Tulsa Artist Fellowship Announces 27 Artist Fellowships and Introduces Durational Arts Integration Award

Crystal Z Campbell, Eric Sall, Nathan Young – Photo credit: Melissa Lukenbaugh

Published December 7, 2018

Artists will receive a $20,000 stipend alongside fully subsidized living and work space in Tulsa, Okla.

TULSA, Okla.  — Tulsa Artist Fellowship, established by the George Kaiser Family Foundation, announces 27 artists with year-long fellowships for 2019 and selects three current fellows to receive durational Arts Integration Awards. Year-long fellowship seats include a $20,000 stipend alongside fully subsidized living and work space in Tulsa, Okla. New fellows will join artists returning for second- and third-year fellowship seats and Arts Integration recipients entering a fourth year, growing to a critical mass of 59 Tulsa Artist Fellows.

Beginning its fourth fellowship cycle and first year with recently appointed Executive Director Carolyn Sickles, Tulsa Artist Fellowship’s institutional model is reflective and continues responding dynamically to the critical needs of rigorously practicing artistic professionals. Sickles, who recently relocated from Brooklyn, said in a statement, “I have witnessed the development of significant arts practitioners in environments stripped down to the bone. Those triumphs reinforce the responsibility of Tulsa Artist Fellows to make unprecedented artistic contributions with this groundbreaking opportunity.”

Studio visit with Executive Director Carolyn Sickles and Tulsa Artist Fellow Shane Darwent

Directly addressing the lack of sustainable possibilities for artists, the Fellowship’s Arts Integration Award is an opportunity for Tulsa Artist Fellows to extend and deepen their community engagement work while continuing the development of new artistic works up to five additional years beyond their initial fellowship award. The inaugural recipients include Crystal Z Campbell, Eric Sall and Nathan Young.

“I am very excited and grateful for the opportunity to continue my socially engaged arts practice with the Arts Integration Award,” Young said. “With my project, I hope to foster meaningful community engagement with the arts by creating a space that will serve as a platform to showcase artists from the community and abroad.” During his fellowship, Young developed Tulsa Noise, an ongoing series that provides a platform for experimental sound musicians. “My goal is to help create connections between the community and locally based artists with regional, national and international arts worlds,” Young said.

Reflecting a diverse range of artistic disciplines, the rising 2019 fellows were selected from a pool of over 700 applicants representing 42 states by a nationwide panel of arts professionals, Fellowship staff and advisory committee members. Among the incoming artists are Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize recipient Joy Harjo, Guggenheim Fellowship-winning video and sound artist Kalup Linzy, and curatorial platform collaborators Atomic Culture.

Originally from Tulsa, Okla., the Fellowship will bring world-renowned writer and musician Joy Harjo back to her birthplace. “This fellowship confirms that my final steps lead home to Tulsa,” Harjo said. “In one of my very first poems, written in the late ‘70s, I wrote: ‘Oklahoma will be the last song I’ll ever sing.’ And here we are.”

With the belief that arts are critical to the advancement of cultural citizenship, Tulsa Artist Fellowship supports both local and national artists while enriching the Tulsa community. Linzy, a video and performance mid-career artist based in Brooklyn, New York and Florida, is looking forward to engaging and collaborating with Tulsans. “I plan to stage live musical performance, casting locals in my film and videos, and potentially record an album with local musicians,” Linzy said.

The length of the award is unique among global arts fellowship and residency offerings. The substantial duration and resources intentionally addresses the most pressing challenges in artistic communities today, which includes financial stability, durational housing, functional workspace and platforms for presentation.

“This fellowship will permit us the opportunity to dedicate both the mental and physical space to realize and focus on research and collaboration,” said Latinx curatorial platform Atomic Culture’s Mathew and Malinda Galindo.

2019 Tulsa Arts Integration Recipients

Crystal Z Campbell (Multidisciplinary); Eric Sall (Painter); Nathan Young (Multidisciplinary)

2019 Tulsa Artist Fellows

Sarah Ahmad (Multidisciplinary); Rachel Allen (Fiction Writer); Julie Alpert (Installation and Drawing); Atomic Culture (Multidisciplinary); M. Molly Backes (Young Adult Novelist); Steven Bellin-Oka (Poet); Liz Blood (Writer and Editor); Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán (Multimedia); Sarah Burney (Writer and Curator); Hoesy Corona (Multidisciplinary); Dan Farnum (Photography); Edgar Fabian Frias (Multidisciplinary); Sophie Goldstein (Graphic Novelist); Juliana Goodman (Young Adult Fiction Writer); Joy Harjo (Poet and Musician); Jessica Harvey (Multidisciplinary); Karl Jones (Writer, Editor, Performer and Visual Artist); Kalup Linzy (Video and Visual Artist); Larry Blackhorse Lowe (Screenwriting and Filmmaker); Naima Lowe (Videographer and Photographer); Katie Moulton (Essayist); Molly Murphy Adams (Fiber Artist); Christa Romanosky (Fiction Writer); Olivia Stephens (Graphic Novelist); Candace G. Wiley (Poet); Richard Zimmerman (Sculpturist and Installation).

Returning Tulsa Artist Fellows

Cynthia Brown (Abstract Painter); Adam Carnes (Contemporary Figurative Painter); Emily Chase (Paper Artist); Rafael Corzo (Multidisciplinary); Shane Darwent (Multidisciplinary); Jennifer Hope Davy (Artist and Writer); Adrienne Dawes (Playwright); Florine Demosthene (Painter); Carrie Dickason (Visual Artist); Kristi Eaton (Journalistic Storyteller); Anita Fields (Clay Sculpturist and Fabric Artist); Yatika Fields (Painter); Heyd Fontenot (Multimedia); Melanie Gillman (Graphic Novelist); Simon Han (Fiction Writer); Elisa Harkins (Composer and Artist); Rachel Hayes (Installation Artist); Sterlin Harjo (Filmmaker); Clemonce Heard (Writer); M.L. Martin (Poet and Translator); Rhett McNeil (Literary Translator); Dan Musgrave (Essayist and Fiction Writer); Joel Daniel Phillips (Charcoal and Graphite Draftsman); Mark de Silva (Novelist); Codak Smith (Contemporary Muralist and Multidisciplinary); Moheb Soliman (Interdisciplinary Poet); Arigon Starr (Musician, Playwright and Graphic Novelist); Laurie Thomas (Writer and Filmmaker); Tali Weinberg (Artist).

For more information about Tulsa Artist Fellowship, visit www.tulsaartistfellowship.org.