MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships

Since 1981, this fellowship program, funded by a grant from the Jerome Foundation, has artistically and critically advanced the careers of more than 200 visual artists.

The artists considered for these fellowships may work in a variety of visual art media, including traditional and new media. The program is aimed at visual artists who can present their work in a gallery context. Eligible applicants must be in the early stages of their careers and have not yet attained professional acknowledgment commensurate with the quality of their work. MCAD and the Jerome Foundation welcome applications from artists representing diverse cultural perspectives.

An independent jury of three arts professionals awards four grants of $12,000 each to early- career Minnesota artists. Fellowships may be used to purchase materials, cover the production costs of new artwork, and supplement living or travel costs. During the fellowship year, each artist receives three studio visits from professional critics, access to technical assistance, a culminating exhibition at the MCAD Gallery, a catalog with a critical essay on each artist's work, and the opportunity to partake in a public panel discussion.

Contact Associate Fellowship Coordinator Melanie Pankau at gallery@mcad.edu or 612.874.3803 for more information.

About the Jerome Foundation

The Jerome Foundation, founded in 1964 by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), honors his legacy through multi-year grants to support the creation, development, and presentation of new works by early career artists.

The Foundation makes grants to vocational early career artists, and those nonprofit arts organizations that serve them, in all disciplines in the state of Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City.

2021/22 MCAD–Jerome
Fellowship Exhibition

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD), on behalf of the Jerome Foundation, is excited to present new projects by the four recipients of the 2021/22 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists: KOBI, Sarah Sampedro, Brooks Turner, and Shun Yong.

Learn More

Meet the 2022/23 Fellows

The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, on behalf of the Jerome Foundation, is pleased to announce the four recipients of the 2022/23 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowships for Early Career Artists: Roshan Ganu, Erika Terwilliger, and Peng Wu of the Twin Cities, and Moira (Miri) Villiard from Duluth, Minnesota.

The artists were selected out of a pool of 88 Minnesota-based applicants by a panel of arts professionals that included Heather Bhandari, NY-based curator, co-founder of Art World Learning, and co-author of Art/Work; Adriana Corral, Houston-based artist; and Matthew Villar Miranda, curatorial fellow of visual arts, Walker Art Center.

This competitive fellowship provides $12,000 awards to each recipient for the production of new work. In addition to having their work featured in a group exhibition at the MCAD Gallery, the fellows will have the opportunity to meet with visiting critics over the course of the fellowship year, to have an essay written about their work that appears in the exhibition catalog, and to participate in a public panel discussion.

The Jerome Foundation has generously supported this fellowship program since its inception in 1981.

Roshan Ganu

पौर्णिमा : Gazing Into The Full Moon Night, 2022; Site-specific multimedia installation (moving image collage, projection)

Roshan Ganu is a multimedia artist originally from Goa, presently based in Minneapolis. Her practice uses iterations of light, darkness, moving image, space, and time to explore the poignant states of our human condition. She is interested in the interflow of meaning between the linguistic, visual, experiential, and transdisciplinary. Ganu has been a recipient of the 2021-22 Next Step Fund Award by Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the MNiatures grant by Minnesota Opera in 2021. She concluded her Fall 2022 artist residency at Soo Visual Arts Center with a culminating solo exhibition, and was the 2021-22 artist-in-residence at Second Shift Studio Space in St. Paul. She currently teaches Visual Art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows at SooVAC, Duluth Art Institute, Artistry Bloomington, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, among others. She is also the co-founder and lead artist of Aapli Zine Library in Northeast Minneapolis, a public interest project supported by MRAC’s Arts Impact For Groups and Springboard For The Arts.

roshanganu.com

Erika Terwilliger

Roll, 2019; Rug, hay, buckwheat, ceramic, foam, tarp, yarn, felt, wool, nylon straps, pillows dimensions variable

Erika Terwilliger is a visual artist based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Terwilliger’s practice is driven through labor intensive techniques where understanding builds through repetition. Labor is only part of the process as the practice is most alive when the ephemeral materials she works with slump, drip, unravel, and crumble. The work exists across mediums, but the through-line is an interest in tactile intimacy, repeated failure, and the knowledge that failure builds. Terwilliger received a BA in Studio Arts from St. Olaf College in 2016 and an MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2020. During her time at the U of M she received fellowships to study textile and weaving practices in New York and Dundee Scotland. She has been selected for various residency programs at Second Shift Studios, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, and Franconia Sculpture Park. Currently, Terwilliger is a lecturer in the University of Minnesota’s sculpture and ceramics department.

erikaterwilliger.com

Moira (Miri) Villiard

The waters of tomorrow, painting by Miri Villiard

The Waters of Tomorrow, 2019; Mixed media acrylics and water-soluble oils on canvas, high resolution scan by CPL 36 x 48 in.

Moira (Miri) Villiard (pronounced “Miri”) is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artist with a mixed Indigenous and settler heritage who uses art to uplift underrepresented narratives, explore the nuance of society’s historical community intersections, and promote community healing spaces. Villiard is a dynamic visual artist, proficient in a variety of artistic genres, including portraiture, illustration, graphic and digital design, and as a muralist. She is also a community organizer, curator, and passionate arts educator concentrating her efforts around issues of equity and justice. Most recently, Villiard’s educational, activism-rooted exhibit Rights of the Child has toured across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Recently, she was the featured artist at the 2021 Illuminate the Lock, where she animated and directed her first 10 minute, 150’ projection piece titled Madweyaashkaa: Waves Can Be Heard. She currently works as a freelance consultant and designer, and is the project director and lead artist of the Chief Buffalo Memorial Mural site in Duluth.

artbymoira.com

Peng Wu

Whispered Signing, 2019; Fabric, pillows; Photo: Boris Oicherman

Peng Wu is a social practice artist. Born and raised in China, he creates public art installations and participatory events to reflect on societal yet personal struggles, including immigration, sleep deprivation, and mental health issues. Wu has lived and worked in Minneapolis since 2011 as a temporary foreign worker—as defined by his visa status. His art of searching for a sense of home and rest is deeply informed by the decade-long impermanence. To earn a longer legal status of staying in this country he has to work day and night restlessly. At one point he couldn’t fall asleep at night. “How’s your sleep?” became the way he often greeted his immigrant friends. With no health insurance coverage, Wu couldn’t afford the insanely expensive hospitals here. He proposed to create an art project to cure his sleep disorder as his residency project at Weisman Art Museum. In collaboration with sleep researchers and doctors, he created large architectural installations to facilitate numerous public events to examine the cultures and politics of sleep. Wu was forced away from his home in Minnesota for two years due to visa issues. He returned to his long-gone home in Minneapolis last year and got married to his partner whom he couldn’t legally marry in their home country. Being together they sleep better now. On the dinner table of their home, he continues to host art making events that hopefully create a sense of home for all to sleep and rest.

cargocollective.com/pengwu

Additional MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowship Information

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For Early Career Artists