Kresge Foundation Announces Area Fellowships

The Kresge Foundation, headquartered in Troy, announced Tuesday it has awarded $300,000 in fellowships to visual artists to help advance the careers of Detroit artists living and working in its hometown.

The fellowship awards, given to 11 individual arts and one artist collaborative, includes an unrestricted prize of $25,000 and customized professional practice opportunities. Artists are selected from the Metropolitan Detroit tri-county area. The College for Creative Studies, in Detroit, administers the fellowships and ArtServe Michigan offers professional practice opportunities. 

The 2011 Kresge Artist Fellowships recipients include:

• Corrie Baldauf
• Liz Cohen
• Olayami Dabis
• Design 99
• John Dunivant
• Bruce Giffin
• Scott Hocking
• Laith Karmo
• Richard Lewis
• Hubert Massey
• Heather McGill
• Mark Newport

Rip Rapson, president of The Kresge Foundation, said each of the artists embodies the spirit of creativity and commitment the awards seek to honor. “It is our foundation’s hope that the fellowship will both invigorate the work of these artists in new and unexpected ways, and create a closer bond between their work and the broader community’s efforts to energize and revitalize Detroit,” Rapson said.

The foundation received nearly 450 applications for visual arts fellowships, which were reviewed by an independent panel of national and local artists and arts professionals.

Panelists included artist Nick Cave, faculty member and Chair of Fashion Design at the School of Art Institute of Chicago; Mary Fortuna, artist and Exhibition Director at Paint Creek Center for the Arts; Mame Jackson, art historian and Professor Emerita at Wayne State University; Anne Pasternak, president and creative director of Creative Time in New York City; and Fred Wilson, artist and MacArthur Fellow.

“Detroit artists are participatory citizens documenting with care and intelligence the histories of their communities as well as shaping their future,” Pasternak said. “It’s inspiring.”

The Kresge Artist Fellowships are part of Kresge Arts in Detroit, the foundation’s effort to provide broad support to the regional arts community. Visual artists comprised the Fellows class of 209. In 2010, literary and performing artists were named as fellows. Literary and performing artists are encouraged to apply this November for the foundation’s 2012 Fellowships.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.1 billion private, national foundation based in Troy, Mich., that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations through its support f nonprofit organizations in the fields of health; the environment; arts and culture; education; human services; and community development.