MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships For Early Career ArtistsThe Minneapolis College of Art and Design is the administrative home for this fellowship for early career Minnesota-based artists. The 2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists application cycle is now closed, the four fellows and the names of the jurors have been announced below. The 2025/26 MCAD-Jerome Fellowship application cycle will open in mid-July 2025. Since 1981, this fellowship program, funded by a grant from the Jerome Foundation, has artistically and critically advanced the careers of more than 200 visual artists.The artists considered for these fellowships may work in a variety of visual art media, including traditional and new media. The program is aimed at visual artists who can present their work in a gallery context. Eligible applicants must be in the early stages of their careers and have not yet attained professional acknowledgment commensurate with the quality of their work. MCAD and the Jerome Foundation welcome applications from artists representing diverse cultural perspectives.An independent jury of three arts professionals awards four grants of $10,000 each to early- career Minnesota artists. Fellowships may be used to purchase materials, cover the production costs of new artwork, and supplement living or travel costs. During the fellowship year, each artist receives three studio visits from professional critics, access to technical assistance, a culminating exhibition at the MCAD Gallery, a catalog with a critical essay on each artist's work, and the opportunity to partake in a public panel discussion.Contact Program Director Keisha Williams or Associate Fellowship Coordinator Melanie Pankau at gallery@mcad.edu or 612.874.3667 for more information.About the Jerome FoundationThe Jerome Foundation, founded in 1964 by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), honors his legacy through multi-year grants to support the creation, development, and presentation of new works by early career artists.The Foundation makes grants to vocational early career artists, and those nonprofit arts organizations that serve them, in all disciplines in the state of Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City. 2023/24 MCAD–JeromeFellowship Exhibition Learn More Exhibition: January 17–March 1, 2025, Main Gallery Reception: Friday, January 24, 6:00–8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: Thursday, February 27, 6:00–7:00 p.m., Moderated by writer Juleana EnrightThe Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), on behalf of the Jerome Foundation, is excited to present new projects by the four recipients of the 2023/24 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists: Zoe Cinel, Leeya Rose Jackson, Prerna, and Ziba Rajabi Meet the 2024/25 FellowsOn behalf of the Jerome Foundation, Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) announces four recipients of the 2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists: Namir Fearce, Nik Nerburn, Amy Usdin, and Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj. The Jerome Foundation has supported this fellowship program since its inception in 1981.Artists were selected from 68 Minnesota-based applicants by arts professionals who included Marissa Del Toro, NXTVN Assistant Director of Programs & Exhibitions, Independent Curator, and Art Historian; Raheleh Filsoofi, Interdisciplinary and Itinerant Artist, Assistant Professor in Ceramics at Vanderbilt University; and Ruth Pszwaro, Artistic Director, Grand Marais Art Colony.Pszwaro stated: “This pool of applicants paired creative risk-taking and a desire to explore their personal narratives as subject matter with a dedication to technical excellence and deep work in the studio. It is an exciting moment for early career artists in Minnesota.”This competitive fellowship provides $10,000 to each recipient for the production of new work. In addition to being featured in a group exhibition at the MCAD Gallery, fellows have an opportunity to meet with visiting critics during the fellowship year, write an essay about their work for the exhibition catalog, and participate in a public panel discussion. Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj Ger Xiong, Re/silience Based in St. Paul, Ger Xiong/Ntxawg Xyooj was born in Thailand and immigrated to the United States in 1993 as a Hmong refugee of the Vietnam War. As one of a stateless people, Xiong creates work that explores the navigation and negotiation of cultural identity from his Hmong American experience through the lens of assimilation, colonization, and migration. Xiong/Xyooj’s work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. and published in Australia. He works primarily with metals, jewelry, adornment, and textiles. He is a Fulbright Scholar who researched, documented, and collaborated with Hmong artisans working in silversmithing and textiles in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He received his BFA with an emphasis in metals and jewelry at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and his MFA at New Mexico State University. Nik Nerburn Nik Nerburn, The Way We Grow Them Here Nik Nerburn is an artist living and working in Minneapolis. His photos, films, installations, and sculptures reflect his passion for people’s histories and places that are “off the map”. His wide-ranging work addresses urgent subjects, like toxic masculinity and the rural-urban divide, while also centering craft, generosity, trust, and humor. He works with amateur genealogists, community archivists, neighborhood clubs, small-town philosophers, and small museums. He holds an MFA from University of Minnesota and a BA from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. He teaches high-school photography in Minneapolis. Namir Fearce Namir Fearce, Middle Mama Namir Fearce is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker, originally from North Minneapolis. His studio practice engages experimental film, assemblage, sculpture, and music under the moniker Blu Bone. Informed by a constellation of Black familial sites of memory, Fearce weaves complex emo-political worldscapes that conjure futurity and freedom. In his work, Fearce utilizes the language, fashioning, and tradition of the trickster to develop kinships and an expanded empathy across species and geographies. He creates sites of ritual and ceremony–visually, sonically, and somatically–by embodying these kin species and phenomena of nature where this cross-communication, reverberation, and feedback can loop to create portals for a collective imagination. Fearce holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from University of Minnesota and a BFA in Studio Art from University of Illinois, Chicago. He was a Walker Art Center Fellow in 2020 and was a nominated director at the Black Harvest Film Festival in 2023. Fearce is the founder of Hi Cotton Experience, an arts organization and collective which holds programming exalting Black indigeneity, storytelling, cultural preservation, and radical imagination. Amy Usdin Amy Usdin, Eventide (foreground), Anymore (background) Amy Usdin weaves physical and psychological landscapes onto worn nets in work that speaks to loss, longing, and the dissonance of nostalgia. As the nets’ ragged characteristics encourage empathic response, the reconstructed sculptures weave past to present and each of us to one another. With a BFA in Graphic Communications from Washington University, St. Louis, Usdin spent years as an art director before beginning her current practice in 2018. She has hung work in both regional solo exhibitions and national and international group shows, representing the diversity and breadth of contemporary craft and fiber art. Recognition includes publication in Fiber Art Now’s Excellence in Fibers, awards from the Surface Design Association, and awards from the MN State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition, including the 2021 Textile Center Award for Excellence and Innovation. Usdin is a 2020 recipient of the Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a 2022 grantee of the Next Step Fund from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, and a 2024 recipient of the Stone and DeGuire Contemporary Art Award from Washington University. Additional MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowship Information 2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Fellowship Application Guidelines 2024/25 MCAD–Jerome Fellowship Resource Guide Past Recipients Gallery Visitor Policy The MCAD Gallery is open to the public the following hours: Monday–Friday: 9:00 a.m–7:00 p.m. Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m. All visitors must enter through the north (main) entrance, sign in at the welcome desk in the main lobby, and stay in designated gallery areas. 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