This morning, the Regional Arts Commission announced its first class of Artist Fellows:
Alice Bloch (Dance)
Arny Nadler (Visual Art)
Deanna Jent (Theater Arts)
Juan William Chavez (Visual Art)
Kathryn Bentley (Theater Arts)
Peter Martin (Music)
Phillip Boehm (Literature)
Richard Newman (Literature)
Stan Chisholm (Visual Art)
Van McElwee (Media Arts)
Each of the 10 artists will recieve $20,000 as part of the fellowship program, which is unique in the country. Unlike a grant, the money is not there to fund a specific project, but to create time and space for the artist to pursue their work. The fellowships were designed in response to RAC's 2012 Artists Count survey, which discovered that many people are stringing together two or three jobs just to be able to survive, which robs them of the time and energy to focus on their art practice. RAC's ultimate goal is free artists up to do their work in order to make St. Louis a more culturally (and economically) vibrant city.
For more on the inaugural class of fellows (not to mention all the other wonderful programming RAC does), check out art-stl.com, or visit RAC's Facebook and Twitter feeds. And if you don't know about RAC's ArtsZipper arts and culture calendar, it's one to bookmark.
