Artaxis Fellowship

The Artaxis Board of Directors and Fellowship Selection Committee is pleased to announce that Donté Hayes and Moises Salazar will be our 4th Annual Artaxis Fellows. They will both attend a workshop with renowned artist and Artaxis member, Linda Nguyen Lopez, at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts this summer.

The Artaxis Fellowship program is intended to increase diversity, equity, and access in the ceramic arts, with the explicit goal of adding unique perspectives across the field. This year, we offered two fellowships, each one worth up to $2,000, to fund a two-week summer workshop in ceramics at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. The fellowships will cover room, board, tuition, and up to $500 for travel to and from Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine, USA.

The applications were reviewed by the Artaxis Board of Directors, and juried by our Fellowship Selection Committee: Morel Doucet, Janina Myronova, and Natalia Arbelaez.

The 2019 Artaxis Fellowship is supported by Artaxis members and funded by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in an effort to nurture talent within creatively driven individuals by offering financial support to underrepresented artists.

Donté Hayes (left) and Moises Salazar (right)

Photo credit: Amanda Kowalski

Meet our 2019 Artaxis Fellowship Selection Committee:

Morel Doucet

Morel Doucet is a contemporary Caribbean ceramist and arts educator that hails from Haiti. He grew up in Miami, Florida where he graduated from New World School of the Arts (NWSA) with the Distinguished Dean’s Award for Ceramics. From there he formalized his education at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, Maryland receiving his B.F.A. in ceramics with a minor in creative writing and concentration in illustration. His current endeavor as the Curriculum and Tour Coordinator at the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami (ICA MIAMI) is helm by an interest in immersing young audiences in personalized experiences that instigate curiosity, visual literacy and practical senses (sight, hearing, touch) as learning tools.

Janina Myronova

Janina Myronova grew up in Ukraine, and since 2012 lives in Poland. She received her MFA from the Lviv National Academy of Arts in Ukraine in 2012 and the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw, Poland in 2013, where she continues to study as a PhD student. She was selected as a residency artist at the New Taipei Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan and Clayarch Gimhae Ceramics Museum in South Korea in 2018. Her works can be found at Museu Ceràmica l´Alcora in Spain, Riga Porcelain Museum in Latvia, New Taipei Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taiwan etc. Since 2017, she is a member of International Academy of Ceramics IAC. In her artistic work she is interested in showing human relationships and everyday life situations.

Natalia Arbelaez

Natalia Arbelaez is a Colombian American artist, born and raised in Miami, FL to immigrant parents. She received her B.F.A. from Florida International University and through a fellowship, her M.F.A. from The Ohio State University. She completed a yearlong residency at the Clay Art Center; Port Chester, NY as a Rittenberg Fellow and was awarded the 2016 Inaugural Artaxis Fellowship that funded a residency to Watershed in Newcastle, ME. Her work has been included in various collections, such as, the Everson Museum and The Frederik Meijer Gardens. She has been recognized by the National Council on Education for Ceramic Arts as a 2018 Emerging Artist. Natalia is currently a resident artist at the Ceramics Program at Harvard University where she is researching pre-Columbian art and histories.

Click here to learn more about Haystack

The 2019 Artaxis Fellowship is generously supported by Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts is an international craft school located on the Atlantic Ocean in Deer Isle, Maine.

The school was founded in 1950, as a research and studio program in the arts, and offers intensive studio based workshops in a variety of media. Haystack also functions as a ‘think-tank’ in looking at craft—publishing annual monographs, and organizing retreats, conferences, and symposia that examine the field in broader contexts. The campus was designed by noted architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, and was recognized with the twenty-five year award by the American Institute of Architects, one of only forty eight buildings in the United States to receive this distinction.

“Coming here is a freeing experience — free from the world, free from conventional ways of teaching and most importantly free from the distractions that keep us from interacting with new people.” – Suranga DeSilva

“The experience is extraordinarily different, very intense. You know that you are on a voyage with other people for a defined time. This gives you the freedom to take risks.” – Cynthia Schira

“Participating in Session 5 last summer was one of the most wonderful experiences I have ever had. The community, setting, architecture, and focus of the group was truly inspiring. I came home with new ideas about, and new approaches to, my work that have sustained me all year.” – Warren Anderson

Meet 2018 Artaxis Fellow, Raven Halfmoon:

Raven Halfmoon portrait for Artaxis Fellowship page

Learn more about Raven Halfmoon and her work here: http://www.ravenhalfmoon.com/

Raven Halfmoon, one of the 2018 Artaxis Fellows, completed a two week summer residency at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Attending Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was a powerful and inspiring experience that I will never forget. The Artaxis fellowship allowed me the time and freedom to explore new ideas, try different mediums and learn brand new processes. I had the opportunity to meet inspiring artists and be immersed in a community who were supportive and encouraging to new creative techniques. I came to Haystack with a couple of tools knowing that I wanted to make artwork that was completely different from the large scale figurative sculptures I was currently creating. I was motivated by my surroundings and the innate beauty of Maine. I will never forget swimming in ice cold, refreshing Atlantic Ocean, listening to the waves crash while I slept, eating local lobster on the shore while the sunset, rolling out clay coils and drinking coffee while the sun rose, but most importantly, making significant discoveries in my studio practice. The Artaxis Fellowship has been an invaluable experience that has forever enhanced and strengthened myself as an artist. I have come home with new a dialogue in my work and new approaches for making.

Meet 2018 Artaxis Fellow, Kathy Garcia:

Kathy Garcia portrait for Artaxis Fellowship page

Kathy Garcia, one of the 2018 Artaxis Fellows, completed a two week summer residency at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Attending the workshop at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts was an incredible experience. It was a liberating time to experiment and work in a different manner than I had before in a beautiful environment. Being able to spend time with artists, hearing their stories, and learning about what influences their work was truly inspiring. This fellowship allowed me to visit Haystack and gave me time to reflect on my work and receive great feedback from wonderful people.

Learn more about Kathy Garcia and her work here: http://www.kathy-garcia.com/

Meet 2017 Artaxis Fellow, Soe Yu Nwe:

Soe Yu Nwe working at Haystack

Soe Yu Nwe, the 2017 Artaxis Fellow, completed a two week summer residency at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine.

Participating at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts as an Artaxis Fellow has enriched my experience as a maker. I started exploring new ways of making, creating forms which are outside my body of work. The creative and supportive environment during the workshop led by Ann Agee and the stunning landscape of Maine inspired a new aesthetic. My work became more playful and light hearted, deviating from the previous pain-ridden sculptures that narrate alienation and confusion as a cultural outsider. Because of this fellowship, the financial burden placed on me to pursue my artistic career was reduced and I was able to fly from my home country, Myanmar to USA to participate in this amazing workshop at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

Learn more about Soe Yu Nwe and her work here: https://www.soeyunwe.com/

Meet 2016 Artaxis Fellow, Natalia Arbalaez:

Natalia Arbelaez working at Watershed

Natalia Arbelaez, the 2016 Inaugural Artaxis Fellow, completed a two week summer residency at Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts in Newcastle, Maine.

“I came to Watershed with no plans, no material, and some tools. I was looking to change things up in my work and wanted to make sure I tried new things. This fellowship allowed me to be surrounded by new ideas, different materials, and resources. With an open mind and new environment I had the opportunity to work with Watershed’s beautiful racked hillside earthenware brick clay. Working with the materials and manner that I did at Watershed was an invaluable asset to my studio practice, it has informed my work as well as added a new dialogue that I’ve been looking to add to my body of work.” — Natalia Arbalaez

Learn more about Natalia and her work here: http://nataliaarbelaez.com/