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20 artists receive funding from Great Meadows Foundation

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Al Shands

A newly formed arts-granting organization has awarded funding to several Kentucky artists during its inaugural grant cycle.

The Louisville-based Great Meadows Foundation recognized 20 Kentucky artists, including four recipients of the Kentucky Arts Council’s Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship, with Artists Professional Development Grants. The grants allow artists to travel to conferences, major exhibitions and art fairs to network with professionals in the field whose expertise can help them develop their practice.

Great Meadows is a grant-giving organization, launched in 2016 by contemporary art collector and philanthropist Al Shands, a winner of the Governor’s Awards in the Arts Milner Award. Its mission is to strengthen and support the visual arts in Kentucky by empowering the commonwealth’s artists and other visual-arts professionals to research, connect and participate more actively in the broader contemporary art world.

“We received 36 very good applications for this inaugural program and are proud that with these 19 grants, we will be able to help 20 artists fulfill travel projects that will expand their horizons, help them build new connections and support their growth as artists,” said Great Meadows Foundation Director Julien Robson.

The four Al Smith Fellowship recipients receiving Artists Professional Development Grants are Valerie Sullivan Fuchs of Shelbyville, Elizabeth Mesa-Gaido of Morehead, Letitia Quesenberry of Louisville and James Robert Southard of Lexington.

Recipient Dave Caudill of Louisville is an adjudicated member of the arts council’s Kentucky Crafted program and Architectural Artists Directory.

Other artists receiving grants from Great Meadows Foundation include: Kayla Bischoff, Louisville; Mary Carothers, Louisville; Brian Harper, New Albany, Ind.; Kenneth Hayden, Louisville; Jacob Heustis, Louisville; Amira Karaoud, Louisville; Jonathan McFadden, Lexington; Neli Ouzounova, Bowling Green; a collaboration between Stacey Reason and Andrew Cozzens, Louisville; Kristin Richards, Louisville; Nathan G. Smith, Louisville; Skylar Smith, Louisville; Richard Sullivan, Louisville; and Sarah West, Mt. Sterling.

The Great Meadows Artists Professional Development Grant is another great opportunity for Kentucky artists to broaden their horizons and move their creative careers forward. The grant has three deadlines per year. The deadline for the foundation’s next grant cycle is midnight, Nov. 20, for proposals that include travel carried out between Jan. 6 and June 30, 2017.

For more information, visit the Great Meadows Foundation website, greatmeadowsfoundation.org.