ARTCENTER/SOUTH FLORIDA AWARDS NEARLY $500,000 TO MIAMI-BASED ARTISTS
ArtCenter/South Florida in Miami Beach announced the inaugural recipients of the Ellies. Established earlier this year, the visual art awards aim to elevate and celebrate the careers of Miami-based artists. Selected from a pool of more than five hundred submissions, forty-four artists and art educators were honored at a ceremony that took place at the Bass on Wednesday night. The honorees will each receive a grant in support of an unrealized project. A total of $491,000 will be split between them.
Among the recipients of the Ellies is Edouard Duval-Carrie, who was named the inaugural winner of the $75,000 Michael Richards Award, which was created in honor of artist Michael Richards. The ArtCenter alum, who was known for addressing racial inequity and social injustice in his work, died in the World Trade Center in New York during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The award will support Duval-Carrie’s practice over a two-year period and will include a commission to create a new work to be exhibited at the Bass.
Named after ArtCenter founder Ellie Schneiderman, the Ellies are bestowed in three categories: the Creator Award, which offers project grants ranging from $2,500 to $25,000 in support of the production of new work; Teacher Travel Grants, which provide art teachers with $5,000 so that they can travel to another city or country to study art and use their experience to enrich their classes; and the Michael Richards Award, which honors a Miami artist creating high-quality work.
“Miami’s artists shine brightly tonight,” Dennis Scholl, president and CEO of ArtCenter, said at the award ceremony. “Each of these winners demonstrates how far our visual arts community has come—and seeds the possibilities for the exciting growth we can see in the future.”
The complete list of recipients is as follows:
The Ellies Creator Award Winners
Kevin Arrow
Jenna Balfe
Marcus Blake
Joe Cardona
Leo Castaneda
Thom Wheeler Castillo
Lou Anne Colodny
Franky Cruz
Woosler Delisfort
Cara Despain
April Dobbins
Bo Droga
Ray Elman
Asif Farooq
Guadalupe Figueras
Julie Fliegenspan
Dara Friedman
Gonzalo Fuenmayor
Rosa Naday Garmendia
GeoVanna Gonzalez
Adler Guerrier
Nicolas Lobo
Pepe Mar
Jillian Mayer
Ricardo Mor
Michelle Lisa Polissaint
Johanne Rahaman
Alina Rodriguez
Silvia Ros
Lydia Rubio
Onajide Shabaka
Stuart Sheldon
Troy Simmons
Ayesha Singh
Symone Titania
Fereshteh Toosi
Juana Valdes
Tom Virgin
Teacher Travel Grants
Susan Feliciano, Robert Morgan Education Center High School
Lourdes Fuller, Shenandoah Middle School
Justin Long, New World School of the Arts
Juana Meneses, New World School of the Arts
Mirena Suarez, Ada Merritt K-8
