South Arts names 2021 State Fellows
[caption id="attachment_46889" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Fletcher Williams III (Photo by Andrew Cebulka)[/caption]
South Arts has named the ten visual artists (eight individual artists and one team) receiving the 2021 State Fellowship awards.
Each fellowship—one per state in the South Arts region—comes with a cash award of $5,000 and inclusion in an exhibition opening this fall at the Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, Georgia.
The State Fellows are also now in consideration for the two larger Southern Prize awards. One fellowship recipient will be named the Southern Prize winner receiving an additional $25,000 cash award, and another fellow will be named the Southern Prize Finalist receiving an additional $10,000; both Southern Prize recipients will also receive a two-week residency at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts and Sciences. The two winners will be named at a virtual ceremony on June 17 celebrating the work of all ten State Fellows.
The 2021 State Fellowship recipients are:
- Tameca Cole. Mixed Media. Birmingham, Alabama.
- Marielle Plaisir. Mixed Media. Hollywood, Florida.
- Myra Greene. Craft. Atlanta, Georgia.
- Joyce Garner. Painting. Prospect, Kentucky.
- Chandra McCormick and Keith Calhoun. Photography. New Orleans, Louisiana.
- Ming Ying Hong. Drawing. Starkville, Mississippi.
- Jewel Ham. Painting. Huntersville, North Carolina.
- Fletcher Williams III. Mixed Media. North Charleston, South Carolina.
- Raheleh Filsoofi. Multidisciplinary. Nashville, Tennessee.
“The 2021 Southern Prize and State Fellowship recipients represent the amazing creativity of our region,” explained
Susie Surkamer, President and CEO of South Arts. “Although they each speak with a unique voice through their work, their combined diversity is a great showcase of what it means to be an artist living, working, creating, and thriving in the South.”
Launched in 2017, the Southern Prize and State Fellowships acknowledge, support, and celebrate the highest quality art being created in the South. More than 850 artists applied for consideration this past fall and winter, and jurors reviewed each application to recommend the State Fellowship recipients. Another national panel of jurors will review the State Fellows to determine the Southern Prize winner and finalist, both of whom will be named at a virtual ceremony in June 2021.
Visual artists living in South Arts’ nine-state region and producing crafts, drawing, experimental, painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, and multidisciplinary work were eligible to apply.
To view work by the 2021 State Fellowship recipients and register to attend the June 17, 2021 Southern Prize ceremony, visit
www.southarts.org. An exhibition featuring the 2021 Southern Prize and State Fellowship recipients will be open at the Bo Bartlett Center in Columbus, Georgia, from Aug. 20-Dec. 20, 2021.
More about Fletcher Williams III
Bio
Fletcher Williams III (b. 1987) is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in sculpture and painting. Williams received his BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement in Science and Art (2010). He maintained a studio practice in Long Island City, Queens, and later Crowns Heights, Brooklyn before returning to his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, in 2013. Upon his return to Charleston, Williams remained an independent artist and began producing solo exhibitions throughout the City of Charleston and North Charleston, the latest being a site-wide solo exhibition, Promiseland (2020), at the Historic Aiken-Rhett House Museum.
Artist statement
My work engages the rituals and traditions of the American South. My interest in the way we seek to establish place and identity has prompted a working methodology that utilizes found and natural materials and an exhibition practice that incorporates public and historic sites. I often paint with Spanish moss, builds house-like structures with salvaged wood and tin roof, and fashion delicate sculptures out of handwoven palmetto roses. My approach is architectural and figural, tactile, and multi-sensory and unveils my curiosity for both people and place, material, and process.
To view selected artworks,
visit his page on SouthArts.org.
About South Arts
South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit
www.southarts.org.
Through Jazz Road Creative Residencies, artists can apply for grants of $5,000-$40,000 to develop their own personalized residency and further explore their artform. Applications are open through July 1, 2021.
“We are so excited to expand our programs for jazz musicians across the United States,” explained Sara Donnelly, program director with South Arts. “With a Jazz Road Creative Residencies grant, artists will have the flexibility to design and propose their own project, which can be anything from dedicated time writing new work to immersive engagement in a community or completing a new recording. We are putting the direction and power directly in the hands of the artists.”
Although the concept for Jazz Road Creative Residencies was planned a few years ago, South Arts reframed the plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The shelter-in-place mentality has forced jazz artists into periods of incubation and renewal,” continued Donnelly, “while building up the hunger for new and deeper connections across communities and in collaborations.” Jazz Road Creative Residencies will give artists the financial bridge necessary to close this growing gap between their plans for creativity and securing the resources to make it happen.
The concept and definition of “residency” is left broad, so artists can make a proposal suiting their needs for artistic creation and connecting with audiences. An artist’s proposed project may be conducted on their own, in collaboration with other artists, and/or in partnership with organizations. Applicable projects must be one to three weeks in duration and occur between October 2021 and June 2022. Artists may request up to $40,000 and no matching funds are required. Applications are due July 1, 2021.
Jazz Road, a national program funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is led by South Arts in partnership with the five other U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (Arts Midwest, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Mid Atlantic Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, and Western Arts Alliance/WESTAF). Jazz Road Creative Residencies is the second ongoing grant opportunity in this project, adding to the Jazz Road Tours opportunity. Through Jazz Road Tours, artists may request up to $15,000 to support multi-city tours connecting with new audiences across the country.
To learn more about Jazz Road or begin an application, visit www.southarts.org or call 404.874.7244.
Good morning! 
Kristi Ryba, the 2020 South Arts State Fellow from South Carolina, in her studio.[/caption]
The Allendale Rural Arts Team, led by Maven Lottie Lewis, celebrated its Hometown Heroes June 19 with recognition of front line workers in the face of COVID 19; and the unveiling of a community mural by Hampton County artist Sophie Docalavich. Photo credit: Xavier Blake.[/caption]
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