New Jersey State Council on the Arts Individual Artists Fellows Announced
Against a dark background, a still-life photograph of a table scattered with a fork, an antler, a bundle of tangerines, a lemon on a silver tray, orange tulips splayed out in a vase, a small bust, grapes, honeycombs, a green cloth, a pomegranate, and a dead squirrel. White text reads "Congratulations, New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellows!" The Mid Atlantic Arts logo is in the upper right hand corner.

In February, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts announced the 2024 Individual Arts Fellows and Finalists. Mid Atlantic Arts partners with New Jersey State Council on the Arts to award fellowships across rotating disciplines.The categories offered were: digital/electronic, film/video, interdisciplinary, painting, printmaking/drawing/book arts, and prose. Congratulations to all fellows and finalists!
View all fellows and finalists

Image: New Jersey State Council on the Arts 2023 Photography Fellow piece by Kimberly Witham. Courtesy of the artist.

NEA Jazz Masters Performance

The National Endowment for the Arts, in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, announced events to celebrate the 2024 NEA Jazz Masters: Amina Claudine Myers, Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard, and Willard Jenkins. The performance will take place on Saturday, April 13 at 7:30pm at the Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater. The performance will also be livestreamed on the NEA's website.


Amina and Gary have also been honored as Living Legacy Awardees! To learn more about them and view videos celebrating their work, visit our Previous Living Legacy Jazz Award Honorees page.

Image: 2024 NEA Jazz Masters: Amina Claudine Myers (Credit: Crystal Blake), Gary Bartz (Credit: Alan Nahigian), Terence Blanchard (Credit: Cedric Angeles), Willard Jenkins (Credit: Jati Lindsay).

Congratulations, Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows!

Mid Atlantic Arts’ Central Appalachia Living Traditions Program, in partnership with Grow Appalachia and the Appalachian Studies Association, announced the 2024 Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellows! The Fellowships aim to honor, celebrate, and support foodways tradition bearers in the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC)-designated counties in Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This year’s fellows are:  
Jim Embry crouches down in a field of wild flowers. Poly tunnels can be seen behind him.

Jim Embry

  

Social and environmental justice activist, farmer, Founder and Director of the Sustainable Communities Network, and James Beard Foundation Leadership Award winner 


Richmond, KY 
Mehmet Öztan stands outside and is reaching into a smoking oven.

Dr. Mehmet Öztan 


Seed keeper, farmer, scholar, and Founder of Two Seeds in a Pod Heirloom Seed Company and the Anatolian Seeds Recovery and Preservation Project.


Reedsville, WV 
Bea Sias sits in a chair in her kitchen. She wears a pink top and has short blond hair.

Bea Sias 



Gardener, home gardening educator, advocate, and Grow Appalachia Coordinator at Step by Step WV 


Logan County, WV 
Learn more about the Appalachian Foodways Practitioner Fellowship

Mid Atlantic Folklore Exchange

The Mid Atlantic Folklore Exchange is to provide an opportunity for folklorists and aligned cultural workers and scholars to meet, discuss their current and future work, present and workshop challenges, and pool resources. This an ongoing meeting series that we will host on a quarterly basis.


For our second meeting, Thursday, March 21st 3:45 PM to 5 PM EST, we are focusing on the topic of Folklore and Climate Change. Maida Owens is a leading scholar on the matter and will be sharing a brief Folklore and Climate Change 101 presentation. Afterwards we will hear from voices in our region who are making strides in climate justice and activism. The Exchange will close with an opportunity for Mid Atlantic folklorists to share updates relating to their work. We look forward to seeing you!


If you want to ensure a spot on the agenda to share something, please email Joel Chapman at jchapman@midatlanticarts.org.
Register here

Panelist Interest Form

Want to get involved in Mid Atlantic Arts programs? Fill out our Panelist Interest Form! Panelists play a crucial role in helping to determine which artists and organizations receive funding in the next year for our programs. Artists and cultural workers from the Mid Atlantic region and the broader United States are invited. All panelists receive payment for their participation. 
Fill out the Panelist Interest Form

Upcoming Program Deadlines

USArtists International: March 27, 2024


USAI supports in-person performances by U.S. artists at engagements at international festivals and global presenting arts marketplaces outside of the United States. The program funds individuals and ensembles across all performing arts practices and disciplines.



Learn more about USAI here.

Mid Atlantic Tours: March 28, 2024


Mid Atlantic Tours brings exemplary performing arts ensembles to communities across the mid-Atlantic region. Presenters select from a curated roster of artists that changes annually but maintains a programmatic commitment to a diversity of performance genres, regional artist representation, and engaging with communities underserved by the arts. Presenters work directly with agents and eligible organizations receive support for their project. 


Learn more about Mid Atlantic Tours here.

Iber Exchange: April 15, 2024


Iber Exchange is designed to increase availability of international music programming throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and to promote a greater understanding of other cultures through the performing arts. Iber Exchange provides fee support grants to nonprofit presenters located in the mid-Atlantic region that contract artists as part of the Iber Exchange program in collaboration with the Ibermúsicas organization. 


Learn more about Iber Exchange here.

Performing Arts Global Exchange: April 15, 2024


Open to presenters nationwide, the Performing Arts Global Exchange (PAGE) is an annually curated roster of international performing artists selected to tour to communities across the United States. Each year, a country or region is featured with a selection of artists across multiple disciplines. The program provides fee support directly to nonprofit presenters programming artists from the roster, and presenters host both public performances and community engagements in achieving the program’s goals of cultural exchange and understanding.


Learn more about PAGE here.

Women's History Month Spotlight

March is International Women's History Month! This month and year round, we give a huge round of applause to the women artists, culture workers, and tradition bearers that sustain the arts in our region.


Meet Dr. Dena Jennings, a Virginia-based retired physician, activist, and artist with roots in Appalachian Kentucky. This past year, the National Association of Black Storytellers (NABS) commissioned Dr. Jennings to create the awards for the 2023 Black Appalachian Storytellers Fellows (BASF).
Dr. Dena Jennings wears a black top and glasses. She holds a tan gourd instrument on her shoulder.

Image: Dr. Dena Jennings. Credit: Laura Thompson.

Each award is a pear-shaped gourd with the NABS logo, with a slot to hold a removable cow tail switch. Dr. Jennings created all materials for the awards out of local materials on her property -- from the gourds themselves to the decorative pigments. These awards are deeply rooted in a sense of place, tracing the long history of African gourd instruments in Appalachia. 
A work table with four NABS awards -- painted gourds with cow switches inside slots.

Image: The 2023 Black Appalachian Storytellers awards in process in Jennings' workshop. Credit: Dena Jennings.
Read the full blog post here

Reclaiming: Oral Histories of Sexual and Reproductive Wellness Traditions of Appalachian Ohio, is a film project supported by the Central Appalachian Living Traditions Folk and Traditional Arts Experiences program in 2023. The film documents oral histories of local sexual & reproductive wellness traditions. This month, the film received the Jack Spadaro Documentary Award at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference!

The film was directed by Clara Haizlett and Talcon Quinn, with support from United Plant Savers. 
Watch Reclaiming here!

Opportunity Quick Links
Four students in a row stand at steel drums in a large room with wooden floors. Across from them, two musicians play trumpets. In the center of a room is a musician in a black shirt at a keyboard.
  • Asian American Arts Alliance (A4) is looking to commission four NYC-based photographers to capture their 2024 Eid celebrations for a photo essay. Selected photographers will be paid $300 each to have 3-4 photos published in The Amp, along with a statement on what this year’s Eid means to them. Deadline: March 25, 2024. Learn more here.
  • Artadia invites applications from New York City artists for the Artadia Awards, which provide unrestricted financial support of $15,000, access to the Artadia Network to receive structured opportunities for valuable new connections and resource sharing, and a dedicated webpage on Artadia’s online Artist Registry. Applicants must be contemporary visual artists, making artwork for presentation in a contemporary art context: museums, galleries, arts nonprofits, the public art realm, etc. Deadline: April 1, 2024. Learn more here.
  • J.M. Kaplan is accepting applications for the Alice Award, through which an award of $25,000 will be given to a richly illustrated book that contributes to its field and demonstrates high production standards. Books selected by the award jury for the shortlist will receive $5,000. Deadline: April 1, 2024. Learn more here.
  • The Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM) invites applications for the Lillian Orlowsky and William Freed Grant, awarded annually to under-recognized American painters over the age of 45 who demonstrate financial need. Awards include a cash grant, ranging between $5,000 and $36,000, and an exhibition at PAAM. Deadline: April 1, 2024. Learn more here.
  • Creative Capital is accepting project proposals for visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms. The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project funding from $15,000 to $50,000, which can be drawn down over a multi-year period, bespoke professional development services, and community-building opportunities. Deadline: April 4, 2024. Learn more here.
  • APAP is seeking story submissions for their ARTS. WORK. LIFE. podcast. Do you work in the performing arts? Do you have a story to tell about working in the arts? APAP wants to hear from you! Deadline: April 8, 2024. Submit your story here.
  • The Library of Virginia is accepting works by Indigenous artists for a First Fridays exhibition, "Virginia Stories: Indigenous Community. " Works may be submitted for consideration from enrolled members of any federally or state-recognized tribe of the United States who reside in Virginia. Deadline: April 10, 2024. Learn more here.
  • The Salmon-Challis National Forest is putting out a call for artists to participate in an Artist in Residence program. The program will connect artists with Forest Service employees to create a collaborative relationship, with the natural ecosystems, heritage and wilderness that are abundant on the Salmon-Challis National Forest. Deadline: May 1, 2024. Learn more here.
  • The Pan-African Creative Exchange #PACE2025 artist application is open! PACE is accepting works by artists on the African continent, in the diaspora, or artists whose work responds to contemporary African space. Accepted works will be presented at the #PACE2025 showcase in Bloemfontein, South Africa in late June or early July 2025. Deadline: July, 2024. Learn more here.

Image: Mid Atlantic Tours touring artist DuPont Brass with students at St. Patrick Catholic School. Credit: Jessica Parker White.
Visit our Website
Facebook  Twitter  Instagram