ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS

Daryl Kwasi Burgee: A musician and leading educator with four decades of expertise in West African music and cultural traditions, Burgee is the founder and artistic director of Spoken Hand Percussion Orchestra and Jaasu Ballet African Dance. He has played on more than 250 recordings with a wide range of artists, performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and taught in schools throughout the Delaware Valley as well as nationally and internationally.

Vashti Dubois: Dubois is a social practice artist and multidisciplinary cultural producer. She is the founder and executive director of The Colored Girls Museum, which "honors the stories, experiences, and history of ordinary Colored Girls.” Her artistic work includes the forthcoming book Housework: A Memoir, curation, and multidisciplinary performances that address issues such as black feminism, housing, public health, and the juvenile justice system. thecoloredgirlsmuseum.com

Maori Karmael Holmes: Holmes is a curator, filmmaker, and writer who has organized programs across the US and whose films have screened internationally. She is the founder and chief executive & artistic officer of BlackStar Projects, which produces year-round programming and a highly acclaimed annual film festival centered on the work of Black, Brown, and Indigenous artists. blackstarfest.org

Homer Jackson: An interdisciplinary artist, curator, and producer, Jackson uses multimedia, live performance, and audience participation to tell stories and investigate elements of the Black experience in America. He has over 30 years’ experience as a teaching artist working in community settings and is executive director of the Philadelphia Jazz Project. philajazzproject.org

Wit López: As a multidisciplinary visual artist, performance artist, and essayist, López combines the skills of fiber art, painting, collage, and photography with elements of theater and classical music to explore accessibility, queerness, gender identity, Blackness, and Latinidad. López is founder and artistic director of Till Arts Project, which provides resources for LGBTQ+ artists and creators. witlopez.com

Roberto Lugo: Lugo is a visual artist, social activist, poet, and educator whose ceramic works blend classical pottery forms and decorative patterns with iconography reminiscent of his North Philadelphia upbringing and hip-hop culture. Highlighting themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice, his work has received international recognition and is held in the permanent collections of several museums. robertolugostudio.com

Louis Massiah: Massiah is a documentary filmmaker whose work has been broadcast on PBS and screened at festivals and museums internationally. He is the founder and director of Scribe Video Center. Massiah has earned numerous honors for his 40 years of innovation in documentary filmmaking and community-based media that centers the stories and voices of Black people and all those who are offering a vision for progressive social change. scribe.org

Pepón Osorio: A multimedia visual artist, socially engaged practitioner, and educator, Osorio has worked with communities across the US and internationally over his 30-plus-year career, creating installations based on people’s real-life experiences and merging conceptual art and community dynamics. His work has been presented at major museums as well as in storefronts, department stores, and homes throughout the world. tyler.temple.edu

Ursula Rucker: Rucker is a poet, performer, recording artist, and activist whose work reflects on personal history, family, place, and social justice. Over her career spanning nearly three decades, Rucker has released five albums and collaborated with a wide range of artists and cultural organizations. She is a mentor to emerging poets and a creator and facilitator of programs for communities across Philadelphia. instagram.com/urucker

Sinta Penyami Storms: Storms is a dance artist and community leader dedicated to preserving and promoting Indonesian tradition and culture as well as raising awareness of social justice and immigration issues. She is the founder of Modero & Company dance group, offering programs to bring Philadelphia's Indonesian community together and presenting performances throughout the city. sintapenyami.com

Andrea Walls: With nearly 30 years as a multidisciplinary artist, poet, and curator, Walls celebrates and commemorates Black life and culture in Philadelphia and beyond through platforms such as the online Museum of Black Joy and the Black Joy Symposium, a series of programs to “imagine and ritualize an opulent Black future rooted in joy.” museumofblackjoy.com/the-artist

Yolanda Wisher: As a poet, singer, educator, and curator, Wisher has been commissioned by and organized major programs and events with numerous organizations. Her work engages poetry as both an intimate and shared public experience and as a vehicle to nurture and mobilize communities. Wisher has been Poet Laureate of Philadelphia and of Montgomery County. yolandawisher.com

Two Artist Fellowship cycles were offered, the first in 2022 and concluding with the 2024 cohort. General operating support grants were awarded in 2022, and project grants were awarded in 2024.

During each of the two cycles, up to 12 BIPOC artists or artist collectives receive awards of at least $75,000 in unrestricted funds. Of these, awardees who have made a meaningful difference in Philadelphia’s cultural landscape for 20 years or more are eligible to receive $120,000 in unrestricted funds. Additionally, $15,000 is awarded to each Fellow for deposit into a qualified retirement account.

As a collaborator in this regional initiative, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage administered the nomination and panel review process, which was designed based on a research and community listening effort led by Risë Wilson, an artist, community organizer, activist, strategic planner, curriculum developer, and nonprofit consultant.

To encourage an applicant pool that represents the breadth of creativity and diversity of BIPOC cultural practices in the Philadelphia region (in terms of neighborhood, discipline, gender, age, and ethnic diversity), the pool of nominators for Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures Artist Fellowships was equally diverse.

These nominators were asked to name either an artist or a collaborative of artists by sharing written narratives and work samples for their nominee. 36 nominators with expertise in a range of artistic disciplines participated in the 2024 cycle.

After the nomination process concluded, a diverse selection panel representing a broad range of backgrounds—artistically, culturally, generationally, and geographically—reviewed all nominations and from this group recommended the group of Fellows to the funders.

2024 Panelists

Linda Earle, Retired Professor of Practice, Arts Management & Art History, Tyler School of Art + Architecture
Joyce Chung, Curator, Asian Arts Initiative
James Claiborne, Deputy Director for Community Engagement, The Barnes Foundation
Shannon Maldonado, Founder & Creative Director, YOWIE
Jamie Brunson, Executive Director & Playwright, First Person Arts

2024 Nominators

Tailinh Agoyo
Miranda Alexander
Nina Ball
Daryl Burgee
Mark Christman
Rafael Damast
Vashti Dubois
Angel Edwards
Denice Frohman
Rami George
Morgan Green
Helen Haynes
Dustin Hurt
Anne Ishii
John Jarboe
Maori Karmael Holmes
Nehad Khader
Dave Kyu
Wit Lopez
Marángeli Mejia-Rabell
LaNeshe Miller-White
Selina Morales
Indah Nuritasari
Sinta Penyami Storms
Ursula Rucker
Gabriela Sanchez
Atif Sheikh
Gerard Silva
Al Simpkins
Daniel Tucker
Lisa Volta
Andrea Walls
Brittany Webb
Fasina Wilkie
Yolanda Wisher
Aisha Zia Khanscription

2022 Panelists

Linda Earle, Professor of Practice, Associate Graduate Director, Tyler School of Art + Architecture
Cass Green, Artist & Community Organizer
Dave Kyu, Artist & Writer; Creative Supervisor, Asian Arts Initiative
Selina Morales, Folklife Strategist & Consultant
Dr. George Starks, Professor Emeritus, Music, Drexel University

2022 Nominators & Community Advisors

David Acosta
Beth Feldman Brandt
Denise Brown
King Britt
James Claiborne
Laurin Frierson
Helen Gym
Linda Holmes
Maori Karmael Holmes
Germaine Ingram
Anne Ishii
Homer Jackson
Thora Jacobson
Aviva Kapust
Sarah Kolker
Jaamil Olawale Kosoko
Alice Lesnick
Julia Lopez
Ken Lum
Magda Martinez
Trapeta B. Mayson
Jennifer-Navva Milliken
Trinity Norwood
José Ortiz-Pagán
Pepón Osorio
jumatatu m. poe
Victoria Prizzia
Jennifer Rice
Brett Robinson
El Sawyer
Hazami Sayed
Naomi Sturm-Wijesinghe
Li Sumpter
Anthony Tidd
Daniel Tucker
Dyana Williams
Jennifer Zwilling

Nominators and panelists are asked to consider the same criteria when deciding who qualifies as a Philadelphia’s Culture Treasures Fellow, focusing on the following three considerations:

Quality of Craft

• Have successfully completed compelling works

• Their work provides insights into their culture and has resonance within their stated communities

• Seeks or creates opportunities to engage their stated communities in their practice whether as participant, collaborator, or audience. Ensures their work is accessible beyond white audiences or traditional patrons of the arts

• Strong work samples, where the work reflects thoughtful, clear objectives that have been executed well in terms of technical skill, as well as in terms of the artist’s intended social impact if their practice is a socially engaged art form

Quality of Service

• Breadth of service – engages in more than one type of service (e.g., mentors peers AND provides mutual aid or creates paid opportunities for peers AND brings programs to community-based organizations, etc.); serves more than one beneficiary group (e.g., veteran artists AND young people in their neighborhood, or specific organizational partners AND various peer groups, etc.)

• Compensation – the nominee provides acts of service gratis or does so from a paid position

• Described Impact – the nominator can attest to why the nominee’s acts of service are meaningful (whether as a recipient or as a witness) through specific/tangible examples

Commitment to Philly

• Work/Career has been primarily based in Philadelphia for at least 5 years; additional consideration for nominees whose length of service to Philly has been 20 years or more

Nominees must identify as a Black person, Indigenous person, or person of color.

Nominees may be engaged in and across any artistic disciplines, including but not limited to: architecture and design, archiving and archival work, craft, choreography, folk and traditional arts, literature, media, music composition, playwriting and theater, performance art and public engagement, socially engaged art, and visual art.

Collaborative teams with a history of working together are eligible if a majority of the members meet all other eligibility criteria.

Nominees must have a track record of both functioning as artists or cultural workers and investing themselves in Philadelphia’s cultural community for at least five years. Nominees who are eligible for the $120,000 grant must have a track record of contributing to their communities for 20 years or more.

Artists may not be current employees of any of the funding partners, including The Barra Foundation, Neubauer Family Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage or The Pew Charitable Trusts, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation. Furthermore, they cannot be members of such employees' households, or people closely related to such employees through blood, marriage, or domestic partnership.

Nomination has no bearing on whether an artist can receive future support (or has received past support) from any of the funding partners.

Artists who hold academic positions are eligible for support; however special consideration will be given for artists who operate independently without the support of an institutional affiliation.