Fellows Archive 2011
The Individual Artist Fellowships, and Traditional Arts Fellowship, 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 on the sole 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 four fellows for 2011 are:
Ethan Hayes-Chute
Ethan Hayes-Chute, from Freeport, is the Maine Arts Commission 2011 Visual Arts Fellow. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, holding a BFA in Painting. His Residencies include Nordic Artists' Centre Dalsåsen (NKD), Norway, spring 2011; Hóll - The Birgir Andrésson Residency, Seydisfjödur, Iceland, October 2010; and Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, September 2010. His awards include: NKD Fellow, Nordic Artists' Centre, Dalsåsen, Norway, 2009; the Golden Foundation Fellowship, Vermont Studio Center, 2009 and the Jurors' Prize at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art's 2006 Biennial Juried Exhibition.Elizabeth Kirschner
Elizabeth Kirschner, from Kittery Point, is the 2011 Maine Arts Commission Literary Arts Fellow. Elizabeth has enjoyed residencies at McDowell and Yaddo. Her awards include: Reader’s Award for Walking the Wife, New Letters 2009. Honorable mention for The Collector’s Favorite Doll, Nimrod Contest, 2009.Nominee Lenore Marshall Prize, 2009.Nominee, Patterson Poetry Book Prize, 2008. Finalist Award, Massachusetts Cultural Council, 1990.Finalist Award, Grolier Poetry Prize, 1989.Individual Artist Grant, The New Hampshire State Arts Council, 1985. She is currently teaching creative writing in the MFA program at Fairfield University.Theresa Secord
Theresa Secord, from Waterville, is the 2011 Traditional Arts Fellow. She is the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, a former member of the board for the New England Foundation for the Arts, and is the recipient of numerous honors, including the United Nations Women’s World Summit Foundation Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life.Deborah Wing-Sproul
Deborah Wing-Sproul, from Cape Elizabeth, is the 2011 Media and Performing Arts Fellow. She is a multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in live performance and performance-based video. Her background in modern dance and choreography informs her current arts practice and influences the work she produces. Deborah’s current long-term itinerant work, Tidal Culture (2004), is an interdisciplinary project which reveals itself to the viewer through objects formed from seaweed, durational performance-based video, as well as large-scale photographic prints. Producing this work has taken her to the North Atlantic shorelines of Maine, Newfoundland, Greenland, and Iceland. The continuing project is scheduled to travel to the Faroe Islands, the Outer Hebrides and Ireland.