2011 Maine Artist Fellows
The Individual Artist Fellowships and Traditional Arts Fellowship reward artistic excellence, advance the careers of Maine artists, and promote public awareness of the strength and distinction of Maine’s creative sector. Awards are made solely on the basis of artistic excellence. Due to the competitiveness of the Individual Artist Fellowship program and to avoid conflicts of interest, all jurors selected for the program reside outside Maine. The 4 Fellows for 2011 are featured below.
Meet the 2011 Fellows
Visual Arts Fellow
Ethan Hayes-Chute
Ethan Hayes-Chute of Freeport graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BFA in Painting.
His residencies included Nordic Artists’ Centre Dalsåsen in Norway, Hóll, the Birgir Andrésson Residency in Iceland, and Vermont Studio Center.
His honors included fellowships at Nordic Artists’ Centre and Vermont Studio Center and the Jurors’ Prize at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s 2006 Biennial Juried Exhibition.
Literary Arts Fellow
Elizabeth Kirschner
Elizabeth Kirschner of Kittery Point completed residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo.
Her honors included the New Letters Readers Award, recognition from the Nimrod literary contest, nominations for the Lenore Marshall Prize and Patterson Poetry Book Prize, and awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.
Elizabeth taught creative writing in the MFA program at Fairfield University.
Traditional Arts Fellow
Theresa Secord
Theresa Secord of Waterville is the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance.
She served on the board of the New England Foundation for the Arts and received numerous honors, including the United Nations Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life.
Media and Performing Arts Fellow
Deborah Wing-Sproul
Deborah Wing-Sproul of Cape Elizabeth is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in live performance and performance-based video.
Her background in modern dance and choreography informs her practice and the work she produces.
Her long-term itinerant work Tidal Culture uses seaweed objects, durational performance-based video, and large-scale photographic prints. The project developed along North Atlantic shorelines in Maine, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland, with future travel planned to the Faroe Islands, Outer Hebrides, and Ireland.
Maine Artist Fellows by Year
View current and past Maine Artist Fellows by calendar year. New Fellows begin their fellowship term at the start of each calendar year.