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Congratulations to
Fellowship Period:
Shannon Lucas Westrum
Shannon Lucas Westrum is a basketry artist who experiments with the fusion of locally sourced materials and rattan as she explores a blend of modern and traditional techniques. Her love of fiber art began in childhood, when she learned to crochet and played with yarn, wood, beads, paper and leather. Her current practice began in the late 1990’s, through her work with local community education classes and fiber art guilds. Work with international basket makers has included a pilgrimage to Ireland to work with Joe Hogan, followed by an arts residency at Shankill Castle in Kilkenny, Ireland in 2018.
Lucas Westrum has received two Creative Individuals Grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2021 and 2023, two Arts Education Grants in 2024 and 2025, and a Region 2 Arts Council Fellowship in 2018. Her work has been exhibited at numerous group exhibitions across Minnesota, including the Armory Arts & Event Center in Park Rapids and the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids. She teaches basket making workshops in partnership with regional galleries, guilds, and libraries. When not in her studio in Bemidji, she can be found hunting for grasses, rushes, bark and antlers, or beachcombing nearby in search of rocks and driftwood.
shannonlucaswestrum.com
RECENT and UPCOMING events and press:
Join Shannon for an open studio of events during Taste of the Arts Tour, Saturday May 24 and Sunday May 25, in Bemidji. Click HERE for Map and Schedule.
Life and Work with Shannon Lucas Westrum of North Bemidji, Voyage Minnesota, April 2, 2025
Shannon Lucas Westrum is Interweaving Art and Community, April 2, 2025, Stella Dolan, bsualumni.org
Christine Novotny
Christine Novotny weaves vibrant and hearty textiles, exploring the intimacy of labor, materiality, and the relationship of color within different woven processes. Her work explores how colors work together, interact and move, seeking unexpected chromatic kinship in woven form. Integrating bold shapes and atmospheric color blending, she uses a painterly approach to color by bundling yarns and tying knots on her floor loom.
Novotny holds a BFA in Painting from Indiana University and completed a two year residency at North House Folk School, where she explored weaving and honed her craft. She has been awarded grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, as well as an Artist Fellowship from the American Scandinavian Foundation in New York. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Minnesota, most recently in a solo show in the Artist Studio at American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. She lives and works in Grand Marais.
(Photo by Wolfskull Creative)
christinenovotny.com
RECENT and UPCOMING events and press:
Christine’s work is featured in Nordic Echoes- Traditions in Contemporary Art, April 5 – August 2, 2025, Scandinavia House, New York, NY
Nicole Archer
Nicole Archer, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Montclair State University’s Department of Art and Design and an affiliated faculty member of the university’s Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program. She also serves as an Executive Board Member and the Vice President of Publications for the College Art Association. Her research focuses on the politics of contemporary art and material culture, with an emphasis on fiber-based practices, and has been published in various journals, edited collections, and catalogs, including: Criticism: A Quarterly Journal for Literature and the Arts; The Journal of Modern Craft; The Radical History Review; Surface Design Journal; Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture; Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility (published by the New Museum + MIT Press); Where are the Tiny Revolts? (published by the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts + Sternberg Press); Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. Archer’s first book, Looming Violence: Textiles and the Politics of Discomfort in the Contemporary United States, is forthcoming (Manchester University Press).
narcher.com
nicole archer- montclair.edu
Nicole LaBouff
Nicole LaBouff, PhD, is Curator of Costume and Textiles at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Prior to that, she was Associate Curator of Textiles at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. LaBouff has over 25 years of experience in major encyclopedic art museums with expertise in collections development, exhibitions, and public programs. Her scholarly expertise in history and art history includes early modern Europe, gender/women’s history, and history of science/natural history. She received her PhD in History from the University of California, Irvine with a dissertation on Elizabethan embroidery and women’s domestic work, focusing on furnishing textiles, interior spaces and architecture, and completed degrees at the Courtauld Institute of Art (MA, History of Dress), Cambridge University (MPhil, Archaeology), and the University of California, Berkeley (BA, Anthropology).
lacma.academia.edu/NicoleLaBouff
humanities.uci.edu/news/nicole-labouff-finds-her-perfect-fit
José Santiago Pérez
José Santiago Pérez is an artist and educator based in Chicago. He is currently a Visiting Lecturer in Sculpture and Visual Thinking at the University of Pittsburgh, and has held teaching appointments in the Art Department at Colorado College and in the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent residencies and awards include Regional Artist Residency at Contemporary Craft (2025), Surf Point Foundation Artist Residency (2025), Fiber Fellowship at Colorado College (2024), Illinois Arts Council Agency Artist Fellowship Finalist in Craft (2024), Lunder Institute for American Art Residential Residency (2022), and HATCH Residency at Chicago Artists Coalition (2019-2020). Their work has been supported by an Illinois Arts Council Agency grant, an Individual Artist Program grant from the City of Chicago, and a Chicago Artists Coalition SPARK grant. Santiago Pérez’s work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions across the country, and features and reviews of work have appeared in Artforum, Basketry+ Magazine, Sixty Inches from Center, Newcity Art, and the Archives + Futures Podcast. He received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
josesantiagoperez.com
@josesantiago.p
Fiber art is thriving in Minnesota, and the field’s growth as an artistic discipline now includes the McKnight Artist Fellowships Program, which provides two $25,000 fellowships, awarded each year to individual midcareer fiber artists living and working in Minnesota.
In addition to the $25,000 unrestricted award and public recognition in support of their studio work and practice, McKnight Fiber Artist Fellows receive:
- Critiques/studio visits with curators, mentors, and critics from the field.
- Exhibition at the end of the fellowship period in the galleries at Textile Center.
- Professional photographic documentation of work at the end of the fellowship period.
- Participation in a public discussion or presentation of their work and creative practices.
- Professional development support, such as attending conferences, workshops, and marketing advice for their work.
- Consultation sessions from artist career consultants at Springboard for the Arts on topics of their choice, related to the arts and creative practice.
- Participation in a 1 – 2 week artist residency in partnership with McKnight and Artist Communities Alliance.
- Membership to Textile Center and access to Textile Center’s resources, including library of more than 32,000 books and periodicals, state-of-the-art dye lab, and artisan shop opportunities.
The intent of the McKnight Fellowships for Fiber Artists is to recognize and support talented Minnesota fiber and textile artists whose work is of exceptional artistic merit. These fellowships are in support of individual artists who are at a career stage beyond emerging. Fiber Artists, as defined for the purposes of this fellowship, are artists who use textile and fiber arts materials, processes, histories, traditions, and/or sensibilities in their artistic practice throughout the conception, execution, and resolution of their work. The fellowships are funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by Textile Center.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT ARTIST FELLOWSHIPS PROGRAM
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s Arts & Culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. To learn more about McKnight Artist Fellowships, visit: mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts in Minnesota, neuroscience, and international crop research. mcknight.org
A focus on racial equity is at the heart of the McKnight approach to funding. Along with Textile Center, our organizations value diversity and equity, seeking to be inclusive and accessible to all applicants. We welcome and encourage applications from artists representing diverse cultural perspectives.