Power of Culture Blog
So Many Traditions, So Little Time
Reflections of a state folklorist
Dan Blask, Program Officer
Last month, Mass Cultural Council proudly announced the 2020 Artist Fellowship awards in Drawing & Printmaking, Poetry, and Traditional Arts. The awards included 19 fellowships of $15,000, and 16 finalist awards of $1,500. See a list of this year’s fellows and finalists, to date.
The awards were anonymously judged, based solely on the artistic quality and creative ability of the work submitted. (The exception being Traditional Arts. In that category, the review is not anonymous and there are additional criteria.)
Applications were open to all eligible Massachusetts artists. A total number of 632 applications were received: 363 in Drawing & Printmaking, 243 in Poetry, and 26 in Traditional Arts.
The Drawing & Printmaking panelists were Patrick Casey, Rosario Guiraldes, Jesse Kahn, Corinne Rhodes, and Lauren Szumita. The Poetry panelists were Jennifer Barber, Joan Naviyuk Kane, Porsha Olayiwola, and Aaron Smith. Scott Challener, Amy Dryansky, Kirun Kapur, January Gill O’Neil, Metta Sáma, and Elizabeth Witte served as first-round readers. The Traditional Arts panelists were Marie Abe, Kathleen Mundell, Mildred L Rahn, and Warren R. Senders.
This is the first series of Artist Fellowships awards we will announce in 2020. In May 2020, Mass Cultural Council will announce awards in Choreography, Fiction/Creative Nonfiction, and Painting.
