Artists get $15,000 Brother Thomas fellowships
Eight local artists are getting $15,000 each from the Boston Foundation in the first wave of fellowships given out in honor of Brother Thomas Bezanson, a Benedictine monk and ceramic artist who was represented by a Boston gallery. From here on out, Brother Thomas grants will be given out every two years. The judges, this time around, were former Institute of Contemporary Art curator Nicholas Baume; Emilya Cachapero, director of artistic programs for the Theatre Communications Group; Michael Cain, an associate professor at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada; Kwame Dawes, a professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina Arts Institute; Caridad Svich, a teacher at Bard College, Rutgers University and the University of Rochester; Judith Tannenbaum, Curator of Contemporary Art at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum; and Joe Zina, retired executive director of the Coolidge Corner Theatre.
The first wave of Brother Thomas grants will go to:
Filmmaker and playwright John Oluwole ADEkoje, whose film, “Street Soldiers” has been shown at the Cannes Pan African Film Festival and the Roxbury Film Festival.
Composer Kati Agóc, a member of the faculty at the New England Conservatory.
Poet Richard Hoffman, a writer in residence at Emerson College who has previously won the Barrow Street Poetry Prize for the book “Gold Star Road: Poems.”
Poet Barbara Helfgott Hyett, author of “Rift: Poems” and a visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Tufts University.
Video artist Brian Knep, the first artist in residence at Harvard Medical School and the subject of this Globe profile.
Moscow-born Alla Kovgan, a filmmaker whose work has been screened at international film festivals in Paris, Melbourne, Durban, Athens and Roxbury.
Documentarian Tracy Heather Strain, who is working on a film about writer and activist Lorraine Hansberry, author of “Raisin in the Sun.”
Jeweler Heather White, whose work is in the collections of the Museum of Art and Design in New York City and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
