Maine Arts Commission Fellowship Recipients Announced

The Maine Arts Commission has announced the recipients of the 2011 Artists’ Fellowship Awards – one of the nation's highest awards for individual artists made by a state arts agency. The four recipients will each receive a $13,000 grant award and will be publicly honored during an awards showcase at 6:00pm on Friday, October 29, at the Gracie Theatre in Bangor. This event is free to attend and details can be found on MaineArts.com.

This year’s four Fellows are Theresa Secord from Waterville (Traditional Arts), Ethan Hayes-Chute from Freeport (Visual Arts), Elizabeth Kirschner from Kittery Point (Literary Arts), and Deborah Wing-Sproul from Cape Elizabeth (Performing/Media Arts).

Theresa Secord is a Penobscot basketmaker who began making baskets in the late ‘80s under the guidance of master Penobscot basketmaker Madeline Shay. Secord went on to help found the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, a native run cultural organization whose mission is to preserve traditional ash and sweetgrass basketry among all four tribes in Maine.

Visual Arts Fellow Ethan Hayes-Chute graduated with a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design. He has received recognition through various fellowships and has exhibited his work extensively throughout North America and Europe.


Elizabeth Kirschner, the 2011 Literary Arts Fellow, has published five books of poetry, most recently, My Life as a Doll, brought out by Autumn House in 2008 and nominated for the Lenore Marshall Prize. She taught at Boston College, at varying degrees, for seventeen years and has collaborated with many classical composers who have set her poetry to music for both national and international venues.

The 2011 Media and Performing Arts Fellow, Deborah Wing-Sproul, is the co-founder of Portland Film and Video Artists Collective and has taught at Parson‘s School of Design, SUNY New Paltz, Maine College of Art and the University of Maine at Orono. She is a multidisciplinary artist who works primarily in live performance and performance-based video.

For a comprehensive look at all of this year’s individual artist grantees, or for details of the awards night in Bangor, visit www.MaineArts.com.