163 Artists Awarded MacDowell Fellowships

An international group of 163 talented artists working in multiple disciplines have been awarded Fellowships at MacDowell, the nation’s preeminent artist residency program. The renowned Fellowships are distributed by seven discipline-specific admissions panels who choose artists in a blind process based solely on the content of their proposed projects and work samples. This latest group of individuals was chosen from MacDowell’s second largest applicant pool in its history for an admissions rate of 8 percent.

The arriving artists include architectural critic Mimi Zeiger; authors Curtis Sittenfeld and Andrew Sean Greer; writer and chef Samin Nosrat; filmmakers Ingrid Jungermann and Sahraa Karimi; choreographer Bebe Miller; multidisciplinary artists Bentrice Jusu and Ahamefule J. Oluo; playwrights Daaimah Mubashshir and Christopher Shinn; and visual artists Mark Thomas Gibson and Miguel Braceli. The Fellowship awardees range in age from 21 to 72 and will be traveling to Peterborough from 30 U.S. states, Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Nigeria, Portugal, and Switzerland. More than half identify as women while close to 30 percent identify as men with the remaining artists identifying as gender expansive. Some 70 percent will visit MacDowell for the first time and almost 60 percent of the incoming artists self-identify as artists of color.

“The incoming group showcases the wonderfully diverse and immensely creative artists that have been a feature of the MacDowell culture for several years now,” said Executive Director Chiwoniso Kaitano, who began in her role last March. “In continuing our legacy of awarding Fellowships to some of the world’s most innovative and original minds and art makers, we are welcoming a remarkable group of artists this autumn and winter and hope they find the quiet, inspiration, and community that has worked its magic for so many others in the past. This is a group we anticipate will be leaving their own indelible marks on world culture for years to come.”

For this last round of Fellowships, 2,034 applications were reviewed by a panel of renowned professionals in each discipline who make their selections based on applicants’ vision and talent as reflected by work samples and a project description. Each year, MacDowell awards about 300 Fellowships, with a maximum expense-free stay of six weeks each. Fellows receive a studio, living quarters, and three nutritious meals a day in a supportive multi-disciplinary environment unique to MacDowell. Needs-based stipends are available to artists who would not otherwise be able to afford the time away from home or work that a Fellowship requires. The next application period opens on January 1, 2024, with a deadline of February 10 for residencies to be scheduled from September through March of 2025.

According to discipline, incoming Fellows are:

• Architects: Kevin Benham, Brandon Clifford, Hamish Lonergan, Ryan Tyler Martinez, Francesca Mavaracchio, Brittany Utting, and Mimi Zeiger.
• Composers: Lembit Beecher, Eve Beglarian, Paul Brantley, Luke Carlson, Chaya Czernowin, Kevin Day, Tyler Eschendal, Daniel Felsenfeld, Hannah Marks, Migiwa Miyajima, Dafna Naphtali, Alvaro Nunez Carbullanca, Jeffrey Nytch, Frank Ticheli, and Philip Venables.
• Film/Video artists: Lilli Carré, Burak Cevik, Elenie Chung, Ryan Craver, Ewurakua Dawson-Amoah, Carl Elsaesser, Ingrid Jungermann, Sahraa Karimi, Hazel Katz, Dwayne LeBlanc, Jennie Livingston, Alena Lodkina, Mireya Martinez, Ross Meckfessel, Alex Morelli, Darol Olu Kae, Rajee Samarasinghe, Alisha Tejpal, Qiong Wang, and Sasha Wortzel.
• Interdisciplinary artists: Jisoo Chung, Andrew Demirjian, Carmina Escobar, Bentrice Jusu, Ivy McLendon, Bebe Miller, Elizabeth Miller, Kameron Neal, Ahamefule J. Oluo, Andrew Ondrejcak, Amina Ross, and SA Smythe.
• Theatre artists: Amy Berryman, Anooj Bhandari, Amara Janae Brady, Steph Del Rosso, Carolina Do, Sam Grabiner, Jesse Jae Hoon, C.A. Johnson, Peter Kim George, Diana Lobontiu, Luz Lorenzana Twigg, Daaimah Mubashshir, Aya Ogawa, Carmen Pelaez, Kevin Renn, Christopher Shinn, and Ken Urban.
• Visual artists: Roya Amigh, Tatiana Arocha, Hannah Beerman, Miguel Braceli, Erwin Brea, Susan Campbell, Cameron Clayborn, Nancy Cohen, Monica de Miranda, James Esber, Mark Thomas Gibson, Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva, Patte Loper, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Sarah McKenzie, Elliot Mercer, Kristen Mills, Toni Pepe, Shelley Reed, Pallavi Sen, Rebecca Soderholm, Yubing Tan, Tree Williams, and Yixuan Wu.
• Poets and writers: Adams Adeosun, Ally Ang, Cyd Apellido, Harrison Candelaria Fletcher, Jennifer Chang, Kirsten Shu-ying Chen, Adrienne Chung, Ama Codjoe, Robert Colgate, Katie Condon, Garrard Conley, David DeGusta, Erica Frederick, Mary Gaitskill, Racquel Goodison, Rachel Greenwald Smith, Andrew Sean Greer, Rachel E. Gross, Tess Gunty, Rachel Han, Ronnie Huett, Zainab Hussein, Allegra Hyde, Osahon Ize-Iyamu, Jared Jackson, Roland Jackson, May Jeong, Rogelio Juarez, Jennifer Krasinski, Ru Kuwahata, Cesario Lavery, JC Lee, Matthew Lippman, Victor Lodato, Anne Haven McDonnell, Rebecca Nagle, Jandy Nelson, Diana Khoi Nguyen, Elizabeth Nicholas, Samin Nosrat, Tomi Obaro, Enuma Okoro, Lilliam Rivera, A.J. Rodriguez, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Abby Santamaria, Caroline Schmidt, Giada Scodellaro, Eleni Sikelianos, Curtis Sittenfeld, Barbara Sostaita, Laura Spence-Ash, Gwen Strauss, Maureen Sun, Anya Ulinich, Sarah Wang, Robin Wasserman, and Jenny Zhang.

For more than a century, MacDowell has provided uninterrupted time to reflect, innovate, study, practice, and create, and its Fellows have contributed significantly to American and world culture and been honored with numerous awards and accolades. MacDowell is a haven of creativity and strives to make its residency program accessible and possible for all artists. Applicants with demonstrated financial need are eligible to receive travel grants and stipends that offset expenses accrued at home during their residency.