Home » Applications being accepted for Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and Emerging Artist Award

Applications being accepted for Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and Emerging Artist Award

Deadline to apply Feb. 16

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Jan. 28, 2016) — The Kentucky Arts Council is accepting applications for the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and the Emerging Artist Award for individual artists. The current application cycle is open to writers of fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry, and choreographers.

artsThe Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship program supports Kentucky artists engaged in creating work of high quality and recognizes creative excellence among professional artists. Fellowships are unrestricted $7,500 awards.

The Emerging Artist Award is a $1,000 unrestricted award to early career, professional Kentucky artists who demonstrate excellence and creativity in their work.

Murray poet Carrie Jerrell received an Al Smith Fellowship in 2015, and said the award translated to more time she could spend doing research and finding inspiration for a book of poems she is writing on the mythology and reality of the American west.

“Time is what every artist needs,” said Jerrell, who also teaches at Murray State University. “I spent three weeks traveling before I started my writing residency last summer in Nebraska. It was time I didn’t have to teach in the summer to try to get the money to do it next year. It gives you time to think, time to write, time to see the things that inspire you or help you figure out what it is you’re going to do. It’s good to imagine, but to be in it for a little while is so much more useful. It was priceless. The fellowship allowed me to do the residency, which was great, but it also allowed me the benefit of travel to prep my mind for the residency.”

Guidelines for the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship and the Emerging Artist Award applications can be found at the arts council’s website. Applications are judged by a panel of independent arts professionals on artistic excellence and professional achievement.

The application deadline for both awards is Feb. 16.

Interested parties, or those who have questions or need more information, should contact Tamara Coffey, individual artist director, at 502-564-3757, ext. 479, or [email protected].