Artists 360 Artists Announced
By Margaret A. Keough
Artists 360 Announces Twenty Artist Awards
Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance made possible through the support of the Walton Family Foundation, is proud to announce the twenty artist recipients of its inaugural project and student awards. Twenty practicing and student artists will be granted a total of $114,000 to further their work in the flourishing Northwest Arkansas area arts community, representing the four counties of Benton, Carroll, Sebastian, and Washington. These artists represent a diversity of communities, a range of Northwest Arkansas educational institutions, and a wide scope of disciplines and projects. A Walton Family Foundation grant recommended by Steuart Walton and Tom Walton allows Artists 360 to provide these direct grants, as well as professional development services for the artists.
Artists 360 is a three-year pilot program that will serve a total of sixty individual artists from the Northwest Arkansas area by 2021. These selected artists will receive cash awards, in addition to professional development support services. The first professional development convening will take place October 12–14.
The following practicing artists, organized by discipline, were awarded project grants of $7,500.
Literary Arts: Brody Parrish Craig, Carolyn Guinzio, Molly Bess Rector
Performing Arts: Karen Castleman, JD Clayton, Bernice Hembree of Smokey and the Mirror, Cynthia Post Hunt
Traditional Arts: Roy Pilgrim of the Ozark Highballers
Visual Arts: Dayton Castleman, Octavio Logo, Linda Lopez, Aimée Papazian, Kasey Ramirez, John Rankine
The following artists, organized by discipline, were awarded student artist grants of $1,500.
Literary Arts: J. Bailey Hutchinson, Lynette Thrower
Performing Arts: Genevieve Ryan-Olson, Job Smoot
Visual Arts: Olivia Fredricks, Hannah McBroom
Visit each artist’s bio, images, and project descriptions (where applicable).
Artist Octavio Logo’s artwork explores a wide range of topics and techniques, including public murals, graphic novels, and sculpture. His project is Exodus, a traveling exhibition that employs biblical narratives in order to show the contradictions that exist between faith, humanitarianism, and immigration in a predominantly Christian society. He says, “Every one of my projects is like a seed born from my hands; sometimes nothing grows, sometimes colorful flowers bud. Almost every time, when a little sprout emerges from the core, I don’t know if it will be ivy or a tree, if it will live or perish. After a long time nurturing my last dearest seed, Artists 360 had told me: Congratulations! You planted an oak! Are you ready to see it grow? I say: I´m ready to swing on its limbs!”
With a strongly competitive applicant pool, Artists 360 wishes to recognize the outstanding applications of a number of finalists. The following were named as finalists for project grants: Jeremy Allen, Danny Baskin, Adrienne Callander, Simone Cottrell, Dylan DeWitt, Rebecca Drolen, Will Gunselman, Araceli Lopez, Rachel Lynett, Mathew McConnell, and Bethany Springer. The following were named as finalists for student artist grants: Joy Clark, Elizabeth DeMeo, Minah Kim, Jacob Lindberg, Ziba Rajabi, Nicole Vasquez, and Florencia M. Zuloaga.
