By Bernie Petit

Twenty creative individuals whose work is strengthening Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s cultural community will receive a combined $250,000 from ASC in order to refresh their creative energy. The fellowships are a highlight of ASC’s historic $1.2 million investment in fiscal year 2021-22 to support the creative individuals and artists whose work is strengthening Charlotte-Mecklenburg’s cultural community. 

Ten emerging artists are recipients of $10,000 ASC Emerging Creators Fellowships, which supports creatives with evolving practices that are at a pivotal moment in launching sustainable careers in the creative sector. 

Ten mid-career creatives are recipients of ASC’s Creative Renewal Fellowships, $15,000 awards to individuals who have been pursuing a career in the creative sector for at least 10 years and have been generating the majority of their income over the past three years through their work as a sole proprietor, creative entrepreneur or contract employee in the creative sector.

Both fellowship programs provide funds that recipients can use for research, instruction, conferences, apprenticeships, travel or other experiences that help them explore their creative journey.

The 20 fellowships awarded by ASC in 2022 is an increase from the 14 distributed in 2021.

This year’s ASC Emerging Creators Fellowship recipients are:

• Kalin Devone, a visual artist and teaching artist. She will use her fellowship to support her artistic development by developing a new body of work based on perspective or self through portraiture, which she will present in a gallery show.
• Blaine Hurdle, a jewelry maker and sculptor. Hurdle will use his fellowship to broaden his technical skills and enrich his creative concepts through the creation of bronze cast sculpture and wearable art.
• Tiffany Jones, a music producer, songwriter and multi-media-based artist. Jones plans to use her reach in music production, songwriting and mentorship by further implementing media-based tools to help expand her reach.
• Taylor Lee Nicholson, a visual artist. Nicholson plans to use their fellowship to fund the production of a body of work created at the McColl Center Studio Artist Program for exhibition at their show, “GARBAGE PERSON,” to be shown locally at Gallery C3.
• HNin Nie, a visual artist and storyteller. Nie will use her fellowship to take part in an artists’ residency and complete a new body of work that includes 2D, 3D and stop motion pieces.
• Ngoc Lan Pham, a filmmaker. Pham will use his fellowship to scout settings and update a screenplay in order to complete a full-length film.
• Shauna Respass, a hip-hop fusion artist and event curator. With her fellowship, Repass will advance her career by investing in professional development and piano and vocal lessons, as well as funding a professional rollout for her upcoming “Queen of Hearts” EP.
• Joanne Rogers, a visual artist, gallery owner, curator, art consultant and arts advocate. Rogers will use her fellowship to advance equity for historically excluded visual artists through mentorship, skills training, administrative support and a professionally outfitted art gallery where they will exhibit and sell their work.
• Jah Smalls, a touring, full time poet/artist/host who creates workshop for writers. An Emerging Creators Fellowship will support Smalls’ plans to create the curriculum for a “Master Class” book series and establish a Black-owned book publishing company.
• Matthew Steele, a visual artist whose work hinges on the connection between humanity and the infrastructures we exist with. With his fellowship, Steele will enlist the help and mentorship of an expert printmaker to learn proper methods and techniques for creating professional and archival woodblock editions in the printmaking studio. 

The 2022 ASC Creative Renewal Fellowship recipients are: 

• Debra Aase Farnum, a ceramic artist. Farnum will use her fellowship to support exploration into her heritage and modern porcelain by visiting Arne Åse Ceramics, potter (and cousin) Edel Åse, Figgjo Norway Porcelain and The Norwegian National Museum.
• Princess Cureton, a figurative painter who incorporates sculptural relief on canvas that engages the viewer in questioning the reality of the surface. Cureton will use her fellowship to explore an innovative range of material and technology with water born paints and mediums through residency and mentorship at The Golden Foundation and the Fine Arts Work Center. 
• Vadim Kolpakov, a professional Russian-Romani guitarist, trained by his uncle, the famous guitarist Alexander Kolpakov. Kolpakov will use his fellowship to support mentorship with Dr. Oleg Timofeyev, which will lead to a publication of a Russian- “Gypsy” guitar method.
• Leandro Manzo, a visual artist. Manzo will use his fellowship to support the learning of new engraving techniques by attending to Sangfer Fernando Sandoval Gutiérrez training workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico. 
• Mason Parker, a musician and performer who got his start in Charlotte’s underground hip-hop scene. With the fellowship, Mason will explore new mediums by attending the Gotham Writers Workshop in New York.
• Megan Rich, a writer whose fiction and creative nonfiction explores female voices in unlikely places, whether a young American woman living in rural Japan or a lawyer working in the male-dominated tech world. Rich’s fellowship plans are to explore a new genre – longform personal essays – and increasing her professional knowledge and network by participating in workshops, residencies and conferences.
• Ruth Sloane, a playwright who writes, directs and acts in plays that tell stories of Black Americans. She will use her fellowship to explore the history, rhythmic patterns and language usage in plays and poems in Ghana, while visiting theaters, historical sites, interviewing artist and writing. 
• Rosalia Torres-Weiner, an artist, muralist, activist and community leader whose work documents social conditions and raises awareness about issues affecting immigrant communities. She will use her fellowship to explore new avenues of creative expression by infusing technology into her artistic practice and exploring augmented reality, animation and digital marketplaces. 
• Danielle Walcott, a musician whose 20 years of experience as a guitarist have motivated her to inspire female musicians to master their skills and strengthen their confidence in performing and artistic expression. Walcott will use her fellowship to record an album honoring the unsung women of jazz guitar and their contributions to jazz music through research, transcription analysis and interviews from prominent jazz musicians and historians. 
• Dammit Wesley, a multi-disciplinarian that creates visual and interactive experiences that explore race in America. He will use his fellowship to explore new mediums of visual storytelling in film, 3-D rendering and printmaking. 

Additionally, finalist and semifinalist awards were awarded to the runners-up in both grant pools.

The Emerging Creators Fellowship finalists, who each received a $4,000 award, are: Bryan Anderson, Danielle Carelock, Harvey Cummings II, Brian Daye, Hasan Harris-Dirton, Samantha Hunter, Amber Johnson, Kathren Martin, Terrence Richard and Tara Spil.

The Emerging Creators Fellowship semifinalists to receive $1,600 awards are: Brianna Daniels, William Davis, EthnicByAli, Junior Gomez, Oliver Lewis, Megan Love, Caitlin Morris, Austin Samuels, Kati Simon and Melissa Stutts.

The creatives who received $7,500 Creative Renewal Fellowship finalist awards are: Chris Clamp, Scott Gardner, Raymond Grubb, Erick Hodge, Lynne Miller, Tamela Rich, Kaitlin Rothweiler, Avon Stephenson, Jr., Alex Sulikowski and Breana Venablé.

The Mecklenburg creatives who received $3,000 Creative Renewal Fellowship semifinalist awards are: Krystle Baller, Cass Bradley, Celeste Cutright, Sharon Dowell, Sam Guzzie, Timmy Hord, Elizabeth Lauren Kowalski, John W. Love Jr., Kyle Mosher and Gregory Allen Scott.