Rhode Island Foundation Offering Visual Arts Fellowships

PROVIDENCE, RI — The Rhode Island Foundation is offering $25,000 fellowships to visual artists in the state who are seeking resources to push their craft to the next level. Applications are due on Aug. 19 for what the RIF says are among the largest, no-strings-attached awards available to visual artists in the country.

The awards through the Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Fellowship Fund are intended to free artist to concentrate their time on the creative process, focus on person or professional development, expand their body of work and explore new directions.

"This assistance will permit local artists to spend more time thinking about their work instead of trying to make ends meet. This fellowship reflects the importance that our donors placed on the presence of practicing artists in the community," said Jenny Pereira, the Foundation’s vice president of grant programs.

Past recipient Jordan Seaberry, of Providence, said the grant allowed him to spend more time on his art.

"This gave me the space to experiment and to find new ways to honor the voices of Providence's marginalized families. Additionally, it gave me a previously unachievable level of engagement with the artistic community as a whole," he said.

Applicants must be Rhode Island legal residents for at least one year prior to the Aug. 19 deadline. High school, college and graduate students in degree programs and writers who have reached advanced career levels are ineligible.

Applications will be accepted in any genre, including film, sculpture, painting and photography. The recipients will be selected by a panel of out-of-state judges. For more information about applying for a MacColl Johnson Fellowship, visit rifoundation.org.

Rhode Islanders Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson were both dedicated to the arts. Margaret MacColl Johnson, who died in 1990, earned a degree in creative writing from Roger Williams College when she was 70. Robert Johnson invented a new process for mixing metals in jewelry-making and then retired to become a full-time painter. Before he died in 1999, Johnson began discussions with the Foundation that led to the creation of the fellowships.