Visual Arts Fellowships

WHAT IS A VISUAL ARTS FELLOWSHIP?

Visual Arts Fellowships are $3,000 unrestricted awards of merit, based on the artist’s portfolio, honoring the work of Wyoming visual artists whose work reflects serious and exceptional aesthetic investigation. Artists working in any media, including film and video, may apply. Applications are juried by noted artists, curators, and others in the visual arts from outside the state. Up to three fellowships may be given each year, and jurors may also select honorable mentions.

Recipients of the Visual Arts fellowships exhibit their work in the Wyoming Arts Council Biennial Exhibit, held every two years at a major visual arts institution or museum in the state. The exhibition is curated by one of the jurors, who serves on the panel for two years. Submissions are currently not being accepted. Applications for the next round of fellowships will open in spring 2021.

2021 Visual Arts Fellowship Recipients

Diana Baumbach | Laramie, WY

Originally from Oak Park, IL, Diana Baumbach earned her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis (2003) and her MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2007). In addition to numerous juried and invitational group shows, she has had recent solo exhibitions at Colorado State University, University of South Carolina and Washington State University. Baumbach has undertaken public art projects at the Hudson Museum (Rotterdam, NL), Sun Valley Center for the Arts (ID), The Children’s Learning Center (WY) and the Albany County Public Library (WY), among others. She received a Visual Art Fellowship Award once before (2015) after receiving Honorable Mention three times (2011, 2013 & 2014). Baumbach is currently an Associate Professor and Foundations Coordinator at the University of Wyoming. She has lived in Laramie since 2007 with her husband and sons.

Shawn Bush | Casper, WY

Lens based artist Shawn Bush grew up in Detroit MI, a city whose civic history and geographic location has profoundly influenced the way he thinks about space within the American sociopolitical landscape. His videos, photographs and in-camera large format collages are responsive to over-built systems, failing icons and crumbling mythologies. Bush earned an MFA in Photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and BA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago. He is a 2020 Wyoming Arts Council Fellow, a recipient of the 2017 Lenscratch Student Prize and the 2016 T.C Colley Grant for excellence in lens-based media. His debut artist book A Golden State won first prize in the handmade category at the 2016 Lucie Photobook Prize (NYC) and is included in several noted collections, including the Griffin Museum of Photography (Boston, MA), Benaki Museum (Athens, Greece) and Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago, IL). A Golden State was published by Skylark Editions (Chicago, IL) in 2018.  His upcoming collaborative project with Chase Barnes titled The Tower, The Range which will be released through Dais Books (Wyoming, USA) in 2022 and his next monograph Between Gods and Animals will be published through VOID (Athens, Greece) in 2021. Bush is the founder of Dais Books and Associate Instructor of Photography at Casper College.

Rachel Hawkinson | Casper, WY

Casper, Wyoming based metalsmith, Rachel Hawkinson has been pushing the boundaries of traditional metalsmithing since 2010. While earning her bachelors in Humanities and Fine Arts through the University of Wyoming, she began to focus on jewelry as sculpture by fabricating individual displays that break from tradition, creating new concepts of what jewelry can be when it is not being utilized as personal adornment. In 2015 Rachel founded her own metalsmithing business, T. Hawk Studio. She has since taken on projects such as commercial jewelry design, a variety of custom projects and participated in many juried, group and solo exhibitions, including her most recent solo exhibit, Flying Frippery at Scarlow’s Gallery. 

Rachel has been featured in The Casper Star Tribune, Expressions Magazine and Rural Advantage Magazine. She has participated in workshops with world renowned metal artist Andy Cooperman and Colorado based artist, Ira Sherman. She looks forward to pursuing her education in metalsmithing and continuing to push the conceptual boundaries of what jewelry can be. 

Honorable mentions were awarded to Barrie Bryant of Kirby, Carli Holcomb of Casper, and Mona Monroe of Alta.

Previous Visual Arts Fellowship Recipients

List of Previous Recipients