{"id":93410,"date":"2025-06-04T10:14:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T17:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=93410"},"modified":"2025-06-09T08:31:54","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:31:54","slug":"investing-in-artists-at-a-pivotal-moment-utah-arts-museums-announces-2025-fellowship-recipients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/investing-in-artists-at-a-pivotal-moment-utah-arts-museums-announces-2025-fellowship-recipients\/","title":{"rendered":"Investing in Artists at a Pivotal Moment: Utah Arts & Museums Announces 2025 Fellowship Recipients"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a year when public funding for the arts continues to face significant challenges, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums has awarded $5,000 fellowships to 20 Utah artists across four categories\u2014Visual Arts, Design Arts, Literary Arts, and Performing Arts (Theatre). The 2025 Utah Artist Fellowships recognize exceptional creativity and promise at a pivotal moment in each artist\u2019s career.<\/h4>\n

Selected by out-of-state jurors with national reputations, the fellowships are not lifetime achievement awards or project grants. Rather, they are investments in artists whose work demonstrates both depth and urgency\u2014practitioners who are poised for growth, exploration, and impact.<\/h4>\n

The fellowships represents both financial support and vital affirmation. “This support arrives at a pivotal moment in my artistic practice\u2014during a time of transition and growth,” says visual artist Ariel C. Wilson. “It also serves as a powerful affirmation of the role artists play in our state, especially amid so much instability.” Others, like Nancy Rivera, see it as a signal of continued possibility despite diminishing resources: \u201cIn light of the steady decline in funding for the arts, receiving this support is especially meaningful.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Pushing Mediums, Rooted in Place
\nThe visual arts category, juried by Lana S. Meador, showcased what she described as \u201can incredibly rich artistic community.\u201d Meador emphasized that the selected fellows \u201cdisplayed a clear vision and commitment to their practice\u201d and often worked \u201cat a critical juncture\u201d in their careers, with strong conceptual frameworks that engaged both local and global themes.<\/h4>\n

Christopher Lynn, one of this year\u2019s visual fellows, brings an interdisciplinary approach to his practice\u2014combining video, sound, writing, and curating. His recent work, “The New Songs” (2025), uses archival material to explore the intersections of industry, landscape, and social history. \u201cReceiving the fellowship places me with my friends and art heroes who have made and continue to make Utah an interesting place to live,\u201d Lynn says.<\/h4>\n

Eugene Tapahe, who draws upon his Din\u00e9 (Navajo) heritage in photography, installation, and land-based performance, uses soil, sand, and natural materials to honor tradition while engaging contemporary issues of identity and belonging. \u201cThis fellowship will magnify my intent to celebrate and honor the identity and culture of Native Americans,\u201d he says. \u201cI will continue to seek this balance between the past and present by using my people’s traditional stories and philosophy \u2014 to always walk in beauty.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Xi Zhang, whose bold, expressive paintings explore immigrant experience and emotional complexity, sees the award as a transformative moment: \u201cThis fellowship will elevate my work, expand its impact, and further develop my artistic voice.\u201d<\/h4>\n

The other visual arts fellows\u2014Nancy Rivera and Ariel C. Wilson\u2014explore personal history and visual perception through inventive uses of photography, fiber, and digital imagery. Rivera\u2019s stitched portraits and sculptural installations combine autobiographical narratives with geological materials like salt from the Great Salt Lake. Wilson\u2019s blurry, low-res cell phone images of sunsets and moons examine our mediated experience of the natural world.<\/h4>\n

Designing with Community in Mind
\nJuror Ramon Tejada highlighted the Design Arts fellows\u2019 commitments to collective experience and social imagination. \u201cThese artists use their imaginative and artistic perspectives to facilitate shared and collective experiences,\u201d Tejada noted, praising their ability to challenge norms \u201cwith joy, love, and respect.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Recipients such as Laura Boardman and Alise Anderson plan to use the funds to expand community-centered projects, while others, like Zak Jensen and Kimo Watanabe, spoke of how the award provides time\u2014time to experiment, to risk, and to reflect.<\/h4>\n

Writing the Personal, Political, and Playful
\nIn the Literary Arts category, juror Ira Sukrungruang brought lyrical insights to his assessments, describing how each writer engages deep emotional and intellectual terrain. From Patrick Madden\u2019s experimental essays to Paisley Rekdal\u2019s poems on fractured identity and ecological longing, the five fellows illustrate the breadth of Utah\u2019s literary voices.<\/h4>\n

The joy in the fellowship is also palpable: \u201cI’m going to Disneyland!\u201d declared Christian McKay Heidicker, who writes dark and fantastical books for young readers. \u201cAnd I’m going to find some kids there, and I’m going to tell them much better stories than any Disney is currently telling them.\u201d<\/h4>\n

Reimagining the Stage
\nTheatre juror Franchelle Stewart Dorn described narrowing down the performing arts applicants as \u201cmuch more difficult than I anticipated.\u201d Those selected had aspirations and artistry that stayed with her long after the applications had been read.<\/h4>\n

Among them is Sarah Shippobotham, who described receiving the fellowship as a reminder that her career, even after 60, is \u201cblossoming rather than shriveling.\u201d Fellow recipient Janine Sobeck Knighton sees it as \u201cthe gift of time\u201d\u2014to sit with ideas and allow them to unfold.<\/h4>\n

From traditional Native storytelling (as in Judy Mansfield\u2019s work) to creating full orchestral accompaniments for small opera companies (Lynnette Owens), the Theatre fellows reflect a wide and inventive range of performance-based practices.<\/h4>\n

Below is the list of this year’s fellowship recipients. Our longtime readers will recognize many of these names from our reviews, profiles and other articles. We’ve linked their names to some of those.<\/h4>\n

2025 UTAH ARTIST FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS<\/h4>\n

Visual Arts<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Christopher Lynn<\/a>
\nNancy Rivera<\/a>
\nEugene Tapahe<\/a>
\nAriel C. Wilson<\/a>
\nXi Zhang<\/h4>\n

Design Arts<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Alise Anderson
\nLaura Boardman<\/a>
\nZak Jensen
\nMatthew Pedersen
\nKimo Watanabe<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Literary Arts<\/h4>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Christian McKay Heidicker
\nKimberly Johnson<\/a>
\nLynn Kilpatrick<\/a>
\nPatrick Madden<\/a>
\nPaisley Rekdal<\/a><\/h4>\n

Performing Arts (Theatre)<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n

Sarah Shippobotham
\nJanine Sobeck Knighton<\/a>
\nEric Sciotto
\nJudy Mansfield
\nLynnette Owens<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

For more information about the Fellowship program visit https:\/\/artsandmuseums.utah.gov\/fellowship<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a year when public funding for the arts continues to face significant challenges, the Utah Division of Arts & Museums has awarded $5,000 fellowships to 20 Utah artists across four categories\u2014Visual Arts, Design Arts, Literary Arts, and Performing Arts (Theatre). The 2025 Utah Artist Fellowships recognize exceptional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recognized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-26 15:21:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot-2025-06-06-at-11.38.04-AM.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93410"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93434,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93410\/revisions\/93434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}