Introducing 2024 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows, Finalists, and Panelists

$696,000 Awarded to 87 New York State Artists Working in Fiction, Folk/Traditional Arts, Interdisciplinary Work, Painting, and Video/Film.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has announced the recipients and finalists of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program, which it has administered for the past 39 years with leadership support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). NYFA has awarded a total of $696,000 to 87 artists (including 3 collaborations) throughout New York State, whose ages range from 25-79 years, in the following disciplines: Fiction, Folk/Traditional Arts, Interdisciplinary Work, Painting, and Video/Film. 

A complete list of the Fellows and Finalists follows.

The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Program makes unrestricted cash grants of $8,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, recognizing five disciplines per year on a triennial basis. This year, for the first time, finalists were also recognized with unrestricted cash grants of $1,000. The program is highly competitive, and this year’s recipients and finalists were selected from 4,587 applicants in discipline-specific peer-review panels. Since it was launched in 1985, the program has awarded over $35.8 million to 5,512 artists.

Each year, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship provides a lens for contemporary artistic expression. The themes, ideas, and materials used by the 2024 Fellows reflect and respond to the larger social, political, and economic issues of our day. Artists across categories are exploring topics including diasporic and immigrant identity; gender, race, and sexuality; domestic life; human impact on the environment; and ideas that subvert dominant narratives and conventions. 

• Fiction Fellows are championing stories of the underrepresented, challenging cultural narratives underpinning American history, ideology, and identity and exploring complex generational storylines. Some are writing novels while others are translating works by other authors for new audiences or creating zines, graphic novels, and artist books.
• Folk/Traditional Arts Fellows are carrying on vibrant cultural traditions in craftwork, music, and dance, often as a means of educating and inspiring future generations. Several of these artists are organizing their work around their communities to further engage and connect with them.
• Interdisciplinary Work Fellows are exploring topics including the human relationship to the environment; gender dynamics; and new approaches to constructed/dominant realities and narratives using tools including performance, video, and public art, and new technologies.
• Painting Fellows are working with bold palettes; some within abstraction and others more figuratively. Their works consider a broad range of themes and topics including gender and culture dynamics, human impact on the environment, the elasticity of time, domestic scenes and the everyday, and landscapes and nature–both realistic and fantastical.
• Video/Film Fellows are creating moving works that explore topics including immigration and displacement; family bonds and histories; mortality and legacy; queer resistance, intimacy, and joy; and individuality and the power of authority. Filmmakers are exploring traditional documentary and narrative techniques as well as the more experimental, such as the repurposing/remixing of existing narrative film and use of multichannel, mixed-media installations.

“What’s so unique about this program is that it offers unrestricted financial support to individual artists throughout their careers, not just once,” said Michael Royce, CEO, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). “We recognize artists at different points in their careers, which can result in awarding grants to the same artist, years apart: a testament to their creative evolution. Of course each year, there are also artists who self-identify as being first-time grant recipients, which is truly rewarding. From these examples, to everything in between, this program is deeply impactful not only to the individual artist but to the creative community as a whole. We couldn’t do this without the steadfastness of our partner, NYSCA.”

“For decades, we have worked together with NYFA to proudly support artists across various creative fields, providing them with the freedom and resources to innovate and inspire,” said Erika Mallin, Executive Director of the New York State Council on the Arts. “Congratulations to all of this year’s grantees. You are essential to the vitality and well-being of our society and our communities. We are excited for your work ahead and to benefiting from your boundless creativity.”

In addition to no-strings-attached financial support, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship provides validation for artists at all career stages and creative disciplines.

Soraya Palmer, based in Brooklyn, NY, is a first-time grant recipient, receiving recognition in the Fiction category. On receiving the award, Palmer said: “This is the first grant I have ever received for my art and it is incredible to be recognized for the years of work I have put into honing my craft. As a lifelong New Yorker, it can be so difficult to be recognized for your work amidst the competition of artists living and moving here each day. I feel proud to be able to represent my Flatbush neighborhood, Caribbean heritage, and Brooklyn family in this way. Thank you for supporting me in actualizing my dream of centering creativity in my life.”

For Samantha Jacobs, a Fellow in Folk/Traditional Arts based in Irving, NY, the award will help to support larger projects: “Receiving the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship will provide support for my work as I continue to be a teaching artist in my community. Funding for multi-sourced, multi-pieced, larger projects is vital to fostering a creative, less stressful environment for the development and completion of my work.”

Said Jesus Benavente, a Fellow in Interdisciplinary Work based in Brooklyn, NY: “On one level, it’s a psychological victory. An external reminder that I make work worth being made. I have confidence in the work being made, but I would be lying if I said that this validation doesn’t soothe my soul. On the other level, it makes the work possible at all. I don’t make artwork because it’s easy. I usually make artwork that looks simple, but is actually difficult and costly to make. This grant award allows someone of my background to make this difficult practice in the way I want it to continue; with boldness and the future of us in mind.”

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Major funding is also provided by the New York State Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA). Additional funding is provided by Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation. 

Fellowship Recipients and Finalists by Discipline and County of Residence:

Fiction

Fellows
Jeffery Renard Allen (Kings)
Elina Alter (Kings)
Hala Alyan (Kings)
Wah-Ming Chang (Kings)
Lisa Hsiao Chen (Kings)
Eleanor Henderson (Tompkins)
Homosuperiorr (Kings)
Sean McCarthy (Dutchess)
Clementina Ojie (Nassau)
Soraya Palmer (Kings)
Joshunda Sanders (Bronx)
Sara Schaff (Clinton)
Liza St. James (Kings)
Hannah Penrose Thurman (Kings)
Olivia Wolfgang-Smith (Kings)

Finalists
Raluca Albu (Rockland)
Marie-Helene Bertino (Kings)
Mary South (New York)

Panelists
Hannah Aizenman (Kings)
Allison Escoto (Queens)
Naomi Guttman (Clinton)
Amanda K. Horn (Kings)
Pedro Ponce (St. Lawrence)
Jeffrey Rotter (Dutchess)

Folk/Traditional Arts

Fellows
Mohammad Aghebati (Kings)
Nariman Asanov (Queens)
NIls R. Caspersson (Ontario)
Daniela Serna Cuevas (Kings)
Samantha Jacobs (Chautauqua)
Vong Pak (Kings)
Mary Tooley Parker (Westchester)
Mary Michael Shelley (Tompkins)
Simona Smirnova (New York)
Alicia Svigals (New York)
Deborah Ugoretz (Kings)

Finalists
Blanka Amezkua (Bronx)
Seema Sureshkumar (Onodaga)
Sofika Zielyk (New York)

Panelists
Hayden Haynes (Cattaraugus)
Maxine Montilus (Kings)
Anne Rappaport (Schenectady)
Ling Tang (Queens)

Interdisciplinary Work

Fellows
Rena Anakwe (Kings)
Zalika Azim (Kings)**
Gabriel Barcia-Colombo (Kings)
Itziar Barrio (Kings)
Jesus Benavente (Kings)
David Kennedy Cutler (Kings)
Moko Fukuyama (Kings)
Michelle Handelman (Kings)
Miatta Kawinzi (Kings)
Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya | LEIMAY (Kings)*
Marie Lorenz (Kings)
Rowan Renee (Kings)
Alexander Si (New York)
Sarah Cameron Sunde (New York)
Anh Vo (Kings)
Kiyan Williams (Kings)

Finalists
Rochelle Hoi-Yiu Kwan (New York)
Nifemi Ogunro (Kings)
Dawn Weleski (Madison)

Panelists
Ayana Evans (Kings)
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko (Kings)
sTo Len (Queens)
Frank WANG Yefeng (New York)

Painting

Fellows
Michael Assiff (Queens)
Lisa Beck (Kings)
Day Brierre (Kings)
Kari Cholnoky (Kings)
Lisa Corinne Davis (Kings)
Allison Jae Evans (Kings)
Jane Fine (Kings)
Jeanette R Fintz (Columbia)
Joanne Freeman (New York)
Allison Gildersleeve (Kings)
Ronald Hall (Kings)
Whit Harris (Kings)
Hai-Hsin Huang (Kings)
Madjeen Isaac (Kings)
Laura Karetzky (Kings)
Lily Honglei (Queens)
Anna Ortiz (Kings)
Carol Saft (New York)
Judith Simonian (New York)
Sarah Walker (New York)
Lumin Wakoa (Queens)
Chuck Webster (Queens)
Jack Arthur Wood (Queens)

Finalists
Christina Nicodema (Queens)
Lisa Lebofsky (Sullivan)
Jacquelyn Strycker (Kings)

Panelists
Yevgeniya Baras (Queens)
Esteban Cabeza de Baca (Queens)
Yaling Chen (Westchester)
Kirby Crone (Columbia)
Alisa Sikelianos-Carter (Albany)
Beth Sutherland (Westchester)
Mie Yim (New York)

Video/Film

Fellows
Mehrnoush Alia (Kings)
Aisha Amin (New York)
Dina Amer (New York)
Anthony Banua-Simon (Kings)
Stephanie Wang Breal (Kings)
Crystal Z Campbell (Erie)
Jem Cohen (New York)
Xin Fang (New York)*
Neil Goldberg (New York)
Natalie Jasmine Harris (New York)
Emily Ann Hoffman (Kings)
Daniel Hymanson (Queens)
Lyle Ravi Kash (Kings)
Crystal Kayiza (Washington)
Bayley Sweitzer and Adam Khalil (Kings)*
Jessie Levandov (Kings)
Maria Stanisheva (Queens)
Patrick Wang (New York)

Finalists
Željka Blakšić AKA Gita Blak (Kings)
Ellie Foumbi (Westchester)
Taylor Hosking (New York)

Panelists
Gabriele Capolino (Kings)
Ash Goh Hua (Kings)
Judy Lei (Kings)
Jeff Preiss (New York)
Eve Sussman (Kings)

*Collaborative Artists
**Deutsche Bank Americas Fellow