(Trenton, NJ) The New Jersey State Council on the Arts held its first regular meeting of 2015 on February 25 at the Mayo Performing Arts Center which provided a fitting backdrop for the Council's 18th Annual Artists Roundtable. The event featured New Jersey artists of all disciplines who convened and exchanged information on a host of important issues of particular interest to individual artists in the state.
To emphasize the importance of artists in the life of every New Jersey community, the Arts Council used the occasion to announce the winners of the 2015 Artist Fellowship Awards in the following categories: Crafts, Photography, and Playwriting. The full list of Fellowship Award winners is listed at the end of this article.
"We are extremely proud of these talented artists." said Council Chair Elizabeth Mattson. "They represent the best of the best of our state's diverse and dynamic artistic community."
These highly competitive Artist Fellowship Awards are granted solely on the basis of independent peer panel assessment of the artistic quality taken from work samples submitted by individual New Jersey artists. The Fellowship Awards program is carried out in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
According to Executive Director Nick Paleologos, "New Jersey has one of the longest and most distinguished records of support for individual artists anywhere in the country."
In other business, the Council also released some highlights of a forthcoming report on the impact of the creative economy in New Jersey. The ten year study was the first major product of the National Consortium for Creative Placemaking-a co-sponsored initiative of the Arts Council and PlanSmart NJ-and examines key trends in the creative sectors of both the New Jersey and the US economy between 2002 and 2012.
2015 Fellowship Awards
Crafts
Pamela Sunday Jersey City Hudson $11,500
Gary DiBenedetto Hillsborough Somerset $9,000
*Jill Gower Sewell Gloucester $9,000
Jan Huling Hoboken Hudson $9,000
Alec Karros Lebanon Hunterdon $9,000
Photography
*Wendel White Galloway Atlantic $11,500
Tyler Haughey Middletown Monmouth $9,000
Jerry Hirniak Highland Park Middlesex $9,000
*Johanna Inman Oaklyn Camden $9,000
Christina Labey Jersey City Hudson $9,000
Edward Peters Totowa Passaic $9,000
Roger Sayre Jersey City Hudson $9,000
Karina Skvirsky Jersey City Hudson $9,000
Playwriting
Yasmine Rana Teaneck Bergen $11,500
Frank Avella Garfield Bergen $9,000
Kevin Caruso Spotswood Middlesex $9,000
Rosemary McLaughlin Maplewood Essex $9,000
Henry Meyerson New Brunswick Middlesex $9,000
Anthony Pennino Princeton Mercer $9,000
*Kara Shelton Mount Laurel Burlington $9,000
*South Jersey Artist
