Twenty artists are recognized by the Delaware Division of the Arts for the high quality of their work.
The Division received work samples from 149 Delaware musicians; writers; and folk, media, and visual artists.
Out-of-state arts professionals reviewed the entries and considered the creativity and skill in each artist’s discipline.
Delaware Division of the Arts director Jessica Ball says the artists benefit not only in Delaware, and the region, but…”then start to show their work all over the country, all over the globe, and they often come back several years later when they’re eligible and win the Established Professional Award.”
Ball says many aspiring First State artists recognize the value of this Fellows program for its growth opportunities.
"If you want to pursue national fellowships, international fellowships, starting at the state level with a Delaware Division of the Arts IAF Award is a great way to get on that track of being able to win fellowships outside of Delaware.”
This year’s winner of the Master Fellow award is Mark Hagerty, an award-winning, classically trained instrumentalist, singer, and composer.
His music has found enthusiastic audiences from Carnegie Hall to Iceland to Shanghai to Rio de Janeiro. While much of his work is inspired by theoretical physics and chaotic systems, he is increasingly dedicated to using music in the service of social change, including ongoing collaboration with the urban spoken-word Twin Poets, Delaware’s poets laureate.
Hagerty studied composition at Oberlin and Brandeis. He received a past Individual Artist Fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts for The Realm of Possibility, a multi-movement piano work of flexible form, the recording of which received 5-star ratings in Fanfare for its “revelatory new sounds,” “elements that are by turns dramatic, amusing, thrilling, and lovely,” and its “plateaux of great beauty.”
Delaware Division of the Arts FY 2024 Individual Artist Fellows:
Masters Fellows
Mark Hagerty, Music: Composition, Wilmington
Established Fellows
Maya Belardo, Jazz: Performance, Wilmington
David Burslem, Visual Arts: Sculpture, Arden
Lori Crawford, Visual Arts: Interdisciplinary, Dover
Richard Hill Jr., Jazz: Composition, Wilmington
Shakira Hunt, Visual Arts: Photography, Wilmington
Michael Kardos, Literature: Fiction, Rehoboth Beach
Victor Letonoff, Literature: Creative Nonfiction, Lewes
Rebecca Raubacher, Visual Arts: Painting, Rehoboth Beach
L.J. Sysko, Literature: Poetry, Wilmington
Trebs Thompson, Visual Arts: Crafts, Newark
Emerging Fellows
Doug Cannon (Pultixima), Music: Composition, Wilmington
Samantha Facciolo, Literature: Fiction, Long Neck
Brandan Henry, Visual Arts: Works on Paper, Wilmington
Aaron Hoffer, Visual Arts: Painting, Dover
Mariano Mallia (Di Gabriele), Music: Contemporary Performance, Wilmington
Joyce Enzor Maust, Literature: Poetry, Dover
Jennifer Morrell, Literature: Creative Nonfiction, Wilmington
M. Amber Spivey, Dance: Choreography, Newark
Julieta Zavala, Folk Art: Visual Arts, Newark
Honorable Mentions
Kari Ebert, Established, Literature: Poetry, Dover
Bronwen Hazlett, Established, Visual Arts: Photography, Dover
Virginia Lockman, Emerging, Visual Arts: Photography, Wilmington
Michael Tanis, Emerging, Visual Arts: Sculpture, Wilmington
DDOA Awardees work will be highlighted at exhibits and performances throughout the year.
Delaware Public Media' s arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
