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Bush Artist Program Chooses 39 Fellowship Finalists

March 31, 2009—

Five panels of nationally recognized artists and other arts professionals have chosen 39 writers, performers and composers as finalists for the 2009 Bush Artist Fellowships (BAF) from a competitive field of 414 applicants. The $50,000 fellowship is the largest artist grant in the Upper Midwest and one of only three open-application artist fellowships of this size in the United States.

Click on the following link for bios and photos of the finalists.

39 Finalists for Artist Fellowships Chosen

The Bush Artist Fellowships provides artists who exhibit strong vision, creative energy, commitment to excellence and evidence of perseverance with $48,000 in unrestricted funds. In addition, fellows receive assistance in developing an individualized communications plan, along with $2,000 to implement the plan. All BAF finalists will receive $1,000 in recognition of their accomplishments.

The 2009 fellowships are focused on five categories: script works (for playwrights and screen writers), literary arts (all genres of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and experimental forms), performance-based work (choreography, storytelling, spoken-word, puppetry, movement/physical performance, performance art, interdisciplinary and devised theatrical works), music composition (jazz, blues, chamber, symphonic, choral, electronic, experimental or singer/songwriters) and traditional and ethnic performing arts (music, dance and storytelling that demonstrates a mastery of a folk or traditional art form).

For many past recipients, the fellowship was a life-changing award. Writer Patricia Hampl was able to finish her groundbreaking memoir A Romantic Education while a fellow. During his fellowship, the late playwright August Wilson completed his second major play, Fences, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Kathleen Norris worked intensively on her book The Cloister Walk, composer Ying Zhang produced his first American CD and photographer Paul Shambroom honed his negotiating skills to gain access to photograph nuclear installations for a groundbreaking project.

Fellowship applicants began the competitive award process in November by submitting a written application with an artist statement and samples of their work. Panels of artists and other arts professionals who are experts in each field of work (and who are from outside the eligibility region of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota) reviewed the many applications over the winter, honing the finalist list to fewer than 10 percent of the applicants. An interdisciplinary panel meets in April 2009 to choose up to 15 award winners from the 39 finalists.

The Bush Artist Program will announce fellows at a June 8 event that will also include announcement of the 2009 winners of the $100,000 Enduring Vision Awards, given to three mature artists each year and designed to propel their artistic investigations and to encourage their continued influence on present and future generations of artists, audiences and their own fields of work.

The Bush Artist Program (BAP), established in 1976, is one of three fellowship programs of the Bush Foundation. The BAP consists of three grant initiatives: the Enduring Vision Awards, the Bush Artist Fellowships and Dakota Creative Connections. Established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife Edyth, the Bush Foundation strives to be a catalyst to shape vibrant communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota by investing in courageous and effective leadership that significantly strengthens and improves the well-being of people in these three states.

Learn more about the Bush Artist Program and the Bush Foundation at www.bushfoundation.org.