Individual Artist Fellowships
Recognizing and rewarding artistic achievement
The $10,000 awards, made through a highly competitive process, recognize and reward the artistic achievements of exceptional individual #SCArtists.
As one of the SCAC’s signature programs, it directly impacts one of the agency’s core functions—artist development. Fellows receive financial resources so that they may focus on developing and creating art. The breadth of disciplines allows for inclusion while demonstrating how many aspects of the creative economy are touched by the arts.
How the process works
A diverse group of reviewers from each discipline is selected to judge applicants. The application process is no longer anonymous, and awards are no longer made solely on artistic merit. Consideration is also given to work samples, achievements, and commitment to the discipline in which artists apply. (Artists may apply in multiple categories with separate applications.)
Fellowships lend prestige to an artist’s reputation and can open doors to other resources and employment opportunities.
Looking ahead to FY28
Updated guidelines—to include eligible disciplines—and the application for FY28 Individual Artist Fellowships will go live in fall 2026. The following disciplines are up for fellowships in FY28:
- Visual Art (painting, drawing, mixed-media, sculpture, printmaking, or photography).
- Craft (ceramics, fiber, glass, leather, metal, paper, plastic, or wood).
- Interdisciplinary (installation, sound, video art, computer-generated art, or performance art).
- Music (composition or production).
Read the grant guidelines
Current Fellows (FY27)
When soliciting artist statements, the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) provides artists complete latitude for those statements they craft to take any form. Publication of said statements does not—and should not be understood to—indicate endorsement by the state of South Carolina, SCAC, or agents thereof.
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Prose | Charleston
Artist Bio
Cinelle Barnes is the Philippine-born author of Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, Malaya: Essays on Freedom, and A Way Home: A Memoir of Losing Yourself and the Beauty of Returning. She is also the editor of the New York Times “New and Noteworthy” list’s A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South. She is at work on Become What You Have, a prescriptive memoir based on her brain injury journey.
Cinelle is a survivor of a brain aneurysm rupture and sits on the Brain Injury Leadership Council of South Carolina and the Hub City Press National Council. She has received awards and fellowships from the Sustainable Arts Fund, the Authors League Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, South Arts, and the North American Travel Journalists Association, among others. She has served on the jury panels for several literary awards, including the inaugural Pulitzer Prize for Memoir. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Coastal Living, Travel + Leisure, Oprah Daily, Newsweek, Southern Living, and Memoir Land, among others. Cinelle lives in Charleston with her husband, daughter, and cat.
Website(s)
Social Media
Photo credit: Anouk Barnes
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Screenwriting | Greenville
Artist Bio
Kestlyn Blassengale is a screenwriter and producer from Greenville telling stories rooted in the dirt roads her family has called home for generations. She founded All Dirt Roads Productions to carry forward Black Southern oral traditions—the ghost stories, the porch talk, the things passed down—and turn them into film. She holds an Master of Fine in screenwriting from UNC School of the Arts and has twice been a top finalist in the Indie Grants Film competition. Her work includes Monkeying Around, a short film set in 1960s upstate South Carolina; Who’s Ya People, a web series in development; and I Pray This Sh*t Works, a short film she co-wrote. She also co-founded Kulture Quest, a 501(c)(3) to build youth workforce readiness in her community, and is a budding intimacy coordinator, bringing an added layer of care to how stories are told on set. A lifelong educator and community builder, Kestlyn brings the same instinct for care and craft to every room she enters.
Website(s)
Social Media
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Media Arts: Directing | Columbia
Artist Bio
Elizabeth (EB) Landesberg is a filmmaker based in Columbia, where she is assistant professor of film and media at the University of South Carolina and a member and programmer of SouthernGauge, an experimental film and new media series. Since receiving her Master of Fine Arts in experimental and documentary arts from Duke University in 2013, much of her practice has centered on collaborations with young people—through workshops and organizations committed to cultural affirmation and self-determination—including Literacy Through Photography (US/Tanzania), Wapikoni Mobile (Listuguj Mi’gmaq First Nation, Canada), and Another Kind of Girl Collective (Peru/Jordan/Syria/US). Most notably, she co-edited and produced Only the Ocean Between Us, a feature-length documentary co-directed by two former students from her community media workshops in Lima, Peru, which premiered at Hot Docs in 2021. She was also an editor of The Memory of Butterflies, which premiered at the 2025 Berlinale. As a director, her personal and experimental documentary films explore themes of labor, memory, humor, and mourning, and have screened at festivals including Cosmic Rays and Mimesis Documentary Festival. Her current project, Con todo combina, examines intertwined histories of capitalism, colonialism, and resistance in Peru through a poetic examination of its most famous soda, Inca Kola, and is currently in post-production.
Website(s)
Social Media
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Screenwriting | Charleston
Artist Bio
Matthew Mebane is an award-winning director, writer, and producer whose work blends genre storytelling, dark humor and morally compromised characters. His films include Tackle Box, winner of 16 awards, including the Slamdance Audience Award for Best Short; the Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary short The Debutante Hunters, which he produced; and The Final Adventure of John and Eleanor Greene, photographed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Russell Carpenter, ASC (Titanic). He is currently developing his first feature, The Holler, inspired by his experience as an EMT in Appalachia.
Mebane has worked with such filmmakers as Paul Thomas Anderson, David Gordon Green, Terrence Malick, and Danny McBride. He directed Down and Out, a supernatural boxing thriller starring Ricky Schroder and Tatyana Ali, later included in the anthology feature Locker 13. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the International Cinematographers Guild and has developed television projects with Warner Bros., Paramount, and MTV.
Website
Social Media
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Spoken Word/Slam Poetry | Mauldin
Artist Bio
For more than three decades, Glenis Redmond has dedicated her life to performance poetry, literary arts, and community building. A self-described griot and Afro-Carolinian, she maintains a firm footing in both the stage and page traditions of poetry.
She founded Greenville’s first poetry slam in the 1990s, placed in the top ten at the National Poetry Slam, won the Southern Fried Poetry Slam Individual Championship twice, and captained Greenville’s first all-woman team to compete at the National Poetry Slam. Committed to fostering the next generation, she co-created Asheville’s first youth poetry slam, Word Slam, where her daughter, Amber Sherer, became the inaugural Youth Slam Champion. She later co-created Peace Voices at the Peace Center, mentoring young poets and helping cultivate new literary voices.
Redmond is the recipient of the Order of the Palmetto, the Order of the Phoenix Award, an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship, and fellowships from Cave Canem and Baldwin for the Arts. Throughout her career, she has remained committed not only to creating poetry but to creating opportunities for others, leaving an enduring legacy as a performer, mentor, and literary citizen.
Website(s)
Social Media
Photo credit: Will Crooks
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Media Arts: Performance | Orangeburg
Artist Bio
Ursula O. Robinson is an award-winning actress, playwright, director, educator, speaker, and arts advocate bridging entertainment, education, and community engagement.
As a professional actress, Ursula has appeared in major television and film productions, including Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black and Divorce in the Black, as well as Murdaugh Murders: Death in the Family and Hightown. An accomplished playwright, she is best known for her acclaimed, multi-award-winning one-woman play, Skinny: One Woman’s Journey to F.A.T.T.T. (Finally Able To Tell the Truth), alongside original works like Thirsty and Special.
Dedicated to mentoring the next generation, Ursula serves as professor of theatre and drama program coordinator at South Carolina State University. She is also the founder and executive director of RAISE Art Academy, providing creative education and mentorship to the community, and chairs the Creative Spiritual Arts Department at Spiritual Foundation Ministries.
An award-winning International Toastmaster, Ursula continues to develop works that entertain, educate, and empower through Ursula O. Robinson Productions. Whether on screen, stage, or at the podium, she remains committed to helping others discover their voice and pursue their purpose, dedicated always to her personal motto: “Live Your Dream.”
Website(s)
Social Media
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Spoken Word/Slam Poetry | Charleston
Artist Bio
AsiahMae, stylized A$iahMae, is a spirit of curiosity first and immediately after a black, Southern, non-binary writer, cultural worker and student of the land. A trans-disciplinary artist, AsiahMae’s background spans across film, curation, production, performance and language arts. Her work is a series of evolving attempts to love, document, pay homage to and preserve The Black South and self, in tandem. A$iahmae is a Watering Hole Fellow and has had work featured in The Gibbes Museum of Art, Spoleto Festival USA, The Festival of Words: LA and in This is The Honey: An Anthology of Contemporary Black Poets, curated by Kwame Alexander, among others. AsiahMae currently serves as the second poet laureate of Charleston.
Website(s)
Social Media
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Prose | Charleston
Artist Bio
Anthony Varallo is the author of What Did You Do Today?, winner of the 2023 Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction (University of North Texas Press), as well as a novel, First Everything, forthcoming from Braddock Avenue Books in 2027. His other books include a novel, The Lines (University of Iowa Press), as well as four previous short story collections: This Day in History, winner of the John Simmons Short Fiction Award (University of Iowa Press); Out Loud, winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize (University of Pittsburgh Press); Think of Me and I’ll Know (Northwestern University Press); and Everyone Was There, winner of the Elixir Press Fiction Award. His short stories have appeared in One Story, Story, The Sun, The New Yorker “Daily Shouts,” American Short Fiction, and elsewhere. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature and the Pushcart Prize. He earned his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Iowa/Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his doctorate from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is professor of English at the College of Charleston, where he teaches in the MFA Program in creative writing. He lives with his family in James Island.
Website(s)
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Past Fellows
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2025/2026
Katy Bergman Cassell – Craft
Kathy Harris – Design Arts
Lauren Waring Douglas – Media Arts
Charles Clary – Visual Art2024/2025
Evelyn Berry – Poetry
Robbie Robertson – Choreography & Directing: Film
Eric Schultz – Performance: Music
Andy Brooks – Folklife & Traditional Arts: Folk Music2023/2024
Anna G. Dean – Visual Art
Jeremy Brooks – Craft
Brittany M. Watkins – Time-Based Art (installation, sound, film, video art, animation, computer-generated art, or performance art)
Matthew White – Music Composition2022/2023
Eunjung Choi – Performance (dance, music, or theatre/film acting)
Michael Smallwood – Playwriting/Screenwriting
Rebecca T. Godwin – Prose
Marlanda Dekine – Spoken Word/Slam Poetry2021/2022
Kristi Ryba – Visual Art
Clay Burnette – Craft
Sherard Duvall – Media: Production
Triza Cox – Media: Screenwriting2020/2021
Sarah Blackman – Prose
John Pursley III – Poetry
Erin Bailey – Dance: Choreography
Tanya Wideman-Davis – Dance: Performance -
2019/2020
Adrian Rhodes – Visual Art
Valerie Zimany – Craft
Fang Man – Music: Composition
Craig Butterfield – Music: Performance2018/2019
F. Rutledge Hammes – Prose
Stephen Tulloh – Poetry
Paul Kaufmann – Theatre: Acting
Kevin Ferguson – Theatre: Playwriting2017/2018
Linda Fantuzzo – Visual Arts
Elizabeth Keller – Craft
Jason Gourdine – Media: Production
Leasharn Hopkins – Media: Screenwriting2016/2017
Jeremy Griffin- Prose
Walt Hunter – Poetry
Jonathan Tabbert – Dance: Choreography
Journy Wilkes-Davis – Dance: Performance2015/2016
Jarod Charzewski- Visual Arts
Alice Ross Ballard – Craft
Jon Jeffrey Grier – Music: Composition
Marina Lomazov – Music: Performance2014/2015
Scott Gould – Prose
Hastings Hensel – Poetry
Vicky Saye Henderson – Theatre: Acting
Beth Lincks – Theatre: Playwriting2013/2014
James Arendt – Visual Arts
Robert F. Lyon – Craft
Jeff Sumerel – Media: Production
Herbert “Robbie” Robertson – Media: Screenwriting2012/2013
Kathryn Etters Lovatt – Prose
Nancy Ancrom – Poetry
Marcy Jo Yonkey-Clayton – Dance: Choreography2011/2012
Jonathan Brilliant – Visual Arts
Russell Biles – Craft
Lee-Chin Siow – Music: Performance
Mark Kilstofte – Music: Composition2010/2011
Barbara G.S. Hagerty – Poetry
Ed Madden – Prose
Rodney Lee Rogers – Theatre: Playwriting
Sharon Graci – Theatre: Acting -
2009/2010
Damond Howard – Visual Arts
Kim Lee Keats – Craft
Jill Eathorne Bahr – Dance: Choreography
Terrance Orlando Henderson – Dance: Performance2008/2009
Julia E. Elliott – Prose
Mindy Friddle – Prose
Dan Albergotti – Poetry
Sally Arango Renata – Poetry
Phillip Bush – Music: Performance
John Fitz Rogers – Music: Composition2007/2008
Jamie Davis – Craft
John Benjamin Gilliam – Craft
Elizabeth Melton – Visual Arts
Herb Parker – Visual Arts
Laura Kissel – Media: Production
Howard Kingkade – Media: Screenwriting2006/2007
Sheila Joan Tombe – Poetry
Scott Yarbrough – Prose
Monica Wyche – Theatre: Acting
Kathryn Smoak – Dance
Peter Lenzo – Craft
Patricia Lee Brady – Visual Arts2005/2006
Debra A. Daniel – Poetry
Kimberly K. McGuire – Prose
Maxine Miller Warshauer – Music Composition
David Ross Puls – Crafts
Mana D.C. Hewitt – Visual Arts2004/2005
Linda Annas Ferguson – Poetry
Brenda Dale McClain – Prose
Kathleen Vandekieft – Music Performance
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington – Playwriting
Jocelyn Chateauvert – Crafts
Jack Steve Gerstner, Jr. – Visual Arts2003/2004
Carol Ann Davis – Poetry
Kathleen (Kate) Bullard Adams – Prose
Eric Bultman – Performing Arts (Acting)
John David Solomon – Media (Screenwriting)
Paula Smith – Crafts
Philip L. Moody – Visual Arts2002/2003
Warren Slesinger – Poetry
Gilbert Allen – Prose
Varsha Parikh – Dance Performance
Seth Howell Riddle – Media Production
Jennifer T. Vincent – Crafts
Diane Hopkins-Hughs – Visual Arts2001/2002
Alice Ballard Munn – Crafts
Rebecca S. Nagel – Music Performance
Terri L. McCord – Poetry
Susan Millar Williams – Prose
Martha Brim – Dance Choreography
Linda Williams McCune – Visual Arts2000/2001
Mark Kilstofte – Music Composition
Keith Knight – Music Performance
Jessica Bundschuh – Poetry
Russell Biles – Visual -
1999/2000
Jon W. Tuttle – Playwriting
Keith Lee Morris – Prose
Sandi Shackelford – Theatre: Acting
Cliffton Peacock – Visual Arts1998/1999
Anne Boudreau – Crafts
Steve Zimmerman – Media
Hazel Ketchum – Music Performance
Angela R. Kelly – Poetry
Mary Edna Fraser – Visual Arts1997/1998
Jill Bahr – Dance Choreography
Mariclaire Miranda – Dance Performance
David Yandell Todd – Prose
Michelle Van Parys – Visual Arts
Barbara Duval – Visual Arts1996/1997
Mike Lavine – Crafts
Paul Rucker – Music Performance
Paul Allen – Poetry
Anne Creed – Prose
Joseph Scott Goldsmith – Visual Arts
Tarleton Blackwell – Visual Arts1995/1996
Lee A. Malerich – Crafts
Eunjoo Yun – Music Performance
Paul Rice – Poetry
Deborah Cumming – Prose
Vinh T. Dang – Visual Arts
Phyllis Hebert Constransitch – Visual Arts1994/1995
Michael V. Vatalaro – Crafts
Christopher Berg – Music Performance
Kathleen Whitten – Poetry
Rosa Shand – Prose
Joe Walters – Visual Arts
Rebecca Freeman – Visual Arts1993/1994
Ellen Kochansky – Crafts
Maxine Warshauer – Music Composition
Debra A. Daniel – Poetry
Sue Monk Kidd – Prose
Herb Parker – Visual Arts
Jorge A. Otero – Visual Arts1992/1993
Megan Wolfe – Crafts
Douglas A. Weeks – Music Performance
Jan R. Bailey – Poetry
Deno Trakas – Prose
Frankie Jean Mixon – Visual Arts
Jean R. Grosser – Visual Arts1991/1992
Jamie Davis – Crafts
Enrique Graf – Music Performance
Curtis Derrick – Poetry
Merry Speece – Prose
Richard Rose – Visual Arts
Dexter Buell – Visual Arts
Michael Thunder – Visual Arts1990/1991
James Barnard Lawton – Crafts
Kathleen Vandekieft – Music Performance
Ron Rash – Poetry
Scott Gould – Prose
Manning Bethea Williams – Visual Arts
Jane Allen Nodine – Visual Arts -
1989/1990
Jenifer A. Borg – Crafts
Cathy Smith-Bowers – Literature
Sarah Gilbert – Literature
Robert Jesselson – Music Performance
Rebecca Des Marais – Visual Arts
Christina Chase – Visual Arts1988/1989
Lee A. Malerich – Crafts
Paul Allen – Literature
Steve Rosenburg – Music Performance
Edward Rice – Visual Arts
Scott Belville – Visual Arts1987/1988
Clay Burnette – Crafts
Bret Lott – Literature
Robert Pruzin – Music Performance
Judy V. Jones – Visual Arts
Dennis Croteau – Visual Arts1986/1987
Terry Jarrard-Dimond – Crafts
Libby Bernardin – Literature
Anthony & Mary Ann Lenti – Music Performance
Christine Kierstead – Visual Arts
Zoey Brookshire – Visual Arts1985/1986
Jeri Burdick – Crafts
Starkey Flythe – Literature
Douglas A. Weeks – Music Performance
Michael Phillips – Visual Arts
Barbara Duval – Visual Arts1984/1985
Clark Ellefson – Crafts
John Lane – Literature
Bob Landau – Media
Wilfred Delphin & Edwin Romain – Music Performance
Gunars Strazdins – Visual Arts
Larry Lebby – Visual Arts1983/1984
Michael Vincent Vatalaro – Crafts
Andrew Kuharsky – Dance Performance
Blanche Boyd – Literature
David W. Maves – Music Composition
Robin Zemp – Music Performance
Barbara Layne – Visual
Edward Wimberly – Visual Arts1982/1983
Lee A. Malerich – Crafts
Susan G. Ludvigson – Literature
Jan L. Millsapps – Media
Christopher B. Berg – Music Performance
Karen E. Davies – Visual
Donna G. Ciacciarelli (née Bolton) – Visual Arts1981/1982
Heidi Darr Hope – Crafts
Robert Cumming – Literature – Prose
Stephen Corey – Literature – Prose
Nancy Yasecko – Media
Cleveland Edwards – Music Composition
Sarah Johnson – Music Performance
Jane Allen Nodine – Visual Arts
Judy V. Jones – Visual Arts
Eugene Horne – Visual Arts
Alice D. Boyle – Visual Arts1980/1981
Kristy Higby – Crafts
Louis J. Gallo – Literature – Prose
Frank Eastes – Media
David Maves – Music Composition
Mark E. Flowers – Visual Arts
James Edwards – Visual Arts
Alice D. Boyle – Visual Arts -
1979/1980
Pamela Tarchinski – Crafts
Edward Minus – Literature – Prose
Gretchen Robinson – Media
Samuel Douglas – Music Composition
Michael Tice – Visual Arts
Thomas N. Mills – Visual Arts
Lee Brumbaugh – Visual Arts1978/1979
Ellen Kochansky – Crafts
Susan G. Ludvigson – Literature
Timothy Crenshaw – Music Composition
Susan B. Wooten – Visual Arts
Bob M. Jolly – Visual Arts
Margaret Chalmers – Visual Arts1977/1978
Jamie Davis – Crafts
Sylvia-Elaine Foard – Literature
Edwin Freeman – Music Composition
Howard Woody – Visual Arts
Michael Seward – Visual Arts
Steven Gately – Visual Arts1976/1977
John Ower – Literary Arts
Philip Mullen – Visual Arts
Leo Manske – Visual Arts
Stephen Dell – Visual Arts
I’m here to help!
If you are seeking more program information, please contact Artist Development Manager McKenzie Drake (803.734.4464 | mdrake@arts.sc.gov).