical heritage through a broad range of public, educational, musical, and electronic-media activities that embrace the entire creative process. Additional information about Copland House can be found at www.coplandhouse.org. For more information, contact the Furman News and Media Relations office at (864) 294-3107.

I-Park accepting applications for 2016 artists-in-residence program

Application deadline: January 25, 2016 I-Park, located in rural East Haddam, Conn., announces its 2016 multi-disciplinary artists-in-residence program. The program is open to those working in the following creative disciplines: visual arts, creative writing, music composition/sound art, architecture, moving image and landscape/garden/ecological design. Self-directed residencies are being offered from May through November 2016. Most residencies are four weeks in duration. International applicants are welcome. I-Park provides to each artist private, comfortable living quarters in a renovated 1850s-era farmhouse, a private studio space and a food program. In addition to attentive staff support, shared workshop space and an array of tools, equipment and site materials are available on request. Work samples are evaluated through a competitive, juried process. A $30 application fee helps defray the cost of the independent selection panels. Accepted artists are responsible for their own work materials as well as transportation to and from the area. The program is otherwise offered at no cost to invited artists. There will also be two special programs scheduled for 2016: a Composers + Musicians Collaborative Residency as well as a Family Friendly Residency, an experimental program focused on artists with dependent children. Details to be announced on the I-Park homepage and in a mailing to the I-Park database in early January. Program details, application form and comprehensive FAQ are available online at www.i-park.org. For more information, write to info@i-park.org or call (860) 873-2468 (M-F, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Via: I-Park

Congratulations to the new South Carolina Arts Commission Fellows!

The South Carolina Arts Commission Board has awarded FY2016 Individual Artist Fellowships to four South Carolina artists in the categories of  visual arts, craft, music: composition and music: performance. Each artist receives $5,000. This year's fellows (pictured above, left to right):

Fellowships recognize and reward the artistic achievements of South Carolina's exceptional individual artists. Fellowship awards are made through a highly competitive, anonymous process and are based on artistic excellence only. The fellowship awards bring recognition that may open doors to other resources and employment opportunities. The S.C. Arts Commission board approves fellowships based on recommendations made by out-of-state review panelists, who select fellows based solely on a review of anonymous work samples. This year's visual arts and craft judges were Alida Fish, photographer and professor emerita at the College of Art and Design, University of the Arts in Philadelphia; Christopher Schmidt, artist and director of the Schmidt-Dean Gallery in Philadelphia.; and Mi-Kyoung Lee, artist and associate professor of Crafts and head of Fibers at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The music composition and performance judges were Robert Tanner, composer and faculty member of the music department at Morehouse College in Atlanta; and Helen Kim, violinist, assistant concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and faculty member at Kennesaw State University. Individual artists working in poetry, prose, dance choreography or dance performance may apply for the FY2017 fellowship awards. Applications open Aug. 3, 2015, and the deadline to apply is Nov. 2, 2015. For more information about S.C. Arts Commission programs and services, visit www.SouthCarolinaArts.com or call (803) 734-8696.

Furman music professor Kilstofte’s “Peace” to be featured on NPR

Furman University professor Dr. Mark Kilstofte is a two-time recipient of the South Carolina Arts Commission's Individual Artist Fellowship for music composition. From Furman University:

Kilstofte(2)A musical work by Furman University professor Dr. Mark Kilstofte will be aired on National Public Radio’s “From the Top” Monday, Dec. 22. The composition, “Peace,” was performed by the Cantus Chamber Choir from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Nov. 6 at the Peace Center before a live audience. “Peace,” conceived during the aftermath of 9/11, was selected by the ensemble's director, David Rhyne, for its powerful interpretation of Gerald Manley Hopkins' poetry and its modern-day relevance. “From the Top,” with host Christopher O’Riley, is distributed by National Public Radio and taped before live audiences across the United States. The show celebrates the accomplishments and stories of extraordinary young classical musicians. “From the Top” is carried by 250 public radio stations across the country and is estimated to reach 700,000 listeners around the world. The Cantus Chamber Choir was honored as one of five performers to be featured on the show. Twenty vocalists from the Governor’s School took part in the November taping. In addition to participating in the elite choral ensemble, students work weekly in private studio voice lessons and perform each semester in opera scenes and recitals. Kilstofte, Furman University Professor of Music Composition and Theory, is admired as a composer of lyrical line, engaging harmony, strong, dramatic gesture and keen sensitivity to sound, shape and event. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as "exciting and beautiful, consistently gripping," his music has garnered a number of awards and honors including the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, ASCAP's Rudolf Nissim Award, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship and Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Aaron Copland Award (three times) and the Gardner Read and Francis & William Schuman Fellowships from the MacDowell Colony. A Greenville resident, Kilstofte has also earned commissions from the Dale Warland Singers and the Fromm Foundation. His music, performed regularly throughout the United States and Canada, has been featured on NPR's “Performance Today” and is heard in concert halls from Moscow to Bangkok. His music is published by Newmatic Press. More information about Kilstofte may be found at this link.
 

Don’t delay! Final week to submit Fellowship applications and Verner Award nominations

November 3 is the deadline for Individual Fellowship applications and the Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Governor's Awards for the Arts nominations. Submissions for both programs must be hand-delivered or postmarked by Monday, Nov. 3. Nomination letters for the Verner Award are also accepted via e-mail or fax. Artists working in visual arts, craft, music composition and music performance are eligible to apply for $5,000 Fellowships, which are designed to recognize the artistic achievements of South Carolina's exceptional individual artists. (Artistic disciplines rotate each year.) Fellowships applications are reviewed anonymously by out-of-state panelists, and awards are based solely on artistic excellence. The South Carolina Arts Commission Board of Commissioners reviews panel recommendations and makes the final awards. Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Awards recognize outstanding achievement and contributions to the arts in South Carolina and are the highest honor the state gives in the arts. These awards honor South Carolina arts organizations, patrons, artists, educators, members of the business community, and government entities who maximize their roles as innovators, supporters and advocates of the arts. A selection committee of arts professionals, educators, and business, government, and community representatives reviews the nomination letters and make recommendations to the South Carolina Arts Commission Board of Commissioners, who make the final awards. Detailed guidelines and submission instructions for the Fellowship program and the Verner Awards are available online. For more information about either program, call (803) 734-8696.

Artists: Apply for a $5,000 Fellowship!

Application deadline is Nov. 1, 2014. The South Carolina Arts Commission is accepting applications for the next round of Individual Artist Fellowships. S.C. artists working in visual arts, craft, music composition or music performance are invited to apply for the 2016 awards. Each Fellow receives $5,000. Fellowships recognize and reward the artistic achievements of South Carolina’s exceptional individual artists. Fellowship awards are made through a highly competitive, anonymous process by out-of-state panelists and are based on artistic excellence only. The awards bring recognition that may open doors to other resources and employment opportunities. Fellowships are awarded in four disciplines each year. Complete requirements, guidelines and the application are available online. The deadline to apply is Nov. 1, 2014. Related: Who won the most recent round of Fellowships?

Fellowships for visual arts, craft, music composition and music performance

Application deadline is Nov. 1, 2014. The South Carolina Arts Commission is accepting applications for the next round of Individual Artist Fellowships. S.C. artists working in visual arts, craft, music composition or music performance are invited to apply for the 2016 awards. Each Fellow receives $5,000. Fellowships recognize and reward the artistic achievements of South Carolina’s exceptional individual artists. Fellowship awards are made through a highly competitive, anonymous process by out-of-state panelists and are based on artistic excellence only. The awards bring recognition that may open doors to other resources and employment opportunities. Fellowships are awarded in four disciplines each year. Complete requirements, guidelines and the application are available online. The deadline to apply is Nov. 1, 2014. Related: Who won the most recent round of Fellowships?

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