One Quad Cities artist is among 17 throughout Illinois to be honored with the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) 2024 Artist Fellowship Award (AFA).
The IAC AFAs are $15,000 awards to Illinois artists in recognition of their outstanding work and commitment within the arts.
This year, the IAC awarded 17 Illinois artists with fellowships totaling $255,000. Finalist awards of $1,500 were also awarded to 13 Illinois artists for a total of $19,500, according to a Wednesday release.
“Individual artists fuel our state’s creativity, communities, and economy,” IAC executive director Joshua Davis-Ruperto said in the release. “They tell stories, spark conversations, pass on traditions, and provide inspiration.
“IAC Fellowship Awards acknowledge, support, and celebrate the highest quality artistic work being created in Illinois,” he said. “The 2024 IAC Fellows were selected for their remarkable artistic practice and their commitment to Illinois’ communities – both within their specific regions and discipline at large. The IAC congratulates each of these extraordinary individuals.”
“These artists represent the highest levels of craft for their respective disciplines, and I’m proud to uplift their work through IAC’s Fellowship Awards,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in the release. “I look forward to seeing how they will continue to represent their communities across Illinois and grow their work, and I congratulate each of them on the award.”
The Artist Fellowship Program offered funding in seven artistic disciplines. This year’s Fellowship and Finalist Award recipients were selected from 302 Illinois-based creative artists working in Ethnic and Folk Arts, Crafts, and Visual Arts — which includes Visual-Based Arts (Installation, Mixed Media, Painting, Graphic & Drawing), Photography, and Sculpture.
Quad Cities winner
In the Crafts category, Nicole Davis of Milan was named a $15,000 fellowship winner. She’s a visual artist and educator.
Having served as a special education teacher for 21 years, Davis pivoted to pursue a career in art, according to her bio on the IAC website. In 2020, she graduated with honors from the University of Iowa with an MFA degree in painting and drawing. Her current art practice encompasses textiles, photography, and painting.
Her artwork uses the energy embodied time-honored materials to address issues related to her lived experience as a Black woman. Black feminist theory, memory, and identity are themes deeply rooted in her work. Davis was honored with numerous scholarships and fellowships in pursuit of her graduate work and has had residencies at Ox Bow.
She has been a visiting critic and/or given lectures at institutions including: Cornell College, Drake University, Divine Word College, and the Figge Art Museum. Her artwork has been shown throughout the Midwest, at the Soo Visual Arts Center, Minneapolis; Koehnline Museum in Skokie; Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids; South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, Ind., and Freeport Art Museum, Freeport, Ill.
In 2020, Davis was selected to be an Artivism Fellow for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. She is currently an Art Instructor and Gallery Coordinator for Eastern Iowa Community Colleges.
The IAC is proud to be able to provide Illinois artists with unrestricted funds in these awards that will support their creative endeavors and artistic growth, according to Wednesday’s release.
The mission of the Illinois Arts Council is “To build a strong, creative, and connected Illinois through the arts.” The Agency recognizes that Illinois’ artists are an essential component of the social fabric and economic vibrancy of the state.
The Artist Fellowship Awardees and Finalists are representative of the diversity found in the arts across Illinois and represent a diversity of age, gender, and geographic locations.
For brief bios on all the Artist Fellowship Awardees, click HERE.
