The Maine Arts Commission’s Fellowships reward artistic excellence, advance the careers of Maine artists and promote public awareness regarding the eminence of the creative sector in Maine. The awards are made solely on the basis of artistic excellence. Due to the competitiveness of the Individual Artist Fellowship program and to avoid conflict of interest, all jurors selected for this program reside out of state. The seven fellows for 2025 are:
Addison de Lisle explores the evolution of formal craft disciplines from improvisation with found objects. In a sea of ‘products’, it is easy to forget that not only do materials derive from the natural world, but so too must the inspiration for craft itself. Observation of nature surely planted the seeds for the containers, covers, supports, and tools that populate the historical and contemporary craft landscape.
De Lisle’s work contrast found objects and natural forms with silver to hint at the origins of material culture, elevating them from innocuous to prized by association with precious metal. The ambiguity of the raw material within these finished pieces questions the act of making and the role of Craft in contemporary society.
Libby’s work embraces an aesthetic that marries her enthusiasm for the modern with her reverence for the tradition of craft. Designed and executed with balance in mind, each piece reflects equilibrium between form and function, craft and design, hand work and machine processes. Intrigued by patterns of day-to-day living, Libby develops unique and artful solutions that address functional requests; quiet and sophisticated objects that represent the sensibilities and soul of the designer and equally satisfy the vision of her clients.
Lynne Schmidt (she/they) is the queer, neurodivergent grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, and a mental health professional with a focus in trauma and healing. They are the 2025 Maine Arts Fellow, the second-place winner of the 2024 National Federation of State Poetry Societies Founders Contest, winner of the 2021 The Poetry Question Chapbook Contest, 2020 New Women's Voices Contest, a 2024 and 2020 Pushcart nominee, and an eleven time Best of the Net nominee. Lynne is the author of the chapbooks, The Unaccounted For Circles Of Hell, SexyTime, Dead Dog Poems, and Gravity. In 2012 they started the project, AbortionChat, which aims to lessen the stigma around abortion. When given the choice, Lynne prefers the company of her pack of dogs and one cat to humans.
Anita Clearfield is a media innovator and activist, pushing social boundaries with video art. In 1978, she formed one of the first all-women crews for PBS, pioneering music video techniques in a portrait of the women’s recording company, Olivia Records. She joined the Social Media Action Group, using music and storytelling for the feature documentary, “Vacation Nicaragua,” to counter US intervention in Central America and in a later feature doc, “There Ought to Be A Law,” she co-directed a portrait of a grieving mother turned gun violence activist. She has received many grants, including an American Film Institute (AFI) Independent Filmmakers Grant and a Paul Robeson Media Grant. She has won numerous awards for her films and developed a facility for moving between media, as she served in various capacities in the film and television industry -- from Hollywood to Maine Public. As a staff producer at Maine Public TV, Clearfield wrote/directed/produced docs on topics from “Malaga Island: Facing the Past,” to “The 1937 Lewiston Shoe Strike.” A member of the Artists’ Rapid Response Team (ARRT!), she co-directed a documentary about ARRT!’s founder, entitled “Natasha Mayers: an Un-Still Life.” Clearfield expanded ARRT!’s banner-making into video production by co-founding the LumenARRT! collective. Their large-scale light shows and projections on buildings reclaim public spaces, while creatively amplifying voices of Maine’s under-served and progressive communities. Clearfield holds a BFA in film (Syracuse University) and MFA (Mass Art), where she developed a personal art practice that combines painting, found objects, and animation, often collaborating with poets and creatives to visualize diverse points-of-view.
Mali Obomsawin is one of Grammy.com’s “top ten Jazz Artists to Watch this year.” An award winning bassist, songwriter and composer from Odanak First Nation, Mali’s stunning debut Sweet Tooth (2022, Out of Your Head) received international acclaim and was named in “best of” lists from The Guardian, JazzTimes, and NPR. Sweet Tooth’s success has brought Obomsawin’s touring band to major jazz festivals across the US and Canada, and landed her a triple-feature in the hit Hulu FX series Reservation Dogs soundtrack.
A Smithsonian Folkways Recordings artist, Mali spent the years 2014-2021 touring internationally with beloved folk-rock band Lula Wiles. An in-demand bassist in the folk and jazz circuits, Mali appears often as an accompanist with contemporaries like Jake Blount and Lizzie No, and has performed at premier festivals like Newport and Philly Folk Fest. She can also be found in galleries and creative music spaces with the likes of Peter Apfelbaum, Taylor Ho Bynum, and Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble. In addition to their artistic work, Obomsawin is a community organizer dedicated to land justice and tribal sovereignty.
Maurice Habimfura is a traditional dancer, choreographer, drummer and founder of Ikirenga Cy’intore, a Rwandan dance troupe based in Portland. Centuries ago, the Intore (meaning ‘chosen ones’) performed at the court of the Rwandan King. Today, Intore dancers continue the tradition by performing at Rwandan weddings, community celebrations and the welcoming of important visitors.
Habimfura first began dancing in 1995 and joined the Rwandan University Traditional Ballet in 2006, touring throughout Europe and Japan. When Habimfura arrived in Portland with his wife in 2014, he founded Ikirenga Cy’intore with support from the Rwandan community. The dance troupe performs and teaches traditional Rwandan songs, dancing and drumming throughout Maine and New England.
According to Maurice: “I have made it my mission to introduce Rwandan culture to the greater Portland community, but I could not have done it alone. This journey is as much theirs as it is mine. Together, we are keeping our culture alive and passing it on to our children.”
A passionate cultural advocate, Habimfura has also organized, produced and performed at “Tales of Bells and Drums,” an annual showcase of performing artists from Portland’s Rwandan, Burundian and Guinean communities. He has been awarded several Traditional Arts Apprenticeships from the Maine Arts Commission to teach traditional dance and music and currently serves on an advisory panel for the New England Foundation for the Arts.
Ian Trask is a sculptor and multimedia artist who transforms everyday waste materials into objects and installations with new purpose and integrity. His immersive works often play with sophisticated patterns, lending unlikely materials exquisite beauty. At other times, he works on an intimate scale with puckish humor. Trask began his career in New York City, where he was a core member of the Invisible Dog Art Center and exhibited at the Spring Break Art Fair, the Figment Festival, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. Upon returning to Maine, where he studied biology at Bowdoin College, Trask has exhibited at the University of New England, University of Maine, the Maine Historical Society, and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. In 2018, he published his first artist book, Strange Histories: A Bizarre Collaboration, and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Hyperallergic, Portland Press Herald, Brooklyn Magazine, and Maine Magazine. Trask has been an artist-in-residence at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), Mass MOCA (North Adams, MA), Marble House Project (Dorset, VT), Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), and most recently at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation (Rockland, ME). He is currently serving on the board of directors for Lights Out Gallery, a non-profit arts organization based in Norway, ME.