#nyfa hall of fame benefit

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Featuring | NYFA Hall of Fame Honoree Sanford Biggers

On April 11, 2019, Biggers (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’05) will be inducted into NYFA’s Hall of Fame alongside Karl Kellner and Min Jin Lee

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will celebrate the induction of three arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on Thursday, April 11, 2019 at Capitale, 130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013. The event recognizes visual, literary, and performing artists who have received NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships and have had a profound impact on the arts through their creative work, as well as patrons of the arts who have championed the value of the arts in the world around us. 

Among the honorees is Sanford Biggers, a visual artist who received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Performance/Multidisciplinary in 2005. Biggers’ work is an interplay of narrative, perspective, and history that speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings while also examining the contexts that bore them. His diverse practice positions him as a collaborator with the past through explorations of often overlooked cultural and political narratives from American history. 

Working with antique quilts that echo rumors of their use as signposts on the Underground Railroad, Biggers engages these legends and contributes to this narrative by drawing and painting directly onto them. In response to ongoing occurrences of police brutality against black Americans, Biggers’ BAM series is composed of bronze sculptures recast from fragments of wooden African statues that have been anonymized through dipping in wax and then ballistically ‘resculpted.’ Following a residency as a 2017 American Academy Fellow in Rome, Biggers began working in marble. Drawing on and playing with the tradition of working in this medium, he creates hybridized forms that transpose, combine, and juxtapose classical and historical subjects to create alternative meanings and produce what he calls “future ethnographies.”

Seph Rodney, an editor and writer at Hyperallergic, wrote that Biggers’ 2017 Selah exhibition “recognizes that being black in the United States is a syncretic state of being, that the African and the American have become lodged together in ways that are at times brilliant, grandiose, and also violent and inscrutable.” In an ARTnews review from 2000, Tom Finkelpearl, the then-director of MoMA P.S.1′s studio program and now-commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, was quoted as saying: “Biggers is always juggling cultural signs” and has “an incredible formal sense.” A 2018 New Yorker profile by Vinson Cunningham highlighted the subtlety and humor in Biggers’ eclectic body of work, noting that the artist “strives for a balance between formal play and an interest in race and history that manages to be at once sincere and ironic.” 

Biggers has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, with work in group exhibitions at the Menil Collection, Tate Modern, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. His work is currently on view as part of the traveling exhibition Artists as Innovators: Celebrating Three Decades of New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, and is held in the public art collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others.

Biggers is also the creative director of Moon Medicin, a multimedia concept band that straddles visual art and music with performances staged against a backdrop of curated sound effects and video, that will perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. this April. He lives and works in New York City.

All tickets to NYFA’s 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit come with a limited-edition signed print by Sanford Biggers. Learn more about NYFA’s Hall of Benefit here. Sign up for NYFA’s bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Images: Sanford Biggers (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ‘05), Photo Credit: Alex Freund, and Sanford Biggers, Eclipse, 2006, painted wood, 2 pieces, ©Sanford Biggers, Courtesy of the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery

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Celebrating Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019)

We honor the legacy of an artist who pushed boundaries and influenced future generations.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is saddened by the passing of Carolee Schneemann (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’87, Hall of Fame ’18), whose pioneering investigations into subjectivity, the social construction of the female body, and the cultural biases of art history have cemented her status as one of the most influential artists of the second part of the 20th century. Schneemann recognized her influence in a 2014 interview with The Guardian, saying that her work “became a bridge that had to be crossed by young feminists working with their bodies.”

In his review of the MoMA PS1 retrospective exhibition Carolee Schneemann: Kinetic Painting, New York Times Art Critic Holland Cotter praised Schneemann not only for having star quality and for majorly shaping art history but for being “one of the most generous artists around: generous with her presence, her thinking, her formal and political risk-taking, and her embrace of embracing itself—across genres, genders, and species.”

In addition to MoMA PS1, Schneemann’s painting, photography, performance, and installation work has been exhibited at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Whitney Museum of American Art; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Her work has been screened as part of film and video retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art; National Film Theatre, London; and San Francisco Cinematheque. She taught at many institutions including New York University, California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Smith College. In 2017, she was recognized with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale.

Schneemann also published widely, authoring books including More than Meat Joy: Complete Performance Works and Selected Writings (McPherson & Co, 1979); Correspondence Course: An Epistolary History of Carolee Schneemann and Her Circle, edited by Kristine Stiles (Duke University Press Books, 2010); and Carolee Schneemann: Uncollected Texts (Primary Information, 2018).

In a 2017 interview with Pipilotti Rist, Schneemann was asked about the best advice she had ever received or given. “I guess my best advice is this: Be stubborn and persist, and trust yourself on what you love. You have to trust what you love,” she answered.

For more remembrances of Schneemann and her extraordinary life and career, see obituaries by ARTnews, The Art Newspaper, and artnet News.

Image: Carolee Schneemann at NYFA’s 2018 Hall of Fame Benefit, Image Credit: Jay Brady Photography

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NYFA Inducts Sanford Biggers, Karl Kellner, and Min Jin Lee into its Hall of Fame

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows and Patron of the Arts celebrated at April 11 Hall of Fame Benefit in Manhattan.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) inducted three arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on April 11 at Capitale. The evening’s honorees were Sanford Biggers, a visual artist whose work speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings while examining the contexts that bore them; Karl Kellner, patron of the arts, Senior Partner, New York Office Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc., and a former NYFA Board Member; and Min Jin Lee, novelist of the best-selling books Free Food for Millionaires and Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing, 2007 and 2017). The gala was Co-Chaired by Marc Jason and J. Wesley McDade, both members of NYFA’s Board of Trustees. The silent auction was Co-Chaired by Marjorie W. Martay, a NYFA Board Member, and Marjorie Croes Silverman, a NYFA Leadership Council Member.

Guests included Tom Finkelpearl, Commissioner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs; Anne del Castillo, Acting Commissioner, New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment; artists Derrick Adams, Samira Abbassy, Debi Cornwall, Phyllis Galembo, Ekwa Msangi, Rajesh Parameswaran, Dread Scott (also a NYFA Board Member), Michael Stamm, and Nina Yankowitz; Thomas Bouillonnec, President & CEO, Graff Diamonds; Liz Christensen, Curator, Deutsche Bank;  Cameron Esposito, Comedian; Stephanie Gabriel, Director, Marianne Boesky Gallery; Suzanne Gluck, Literary Agent, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment; Lorin Gu, Founding Partner, Recharge Capital and NYFA Board Member; Colm Kelleher, CEO, Morgan Stanley; Huriyyah Muhammad, Founder, Black TV & Film Collective; Sang Lee, CEO, Volta Talent Strategies; Howard Pyle, SVP, Customer Experience Design, MetLife and NYFA Board Member; Lucy Sexton, Executive Director, New Yorkers for Arts and Culture; Justin Tobin, Founder & President, DDG and NYFA Board Member; Tiana Webb Evans, Founder, ESP Group and NYFA Board Member; and Shelley V. Worrell, Founder, caribBEING. Artist and NYFA Board Member Carmelita Tropicana served as the event emcee.

Nearly 300 guests gathered to celebrate the 2019 Hall of Fame inductees over cocktails, dinner, and a silent auction of art, experiences, and more. All tickets came with a signed, limited-edition print by Biggers that was created exclusively for the event. Each year, the glamorous gala recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. Biggers and Lee are past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which is an individual unrestricted grant made to artists who are living and working in New York State.

NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky described NYFA’s support of working artists and why the arts are especially meaningful. “Artists pave the way for dialogue and understanding among diverse viewpoints and voices, something that we desperately need in today’s world,” said Brodsky.

Karl Kellner was the first honoree of the night to be inducted into NYFA’s Hall of Fame. In his acceptance remarks he described his personal interest in the arts, how it led him to NYFA, and how he’s helped to support NYFA through his work at McKinsey & Company, Inc. Here, he describes the value that the arts bring to society, and why they’re worth fighting for: “Artists play a critical role in the world-at-large. For me, art is one of the most energizing, the most incredibly inspiring parts of the fabric of life. It needs supporters, it needs benefactors, it requires appreciators and even aficionados. So I think art is something that we all need to invest in and the return that you get is something that’s unique and personal, and very, very special.”  

Fellow honoree Sanford Biggers spoke about how he came to be an artist and described the varied influences and materials that he incorporates into his multidisciplinary work. He recounted when he received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, saying: “When I got the NYFA award in 2005, I was not showing with a gallery. I was extremely excited for multiple reasons: number one, I got a check, which was a good thing. But beyond that,” Biggers added, “I was acknowledged as the artist that I was becoming and I was in this interdisciplinary field. It was a validation that I didn’t have to put myself into ‘sculpture’ or ‘painting’ but I could sort of traverse between many different forms including performance and video. And I think that that acknowledgement at that point was extremely important to me, and it was an affirmation.”

Min Jin Lee discussed her process and interests, and reflected on the hardships of being a professional artist, especially as a woman of color. She also described the impact of receiving a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship: “I needed to have this kind of support that somehow what I did mattered. And that was so important to have NYFA recognize that my little question was worth supporting, and I think that when the average person in this country thinks that art matters, that’s a huge step. Because it is so often seen as less important than food, and housing, and jobs, and healthcare, and all those things are really important for me, too. But I chose this path because I think that literature can create the level of empathy that many things cannot. I believe that, I believe that with everything that I do.”

Following the award ceremony, multidisciplinary artist and choreographer Angel Kaba spoke about her experience as a mentee in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. Born in Belgium to parents from the Congo and Martinique, she moved to New York five years ago to chase her dream of being an artist. She recounted how she made $250 a month and lived with eight roommates during her first three years in the city. Kaba, who began to question her artistry, found positive change by participating in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program: “It was about the support system. That they really cared about us, they really gave us the opportunity to be ourselves, to express, to connect, to learn to share stories and experiences with amazing talented artists of different nationalities. At the end of the program, I learned more about myself than anything else,” she said. Kaba now teaches across the United States and is a member of Alvin Ailey’s extension faculty.

The evening concluded with dessert and remarks from NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce. “I think everyone in this room knows that without artists many stories would not be known. Stories allow us to share who we are, what we’ve experienced, and what we imagine. They are a special communication from one individual to another, and as I was thinking about this event I realized that all of us together are making up the story of NYFA,” said Royce.

Past NYFA Awardees include Ida Applebroog, Paul Beatty, James Casebere, Christopher d’Amboise, Anna Deavere Smith, Phil Gilbert, Zhou Long, Christian Marclay, Terry McMillan, Mira Nair, Lynn Nottage, Eric Overmyer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Perron, Dwight Rhoden, Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneemann, and Andres Serrano.

There are still items available for purchase in NYFA’s online Benefit Auction, which features artworks, event tickets, and one-of-a-kind experiences. Click here to view and buy now to help support the arts.

Legends Limousine, a family-owned car service based in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is NYFA’s transportation partner for the 2019 NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit.

Sign up for NYFA’s bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Images: Michael L. Royce, Tom Finkelpearl, Karl Kellner, Min Jin Lee, Judith K. Brodsky, and Sanford Biggers; Dread Scott, Sanford Biggers, and Derrick Adams; Angel Kaba and Lorraine Bell; All Images Credit: Jay Brady Photography

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Featuring | NYFA Hall of Fame Honoree Min Jin Lee

Lee will be celebrated at NYFA’s 2019 Hall of Fame on April 11, 2019 alongside Sanford Biggers and Karl Kellner.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will induct Min Jin Lee, Sanford Biggers, and Karl Kellner into its Hall of Fame during its 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit on April 11, 2019. The ticketed event will feature cocktails; dinner; and a live/silent auction of art, experiences, and more. All tickets come with a signed, limited-edition print by Sanford Biggers created exclusively for the event. 

2019 Hall of Fame Inductee and Novelist Min Jin Lee (Fellow in Fiction ’00) was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to Queens, New York with her family in 1976 when she was seven years old. Her extensively-researched, emotionally-resonant novels Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing, 2017) and Free Food for Millionaires (Grand Central Publishing, 2007) create “radical empathy through art” and center on the Korean diaspora; she’s currently at work on the third diaspora novel of her trilogy “The Koreans,” titled American Hagwon. The book will focus on hagwons, or private institutions for supplemental education that are commonplace in South Korea but stigmatized in the United States. 

“I’ve been asked why I write about Koreans,” said Lee in a February 2019 interview in Harvard Magazine. “And it seems like such a strange question. Because why wouldn’t I write about Koreans? To me, Koreans are mothers and fathers and daughters and sons, which means Koreans are like us; we are worthy of consideration and reflection.”

A graduate of Yale College and Georgetown University, Lee worked as a corporate lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time. Success did not immediately follow: “After I failed for a long time, I decided that I would write to seek answers for my personal questions instead of writing to earn external validation,” said Lee in a National Novel Writing Month blog post. 

It was 12 years before Free Food for Millionaires was published. The novel, which follows the story of the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants as she strives to join Manhattan’s inner circle, was a national bestseller that was recognized as a “Top 10 Book of the Year” by The Times of London, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and USA Today. 

Lee’s second novel, Pachinko, follows a Korean family through seven decades as they struggle through conflict and cultural displacement. “Like most memorable novels, Pachinko resists summary. In this sprawling book, history itself is a character. Pachinko is about outsiders, minorities, and the politically disenfranchised. But it is so much more besides,” wrote Krys Lee for The New York Times. NPR’s Jean Zimmerman reported that Pachinko is “the kind of book that can open your eyes and fill them with tears at the same time.” The book was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction; a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and was included on The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and New York Public Library lists of “The 10 Best Books of 2017,” among other “best of” lists from NPR, PBS, CNN, and many others. It has since been translated into 24 languages. 

Lee’s work has appeared in publications and programs including The New Yorker, NPR’s “Selected Shorts,” The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. She also served three consecutive seasons as a “Morning Forum” columnist for The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea. 

In 2018, Lee was named to Adweek’s “Creative 100” for being “one of the 10 writers and editors who are changing the national conversation” and The Guardian’s “The Frederick Douglass 200” list of people who best embody the spirit and work of Frederick Douglass. Lee is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College.

Image: Min Jin Lee (Fellow in Fiction ’00), Photo Credit: Elena Siebert

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Featuring | NYFA Hall of Fame Honoree Karl Kellner

Kellner will be inducted into NYFA’s Hall of Fame on April 11, 2019 alongside Sanford Biggers and Min Jin Lee.

We are a month out from The New York Foundation for the Arts’ (NYFA) 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit, which annually honors NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows in the visual, literary, and performing arts who have had a profound impact on the arts through their creative work and patrons of the arts who have championed the value of the arts in the world around us. We’re pleased to induct Karl Kellner, Sanford Biggers, and Min Jin Lee into our Hall of Fame on April 11, 2019.

Today, we’re focusing on Patron of the Arts Karl Kellner, former NYFA Board Member and Senior Partner, New York Office Managing Partner at McKinsey & Company, Inc. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience, predominantly in health care management, with a focus on strategy development and performance improvement. 

In addition to his work at McKinsey, Kellner is active in the New York City community. He was a committed member of NYFA’s Board of Trustees from 2006-2018, where he held roles including Treasurer and Strategic Planning Committee Chair. During his tenure, he generously donated his time to advise NYFA Board and Staff in shaping NYFA’s programmatic and operational strategies. He also secured countless hours of professional services from the consulting firms he worked for to help NYFA better support working artists and emerging organizations across all disciplines. In addition to serving on NYFA’s Board, he was a multi-year member of the Clinton Global Initiative and led an eight-year partnership with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to create economic opportunity and assist small businesses in Harlem and several other urban areas across the U.S. He has also been involved with New York Cares since the 1990’s. 

Kellner holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA degree from Oberlin College. He lives in New York City with his wife, Suzannah, who works in the arts, and two children, Cassandra and Marshall.

All tickets to NYFA’s 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit come with a limited-edition signed print by Sanford Biggers. Learn more about NYFA’s Hall of Benefit here. Sign up for NYFA’s bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Image: Karl Kellner, Courtesy: McKinsey & Company, Inc

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Event | Sanford Biggers, Karl Kellner, and Min Jin Lee to be Honored at 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened arts patrons.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will celebrate the induction of three arts luminaries into the NYFA Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on Thursday, April 11, 2019 at Capitale, 130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013. The event recognizes visual, literary, and performing artists who have received NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships and have had a profound impact on the arts through their creative work, and patrons of the arts who have championed the value of the arts in the world around us. The evening’s honorees are:

Sanford Biggers, Visual Artist (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’05)

Karl Kellner, Senior Partner, New York Office Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company, Inc.: Patron of the Arts

Min Jin Lee, Novelist (Fellow in Fiction ’00)

The ticketed event will feature cocktails; dinner; and a live/silent auction of art, experiences, and more. Carmelita Tropicana (NYFA Board Member; Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’87 and Playwriting/Screenwriting ’91, ’06) will serve as the event emcee. All tickets come with a signed, limited-edition print by Sanford Biggers created exclusively for the event. Attire is festive cocktail.

On the inductees, feminist visual arts advocate and NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky said: “Sanford Biggers and Min Jin Lee’s work actively explores and responds to topics of race, class, and diaspora—and tells important stories that are not often part of the dominant historical narrative. We’re thrilled to induct them into our Hall of Fame along with Karl Kellner, a Patron of the Arts who has helped to champion the needs of working artists through his involvement on NYFA’s Board of Trustees.”

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. Biggers and Lee are past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which are individual unrestricted grants made to artists who are living and working in New York State. Other past NYFA Hall of Fame Inductees include Ida Applebroog, Paul Beatty, James Casebere, Christopher d’Amboise, Phil Gilbert, Anna Deavere Smith, Zhou Long, Christian Marclay, Terry McMillan, Mira Nair, Lynn Nottage, Eric Overmyer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Perron, Dwight Rhoden, Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneemann, and Andres Serrano.

“We’re thrilled to bring artists like Sanford Biggers and Min Jin Lee back to NYFA as part of our annual Hall of Fame Benefit,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA. “The NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship is often among the first professional recognitions that artists receive, so it’s a special honor for us to celebrate all they’ve accomplished in the time since,” he added.

NYFA is proud to present this year’s honorees and celebrate their impact in the cultural community:

Sanford Biggers’ work is an interplay of narrative, perspective, and history that speaks to current social, political, and economic happenings while also examining the contexts that bore them. His diverse practice positions him as a collaborator with the past through explorations of often overlooked cultural and political narratives from American history. He has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Brooklyn Museum, with work in group exhibitions at the Menil Collection, Tate Modern, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Biggers’ work is held in the public art collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others. In 2017, he was awarded the Rome Prize in Visual Arts. Biggers is also the creative director of Moon Medicin, a multimedia concept band that straddles visual art and music with performances staged against a backdrop of curated sound effects and video. He lives and works in New York City.

Karl Kellner, Patron of the Arts and former NYFA Board Member, is a senior partner at McKinsey & Company and leads the firm’s New York Office. He has more than 20 years of consulting experience, predominantly in health care management. Kellner’s client service spans across the health care sector and includes health plans, provider organizations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, pharmacy-benefit managers and private equity firms. His clients include CEOs, board directors, and C-level executives, and he focuses primarily on strategy development and performance improvement. In addition to his work at McKinsey, Kellner is active in the New York City community. He served from 2006-2018 on NYFA’s Board of Trustees, where he held roles including Treasurer and Strategic Planning Committee Chair. He led an eight-year partnership with former President Clinton and the Clinton Foundation to create economic opportunity and assist small businesses in Harlem and several other urban areas across the U.S., and was a multi-year member of the Clinton Global Initiative. He has also been involved with New York Cares since the 1990’s. Kellner holds an MBA degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA degree from Oberlin College. He lives in New York City with his wife, Suzannah, who works in the arts, and two children, Cassandra and Marshall.

Min Jin Lee’s 2017 novel Pachinko (Grand Central Publishing) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction; a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize; and was included on The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and New York Public Library lists of “The 10 Best Books of 2017,” among other “best of” lists from NPR, PBS, CNN, and many others. The book has since been translated into 24 languages. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (Grand Central Publishing, 2007) was a national bestseller that was recognized as a “Top 10 Book of the Year” by The Times of London, NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and USA Today. Her work has appeared in publications and programs including The New Yorker, NPR’s “Selected Shorts,” The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. She also served three consecutive seasons as a “Morning Forum” columnist for The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea. In 2018, Lee was named to Adweek’s Creative 100 for being “one of the 10 writers and editors who are changing the national conversation” and The Guardian’s “The Frederick Douglass 200” list of people who best embody the spirit and work of Frederick Douglass. Lee is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard, and is currently a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College.

Ticket prices start at $650 and Tables at $6,500; you can purchase tickets here. For more information about NYFA’s Hall of Fame Benefit, please contact Barbara Toy at btoy@nyfa.org or 212.366.6900 x 207.

Legends Limousine, a family-owned car service based in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is NYFA’s transportation partner for the 2019 NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit.

Images L to R: Sanford Biggers (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’05), Photo Credit: Alex Freund; Karl Kellner - Patron of the Arts, Image Courtesy: McKinsey & Company, Inc.; Min Jin Lee (Fellow in Fiction ’00), Photo Credit: Elena Siebert

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Announcing | Artists Supporting Artists: A NYFA Benefit Show

Samira Abbassy, Polly Apfelbaum, Amy Hill, LoVid, Barbara Nessim, Joan Semmel, Daniel Rich, Miriam Schapiro, and Sandy Skoglund are among the participating artists.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to present Artists Supporting Artists: A NYFA Benefit Show from Tuesday, March 17 - Friday, April 3, 2020 at ChaShaMa’s Space to Present at 340 East 64th Street.* All works, created by more than 50 established and emerging artists, will be up for bidding on Tuesday, March 17; proceeds will support NYFA programs and resources that serve artists throughout the United States and internationally. 

*As of March 16, all ChaShaMa spaces are closed due to the threat of COVID-19. All works can be viewed via the online auction catalog. 

The pieces on display will range from colorful abstract and figurative paintings to textile art, drawings, artist books, collage works, photography, and sculptures. 

Featured artists include:

Samira Abbassy, Leslie Alfin, Fanny Allié, David Ambrose, Polly Apfelbaum, Tomie Arai, Andrea Arroyo, Katie Bell, Judith Brodsky, Deric Carner, Bill Carroll, Darlene Charneco, Cecile Chong, Ellen Colcord, Maria de los Angeles, Marylyn Dintenfass, Sally Egbert, Patricia Fabricant, Jim Gaylord, Janet Goleas, Michael Haggiag, Amir Hariri, Amy Hill, Jean Holabird, Barry Holden, Brian Hopkins, Anna Kott, Eleanora Kupencow, Donald Lipski, Nicola López, LoVid, Sangram Majumdar, Jeanette May, Andy Mister, Aya Miyatake, Ryan Sarah Murphy, Natalia Nakazawa, Barbara Nessim, Lee O’Connor, Paul Pagk, Dorothy Paolo, Joel Perlman, Armita Raafat, Daniel Rich, Jessica Rohrer, Michael Rosch, Carol Ross, Toni Ross, Nadia Sablin, Miriam Schaer, Joan Semmel, Miriam Schapiro, Sandy Skoglund, Arlene Slavin, Claire Watson, Edwina White, Shihori Yamamoto, and Nina Yankowitz. 

Sign up for NYFA’s bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Image: Sandy Skoglund (Fellow in Sculpture ’88)  Homepage Image Detail: Maria de los Angeles, Virgin de Guadalupe y El Indio, 2019

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Event | Kay WalkingStick and Chin Chih Yang to be Honored at 2020 NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened arts patrons.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will celebrate the induction of two arts luminaries into the NYFA Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on Thursday, April 2, 2020 at Capitale, 130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013. The event recognizes visual, literary, and performing artists who have received NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships and have had a profound impact on the arts through their creative work, and patrons of the arts who have championed the value of the arts in the world around us. The evening’s honorees are: 

Kay WalkingStick, Visual Artist (Fellow in Painting ’92, Murray Reich Award ’18)

Chin Chih Yang, Multidisciplinary Artist (Fellow in Digital/Electronic Arts ’11)

The ticketed event will feature cocktails; dinner; and a live/silent auction of art, experiences, and more. For the first time, items included in the live/silent auction will be on display during a public preview exhibition in Manhattan; it will run from March 17 - April 1 at ChaShaMa’s Space to Present at 340 East 64th Street (Tues - Fri, 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM). All Hall of Fame Benefit tickets come with a signed, limited-edition print by Kay WalkingStick created exclusively for the event. Attire is festive cocktail.

On the inductees, arts advocate and NYFA Board Chair Marc Jason said: “Kay WalkingStick and Chin Chih Yang are creating important works that prompt us to question our relationship with the environment. Their work captivates because it is both highly personal—in terms of the spiritual and physical impact of landscape—and universal for how we navigate an increasingly complex world.”

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. WalkingStick and Yang are past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which are individual unrestricted grants made to artists who are living and working in New York State. Other past NYFA Hall of Fame Inductees include Ida Applebroog, Paul Beatty, Sanford Biggers, James Casebere, Christopher d’Amboise, Phil Gilbert, Anna Deavere Smith, Min Jin Lee, Zhou Long, Christian Marclay, Terry McMillan, Mira Nair, Lynn Nottage, Eric Overmyer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Perron, Dwight Rhoden, Faith Ringgold, Carolee Schneemann, and Andres Serrano. WalkingStick was also more recently recognized with the Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award, which is awarded to mature and established visual artists with a long history of creative practice.

“We’re thrilled to induct Kay WalkingStick and Chin Chih Yang into our Hall of Fame,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA. “Both first came to NYFA as NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows, which is often seen as a validation of an artist’s vision and voice by their peers. It’s wonderful to bring them back to NYFA in this significant way, to further recognize their contributions in the arts and beyond,” he added.

NYFA is proud to present this year’s honorees and celebrate their impact on the cultural community:

Kay WalkingStick is a Cherokee painter who focuses on the American landscape and its metaphorical significances to Native Americans and all citizenry. Her diptych paintings are particularly powerful metaphors that express the beauty of uniting the disparate and has resonance for WalkingStick because of her biracial background. “It is also a useful construct to express the conflicts and bivalence of everyone’s lives,” she has said. The varied rendering of landscape in WalkingStick’s art is the thread that weaves together the many painterly directions her art has taken over the last 50 years. The filter of memory is a constant, with paintings based on site sketches and photos with figures drawn from her imagination; neither are a depiction of a specific place or activity, but instead suggest how a place or activity would feel. In 2015, WalkingStick was celebrated with a solo show “Kay WalkingStick: An American Artist” at The National Museum of the American Indian. It later traveled to the Heard Museum, Dayton Art Institute, Kalamazoo Institute of Art, Gilcrease Art Museum, and Montclair Art Museum. Her work is currently on view in Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York through Fall 2021 and is part of the permanent collections of institutions including the Albright-Knox, Denver Art Museum, Detroit Institute of the Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. WalkingStick was inducted as a full member in the National Academy of Design in 2019, and received the Lee Krasner Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2011. She was recognized with a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in 1992, and the 2018 Murray Reich Distinguished Artist Award. WalkingStick is represented by June Kelly Gallery, NY and lives in Easton, PA with the artist Dirk Bach.

Chin Chih Yang is a multidisciplinary artist from Taiwan who lives and works in New York. His work uniquely incorporates the rhythms and discords of human society, exhibiting them in terms of the waste materials that are discarded by industrialized production. Yang’s interests in ecology and constructed environments have resulted in interactive performances and installations that have been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues and fairs including Rockefeller Center, the United Nations, Union Square Park, Queens Museum, and the Taipei Art Fair. His performances often dramatize the divided quality of the self, and he uses video projections to create a discordant ambience specific to the themes of his performances. Burning ICE, an interactive ice environment, invited Union Square Park-goers to cool down on a giant ice bench in August 2009. Human warmth melted the frozen water, mirroring how human activity has hastened the melting of the world’s great ice deposits. Another project, Kill Me or Change, staged at Queens Museum of Art, involved Yang being buried under 30,000 aluminum cans—the average number of cans one person throws away over a lifetime. It showed quite literally the suffering effects of one person’s polluting and served as a call-to-action for audience members to reconsider their consumption (and waste) habits. Yang’s work has been highlighted in publications including The New York Times, Taipei Times, BBC, CBS, Time Out New York, NY1, and Art Asia Pacific. In addition to his 2011 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Digital/Electronic Arts, Yang has received an Urban Artist Initiative fellowship, a fellowship from Franklin Furnace, a fellowship from the New York State Council for the Arts, and a “Swing Space” residency at Governors Island from Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Ticket prices start at $650 and Tables at $6,500; you can purchase tickets here. For more information about NYFA’s Hall of Fame Benefit, please contact Kim Goodis at kgoodis@nyfa.org or 212.366.6900 x 207.

Images: Kay WalkingStick, Photo Credit Julia Maloof and Chin Chih Yang, Courtesy Chin Chih Yang

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Introducing | Meet NYFA’s New Development Team

Katherine Delaney, Kimberly Goodis, and Hannah Berry are equal parts artist and non-profit professional.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) takes pride in supporting artists of all disciplines and career stages. Many of our staff are artists who bring a unique understanding and approach to their nonprofit work on behalf of artists everywhere. As such, we’re thrilled to introduce you to NYFA’s new development team: Katherine Delaney, Director; Kimberly Goodis, Senior Officer of Individual Giving and Special Events; and Hannah Berry, Development Officer of Individual Giving and Foundations. Equal parts artist and non-profit professional, their backgrounds and experiences make a great contribution to NYFA. Take a moment to learn more about the team and why NYFA’s mission matters to them.

In January 2019, Katherine Delaney joined NYFA as Director of Development, bringing with her over 19 years of fundraising experience, particularly in the areas of Board Development, Major Gifts, Annual Fund Development, and Foundation and Corporate Giving. Born in St. Petersburg, Russia, Delaney immigrated to Canada at the age of four. Her mother was a painter, and her arts immersion began at a young age. As she puts it, “The arts have been my passion ever since I sat down at my first piano when I was five years old, and performed my first dance on stage when I was eight.” She carried this passion with her, later attaining a Bachelor of Music degree and a Master of Arts degree in Musicology while working professionally as an accompanist for choirs and singers. In her development experience, Delaney has been responsible for initiating a new major donor campaign at the Canadian Opera Company and conceiving of the Alumni Arts membership at The School of the Arts at Columbia University. Prior to NYFA, she served as Director for the Major Gifts Department at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and was responsible for increasing Board and Individual Giving by 85%. When asked why Delaney chose to join NYFA, she said: “After I graduated with a music degree, I had very few resources to help me navigate a career as a working musician. Something like NYFA didn’t exist where I lived.” Delaney recognizes the vital role NYFA plays in the cultural community, and as Director of Development she hopes to underscore the importance of this work and help to inspire engagement from donors, NYFA-affiliated artists, and art-lovers alike. Her dedication to fundraising is motivated by an appreciation for “being around people who are philanthropic, who truly give of themselves.” As she says: “Year after year, my interactions with donors fill me with joy and love for humanity – thank you to all of you who give!” Delaney currently resides in Montclair, NJ with her husband and three children.

Though both Delaney and Kimberly Goodis are new to NYFA, they’ve worked with each other for the past five years, and bring with them a strong sense of camaraderie. Before joining NYFA in March as Senior Officer for Individual Giving & Special Events, Goodis spent over a decade at Lincoln Center, serving as Assistant Company Manager and Manager of Audience Development at New York City Opera, and most recently as the Manager of Public Programs at the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She holds a Bachelor’s in Music Business degree from Rutgers University and a Masters in Arts Administration degree from New York University, and developed her nonprofit administrative skills at the American Repertory Ballet, George Street Playhouse, and Westminster Choir College. Goodis’ career path is inspired by her personal experiences. “The arts have played such a huge part in shaping who I am as a person, and I’m passionate about its ability to positively impact people’s lives,” said Goodis. She is enthusiastic about her new role at NYFA as she has “seen first-hand how groundbreaking the right funding and support can be.” She is looking forward to building up initiatives and creating systems that will increase NYFA’s impact and success. Beyond her professional experience, Goodis is also a trained clarinetist, and has played for nearly 15 years. In addition, she loves musical theater and feels strongly connected to classical ballet and orchestral music: “New York has always been the place where I go to experience art – I love that NYFA supports that artistic community!”

While Hannah Berry has taken on the new title of Development Officer of Individual Giving and Foundations, she’s been a part of the NYFA staff since August of 2017. Berry previously worked in the NYFA Grants department, assisting in the administration of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. She says: “My experience at NYFA has really helped me grow professionally, and I’m proud to now be able to serve such a vital role in the development of the organization.” Originally from Alaska, Berry was raised by a family of artists including her late grandfather, the esteemed wildlife artist William “Bill” Berry. She moved from remote Alaska to bustling New York City in 2015 to pursue a graduate education, and received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting & Drawing from Pratt Institute in 2017. After graduating, she participated in the Trestle Artist Residency in Brooklyn, NY. Her recent group exhibition history includes Brooklyn-based galleries such as La Bodega Gallery, Trestle Gallery, NYFA Gallery, Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, and The Boiler | Pierogi. Berry confesses that her life as an artist is complemented by her work at NYFA: “In my nearly two years here, I’ve witnessed first-hand how important our services are for the arts community, and have received so much praise on behalf of NYFA. This experience has infiltrated so much of my own artistic life, and I find myself inspired almost daily by the the artists we support.”

Meet Delaney, Goodis, and Berry at The New York Foundation for the Arts’ 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit honoring Sanford Biggers, Karl Kellner, and Min Jin Lee. Taking place on April 11 at Capitale in Manhattan, the event will feature cocktails, dinner, a live/silent auction of art, and much more!

You can purchase tickets to the benefit here. For more information about NYFA’s Hall of Fame Benefit, please contact Kimberly Goodis at kgoodis@nyfa.org or 212.366.6900 x 207.

All tickets to NYFA’s 2019 Hall of Fame Benefit come with a limited-edition signed print by Sanford Biggers. Learn more about NYFA’s Hall of Benefit here. Sign up for NYFA’s bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News, to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Images: Hannah Berry, Katherine Delaney, and Kimberly Goodis, Image Credit: Amy Aronoff for NYFA; and NYFA’s 2018 Hall of Fame Benefit, Image Credit: Jay Brady Photography

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Introducing | New NYFA Board Chair Marc Jason

Jason is an arts advocate and intellectual property attorney who has served on NYFA’s Board of Trustees since 2013.

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce that Marc Jason, Senior Counsel at Amster, Rothstein & Ebenstein LLP, has been named Chair of its Board of Trustees. Jason succeeds Judith K. Brodsky, Founding Director, Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions, Rutgers University.

Jason has served as a member of NYFA’s Board of Trustees, most recently as its Treasurer, since 2013. He has been involved in numerous NYFA activities and committees and Co-Chaired the annual Hall of Fame Benefit three times, including the 2019 gala honoring Sanford Biggers, Karl Kellner, and Min Jin Lee. A graduate of Georgetown Law, Jason has specialized in trademark and copyright litigation for more than 20 years.

His involvement with the arts began as a young man; he studied French and Russian Literature as an undergraduate at Brown University and was the lead singer of a rock and roll band. He developed a passion for visual arts in the museums of his native New York, and while studying and working in Paris. Jason is an avid guitar player and, with his wife Nina, collects works of emerging contemporary artists with a focus on painting and collage.

Read more about Jason’s support of NYFA and the arts and find special advice for artists, below.

NYFA: You been a NYFA board member since 2013. What do you hope to bring to NYFA as its new Board Chair?

Marc Jason: As a board member, I’ve discovered the breadth of NYFA’s incredible programs and services for artists and arts organizations. NYFA Learning, the Immigrant Artist Program, NYFA’s Online Resources, Fiscal Sponsorship . . . these are just a few examples. I’ve also come to appreciate that these programs and services urgently need support. Although NYFA has the word “foundation” in its name, it does not have an endowment. NYFA relies on sources such as donations, government funding, grants, and sponsorships to sustain all that it does. As the new Board Chair, I hope to bring an increased awareness of, and support for, NYFA’s important work.  

NYFA: What value do you see the arts and artists as having in our present tumultuous times? Why are they important?

MJ: On a daily basis we are bombarded by information. Nonstop. As a result, we’ve become desensitized and divided into our different silos. Intolerance seems to be on the rise. Art is so important because it can cause us to stop for a moment and think; to reflect on the world around us. We need more empathy, and art fosters empathy. Music, literature, dance, theater, the visual arts – artists expose us to new perspectives and different points of view. Experiencing art can shake us from our comfort zones and inspire us. It can also spur us to action. So much great art throughout history has been produced as a result of tumult and upheaval. I think that is happening right now.    

NYFA: As a trademark and copyright litigator, do you have any tips for artists looking to protect their creative work? 

MJ: Get a copyright registration for your work. Even though a copyright technically exists as soon as a work is created and fixed in a tangible form, a copyright registration gives an artist additional rights and protections. These include the ability to sue for infringement, and the possibility of getting enhanced penalties assessed against an infringer. Registration is not expensive and can be done by an artist online (www.copyright.gov).

Another tip for visual artists is to remember that you retain the copyright in a work even after you sell the work. So, for example, the copyright in a painting remains with the artist after a sale, unless the artist signs over the copyright to the buyer. The rights retained by the artist include the right to make reproductions (prints, posters, etc.) and the right to make derivative works. You can put a copyright notice on the back of a work (© and the year); and you can make it clear in sales documentation that the artist retains the copyright. Alternatively, if you wish to give up the copyright, consider how much that might be worth and whether the buyer should pay a premium for those rights.

NYFA: What advice do you have for emerging artists?

MJ: Being an artist is not easy, so you’ve really got to have a passion for the work. The most important thing is to keep working hard and following that passion. Give yourself every chance you can to succeed. And use NYFA as a resource. It’s a community of diverse, creative people that has so much to offer. Making art is often such a solitary activity, and sometimes you need support. Become a part of the community, go to events, and make connections. It’s NYFA’s mission to help you.    

-Interview conducted by Amy Aronoff, Senior Communications Officer

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more news and events from NYFA. To receive more artist news updates, sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter, NYFA News.

Image: Marc Jason at NYFA’s 2016 Hall of Fame Benefit, Image Credit: Carl Timpone/BFA.com

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NYFA Inducts Four Arts Luminaries Into Hall of Fame at Annual Spring Benefit

NYFA affiliated artists Ida Applebroog, Christopher d’Amboise, Lynn Nottage, and Patron of the Arts Peggy Copper Cafritz are the latest illustrious inductees.

NYFA inducted four arts luminaries into its Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on April 4 at 583 Park Avenue. The evening’s honorees were Ida Applebroog, celebrated painter, sculptor, and filmmaker with an upcoming solo show at Hauser & Wirth London; Peggy Cooper Cafritz, influential arts patron and former President of the District of Columbia Board of Education; Christopher d’Amboise, a distinguished choreographer, dancer, and playwright; and Lynn Nottage, award-winning playwright and screenwriter whose play Sweat just opened on Broadway. The gala was Co-Chaired by artist Elia Alba and industrial real estate professional Mary Lang, both members of NYFA’s Board of Trustees.

Guests included Beth B, Filmmaker; Joeonna Bellorado-Samuels, Director, Jack Shainman Gallery; Charlotte d’Amboise, Actress and Dancer (Broadway’s Chicago); Jacques d’Amboise, Dancer, Choreographer, and Director of the National Dance Institute; Vincent Fremont, Senior Advisor, Art Media Holdings, LLC; Elliot Goldenthal, Composer; Ed Lewis, Co-Founder, Essence Magazine; J.T. Rogers, Playwright (Broadway’s OSLO); Jacqueline Sischy, Director, Hauser & Wirth; Julie Taymor, Theater, Opera, and Film Director; and Dread Scott, Artist and NYFA Board Member.

More than 300 attendees gathered to celebrate the 2017 Hall of Fame inductees amongst artworks by NYFA affiliated artists and over cocktails and dinner. The glamorous gala recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA and the vision and commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. Applebroog, d'Amboise, and Nottage are all past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which are individual unrestricted grants made to artists who are living and working in New York State.

Artists Carmelita Tropicana, Ashly Legrant, Ivan Cortazar, and Julia Pontes spoke about the support they received from NYFA in the form of grants, entrepreneurship training, and mentoring. Julia Pontes, who participated in NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program, said, “I am living proof of the opportunity NYFA generates...NYFA alleviates the challenges that artists face.”

NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky thanked the nights’ honorees for their contributions to the arts and described the support that NYFA services and programs provide to artists of all disciplines at all career stages. “While we support artists through grants, even more importantly, we help them sustain themselves,” she said.

Lynn Nottage was the first honoree of the night to be inducted into NYFA’s Hall of Fame. She told the crowd: “Twenty two years ago, before my very first writing commission, before my very first production of a play in New York, before I had an inkling that I was going to forge a life in theater in New York, I received a NYFA grant…which formalized literally the beginning of my writing career in New York.”

Fellow honoree Christopher d’Amboise spoke of when he received a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship. He’d quit a successful career in dance at The New York City Ballet and on Broadway to explore an urge to pursue choreography. He used the Fellowship to discover his own voice as an artist, unique from his mentors George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. He described NYFA’s impact as a means of validation: “I teach now, and when I teach I look for what is in the student that is so big about them that they don’t even know. That’s what NYFA does, it says ‘You are bigger than you can imagine, take the leap of faith.’”

Two-time NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellow Ida Applebroog described how the grants came at a time when they were very needed saying: “I received my [first] grant at the lowest income I ever had and the poorest recognition I ever had.” Applebroog continued by recognizing historical federal funding for the arts, ending on a positive note in the face of the proposed NEA and NEH eliminations. “We will survive, all of us, and hallelujah we will survive.”

Upon her induction into the Hall of Fame Peggy Cooper Cafritz drew connections between NYFA and the arts high school she co-founded in Washington, D.C., Duke Ellington School of the Arts. “Over the years I’ve regretted very much that we can’t just transplant our building and our kids and place them in New York so they would have NYFA and the opportunities that they offer…NYFA, like we try to do in Washington, has changed the trajectory of so many lives.”

The evening ended with impassioned words from NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce on the importance of arts funding from a federal level and why we must continue to fight for it. He acknowledged the artists in the room and encouraged a round of applause from all to close out the 2017 gala.

Past NYFA Awardees include James Casebere, Anna Deavere Smith, Faith Ringgold, Zhou Long, Junot Diaz, Yvonne Rainer, Spike Lee, Ross Bleckner, Errol Morris, David Hammons, Terry McMillan, Christian Marclay, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Andres Serrano.

Images from top: Christopher d'Amboise, NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky, Ida Applebroog, Peggy Cooper Cafritz, NYFA Executive Director Michael L. Royce, and Lynn Nottage; NYFA’s 2017 Hall of Fame Benefit at 583 Park Avenue; and Jaye Moon (Fellow in Sculpture '09) with her artworks. Photo credit: Carl Timpone/BFA.com.

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Apply Now | NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Playwriting/Screenwriting

Quick tips for artists interested in applying for this $7,000 fellowship opportunity.

For the past 32 years, The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to individual originating artists living in New York State and/or Indian Nations located in New York State. NYFA is accepting applications for 2019 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships in Architecture/Environmental Structures/Design, Choreography, Music/Sound, Photography, and Playwriting/Screenwriting now through January 23, 2019. 

The Playwriting/Screenwriting category accepts work in the writing of stageplays, screenplays, teleplays, libretti, radio plays, and audio dramas. While librettists may apply in this category, no audio is accepted. Composers of music theater works are advised to apply separately for a NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Music/Sound. All Playwriting/Screenwriting applications are pre-reviewed, giving the panel more time to review applicants’ Work Samples.

Quick Tips for Playwriting/Screenwriting Applicants:

In this category, you can submit up to 20 pages of Manuscript (12 pt. font), either in standard script format or double-spaced. 

Your 20 pages can include more than one project or work. However, you should supply enough text to give the panel a clear sense of each piece. Alternatively, you can focus your Manuscript on a singular piece by including a few acts or scenes from that work. 

Start your Manuscript off with a section that creates a strong sense of place or character. Your Manuscript does not necessarily have to begin from the first page of your writing.

Applications are reviewed anonymously in the initial panel review rounds, so do not include your name or CV anywhere in your Manuscript.

For more useful tips on preparing your Manuscript, check out our blog post on “The Art of the Application | Work Samples: Digital Images and PDF Manuscripts.”

Apply Now

Visit NYFA’s Submittable page to start your application.

For more information about the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, visit our website, view our Fellowships FAQ, and download the application guidelines.

Applications close Wednesday, January 23, 2019 at 11:59 PM (EST).

Past Fellows

Recent distinguished NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellows who have been recognized in this award category include:

Young Jean Lee, Playwriting/Screenwriting ’10 Jen Silverman, Playwriting/Screenwriting ’13 Lloyd Suh, Playwriting/Screenwriting ’04, ’16

Visit our website for a full list of Past Fellows.

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships are administered with leadership support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Image: Lynn Nottage (Fellow in Playwriting/Screenwriting ’94,’00; Hall of Fame ’17) at NYFA’s 2017 Hall of Fame Benefit, Photo Credit: Carl Timpone/BFA.com