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Announcing the 2025 Fellowship Award Recipients
Published: April 8, 2025
Categories: Featured | Grants & Fellowships
$150,000 to 15 artists across five Washington State counties
We are proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 Artist Trust Fellowship Awards! Artist Trust Fellowships are merit-based awards of $10,000 providing unrestricted support to practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and ability residing in Washington State. The first Artist Trust Fellowship Awards were selected in 1987, making it our longest-running award program.
About the 2025 Recipients
In this tumultuous year, it feels incredibly meaningful to support these fifteen powerful voices and their critical work. With $150,000 reaching fifteen Washington State artists, the 2025 Fellowship Award recipients include literary artists Ernest Langston, Tamiko Nimura, and Troy Osaki; media artist Diamond Beverly-Porter; performing artists Campana, Hanna Eady, Mehrdad Gholami, Stephanie Johnson, Ellaina Lewis, and Tracey Wong; and visual artists Douglas Burgess, Stefan Gonzales, Natalie Krick, Mana Mehrabian, and Yongqi Tang.
About this year’s Awards
The need for support for Washington State artists remains high. This year, Artist Trust received 408 applications from artists residing in 23 different counties across Washington State—a 33% increase in applicants from 2024. An independent panel of practicing artists representing a range of disciplines reviewed this year’s applications and met virtually over two days to select the awardees.
Yongqi Tang, Eros/Thanatos: Death and the Maiden, oil on canvas, 106 x 158″, 2023, Image Courtesy of T293 Gallery. Photo credit: Daniele Molajoli
Tracey Wong, Feeling Good, 9×16, 2024, Pat Bangle
Tamiko Nimura, Cover of co-authored graphic novel, We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration (Chin Music Press, 2021)“I am truly honored and excited to receive this award, which is one of the top fellowship opportunities in Washington state. Being an artist is lonely, and it could be hard to not doubt myself and my work when I have been trapped in the studio alone for too long. The award gives me the recognition and reassurance to keep going, so it means more than just the financial support.”
–Yongqi Tang (Visual, King)
2025 Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom Fellowship Award
”I’m very grateful for this award, which allows me to expand my practice and continue sharing my work. In this time of uncertainty, this support encourages, motivates, and empowers me, and I’m excited to express and share this energy through my practice.”
–Mana Mehrabian (Visual, Whitman)
More information about the 2024 Fellowship recipients and selection panelists is listed below. Click the links below to view biographies and work for each award recipients.
2025 Artist Trust Fellowship Recipients
Lillian Miller Foundation Fellowship for Trans* and Indigiqueer Artists 2025
Stefan Gonzales
King County
2025 Fellowship Award Panelists
June T. Sanders (Multidisciplinary, Whitman)
Nia-Amina Minor (Performing, King)
Ricardo de la Torre (Performing, Pierce)
Lila Thomas (Visual, King)
Christina Vega (Literary, Pierce)
Thank you to our donors & partners!
Artist Trust’s support of artists, including the Fellowship program, is made possible through generous donations and community partnerships.
Of the fifteen Artist Trust Fellowships, four were created through specific partnerships with The Lillian Miller Educational Foundation, The Vadon Foundation, and long-time donors Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, whose endowment gift funds the Artist Trust Fellowship for Black Artists and The Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom Fellowship Award in perpetuity.
Thank you to our 2025 community supporters: 4Culture, The Estate of Nancy Alvord, Eve and Chap Alvord, Joan Alworth and Peter Ackroyd, Amazon, Anonymous (3), ArtsFund, the Artist Trust Board of Trustees, Attendees of and Donors to the Artist Trust Annual Benefit Art Auction, ArtsWA, Conru Arts Foundation, The Dale & Leslie Chihuly Foundation, Stephanie Ellis-Smith and Doug Smith, Katharyn Alvord Gerlich, Phyllis Hatfield, Mattie Iverson, Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation, The Klorfine Foundation, Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom, Alida and Christopher Latham, The Lillian Miller Educational Foundation, Lorna Jordan Foundation, Mary Pigott, The Norcliffe Foundation, Roy H. and Natalie C. Roberts Family Foundation, Merrill Wagner Ryman, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, William True, Susan Wagner, and The Vadon Foundation.
Each of these extraordinary partners made an unrestricted gift of $10,000 or more to Artist Trust or gave specifically to create a dedicated Fellowship Award. To join them, contact info@artistrust.org
Mana Mehrabian, Too Much to Carry, Re(collection) and Cache, 2024, installation view, The Vestibule, Seattle, WA,
Ellaina Lewis, Soprano Soloist, Handel’s Messiah with Harmonia Orchestra & Chorus. Photo: Carlin Ma2025 Fellowship AwardsAnnouncementFellowship AwardsGrants For Artists
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Image: Peggy Piacenza, 2024 Fellowship Recipient