Artist Trust Announces 2022 Fellowship Award Recipients  

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Meet the 2022 Artist Trust Fellowship Award Recipients

We are excited to announce the recipients of the 2022 Artist Trust Fellowship Awards: visual artists Crista Ann Ames, David Chatt, and Tamela Laclair; performing artists Alfonso Cervera, Nia-Amina Minor, and Jovino Santos Neto; multidisciplinary artists Kamari Bright, Camas Logue, Darrell McKinney, d.k. pan, and D.A. Navoti; media artist Neely Goniodsky; and literary artists Shin Yu Pai, Olivia Stephens, and Arianne True.Congratulations to these fifteen incredible artists, who have each received an unrestricted cash award of $10,000! We are humbled to support their brilliant work during this critical moment of transformation and recovery for our region’s artists. 

“This award represents tremendous support for my career as a musician. The past two years have seen a collapse in live performance opportunities and that has curtailed many of the musical activities that we would normally engage in,” said Artist Trust Fellowship Award recipient, Jovino Santos Neto. “With this award, I can consider recording my band in the studio once again and continue to compose and rehearse new music for the near future. My appreciation for this prize is infinite. Thank you to Artist Trust and to all who support its mission!” 

This year, we are awarding $150,000 in funding to fifteen Washington state artists, compared to $90,000 the prior year, making this the largest Artist Trust Fellowship Award cycle in our history! This increased support was made possible thanks to our generous community! In October 2021, long-time donors Greg Kucera and Larry Yocom contributed $500,000 to create two new permanent Fellowship Awards: the Greg Kucera & Larry Yocom Fellowship Award, and the Artist Trust Fellowship Award for Black Artists, both awarded for the first time this year. This gift, combined with renewed support from the Vadon Foundation and increased support from our individual donors, made it possible to provide fifteen awards this year.  

“This award marks a period in my artistic evolution where my vision, creativity, and resources are aligning. It allows me to create without the delay of having to self-fund my projects,” said Kamari Bright, the first-ever recipient of the Artist Trust Fellowship Award for Black Artists. “This award also affirms the belief that I and many others hold of the importance of art in moving humanity forward. I am honored to be in the company of the creative forces that were the previous fellowship recipients.” 

The recipient of the 2022 Vadon Foundation Fellowship Award for Native Artists is Arianne True, a poet and a member of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Nations. This award is presented in partnership with the Vadon Foundation, a Seattle-based foundation committed to sustaining healthy thriving Indigenous nations.  

Arianne True shared, “This fellowship is a balm on a soul who wants so badly more creation and more of herself. The funding means so much, especially as an artist living with chronic illness.Funding like this opens time for me like nothing else, so much time to create and rest and dive into a project I’ve been yearning to write. The named award means a lot too, being chosen for a Native fellowship. Because of the past (personal and shared), it means something special to be honored in a Native-specific way: it’s a reminder to me that we get to be who we are, and at least for me, that’s powerful.” 

Deepest gratitude to our 2022 Fellowship Awards panelists for their time, expertise, and dedication to the 2022 Fellowship process!
 

2022 Artist Trust Fellowship Recipients 

Crista Ann Ames (Visual, Kittitas County) 

Kamari Bright (Multidisciplinary, King County), Fellowship Award for Black Artists 

Alfonso Cervera (Performing, King County) 

David Chatt (Visual, King County) 

Neely Goniodsky (Media, King County) 

Tamela Laclair (Visual, Skokomish Nation – Mason County) 

Camas Logue (Multidisciplinary, Swinomish Nation – Skagit County) 

Darrell McKinney (Multidisciplinary, Pierce County), Greg Kucera & Larry Yocom Fellowship Award 

Nia-Amina Minor (Performing, King County) 

D.A. Navoti (Multidisciplinary, King County) 

Jovino Santos Neto (Performing, King County) 

Shin Yu Pai (Literary, King County) 

d.k. pan (Multidisciplinary, King County) 

Olivia Stephens (Literary, Pierce County) 

Arianne True (Literary, Pierce County), Vadon Foundation Fellowship Award for Native Artists 

 

Panelists 

Laura Da (King County) 

Grace Love (Jefferson County) 

Io Palmer (Whitman County) 

Malcolm Pelles (Whitman County) 

Mary Ann Peters (King County) 

 

The first Fellowship Awards were selected in 1987, making it Artist Trust’s longest-running award program. These unrestricted merit-based awards are given annually to Washington State artists of any discipline in recognition of artistic excellence and dedication to their practice. Artist Trust received 328 applications from artists across Washington State for the 2022 Fellowship Awards. An independent selection panel made up of artists from across Washington State representing a range of disciplines and practices reviewed the applications and met virtually over two days to select the awardees. The next cycle of the Fellowship Awards opens in October 2022, and the deadline to apply is early November. Guidelines will be posted on the Artist Trust website in September. 

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