Fellowship.art Announces CCS Section Head of Printmaking a Part of 2020 Cohort

Fellowship.art Announces 2020 Cohort

Milwaukee-based artist accelerator program will provide selected visual artists $15,000 and 12 weeks of support 

Three individual visual artists and an artist collaborative have been selected to each receive a $15,000 budget grant and to participate in the 2020 Fellowship.art program run by gener8tor in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Fellowship.art is a free, 12-week accelerator designed specifically for visual artists to achieve greater visibility and success by providing the support and mentorship needed to navigate the art industry. Of the top accelerator programs in the country, gener8tor is the only one to offer grants and programming for artists.

The following artists and collaborators have been selected to receive the grant awards and positions in the program: Tyanna Buie (Milwaukee, WI and Detroit, MI), Le’Andra LeSeur (Jersey City, NJ), Dakota Mace (Madison, WI), and Open Kitchen (Milwaukee, WI). The selected artists and collaborators are incredibly diverse in their artistic practices, including printmaking, sculptures, installations, performances, Diné (Navajo) weaving and beadwork, photography, and food-based research projects.

Tyanna Buie uses printmaking, sculpture and installations as a form of both narrative and non-narrative storytelling as Buie examines her personal and family histories. Through family memorabilia and documents sourced from family members, Buie revisits and revives previous impressions from past events.

Le’Andra LeSeur’s work explores how black, female identity is informed by the effects of regulated systems of oppression. Through visual media, installations and performances, LeSeur reclaims and dismantles stereotypes surrounding black identity.

Dakota Mace takes a contemporary approach to Diné (Navajo) weaving and beadwork. Mace’s work focuses on re-interpreting the symbolic abstractions of Diné creation stories, cosmologies and social structures, using a combination of traditional and non-traditional materials and techniques.

Open Kitchen (OK) is a Milwaukee-based art collective founded by Rudy Medina and Alyx Christensen, in partnership with Jean Yoon and Alan Medina. OK stages events, installations, and a residency program that engages the public in critical cross-cultural conversations on food, identity, and ecology.

“I am excited to work with a group of such interesting and dynamic artists,” said Maureen Ragalie, Director of Fellowship.art. “I look forward to working with these artists to expand their art practices and to help them build strong connections in the global art community.”

Buie, LeSeur, Mace, and Open Kitchen were selected from a pool of 200 applicants after multiple rounds of application reviews and virtual studio visits. The artists were chosen based on a jury’s gauge of the artist’s talent, the compelling nature of their bodies of work, their strong career goals, their ability to be significantly impacted by the program, and the social impact of their work.

Fellowship.art engaged a dynamic group of art industry professionals living and working outside of Wisconsin to collectively review and rank the applications, conduct virtual studio visits and ultimately select the cohort. The five jurors represented a cross-section of art industry professionals, including curators, gallerists, art advisors, and academics.

Fellowship.art’s 2020 jurors included: Mercedes Dorame, a visual artist and visiting faculty at CalArts (Santa Clarita, CA); John McKinnon, Executive Director of the Elmhurst Art Museum (Elmhurst, IL); Joel Parsons, a visual artist, Director of the Clough Hanson Gallery, and Program Director of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN); Allison Peters Quinn, Director of Exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago, IL);  Kelly Schroer, Director at KS Art Advisory, Curator for ArtFare, Inc, and Founder and Curator at Strongroom (Newburgh, NY).

Buie, LeSeur, Mace, and Open Kitchen will participate in the 2020 Fellowship.art program held virtually due to COVID-19 starting July 20th, 2020. The 12-week program is completely free for participants and includes coaching, mentoring and networking with Fellowship.art and gener8tor staff, as well as visual art leaders from Milwaukee and across the country. It ends in October 2020 with a virtual showcase for the artists to present their work to industry professionals, supporters and community members.

Fellowship.art will also host free community webinars this summer and fall in tandem with the program. Topics will include grant writing, becoming an LLC, art e-commerce, and web design. This programming will be virtual until further notice due to COVID-19. Fellowship.art is also partnering with the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts to host a series of professional development workshops for artists in the fall.

Fellowship.art is made possible through support from the American Family Institute for Corporate and Social Impact.