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MacDowell Awards 158 Spring-Summer Fellowships to Artists Working Across Disciplines

- February 27, 2025

Type: Press Releases, Fellowships

Nation’s first artist residency will welcome artists arriving from 25 states and 15 countries from among more than two thousand applicants.

Nation’s first artist residency will welcome artists arriving from 25 states and 15 countries from among more than two thousand applicants. ((Clockwise from top left) Michael Almereyda (Joanna Eldredge Morrissey photo), Felecia Davis, Golden Golden, Lisa Kron (Joanna Eldredge Morrissey), Jeanine Tesori (Joanna Eldredge Morrissey), Raj Parameswaran (Joanna Eldredge Morrissey), Mira Jacob, and Ellis Ludwig-Leone (Alex SK Brown). photo)

MacDowell, the nation’s first artist residency program, has awarded 158 Fellowships to artists working in seven disciplines from 25 states and 15 countries for the Spring-Summer season. These artists will arrive at MacDowell’s historic campus in Peterborough, NH from March through August 2025 for an average stay of four weeks. The incoming group of artists-in-residence were selected from a pool of 2,222 applications with an acceptance rate of 6.8 percent. Fellowships are awarded based on a work sample judged by independent panels of experts in each of MacDowell’s seven disciplines.

The incoming group of MacDowell Fellows includes filmmakers Michael Almereyda and Dwayne LeBlanc; theatre artist Daniel Banks and playwrights Lisa Kron and Dominic Finocchiaro; composers Jeanine Tesori and Ellis Ludwig-Leone; writers Mira Jacob, Raj Parameswaran, A.M. Homes, Alice Elliott Dark, Sarah Mathews, Jessamine Chan, Claire Luchette, and journalist Justice Malala; visual artists Golden Golden, Laura Letinsky, and Priya Kambli; and architects Erik Herrmann and Felecia Davis.

“Announcing our latest round of MacDowell Fellows is always a joy and an honor,” said MacDowell’s Executive Director Chiwoniso Kaitano. “These remarkable artists working across disciplines, represent a wide range of creative voices and reflect the vibrant and essential work of artists as they push boundaries, challenge conventions, and have a transformative impact on our creative community.”

Twice a year, MacDowell gathers panels of renowned professionals in MacDowell’s seven disciplines to review applications anonymously, selecting Fellows based solely on their talent as evidenced by a work sample and project description.

"We are thrilled by this season’s incoming Fellows and the diverse artistry they will bring to MacDowell. Spanning cultures, disciplines, and perspectives, they will enrich MacDowell with their depth and innovation.” said Courtney Bethel, MacDowell’s Admissions Director, who noted artists will travel to MacDowell from five continents and from across the United States.

While at MacDowell, Fellows are provided with a private studio and accommodations for a period of up to six weeks, and three chef-prepared meals a day. The next application deadline is September 10, 2025 for the Spring-Summer 2026 residency season.

The artists awarded Spring-Summer 2025 Fellowships include:

Architecture: Emanuel Admassu, Felecia Davis, Erik Herrmann, Karen Lewis, Sarah L Lopez, Katie MacDonald, Christopher McVoy, Kyle Schumann, and Olga Touloumi.

Music Composition: Miranda Agnew, John Aylward, Michael Stephen Brown, Michael Djupstrom, Juro Kim Feliz, Keith Fitch, Grace Ann Lee, Aaron Israel Levin, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Pamela Madsen, Finola Merivale, Taylor Joshua Rankin, Leah Reid, Christopher Schmitz, Peter Shin, Katie Webster, and Alyssa Weinberg.

Film/Video Arts: Michael Almereyda, Alexandra Cuesta, Sam Feder, Mahdi Fleifel, Mariam Ghani, Carrie Hawks, Baolier Huang, Andres Jurado Uribe, Salomé Lamas, Dwayne LeBlanc, Billy Luther, Alexis Kyle Mitchell, Alice Saey, Shannon Walsh, Anna Zamecka, Yuanyuan Zhang, and Hao Zhou.

Interdisciplinary Arts: Idemudia Ambrose, Janani Balasubramanian, Rashin Fahandej, Jessica Fertonani Cooke, Marcus Fischer, Tyson Houseman, Kyoung eun Kang, Neda Moridpour, Alex Romania, Tom Sellar, Jakari Sherman, Stacy Lynn Smith, Azadeh Tajpour, Gina Athena Ulysse, Johanna Winters, Yiming Yang, and Cherrie Yu.

Theatre Arts: Daniel Banks, Borna Barzin, Darcy Parker Bruce, Juliette Carrillo, Dustin Chinn, Rachel Dickstein, David Finnigan, Dominic Finocchiaro, Julia Jordan, Lisa Kron, Alex Lin, Shayan Lotfi, Gloria Majule, Mark Russell, Madeline Sayet, Keegon Schuett, Jeana Scotti, Marike Splint, and Jeanine Tesori.

Visual Arts: Gouled Ahmed, Sama Alshaibi, Z Behl, Marina Berio, Lisa Bulawsky, Maeve D'Arcy, Chie Fueki, Emily Ginsburg, Golden Golden, Ronald Hall, Patrice Helmar, Daria Irincheeva, Kyuri Jeon, Priya Kambli, Laura Letinsky, Wen Liu, Senghor Reid, Ella Amitay Sadovsky, Jina Valentine, and Vanessa Woods.

Literature: Jennifer Ackerman, Jessie Allen, Louise Aronson, Khadija Bajaber, Rich Benjamin, Marianne Boruch, Erin Bow, Ayse Papatya Bucak, Kai Carlson-Wee, Jung Hae Chae, Jessamine Chan, Diane Cook, Alice Elliott Dark, Carina del Valle Schorske, April Dembosky, Rebecca Donner, Felipe Franco Munhoz, John Fulton, M. Leona Godin, Lily Gurton-Wachter, Camille Guthrie, Chelsea Harlan, K Ho, A.M. Homes, Hajar Hussaini, Mira Jacob, Camila Kerwin, Matthew Kessler, Mohamed Khelifi, Taisia Kitaiskaia, Daisy Lafarge, Alfred Jung Lee, Claire Luchette, Justice Malala, Olga Maslova, Sarah Mathews, Dantiel Moniz, Julia Anna Morrison, Michael Morse, Mai Nardone, Phoebe Oathout, Oluwabukoye Oyedeji, Raj Parameswaran, Hannah Pittard, Eman Quotah, Margaret Ross, Matthew Siegel, Angelique Stevens, Hector Tobar, Violeta Vicente Miguelez, G.C. Waldrep, Dana Mashoian Walrath, Mathew Weitman, Colson Whitehead, Autumn Womack, Steven Wright, Yasmin Zaher, Tatsiana Zamirovskaya, and Magdalena Zurawski.

For more than a century, MacDowell has provided uninterrupted time to reflect, innovate, study, practice, and create, and its Fellows have contributed significantly to American and world culture and been honored with numerous awards and accolades. MacDowell is a haven of creativity and strives to make its residency program accessible and possible for all artists. Fellows with demonstrated financial need are eligible to receive travel grants and stipends that offset expenses accrued at home during their residency.

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Made at MacDowell for 118 Years | Composer Edward MacDowell and pianist Marian MacDowell founded MacDowell in 1907 to nurture the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which to produce enduring works of the imagination. In 1997, MacDowell was honored with the National Medal of the Arts. Each year, MacDowell welcomes 300 architects, composers, filmmakers, interdisciplinary artists, theatre artists, visual artists, and writers from across the United States and around the globe. More than 16,000 residencies have been awarded in the last 118 years. Recipients have included Ayad Akhtar, James Baldwin, Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Louise Erdrich, Osvaldo Golijov, Cathy Park Hong, Glenn Ligon, Dee Rees, Vijay Seshadri, Ann Patchett, Colson Whitehead, and Julia Wolfe. Best-selling author and visual artist Nell Painter is the chairman of MacDowell’s Board of Directors.

For more info: Jericho Parms, director of development & communications, jparms@macdowell.org, (212) 535-9690