UAlbany Home to Five NYFA 2015 Artists' Fellowship Recipients 

Firefall, courtesy of Adam Frelin.

ALBANY, N.Y. (August 13, 2015) - Five individuals associated with the University at Albany’s College of Arts and Sciences were named recipients of the New York Foundation for the Arts 2015 Artists’ Fellowship Program awards.

From the Department of Art and Art History, full-time lecturer Melissa Thorne and former MFA students Jenny Kemp ’12, and Jansson Stegner ’01, received the 2015 NYFA Fellowship for painting.

Also from the art department, Associate Professor Adam Frelin received the fellowship in the interdisciplinary work category. Frelin is the artist recently named a $1 million Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge award winner for his project, Breathing Lights.

In addition, Associate Professor of English Edward Schwarzschild won a 2015 NYFA fellowship for fiction writing.

Screen Study, 2014, courtesy of Melissa Thorne. Site-specific painting on exterior wall, Pereira da Silva community, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“I am delighted that three of our faculty members and two former students have been recognized by their peers for their outstanding work,” said Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Elga Wulfert. “These fellowships are a true affirmation of their creative talent and the high quality of their artistic accomplishments.”

The Artists’ Fellowship Program makes unrestricted cash grants of $7,000 to artists working in 15 disciplines, awarding five per year on a triennial basis.

“This is a very distinctive, competitive award that signals not just excellence in creative practice, but relevance to the field in which that practice is located, as judged by peers,” said Associate Professor of Art Danny Goodwin, a former fellow. Of more than 2,600 applicants, only a handful were selected for the awards in each category.

“UAlbany has a remarkable track-record of recipients not only this year, but in recent years many alumni and faculty have also been included,” said Goodwin. “While the bulk of the artists and writers tend to hail from Manhattan, Brooklyn, or Queens, we are increasingly seeing the roster peppered with those located in Troy, Albany, and surrounding areas. It is no stretch to speak now of this area as something of a powerhouse of creative talent.”

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