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Kresge Artist Fellowships increase to $50,000 each in 2025

Detroit

Jordan Duckens

Jordan Duckens

Guidelines released today; online applications open Dec. 12

Kresge Artist Fellowships will increase to $50,000 in 2025, The Kresge Foundation and Kresge Arts in Detroit announced today.

Artists residing in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties can apply online for one of 15 no-strings-attached prizes starting Dec. 2, 2024. The latest application guidelines are available now at kresgeartsindetroit.org. (Applications close at 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2025.)

The fellowships are funded by The Kresge Foundation and administered by Kresge Arts in Detroit, a program within the College for Creative Studies. The fellowships, which are for artists of all career stages, will continue to be offered in conjunction with 10 Gilda Awards of $5,000 each for early-career artists who are gaining momentum, and who demonstrate exceptional potential through creative risk-taking and boundary-pushing in their chosen form.

Kresge Arts in Detroit also administers the Kresge Eminent Artist Award. One Kresge Eminent Artist is named each January in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement and community contributions. That award increased from $50,000 to $100,000 with this year’s artist, Nora Chapa Mendoza.

“This new level of support for our Kresge Fellows makes a substantial and sustainable investment in working artists parallel to our award for the lifelong achievements and community contributions of our Kresge Eminent Artists,” said Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson.

“What we hear from Kresge Artist Fellows, and what we know from a study we released in 2018, is that investments in individual artists work to the good of the arts community as a whole, elevating its stature and materially benefitting the additional artists who are often engaged in projects made possible by recipients’ awards.”

The application opening in December is for Literary Arts and Visual Arts (details below). The number of awards in the two categories will be proportional to the number of applicants in each. Applicants who so choose will be considered for Gilda Awards if they do not receive a fellowship.

Higher Awards for Individual Artists

Since 2008, the Kresge Arts in Detroit program has awarded $9 million to 380 metro Detroit Artist Fellows, Gilda Awardees and Eminent Artists.

Originally set at $25,000 each, the Fellowship award increased to $40,000 in 2024 and now $50,000. The $5,000 Gilda Award was added in 2015, and now 10 are made annually.

While the number of Kresge Artist Fellowships has varied, the selection requirements have remained consistent. The selection panels Kresge Arts in Detroit commissions look for:

●      track records of artistic achievement and quality work
●      potential for career growth and enhancement
●      potential to reflect, enhance, or impact communities within metropolitan Detroit.

“Artists reflect our shared experiences and aspirations while providing the imagination and creativity we need — collectively — to ensure our culture evolves toward justice,” said Christina deRoos, director of Kresge Arts in Detroit. “Consistently investing in the vision, self-determination, and unique power of artists contributes to a thriving community. Thriving communities recognize and respect the opportunity and imperative to ensure robust opportunities for everyone.”

Award-winning Film Program

The award includes one year of career support for artists, including networking, exhibition opportunities and legal and accounting support.

Kresge Arts in Detroit also offers to produce a film for each fellow. Selections of those films have been submitted to local, national, and international film festivals in recent years, garnering  57 screening invitations. Kaleigh Wilder’s 2022 fellowship film by Julia Yezbick (a 2018 fellow herself) won Best Micro Short Documentary at the Idlewild International Film Festival. Miranda Kyle’s 2023 fellowship film will be screened at the Lone Star Film Festival this weekend (Nov. 1-4). In 2021, films in the series by metro Detroit-based Reel Clever Films were awarded a Michigan Emmy. (View past films here.)

The 2025 Kresge Artist Fellows and Gilda Award recipients will be selected by an independent panel of distinguished local and national artists and arts professionals. Previous applicants are strongly encouraged to re-apply, as new panels—with fresh perspectives—are convened each year. Artists working in the following disciplines are invited to apply for the 2025 award:

LITERARY ARTS

Arts criticism, creative nonfiction, fiction, graphic novels, playwriting, poetry, spoken word, zines and interdisciplinary work.

VISUAL ARTS

Book art, ceramics, collage, drawing, fiber, glass, installation, metalwork, new media, painting, photography, performance art, printmaking, sculpture, video art and interdisciplinary work.

“I applied a few times before I received a fellowship,” said Alise Alousi, 2019 Kresge Artist Fellow in Literary Arts. “I spent the majority of my time on my work samples, revising and generating new work and also seeking advice from a writing mentor. These poems eventually became a core part of my poetry collection which was accepted for publication shortly after my fellowship year.  I always encourage people to start the process early, put the most time into your sample, and to keep trying. It is time well-spent.”

In addition to complete guidelines, kresgeartsindetroit.org has FAQs and additional resources.

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