RICHMOND, VA.- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts awarded 43 fellowships to Virginia art students and professional artists in 2011-12 for a total of $258,000. During the VMFA Fellowship Program’s 71 years, the museum has awarded more than $4.4 million and 1,147 awards to Virginia’s art students and professional artists. An additional eight fellowships (four student and four professional) were awarded this year in celebration of VMFA’s 75th anniversary, representing a 25 percent increase in funding. A record 642 applicants submitted works this year, which marks the highest number of applicants in the program’s history.
“The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is committed to supporting the commonwealth’s artists and art students,” VMFA Director Alex Nyerges said. “We are grateful to the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg for establishing a VMFA endowment that makes this support possible, as well as others who have added funds to the endowment throughout the years.”.
Eighteen professional fellowships were awarded worth $8,000 each. The recipients are (in alphabetical order by hometown): Solomon T. Wondimu (painting) of Alexandria; David Garratt (sculpture) of Amherst; Jason Horowitz (photography) and Veronica Szalus (sculpture) of Arlington; Ed Dolinger (painting) of Bassett; William Wylie (photography) of Charlottesville; Steve Griffin (painting) of Colonial Beach; Sukjin Choi (crafts) of Harrisonburg; Rick Alverson (film/video), Sonya Clark (crafts), Pam Fox (photography), Andrew Kozlowski (printmaking), Robin Kranitzky & Kim Overstreet (crafts-collaborative), R. Eric McMaster (mixed media) and Yi Sheng (sculpture) of Richmond; Alison Hall (drawing) of Roanoke; Clover Archer-Lyle (drawing) of Rockbridge Baths; and Martha T. Jones (painting) of Williamsburg.
The juror for the professional fellowship awards was Alison de Lima Greene, curator of contemporary art & special projects at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Nine graduate students won awards worth $6,000 each. They are: K. Dianne Hottenstein (crafts) of Chesapeake; Shaun C. Whiteside (painting) of Radford; Loie Hollowell (painting), Ander Mikalson (drawing), Jesse Potts (sculpture) and Matthew P. Shelton (mixed media) of Richmond; Dymphna De Wild (sculpture) of Staunton; Emily A. Fenichel (art history) of Warrenton; and Sean Sweeney (painting) of Yorktown.
Fourteen undergraduate students won awards worth $4,000 each. They are: Amber Erickson (printmaking) of Alexandria; Erin Ayres (photography) of Bloxom; William Wesley Douglas III (photography) of Chesapeake; Stephen Wozny (photography) of Chesterfield; Eileen Halpin (film/video) of Fairfax; Jeremy M. Biby (mixed media) of Fishersville; Charles Monaghan (photography) of Glen Allen; Skye Young (drawing) of Leesburg; Kevin Murphy (photography) of McLean; Theresa Painter (mixed media) and Michele Seippel (film/video) of Richmond; Melody Milleker (drawing) of Sandston; Fionnuala Bradley (photography) of Spotsylvania; and Stephanie Fry (photography) of Warrenton.In addition, two undergraduates were awarded fellowships worth $2,000 each for their final semester. They are J. Adam Holsinger (photography) of Bristol and John Dombroski (film/video) of Vienna.
The jurors for the graduate and undergraduate awards were Maurice Beane of Maurice Beane Art & Design Studios in Richmond, Va.; Nancy Sausser, exhibitions director at the McLean Project for the Arts in McLean, Va.; Tina Sell, director of exhibitions at Piedmont Arts Association in Martinsville, Va.; and William Keyse Rudolph, Ph.D., curator of America art at the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Mass.
