Each year, two $10,000 Fellowships are awarded to individual visual artists to acknowledge their artistic excellence and encourage their careers. Artists practicing in a variety of media – such as painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, craft, and new genres – are eligible. Fellowship awards do not require matching funds.

Applying artists must demonstrate professionalism in their practice through quality images and documentation. Artists must be Utah residents not enrolled in a degree- or certificate-granting program.

Click here to read the Juror’s full statement for the 2019 Fellowship

Jim Jacobs was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Jacksonville University and his Master of Fine Arts degree in painting with a minor in wood design from East Carolina University. In 1985 he moved to Ogden to teach at Weber State University. For ten years he chaired the Department of Visual Arts and Design. Jim retired from WSU in 2015 and now works full-time as an artist. Over the years Jim has exhibited his work in venues such as, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, New York University, Palm Springs Art Museum, and Rutgers University in Newark. In his current series, Graft, natural tree limbs are grafted to milled lumber, tools, furniture, and human hair. These works—gangly, elegant, contrived, fragile, and at times self-destructive—are reflections on our peculiar relationship with the natural world. jcjacobs.com

Shane Deeter is a professional custom saddle and bootmaker. His saddles, boots, and other leather products are widely known for their durability, comfort, and artistic appeal. He has been in business for 20 years, but his experience with leather work goes as far back as the age of five. His father tooled belts and wallets, and Shane was right in the middle of it. Growing up on a ranch, he also learned the importance of good tack and how to repair it. Then in 1987 his father started a boot and saddle repair shop where Shane worked until leaving for college in 1989. While attending Utah state university, Shane made custom leather goods to help fund his education. In 1994 Shane established Deeter custom saddlery and started making quality boots and saddles. In 2000 it became his full time occupation. As well as selling custom goods, he also builds saddles and belts for Burns Saddlery. Since 2010, Shane has served as the President for the Colorado saddlemakers association. Prior to that he served as southwest director in the same organization. He has won several awards including “best craftsman” at the Western art roundup in Winnemucca, Nevada, and first place in the tooled saddle, geometric saddle and boot categories at the world leather debut in Sheridan, Wyoming. He has also won the people’s choice for boots two times and saddles once, as well as first place in saddles at the “Art of the Cowboy Makers” competition. deetercustomsaddlery.com

Laura Addison is the curator of North American and European folk art at the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, a position she has held since 2013. Previously, she was curator of contemporary art at the New Mexico Museum of Art (2002-2013).

She is interested in the cross-pollination of categories such as folk art, craft, contemporary art, and design, and the elastic meanings of each of these terms. Her projects reflect an interdisciplinary approach, and a focus on diverse perspectives and mediums.

Previous exhibitions include No Idle Hands: The Myths & Meanings of Tramp Art; James Drake: Salon of a Thousand Souls; Manmade: Notions of Landscape from the Lannan Collection; Flux: Reflections on Contemporary Glass; The Art & Artifice of Science, with co-curator Arif Khan; Embodied: Seven Studies in Video; Mind Over Matter: Reworking Women’s Work; and Alternative Spaces, artist interventions with the museum’s architecture. Current research projects include a future exhibition titled Mining Folk: Troubling Taxonomies of Art, Craft and Design.

Before entering the museum field, Addison worked in the fields of art criticism, publishing, and in art galleries. She received her B.A. from Cornell University, and her Master’s degree in Latin American Studies, with an emphasis on art history and photo history, from the University of New Mexico. She is presently completing coursework toward a Ph.D. in Art History, also from the University of New Mexico.

Past Recipients 1986-2018

Fellowship Video Profiles

In partnership with “Artists of Utah-15 Bytes,” we have produce short artist profiles of the recipients as part of the award. Please see the links below to some of the videos we’ve produced of our recent fellowship recipients.

• Pam Bowman 2016, Provo
• David Brothers 2016, Salt Lake City
• Hyunmee Lee 2015, Highland
• Wendy Wischer 2014, Salt Lake City
• David Wolske 2014, Salt Lake City
• Mark Finch Hedengren 2013, Provo
• Christopher M. Gauthiér 2013, Logan
• James Charles 2012, Salt Lake City
• Jared Clark 2012, Salt Lake City
• Al Denyer 2011, Salt Lake City
• Kathy Puzey 2011, Logan
• Jan Andrews 2010, Salt Lake City
• Joseph Ostraff 2010, Provo