World’s Top Artist-Led Residency Announces 2024-25 Class of 20 Writing and Visual Arts Fellows

Provincetown, MA (August 22, 2024) – The Fine Arts Work Center, recently named one of the world’s top three artist-founded and led residencies, has announced its 2024-2025 cohort of 20 Fellows in writing and visual arts, along with the hiring of two artists for newly created positions focused on enhancing the residency experience and impact. 

Hailing from nine countries and selected from a group of over 1,400 applicants, the Fellows will participate in one of the country’s only “no strings attached” fellowships. The seven-month residency during Outer Cape Cod’s off-season is valued at approximately $50,000, granting Fellows housing, workspaces, a monthly stipend, and the time to focus solely on their own creative development in Provincetown, the country’s most enduring artist community, without teaching or working requirements.  

Building on the Work Center’s history as a fellowship by artists, for artists, this cohort of Fellows will be the first to benefit from the leadership of FAWC’s Visual Arts and Writing Committees and support of two newly established, year-round staff positions. Fellowship Director Thierry Kehou and Artist Services Manager Sarah Dineen have joined the Work Center to support Fellows in their journey from application to completion of the residency. 

Founded in 1968 by artists and writers including Robert Motherwell and Stanley Kunitz, the Work Center has nurtured over 1,000 emerging artists and writers. Notable alumni include authors Viet Thanh Nguyen and Jhumpa Lahiri, poets Louise Glück and Ada Limón, and visual artists Jack Pierson and Tala Madani. Fellows have gone on to win prestigious awards, including one Nobel Prize for Literature, three Poet Laureate appointments, ten Pulitzer Prizes, four MacArthur Fellowships, and five National Book Awards, cementing the Work Center’s reputation for fostering exceptional talent.

“We are delighted to welcome this extraordinary group of Fellows to the Work Center, where they will have the time, space, and freedom to develop their creative practice,” said Sharon Polli, Executive Director of the Fine Arts Work Center. “Bringing Thierry and Sarah on board underscores our commitment to keeping artists at the heart of our decision-making and programming.”

“We want to make sure our Fellows get the most out of their time here. It’s about honoring our history while giving these amazing artists the tools and support they need to really thrive during their stay,” said Kehou, who comes to the Work Center from New York City, where he co-founded the Lampblack Literary Foundation, a nonprofit organization supporting Black writers. His translation of Jean D’Amérique’s A Sun to be Sewn was a 2023 NPR Book of the Day, and additional writing and translations appear or are forthcoming in Guernica, Departures, Lampblack, States, The Huron River Review, and elsewhere.

“As artists, Thierry and I understand how valuable an opportunity like this can be, and we want to help our Fellows take full advantage of it,” said Dineen, who joins the Work Center having exhibited her work widely in the U.S. and Germany. She has been a part of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Studio Program in New York and awarded artist residencies at Columbia University, the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, the School of Visual Arts, New York, and DNA Artist Residency, Provincetown. 

The 2024-25 Writing Fellows work in different forms spanning novels, essays, poetry, short stories, and literary translation. The Visual Arts Fellows work in mediums including painting, sculpture, video installation, participatory projects in public spaces, and collage.

2024-2025 Writing Fellows

Acie Clark
Kai Conradi
Jason Ferris
Kevin Fitchett (Second-year)
Parker Hobson
Jiaqi Kang
C. Mallon
Sara Martin (Second-year)
Lucas Martinez
Matthew Wamser

2024-2025 Visual Arts Fellows

José De Sancristóbal
Alejandro Guzmán (Second-year)
Elena Kovylyaeva
Dani Levine
Mengwei Ma
Ian Page
Edd Ravn
Zeinab Shahidi Marnani (Second-year)
Cherrie Yu
Carlos Zerpa