33 Local Visual Artists, Composers and Playwrights Awarded $7,500

(BOSTON, MA)-- The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) has recognized 71 Massachusetts artists for creating work of exceptional quality in a range of disciplines. MCC’s Artist Fellowships program will award $7,500 unrestricted grants to 33 artists, and distinguish 38 others as finalists. These outstanding Massachusetts artists were selected from more than 1,000 applicants in the disciplines of crafts, film/video, music composition, photography, playwriting/new theatre works and sculpture/installation.

"These awards offer crucial support to the artists who are the heart of the rich creative life of our state,” says Anita Walker, Executive Director of MCC. “I am proud that Massachusetts continues to foster the work of artists through fellowship grants.”

MCC’s Artist Fellowships recognize the unique contribution made by artists to the cultural vitality of the Commonwealth. The grants provide direct assistance to Massachusetts artists to recognize excellence and creative ability, and to support further development of their talents.

The artists recognized this year represent a diverse range of styles and media. They include:

• In Crafts, Rob Dobson has been honored with the Mark Winetrout Award for his unique vessels constructed with garden fencing, electrical wire, wood, and other salvaged materials. Jennifer Maestre also utilizes unusual materials in her pieces, creating sea anemone-like art objects with hundreds of pencil stubs. Cynthia Consentino’s striking porcelain figurines explore gender, familial and societal roles, and human perception.

• There were a strong number of documentary filmmakers recognized in the Film/Video category, including Jane Gillooly, whose film The Gogo Film Project (working title) chronicles the AIDS crisis in Swaziland through the eyes of “gogos”(grandmothers) who have lost their children to the epidemic. Alexandra Anthony draws from family history; in Lucas Lost & Found, she traces the story of a cousin who as a child was lost from his family. In video, James Dingle’s work offers strong messages through humor and intricately detailed computer animation.

• Graduates of Boston’s top music schools earned honors in this year’s Music Composition panel, including Richard Cornell, a past National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, Michele Caniato who composes for jazz orchestras and big bands, and Shirish Korde who has received commissions from Boston Music Viva, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the National Polish Symphony Orchestra.

• The impact of war plays a significant role in the work of Photography winners Claire Beckett and Barry Goldstein. Goldstein's photos are portraits and interviews with members of the 3rd Infantry Division, in Ft. Benning, Georgia while Beckett's photos focus exclusively on women in the military. Rania Matar’s series on Beirut portrays the significance of veils to the women in that culture. Meanwhile, David Bookbinder’s stunning digital prints of flowers serve as visual meditation symbols.

• Artists pushing the boundaries of their media were honored in Playwriting/New Theater Works category. Letta Neely’s Shackles and Sugar jumps time periods to tell the story of three Virginia slaves, and Richard Weingartner’s South Dakota (written for his students at Wayland High School in Maynard) blends modern concepts like war in the Middle East with traditional Americana. Richard Roughton’s screenplay An Anecdotal History of the Lobotomy innovatively pieces together dialogue actually spoken or written by doctors, patients, or witnesses, to explore the trailblazing days of the frontal lobotomy.

• The range of work and themes recognized in the Sculpture/Installation panel is outstanding. From Alan Colby’s life-sized carved limestone heads of residents of the Dorchester House, to video installations by Nick Rodrigues and Brian Knep, the work is edgy and experimental.

A full list of the selected artists, along with digital images, writing samples, and video clips of their work, is available online at the Gallery@MCC at www.massculturalcouncil.org/gallery.asp.

The MCC Artist Fellowships program awards grants in specific artistic disciplines on a biennial cycle. Applications are accepted from any artist who lives and works in Massachusetts. Next year, MCC will accept applications in choreography, drawing/printmaking/artist books, fiction/creative nonfiction, painting, and poetry. Like all MCC grants, artist awards are based on recommendations by independent panels of experts who practice in the disciplines they review.

Past and present honorees will be showcased in several exhibitions this fall and spring, participating galleries include: Gallery 51 in North Adams, ArtSpace Gallery in Maynard, and Boston Sculptors Gallery in Boston’s SoWA district.