Rhode Island Foundation Awards $30,000 Fellowships To 3 RI Artists

The Rhode Island Foundation announced that three local artists will receive what are considered to be among the largest no-strings-attached grants available to artists in the United States.

Steven Johnson, Kirstin Lamb and Siena Smith will receive $30,000 prizes from the Foundation’s Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund. They were chosen from a pool of 144 applicants.

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The Fellowships are intended to enable artists to concentrate time on the creative process, focus on personal or professional development, expand their body of work and explore new directions.

“By giving these artists the financial freedom to advance their craft, we invest in their future and in the cultural connections that bring us together as neighbors,” David. N. Cicilline, the Foundation's president and CEO, said in a media release.

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Johnson, Lamb and Smith were chosen by a panel of out-of-state jurors who are professional artists. The recipients were selected based on the quality of their work samples, artistic development and the creative contribution to their genre, as well as the potential of the Fellowship to advance their careers as emerging-to-mid-career artists.

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The selection panel also named three finalists: Samuel Aguirre, Kannetha Brown and Joanna Corte. They will receive $3,000 stipends and have been provided an opportunity to develop their practice at a two- to four-week in-person residency program.

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Applicants had to be legal residents of Rhode Island. High school students, college and graduate students who are enrolled in a degree-granting program and artists who have advanced levels of career achievement were not eligible.

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