Grants and Residencies: Expanding Community and Creative Practice
Grants and residencies provide artists with vital support—grants through monetary awards that fund growth or specific projects, and residencies through time and space dedicated to exploration and creation. In 2020 and 2021, I received the Individual Artist Decentralization Grant funded by the New York Foundation for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts for two distinct projects. The first, in 2020, centered on discovery: using only wool and natural dyes gathered locally, I created work inspired by the landscapes of my new community. Although the pandemic shifted the project away from community interaction, it became a deeply meditative and restorative process. In 2021, I pursued a more collaborative approach, working with woodworker James Roslund to explore the creative outlets people turned to in the early days of COVID-19. More recently, my Echoes in History residency at Grove Farm has allowed me to continue this trajectory, blending archival research with fiber-based installations that highlight community histories and connections.