Celebrating Trillium Artists, Celebrating Five Years!

Trillium Arts Celebrates Our Alumni Artists
& Their Creative Work!
Check out their inspiring updates below...
 

In a world where artists need to be heard, valued and supported more than ever, Trillium provides an environment and resources for creativity to flourish at the confluence of art, community and ecology.

As the fifth year of artist residencies at Trillium Arts draws to a close, (Woo! Hoo!) it is an apt time to hear from a few of Trillium's artist alumni about the outcomes of their work while in residence. The range of work accomplished is truly remarkable. High Fives to all the artists!

In the spirit of generosity this season, we hope you will consider a year-end contribution, so Trillium can continue to support amazing artists into Year Six and beyond. We look forward to what the future holds and are beyond grateful for the way these artists, and many more, have touched our lives and the world around us. 

With gratitude,
Phil Reynolds and Heather Hartley

ARTIST NEWS:

Orlando Corona
Greenville, SC
Individual Artist-in-Residence, December 2024
Web: orfamivisualart.com /  IG: @orfamivisualart 

I was recently recruited to create the poster for a new, unreleased musical titled “La Zafra”. It is a moving, provocative and beautiful story about a young man from Mexico who moves to South Carolina for work, where he falls in love with a local woman and faces fears and prejudice from the locals. It was written by a Mexican playwright based in Seneca, SC who I immediately connected with and the project became a personal favorite. We worked with him and the creative director of a local theatre, who he has worked with for several years, to get the musical finished and produced.

Kimberly Crutcher
Chicago, IL
“Miss Sarah” Fellowship for Black Women Writers, July 2024

I have been continuing to write my novel Buffaloed. Buffaloed is a walk through America, the history, the future and this long lingering moment where we all long for modes of safe, transformative, healing touch that is not salacious, and for empowering images of communal grieving.  In the past year I have focused on the musical aspects as well as re-writing the text. I'm looking at pathways for publishing as I re-write. I'm considering serial audio/podcast publishing in addition to traditional print formats.

I have visited Montgomery AL twice since my time  at Trillium. I took space at the Legacy Museum to write passages about the relationship between grief and resistance to violence. I am especially moved to continue exploring concepts and imagery of the captive maternal engaged in a long journey that blends grieving and escape/freedom motifs . Here’s a picture of me at the National Memorial for Peace. I am standing under the marker that commemorates victims of lynching in the county where my Great Grandfather lived. He was not a victim of lynching but there are dates on the marker that correspond to dates when he was living there and raising his family. 

Melissa Fraterrigo
West Lafayette, IN
melissafraterrigo.com / @melissafraterrigo / https://www.facebook.com/melissa.fraterrigo
Individual Artist-in-Residence, June 2023
 
My memoir, The Perils of Girlhood was published by the University of Nebraska Press on 9/1/2025 and received a STARRED review from Booklist, calling it "intimate, raw, relatable." These were the essays I drafted during my time at Trillium Arts!!

Kristi Vincent Johnson
Durham, NC
IG: @profkvj
North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship, September 2024
Over the past year since completing our Trillium Arts Fellowship, we have continued developing Black Being, a short film inspired by North Carolina Poet Laureate Jaki Shelton Green’s powerful poem of the same name. The film offers a vivid visual interpretation of Green’s meditation on the perseverance, resilience, and generational journey of the Black woman in America. Through movement, imagery, and layered storytelling, the film seeks to honor her strength and illuminate the histories, dreams, and embodied memories carried forward through her.
Watch a preview of Black Being HERE

Photo of Kristi Vincent Johnson by Rick Crank Photography; Poster Photo by Laura Casteel.

Ayako Kato
Chicago, IL
Web: ayakokatodance.com / IG: @furyuayajp
ACE (Appalachia/Chicago Exchange) Fellowship in Dance, September 2021

Trillium supported "ETHOS II: Inception" (2021), and the ETHOS Project has been evolving along with Ayako’s mission of embodying Fūryū, wind flow in Japanese, or the beauty of being as it is. 

In April 2025, Ayako toured Japan and Taiwan as Suzuribako music and dance ensemble supported by Swiss Performers’ Foundation, Pro Helvetia, and regional Swiss arts councils. In March 2025, she presented "ETHOS: Ways of the Wind" (work-in-progress) in collaboration with composer Yiheng Yvonne Wu, Southern Ute cultural representatives, members of Native American Students Alliance, flutist Élise Roy, and performers from Department of Visual and Performing Arts supported by the Fellowship Award by the Heller Center for Arts and Humanities at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In December 2024, Ayako performed in the Black Air exhibition at the Casino Luxembourg Forum d'art contemporain and also published her 2nd artist book, “Art of Being through Emptiness” from Casino Display. In April, she premiered "ETHOS IV: Degrowth/Cycle/Rebirth" for Chicago Spotlight Festival at the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago & Grant Park supported by Sybil Shearer Fellowship at Ragdale, a National Dance Project (NDP) Grant Finalist Award, A. Montgomery Ward Foundation, and the Chicago Park District.

Watch excerpts of “ETHOS IV” HERE

Photo by Ricardo Adame

Nina Kawar
Asheville, NC
Web: pure-ritual.com  / IG: @pure_ritual
HEAR (Helene Emergency Artist Residencies), March 2025
 
Since Helene my creative projects consist of pivoting my business, Pure Ritual, and focusing solo on creating jewelry: while still rebuilding and navigating this great transition in my life. My goal is to sell more jewelry online, less craft shows, and more time to create efficiently for the sake of my health and wellbeing. I am working towards creating a space to work with clay again and potentially begin lapidary for my business and its evolution.
 
Photo by Nicole McConville

Khecari
Chicago, IL
Web: khecari.org   / IG: @khecaridance
ACE (Appalachia/Chicago Exchange) Fellowship in Dance, August 2022

In 2025, Khecari's final iteration of "Tend" was installed in the galleries at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI, for a month as an exhibit open to the public daily and as a performance during the weekends. "Tend" was being developed conceptually and structurally while we were in residence at Trillium and was premiered shortly after returning to Chicago.
Watch Excerpts of “Tend” HERE

Photo of Julia Antonick and Jonathan Meyer by William Frederking; “Tend” photo courtesy of JMKAC

Donald Scott Ray
Boone, NC
Web: jollyquad.com     /  FB: @ Donald Scott Ray
Sponsored Artist Since 2022
Hi everyone! I’m grateful to be recovering from surgery and fortunate to spend more time in my wheelchair. While in the chair, I continue to paint by mouth both pottery and landscapes. I continue to enjoy finding new ways to create meaningful artworks with function and beauty. I stand on the shoulders of many people and I cannot do this without them.
 
My latest project, THERAPEOPLE, is my most meaningful yet. They are reusable ceramic figurines upon which people may draw faces with erasable markers. Aside from being just plain fun they facilitate communication with individuals who experience barriers to expression. They provide a nonverbal way to express emotions, explore self-perception, and engage creative parts of the brain that can aid in the therapeutic process. Drawing can release emotional tension, focus racing thoughts, and provide a tangible representation of internal experiences that the client and therapist may examine together. If you or your loved one cannot afford to purchase a figurine, simples send a message to me on Facebook with your story, and I will make arrangements to cover the cost.

Also, I invite you to check out my NEW website, JollyQuad.com. You can view and purchase a variety of items and, I have a special section devoted to my firsthand reviews of accessible outdoor adventure locations for people with mobility issues. Sincere thanks!

Katey Schultz
Burnsville, NC
Web: www.kateyschultz.com
HEAR (Helene Emergency Artist Residencies), March 2025
I have begun the second draft of my third book, a novel set in rural West Virginia during the early 2000's. During my Trillium Arts Residency in March 2025, I was able to reread my first draft of this novel, following my experience as a survivor of Hurricane Helene. At the time, I had concerns that the writing would seem insignificant in the face of growing climate disasters (and now, growing constitutional crises). The time afforded me at Trillium helped me find my way back into the draft, and affirmed that the story--which explores how to hold one foot in hope and one foot in despair, against the backdrop of mountaintop removal and family trauma--DOES resonate and SHOULD be completed.

Phillip Alan Solomonson, aka Philamonjaro
Valencia, Spain
Web: www.philamonjaro.com  /  IG: philamonjaro 
FB: philamonjarostudio  / Blog: tabula-rasa
Individual Artist-in-Residence, May 2021 (Trillium’s FIRST Individual Artist Residency)
 
My Trillium-Arts residency was timely as I explored new photography approaches. It was transitional being post lockdown and our move. The following January, we arrived in Valencia, Spain. Once settled, I built a new network of artists/musicians and rebooted my live stage photography.
 
In 2023 I mounted “The Ephemeral Spirit of Dance,” a gallery exhibit of my dance photography paired with painted abstracts of each image collaborating with my new friend Sandi Goodwin. I had participated in many group shows and pop-ups before. But this was my first time at a fine art gallery. A new horizon.
 
As far as concerts, Valencia isn’t Chicago. Yet it offers different and rewarding environments. I’ve befriended many Berklee College of Music musicians from their satellite campus here. Fewer impersonal arena concert experiences give way to intimate theatres and cafes. I photograph less with greater reward: in recording studios, publishing in books or CD artwork. Writing all my concert reviews and getting stories and images in music books. I work on my archives planning to publish in zines and exhibiting. Most rewarding, my editing skills are much better. Finally, I am researching why music, dance and art are critical to our human experience. Something important during these uncertain times.
View video/artist interviews from “The Ephemeral Spirit of Dance”

Photo of Roderigo Villalobos by Philamonjaro.

Grace Spulak
Bosque Farms, NM
Web: gracespulak.com  IG: @gspulak
Individual Artist-in-Residence, October 2023
 
My debut story collection, Magdalena Is Brighter Than You Think, winner of the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize, selected by K-Ming Chang, will be released April 21, 2026. This collection explores the complexities of gender, queerness, trauma, and resilience through characters who live in the margins and imagine new ways to survive there. K-Ming Chang says about the book, "With precise language and endings that open up, reverberate, and resound with complex and multifaceted song, these stories gaze clear-eyed at what life is for those who are marginalized, but also what life can be. With sentences that ricochet off the page, this book shows us how to sit with the wholeness of existence, the persistence of injustice, and the unresolved question of whether change is possible, both personal and collective.”
Backgrounded by the New Mexico landscape—a place of isolation, strange beauty, and potential transformation—these stories explore unexpected hope and connection. I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to work on these stories while at Trillium Arts. Trillium's generosity and space gave me a place to write and focus during a time when I desperately needed it.

Book Cover courtesy of Autumn House press; Cover art Magdalena Mountains (detail) by Joel Becktell; Cover design by Connie Amoroso; Photo of Grace Spulak by Vanessa Vassar.

Scot J. Wittman
Philadelphia, PA
Web: mapographer.com / IG:  @twinhemisphere
Individual Artist-in-Residence, October 2023

I am enjoying MANY exhibitions, but will focus on one: my Solo Show titled "Iceblink Ballet" at the Hutchins Gallery in Princeton New Jersey at the Lawrenceville School.  This show comprises sculpture, video, drawings, and most notable -- Photographs of Dancers [most taken in the blue ridge mountains while at Trillium!!!]  We just had an Opening days ago; it was well attended, people have been emailing me for days about it, and I sold a work at the Opening.  The link to the gallery, below, will show works that were created while I was at Trillium:
https://www.lawrenceville.org/life-at-lawrenceville/campus/hutchins-galleries

"Iceblink Ballet" is the 3rd iteration of a traveling show; the 2nd iteration was easier this 2025 calendar year and was titled "Fondu and Freeze." That iteration prominently showcased the work I created in collaboration with dancers as well - dancers that Trillium Arts graciously put me in touch with! How wonderful?! And the locations were largely found through conversations around dinner tables and with like-minded artists in the area. I created a video recap just over a minute of that solo show from earlier in the year; it is on my website & I have provided a link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oz-wwfZ460

Video of Scot’s Solo Show in Boston

Photo of Scot J. Wittman by Terri Smith.

Lynda Wright
Raleigh, NC
Individual Artist-in-Residence, October 2023
 
The view from the patio as we arrived combined my wish to explore with the encouragement I felt from the first moments with Heather and Phil. I took scores of photographs, knowing that not only did I wish to share its beauty with others, but to take more of a “close-up” look at my own work as it progressed.
 
Upon arriving home, I discovered I had a plan for my next creations. I had been invited to hang a solo event at Sertoma Art Center in Raleigh in 2024, and ‘the Trillium experience” was the catalyst. The show became “Take a Closer Look”. We encouraged viewers to step closer, not “stay 6 feet away”. It was well-received, as well as others in Carrboro, Durham, and Cary later that year and this. I credit my time at Trillium as the beginning of a new confidence.
All my Trillium creations have been exhibited. “Longing” was completed (and sold) early in 2025, as part of an exhibit at The Mayton in Cary, NC.

Trillium, thank you for being there for artists of all genres.

Photo of “Longing” courtesy of the artist.

Trillium Arts Welcomes Three Individual Artists in Residence for Fall 2025

Trillium Arts is delighted to announce Lora Akati, Catherine Baumhauer and Eleana Daniel as awardees of Trillium's Fall 2025 Individual Artists in Residence Program. These exciting artists, who hail from locations both near and far, will be in  residence at Trillium during the months of September and October. Each artist will be on a solo creative adventure to work on projects they proposed as part of a competitive application process. Residencies are seven days in length, providing space and time to deepen creative endeavors and rejuvenate in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. 

MEET THE Artists:

LORA AKATI
Accra, Ghana
Website: https://lorawords.wordpress.com/
Instagram: @mahraba.move
Lora Akati is a photographer and writer whose work explores memory, belonging, and the quiet spaces we carry within and around us. Moving fluidly between text and image, her practice focuses on overlooked gestures, intimate landscapes, and the layered relationship between personal history and cultural identity. She often works with light, shadow, and stillness as metaphors for emotional states, creating space for slow seeing and reflection. Her ongoing project, The Spaces We Occupy, examines the intersections of memory, material, and the body as both archive and vessel. She is currently based in Accra, Ghana.

RESIDENCY PLANS:
During my residency at Trillium, I intend to focus on developing and refining The Spaces We Occupy - my ongoing project that weaves together photography, writing, and layered imagery to explore memory, belonging, and the body as a vessel of history. My goal is to use this concentrated time to edit and sequence photographs, expand the written text that accompanies them, and experiment with formats that bring the two mediums into deeper dialogue.

By the end of the residency, I aim to leave with a strong working draft of a photo-text manuscript, as well as a set of polished images that reflect the themes of constraint and freedom, memory as space, and the overlooked gestures that shape our emotional landscapes. I also hope to begin sketching ideas for how this work might exist as both a book project and an exhibition.

CATHERINE BAUMHAUER
Asheville, NC
Website: catherinebaumhauer.com

Catherine Baumhauer was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and CalArts (MFA). Her background in painting, sculpture, animation, film and her life as a mother influences her current work. She’s shown at Under the Bridge at Bridge Red Studio and Girls Club, Miami, Florida, CICA Museum, Seoul, South Korea, Shockboxx Gallery, Resin Gallery, Dorado Projects, Los Angeles, Upstairs Art Space, Tryon NC.
Baumhauer recently moved back to Asheville, NC from Los Angeles, CA.

RESIDENCY PLANS:
I'd like to explore themes of transformation and decay using natural and everyday materials, connecting what’s happening in my own life with the changes I see in the environment. As I prepare to move from Los Angeles back to Asheville—just after Hurricane Helene and the wildfires in California—I keep coming back to ideas of home, resilience, and how we rebuild in uncertain times.
I’d like to work on repurposed surfaces like thrifted canvases, old book pages, and even sandpaper, layering natural pigments and experimenting with cyanotypes to reflect cycles of growth, loss, and renewal. Alongside this, I want to make playful drawings using everyday things—coffee, tea, wine, soda, makeup, crayons, and markers. These materials bring a sense of humor and heart, while also touching on big life changes like moving, divorce, single motherhood, and the many roles women balance.

I’d also like to explore the quilt barns of Madison County. My mother is a quilter, and I grew up watching her piece together intricate, beautiful work. Even though I chose painting instead of quilting, I’ve always felt connected to those traditions. I’d love to reimagine quilt patterns and symbols through painting and mixed media, as a way of honoring both memory and place. This residency would give me the grounding I need in Appalachia—the space to reconnect, take risks, and begin a new body of work about rebuilding, transformation, and hope.

ELEANA DANIEL
Chicago, IL
Website: eleanadaniel.com
Instagram: @eleanadaniel

Eleana Daniel was born in Raleigh, NC and now lives and works in Chicago. She holds a BFA with honors from Columbia College Chicago. After an almost decade-long career in advertising as an art director she returned to painting in 2019. Eleana received her MFA in Painting and Drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2024. After graduating, she was awarded a teaching fellowship as part of the Painting department. Eleana’s work has been featured at Co-Prosperity Sphere, Oliva Gallery, The Plan, Woman Made Gallery, Color Club, and most recently at the inaugural Door County Contemporary art fair where she was chosen as Critic’s Pick by Michelle Grabner. Eleana has also been the curator of mozart house, a series of DIY group art shows, and a volunteer graphic designer for Comfort Station Logan Square.

n the devil-may-care short rows, 48 x 55 in., Oil paint on canvas, 2023.

RESIDENCY PLANS:
During my residency with Trillium Arts, I am eager to spend most of my time making oil paintings outside surrounded by the Blue Ridge Mountains. I look forward to working in an iterative and intuitive way, guided by my body's response to the landscape.

Congratulations to this fall's Artists in Residence! 

Trillium Arts Announces Awardees for the 2025-2026 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Program

Trillium Arts is delighted to announce Jingqiu Guan, Marcelo Martinez and Ashley L. Tate as awardees of Trillium's third annual North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Award. These extraordinary artists, who hail from locations around the state, will be in  residence at Trillium during the months of August 2025 and May and June 2026. Each choreographer will be joined by their dancers and/or key collaborators to advance their projects toward completion.

THE NORTH CAROLINA CHOREOGRAPHIC FELLOWSHIP (NCCF), launched in 2023, provides established North Carolina- based choreographers and their dancers with a full menu of resources and benefits including private lodging, rehearsal space, administrative mentorship, per diems and a $1,000 honorarium. If they so choose, NCCF awardees may opt to engage/interact with Trillium's growing cohort of regional and local artists. NCCF residencies are seven to nine days in length, providing space and time to deepen creative endeavors and rejuvenate in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. 

Following an open call application process earlier this spring, a panel reviewed a robust and competitive set of applications. The panel selected the awardees with a priority given to artists who are at a catalytic point in their career and/or are actively incubating a new project for future public presentation.

"Trillium Arts is honored to support these artists whose diverse works reflect a broad range of dance artistry in North Carolina,” says Phil Reynolds, Trillium Arts President. “The 2025-2026 Awardees were selected as Trillium's NCCF Fellows due to their excellent artistry and also because their projects are inspired by vitally important contemporary issues.”
 

MEET THE AWARDEES

Jingqiu Guan
Durham, NC
Website: jingqiuguan.com

Originally from Chengdu, China, Jingqiu Guan is a filmmaker, choreographer, dancer, and scholar. She currently teaches at Duke University as an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Dance. Jingqiu makes interdisciplinary performance work and dance film that engage with social issues and cultural memories. Centering voices and expressions of women, immigrants, people of color, and individuals with disabilities, her work explores cultural identities, motherhood, and addresses issues of racial and disability justice.

As a filmmaker, Jingqiu has presented her dance films and documentaries in a number of film festivals worldwide and won various awards, including the Outstanding Documentary Film Award (Mama Dancers 2025) at the Beijing Dance Festival, Outstanding Direction Award from Manifest Dance-Film Festival in India and Best Dance Film Award from Black Lives Rising Dance Film Festival (The Weight of Sugar 2021), Chinese Screendance Maker Award from Hong Kong’s Jumping Frames International Video Dance Festival, Best Student Film Award at the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, the Grand Jury Award from Chicago’s In Motion Dance Film Festival (Family Portrait 2019), etc.

Jingqiu’s choreography for live performance has been presented at various venues such as the Getty Museum, Highways Performance Space in Los Angeles, Shadow Box Theater, the Arts Center in NC, Space Place Theater in Iowa, Duke University’s von der Hayden Theater, and Reynolds Industries Theater. She is in the process of developing a multimedia dance performance inspired by stories of migration and immigration connected to trains and railroads.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
During the residency, I will collaborate with four dance artists to develop an evening-length multimedia dance theater production, tentatively titled Rail-Tracks, which recounts stories of migration and immigration through an immersive journey of a train ride across time and space, from modern China to 19th-century US and wartime Germany. The residency will be the first time the entire cast rehearses in person altogether, as not all dancers reside locally. We look forward to having dedicated time and space to delve deeply into crafting this work and building a community within us to reflect together on the relevance of these stories in today’s cultural and political landscape. In addition, we plan to conduct a community workshop and present an informal showing to connect with local residents and artists during the residency. The completed work is planned be to premiered in January 2027 at the von der Heyden Theater at Duke University through Duke Arts. 

MARCELO MARTINEZ
Raleigh, NC

Marcelo Martinez was born in Paraguay and began his training at the former Academia de danza Bettina Ramos. He trained in Brazil at the Centro de Dança Rio under the instruction of Maria Angelica Fiorani. At age 17 he was accepted into the Companhia Jovem do Teatro Municipal do Rio De Janiero where he danced for four years under the direction of Dalal Aschar and Mariza Estrella. He joined Washington Ballet for three seasons (2004-2007) where he danced under the direction of Septime Weber. From 2007 to 2024, Mr. Martinez, promoted as Principal Dancer in 2010, performed with Carolina Ballet, showcasing his talent in numerous principal roles. He danced as Romeo in Robert Weiss’s Romeo & Juliet, Man of Darkness in Lynne Taylor-Corbett’s Carmina Burana, and Dracula in another production by Taylor-Corbett. Additionally, he portrayed James in La Sylphide, Albrecht in Giselle, and Macbeth in Macbeth. Throughout his 17-season tenure with Carolina Ballet, Mr. Martinez captivated audiences with his performances. He has also graced the stage as a guest artist with Greensboro Ballet, Susan Farrell Ballet, Arka Ballet, The Raleigh Dance Theater, and The Asheville Ballet.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
During the Fellowship, I intend to explore forms, lifts, and movements inspired by the surrounding natural beauty of the mountains and keeping this quote in mind: 
“Emotional into motion:”
 I want to work on this phrase, to translate into motion, grief, anxiety, and loss. It is almost like acting with your body language to interpret the relationship of two different people and the tension between them, to give intention to their movement to express the devastation that Helene has left in our dance community, and we as artists have the ability to translate and reveal the hope and resilience that is inside of everyone.
The choreography process of creating a Contemporary Ballet at the North Carolina Fellowship program will become a journey of introspection for myself. This opportunity is an unyielding determination to be helpful, to be part of this community, even in moments of despair. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity, thanks to Trillium Arts, to present this original piece of work with The Asheville Ballet’s fall program in September at Pack Square in downtown Asheville.

ASHLEY L. TATE
Charlotte, NC
Instagram: dancert8
Website: https://ashleyliane9.wixsite.com

Ashley L. Tate is a director, choreographer, educator, and performer from Saint Louis, Missouri. She is an assistant professor of dance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an affiliate faculty member with the UNC Charlotte Department of Africana Studies, and founder and artistic director of Ashleyliane Dance Company (ADC). Tate earned a BS in Computer Information Science from Texas Christian University and an MFA in Dance from Washington University in St. Louis, where she received the prestigious Spencer T. & Ann W. Olin Fellowship for Women in Graduate Study. She has taught as an adjunct professor of dance at Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis, Webster University, and Southeast Missouri State University, and she previously chaired the dance department at Grand Center Arts Academy. Audiences have seen her choreography in concerts across Missouri and beyond, including (but not limited to), New York City, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boulder, Greensboro, Charlotte, and Santa Monica. Tate's current research centers on how African Diasporic dance education, practice, and performance function as pathways for social justice. She has presented her research at multiple conferences and conventions, including the European Hip Hop Studies Network Conference in Cork, Ireland, and the Dance Studies Association Conference in Washington, D.C.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
During the Trillium Arts Fellowship, I intend to continue developing a dance work that began during the pandemic, an exploration of climate activism and environmental racism through movement-based storytelling. The natural setting will serve as both contrast and catalyst, deepening our connection to land while amplifying the voices of communities most impacted by environmental harm. With time for reflection, experimentation, and embodied research, my dancers and I will co-create a physical language that honors resilience, grief, resistance, and joy. This residency will not only advance the work artistically but also strengthen my commitment to using dance as a tool for civic engagement and social change. For the production, I am interested in presenting the work at the Carolina Theatre in Charlotte, NC, and also creating site-specific performances in public outdoor spaces to further the connection between dance, environment, and activism.

Congratulations to this year's awardees! 

The 2025-2026 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowships are made possible with support from the Cannady-Ford Family Fund of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina; the North Carolina Arts Council,  a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts; and the Madison County Arts Council. 

Trillium Arts Welcomes Three New Board Members AND A Feature in The Laurel

Trillium Arts is honored to welcome three new members to its Board of Directors: Estelle Woodward Arnal, Regina YC Garcia and Pamela Green. These amazing women will bring tremendous energy and stewardship to the organization.
 

Meet Trillium's Newest Board Members:

Estelle Woodward Arnal
Asheville, NC

Estelle is the Foundation & Government Relations Director at Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival where she develops grant proposals and reports for the organization and serves as a liaison with government and foundation supporters. Estelle has been working in the field of arts administration for 20 years specializing in fundraising, program development, and strategic planning. She has worked as a consultant for American Dance Festival, Stephen Petronio Company, Big Dance Theater, Richard B. Fisher Center for Performing Arts at Bard College, and Kathy Westwater, among others. Previously she worked at Dance Theater Workshop in New York City as Director of Artist Services and made work as a choreographer in NYC for many years. Estelle is an avid cyclist and loves exploring the mountains with her family.

Regina YC Garcia
Greenville, NC

Regina YC Garcia is a poet, language artist, and English professor. She is a graduate of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a BA in Speech Communication with a Concentration in the Oral Interpretation of Literature. She additionally earned an MA in Adult Education from East Carolina University, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Multicultural and Transnational Literature. She currently teaches English and is the Coordinator of Global Programs at Pitt Community College. Regina's literary work primarily centers around issues related to family and culture, social justice, and human rights. She is committed to effecting change through the persistent literary address of inequities, inequalities, and disparities. She is also committed to the uplift of consciousness and spirit through education and the arts. Regina is the 2021 National DAR American Heritage Poetry Award Winner and a 2021 and 2023 NCLR James Applewhite Semifinalist, as well as 2023 Pushcart Nominee for her poem The Fire That Consumes: The Burnings of Black Histories. Her publications of poetry and video poetry can be found in a variety of journals and anthologies including: South Florida Poetry Journal; Up the Staircase Quarterly; The Book of Black; Kakalak; I Tried Not to Write; Main Street Rag: The Amistad; Tulane University's Sacred 9 Project: The AutoEthnographer- A Literary and Arts Magazine: and numerous others. Her work has also been featured (voice and poetry) in The Black Light Project, a documentary which was the subject of an Emmy Award winning episode of PBS Muse: An Art Show. Garcia's first book of poetry, THE FIRETALKER’S DAUGHTER, was released by Finishing Line Press in March 2023. She currently resides in Greenville, NC, and she is a wife and mother of three adult sons.

Pamela Green
Durham, NC

Mrs. Green holds a BA in Public Policy and a minor in Drama from Duke University and an MS in Arts Administration from Drexel University. She began her arts administration training at the Durham Arts Council and furthered her experience working for the American Dance Festival. She was managing director of the Chuck Davis African-American Dance Ensemble (1985-1989) and Director of Touring and Presenting for the NC Arts Council (1989-1992).

In 1992, she founded PMG Arts Management, providing booking, management, producing and consulting services to well-established and emerging artists, including the renowned Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Philadanco!, Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre, and Grammy nominated vocalist Nnenna Freelon’s The Clothesline Muse, among others. In 2020 she stepped back from being an agent and began consulting on short term projects.  In 2021 she assisted producer Mikki Shepard and her team as the contracts manager for the NYC Free Festival that opened Little Island.  From 2022-2024 she was the Interim Managing Director for Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE.

Mrs. Green has served as a board member, consultant, panelist, or workshop leader for the NEA, APAP, NEFA, NAPAMA, the Southern Arts Federation, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Michigan Council for the Arts, the International Association of Blacks in Dance and the Western Arts Alliance.

She has been happily married to her husband Isaac for 35 years this year and has two adult children, Isaac II and Anica.  In her spare time, she enjoys hiking, birdwatching, anything beach, ocean or mountain related,  jazz, wine and travel. 

Learn About Trillium's Full Board of Directors HERE

Trillium Arts HEAR Award Project Featured In The Laurel of Asheville

Warmest thanks to The Laurel of Asheville for a feature in their March 2025 issue about the Trillium Arts HEAR Awards! We are filled with gratitude to the magazine for this coverage and look forward to supporting creative work by the amazing six participating WNC artists:Annie Kyla Bennett, Angela Cunningham, Nina Kawar, Nava Lubelski, Mar Perez Albela and Katey Schultz.

Appalachia Strong, ya'll. 

Read the full article HERE
 

Trillium Arts Announces Samantha Stevens as the 2025 "Miss Sarah" Fellowship Awardee

Samantha Stevens

Trillium Arts is delighted to announce Samantha Stevens of Oakland, CA as the 2025 awardee for the “Miss Sarah” Fellowship for Black Women Writers. The Fellowship, named in honor of Sarah M. Johnson of Hickory, NC, aims to provide Black women writers a restful environment conducive to reflection and writing. It also offers uninterrupted time to plant the seed of an idea for a new writing project or to develop or complete a project underway.  Learn more about the "Miss Sarah" Fellowship Program.
 
A panel of esteemed black women writers reviewed 42 competitive applications that were received from around the country in the genre of Poetry. The panel ultimately awarded the Fellowship to Samantha for the 2025 cycle. The “Miss Sarah” Fellowship offers a variety of benefits including a $1,000 honorarium, transportation, and accommodations for ten days in July at the Trillium Arts artist residency location in rural Mars Hill, NC and/or at “Montford Manor” in downtown Asheville, NC.

About The “Miss Sarah” Fellowship Awardee

Samantha Stevens (she/they) is a queer, Black, disabled writer and educator from the East Coast, Lenni-Lenape land. They are a graduate of the MFA in Poetry at the University of San Francisco and have received fellowships from The Watering Hole, Community of Writers, Esperimento Sul Respiro, The Ruby, and Kearny Street Workshop. They are the recipient of the 2022 Deathrattle/Oroboro Penrose Poetry Prize. Their work is also featured in Fruitslice and forthcoming in Foglifter and The Seventh Wave. They are working on their first manuscript, Rituals for the Living, and offer sessions for healing and collective liberation integrating poetry, ritual, movement, and meditation.

Fellowship Plans
During my residency, I will immerse myself in the practice of ritual as both a creative and healing process. As I refine my first poetry manuscript, Rituals for the Living, which maps my survival against illness, loss, and the impact of harmful systems, I will engage in daily rituals—combining tarot, journaling, yoga, and time in nature—to deepen my connection to these themes. I hope to explore and offer rituals centered on grief, embodiment, ancestral lineage, joy, rest, and protection. Through this embodied practice, I will write new poems and create a companion book of mini rituals, making my writing not just a personal process but an invitation to collective practice and a space of radical possibility.
 

About The Review Panelists

Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Ph.D, is Founding Director of the Women's Research & Resource Center at Spelman College and Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies. She is past president of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also edited Words Of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought and co-authored with Johnnetta B. Cole Gender Talk: The Struggle For Women's Equality In African American Communities.

Parneshia Jones is director at Northwestern University Press. She studied creative writing at Chicago State University, earned an MFA from Spalding University, and studied publishing at Yale University. Her first book Vessel (2015) was the winner of the Midwest Book Award and featured in 0, The Oprah Magazine as one of l2 poetry books to savor for National Poetry Month. Her poems have been published in anthologies such as The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (2007), Poetry Speaks Who I Am (2010), and She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems (2011), edited by Caroline Kennedy. Jones's poems have been featured on Chicago Public Radio, and she is a member of Affrilachian Poets, a collective of Black poets from Appalachia. The recipient of a Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, a fellowship from the Lannan Foundation, a Margaret Walker Short Story Award, and an Aquarius Press Legacy Award. She served as president of Cave Canem and currently serves on the advisory boards of ShoreFront Legacy, Torch Literary Arts, and Agate Publishing.

Mecca Jamilah Sullivan, Ph.D., is the author of three books: Big Girl, a New York Times Editors’ Choice and winner of the Balcones Fiction Prize and the Next Generation Indie Book Award for First Novel; The Poetics of Difference: Queer Feminist Forms in the African Diaspora, winner of the William Sanders Scarborough Prize from the MLA; and the short story collection, Blue Talk and Love, winner of the Judith Markowitz Award from Lambda Literary. She has earned honors from Bread Loaf, the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, the Mellon Foundation, the Center for Fiction, the NEA and others. Originally from Harlem, NY, she is Professor of English at Georgetown University in Washington DC.

TRILLIUM ARTS ANNOUNCES THE RECEIPENTS OF ITS HEAR (HELENE EMERGENCY ARTIST RESIDIENCIES) AWARDS Generous Support From Donors Enabled An Increase To Six Recipients

Trillium Arts is honored to announce Annie Kyla Bennett, Angela Cunningham, Nina Kawar, Nava Lubelski, Mar Perez-Albela, and Katey Schultz as the recipients of Trillium's HEAR (Helene Emergency Artist Residencies) awards. These extraordinary artists, who are working in a variety of disciplines and hail from locations around Western North Carolina, will be in residence at Trillium during the months of February through May. The awardees were selected from a substantial application pool by a panel review process. The panel was composed of Trillium Arts Board members who based their selections on the combined criteria of artistic merit and demonstratable storm related need. HEAR opportunities are at no cost to the artists and in fact offers them a financial honorarium.
 
The HEAR project specifically supports artists residing in Western North Carolina who were significantly impacted by Hurricane Helene. Phil Reynolds, Trillium Arts President and Co-Founder notes, “Core values at Trillium include being nimble and responsive to artists’ needs. Considering the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Helene on so many regional artists, Trillium leadership felt compelled to move quickly. In early December 2024 we launched an application process for HEAR. The outpouring of interest from both applicants and donors for HEAR confirmed the value and need for this offering.”
 
The original plan, as stated in December was that with sufficient funding, Trillium would award four artists. But due to the tremendous generosity of donors, Trillium exceeded its fundraising goal for the project and is now able to increase the number of awardees to six.  

HELENE IMPACT
 The awardees all incurred significant damage due to Hurricane Helene. Damages ranged from complete loss of studios, equipment, inventory, the inability to work, and incredible physical and emotional strain. As one artist stated, “As a full-time artist, this event could potentially end my career. I am currently displaced from my studio and home and trusting that I will be able to find both soon so I can return to making my creative work. A residency in March could allow space for contemplation and possibilities of new creative projects to come to fruition.”

HEAR Artists Will Receive:

• A $700 relief stipend

• Private accommodations for up to seven consecutive nights in a one-bedroom, ground floor suite. Learn more about the artist suite HERE.

• Welcome dinner

• Restorative time to reflect, rejuvenate and create

• Use of the grounds, including firepit, hot tub, waterfall area and walking path

• Access to a variety of supplies and onsite creative spaces that include a contemplation gazebo and a 380 square foot open air, covered workspace. Learn more HERE.

• Basic kitchen supplies and all household goods (towels, linens, paper products, etc.)

• Access to high-speed fiber optic internet and laundry

MEET THE AWARDEES

"Heart Garden" by Annie Kyla Bennett

Annie Kyla Bennett
Asheville, NC
Visual Art
www.anniekylabennettart.com 
Creative Director, Art Garden AVL
www.artgardenavl.com 
Assoc VP, River Arts District Association
www.riverartsdistrict.com

 Conceptual painter exploring allegory and ecology, both social and environmental. Queer Appalachian artist, gardener, and mutualist.  Annie Kyla Bennett is painting stories of hope for the future, centering plants and our relationship with Nature. Annie is a co-founder and the creative director of Art Garden AVL, an arts collaborative creating economic opportunity and inclusive representation for artists from underserved communities. Annie is also a founding member of Medicine Heart Murals, an artist collective working to highlight environmental urgency through public art. 
Annie grew up in rural Alaska, homesteading with artist parents. They first moved to Asheville in 2007 and spent many years on the road creating art all over the country before nesting into a permanent gallery space here in 2019. Annie collects books, tools and seeds. They find inspiration in Nature and in the places where ideas intersect.

Residency Intentions:
“I will be working on dialing the details and finishing touches on The Mother Plant, a show I’ll be debuting at Asheville Fringe Arts Festival this March. The Mother Plant is an interactive, immersive art exhibition celebrating phytoremediation and all of the potentials for Regenerative Land Stewardship and renewable resource management that collaborating with the Cannabis plant can afford humanity. This installation is an exploded presentation of an art book by the same name, which is the culmination of almost 10 years of research, writing, and art making. The show includes over 40 artworks and 40 short creative writing pieces that synthesize the research going into each art piece, from cultural and historical traditions to modern scientific advancements.
 
I have two oil paintings in progress to finish for the show, and I have to decide how I’m going to manage replacing the three smaller watercolor pieces that were lost in the flood. I will either try to recreate them close to how they were, or create completely new works from the same drawings. We’ll see. I’ve been working with Fringe Fest for several years now as a venue director/stage manager, but this is my first time participating as an artist, and I am so excited!” 

"Yellow Rose" by Angela Cunningham

Angela Cunningham
Horse Shoe, NC
Visual Art
www.angelacunninghamfineart.com/
 
Angela Cunningham (b. 1977) grew up in the Bay Area of California. She studied at various art colleges eventually receiving her BFA in Drawing and Painting with a minor in sculpture from Laguna College of Art and Design. After teaching in California at LCAD and Saddleback College from 2005-2007, Angela pursued her passion for the classical techniques of drawing and painting under the mentorship of Jacob Collins at the Grand Central Academy of Art in New York City. She graduated GCA in 2011. She now teaches privately at her own studio near Asheville, North Carolina and teaches workshops at various studios nationwide. Angela is a member of the National Sculpture Society, the Portrait Society and Preserving A Picturesque America. She is also a recipient of various awards including the Morris and Alma Schapiro Achievement Award, Art Renewal Center First Place Scholarship Award, the Alfred Ross Achievement Award and more.

Residency Intentions:
“In this fast-paced world, the art of slowing down to observe and connect is invaluable. I will definitely take time to reflect on my own thoughts and allow some quiet time so I can work on some ideas that l've been wanting to start in my artwork. I'll be doing some idea sketches in drawing, painting and sculpture with the goal of cultivating a few of those ideas into some larger works. I hope to also explore Trillium's wooded outdoors so l can bring into the studio some nature to incorporate into some of the pieces.”

"Shadow" by Nina Kawar

Nina Kawar
Marshall, NC
Visual Art/Sculpture/Jewelry
www.ninakawar.com
www.pure-ritual.com

Nina Kawar is a sculptor and designer whose creative practice explores the human condition, healing, and consciousness. She aims to push the boundaries of porcelain through carving and delicate forms, while her copper jewelry is layered with metaphysics, science, and design. Many of her influences stem from psychology, biology, and spirituality.

Born and raised in a Palestinian American home in Wisconsin, Nina's sculptural work explores her multicultural lens that parallels her curiosity for patterns, perspectives, and evolution. She started her artistic journey in 2005 at San Diego Community College and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in 3D Design in 2011. She found her passion for porcelain at Clemson University and received a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics in 2014. She established a studio practice at Marshall High Studios in Marshall, NC, in 2016, which was recently destroyed in Hurricane Helene. As she moves through this change, she continues to create her jewelry and explores music and painting while navigating the next step on her artistic journey. Nina will return to working with clay at an artist residency at Vermont Studio Center in February of 2025.

Residency Intentions:
“While at Trillium Arts in late March of 2025, I hope to drop into an intuitive creative space without distractions. I will be returning from a two-and-a-half-week residency a few weeks prior at Vermont Studio Center where I am granted the opportunity to work with clay for the first time since Helene. Although I do not know what I will create during that time, I hope to use the time at Trillium Arts to finish, refine, or further develop a series of work I started in February. I trust I will also devote time to my other creative outlets which include singing, guitar, writing, and painting.”

"Riddled " (detail) by Nava Lubelski 

Nava Lubelski
Asheville, NC
Visual Art
www.navalubelski.com
www.traceymorgangallery.com/exhibitions/nava-lubelski
@navalubelski

Nava Lubelski was born and raised in New York City and lives in Asheville, NC. Lubelski's work has been exhibited widely at museums such as the Queens Museum of Art; the Museum of Arts & Design in NYC; the San Diego Museum of Art; the National Museum of Decorative Arts and Design in Oslo; the Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC and the Asheville Art Museum. She has shown solo or semi-solo with Tracey Morgan Gallery in Asheville, NC; LMAKprojects in New York, OH&T Gallery in Boston, P|M Gallery in Toronto, Luis de Jesus in Los Angeles and Margaret Thatcher Projects in NYC. Additional solo/group exhibitions have included numerous university, commercial galleries and small museums nationally, as well as venues in Stockholm, Sydney and Berlin. Lubelski's work has been reviewed in The New York Times, LA Times, Toronto Globe and Mail, Art Forum, ArtNews and The Village Voice, was the subject of a feature in American Craft, and has been included in many international contemporary art books, such as Radical Decadence, (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017) and De Fil en Aiguille (Paris: Pyramyd Editions, 2018). She has received grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Center for Crafts and the North Carolina Arts Council, Lubelski received a degree in Russian Literature & History from Wesleyan University and spent a year as a student in Moscow, Russia.

Residency Intentions:
“During the residency I plan to work on a large-scale piece combining stitching and paint, created from discarded vintage linens and memorializing lived experience. This piece is a continuation of a series begun last summer while in residence at Center for Craft in Asheville and for which I don't currently have sufficient space in my home studio.”

Mar Perez-Albela
Asheville, NC
Musician/Songwriter/Producer

@marmusicofficial
marmusicofficial.com
oyelomusicproductions.com
Spotify

Hailing originally from Peru singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, M A R landed in Appalachia 28 years ago to pursue his passion for music. He honed his craft during his years at Mars Hill University, FSU, and later on in Miami, FL where his career took off with the Song of the Year award (2007) for his single Busca Tu Voz. Winner of the Premio Orgullo Peruano (2009), M A R honors with love and loyalty the place where he grew up and began playing and singing at a very young age. Drawing from his South American roots, as well as blues, and folk from his journey through North America, M A R infuses his music with indie-flavored acoustic guitars, and charango: a traditional string instrument from the Andes. 

With his second album Lineas 1000, and later with the third release of The One (2015) M A R toured cities in North, Central, and South America. He has shared his music on national radio, and television networks such as Azteca TV, Telemundo, Mega TV, in the US and in Latin America. In 2019, M A R landed a collaboration with renowned LA music producer Billy Lefler (Ingrid Michaelson, Dashboard Confessional) for the making of his EP I AM I, which sold out for its release night in February 2020. After the pandemic, In June 2022, M A R launched a latin-urban song in a “call back to life” called Vuelve a La Vida. Later in August the indie-electronic single Hollow became popular on the streaming platforms in Finland.

As a social justice and equality advocate, M A R strongly believes in bringing people together, and working towards a common goal. Founder of Óyelo Music Productions, and recipient of LGTBO+ Music Forward Foundation Emerging Artist Award 2022, he enjoys collaborating with many like-minded creatives.That same year, M A R debuted an original and autobiographical piece in junction with American-Peruvian artist Gina Cornejo (she/they) at the iconic A Swannanoa Solstice at the Wortham Theater in Asheville, which had him return as guest artist on December 2024. You can catch him solo at a show, or with his band M A R & The Marmeladies, or his newly formed Cumbia band Las Montañitas. Currently, M A R is producing a new single that will be out early Spring 2025.

Residency Intentions:
“I am so stoked and grateful to have this time and space at Trillium Arts! It will give me an opportunity to relax, just be present and create. I intend to use this residency to dive into songwriting! I’ll bring my acoustic guitar, my charango and my mobile production rig with me and I will sit to download the songs that have been waiting to be written. Hopefully a new album!”

Katey Schultz
Burnsville, NC
Writer
www.kateyschultz.com
www.writeability.org/

Katey Schultz is the author of Flashes of War, which the Daily Beast praised as an “ambitious and fearless” collection, and Still Come Home, a novel, both published by Loyola University Maryland. Honors for her work include North Carolina’s Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Fiction, the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Doris Betts Fiction Prize, Foreword INDIES Book of the Year award, gold and silver medals from the Military Writers Society of America, the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year award, five Pushcart nominations, a nomination to Best American Short Stories, National Indies Excellence recognition, and writing fellowships in eight states. She lives in Celo, North Carolina, and is the founder of two businesses for writers: WRITEABILITY, a nonprofit in defense of the imagination; and Monthly Mentorship, a transformative mentoring program for creative writers that has been recognized by both CNBC and the What Works Network.

Residency Intentions:
"I will spend my time resting, reading, and reviewing the first draft of my novel in anticipation of doing some deeper revision work later this summer. There has been little time to simply reflect, since Helene, and so I am also open to following my creative imagination wherever it needs to go during my residency. It will be interesting to see what emerges when I finally have the space for silence, solitude, and relative safety (i.e., no pressing shelter, phone, wi-fi, electricity, road, bridge, or neighborhood safety issues)."

SPECIAL THANKS

Special Thanks to the following supporters who are making the HEAR project possible: the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, with funding from the North Carolina Arts Foundation's North Carolina Arts Relief Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, and South Art's Southern Arts Relief and Recovery Fund; Paul and Janine Allen; Cassilhaus Artist Residency; The Dorothy Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation; Betty and Fred Gittenger; Pamela Green; Karen Tarjan; Brent and Karen Woods.

Announcing HEAR: Helene Emergency Artist Residencies

Trillium Arts Launches HEAR - a New Residency Project in Response to Hurricane Helene

Wintertime Sunset at Trillium. Photo by Phil Reynolds.

Trillium was miraculously spared from any significant damage from Hurricane Helene. Tragically, this is not the case for many artists in our region who have lost homes, studios, supplies and commercial inventory. We feel and HEAR their pain, suffering and loss.
 
Core values at Trillium include being nimble and responsive to artists’ needs. Considering the catastrophic impact of Helene on so many regional artists, Trillium is reacting with a new project, Helene Emergency Artists Residencies (HEAR) for artists residing in Western North Carolina. We HEAR about their devastation, and we care.

Western North Carolina artists of all disciplines substantially impacted by Hurricane Helene are invited to apply.  This new opportunity provides a variety of relief benefits to arts professionals working in literary, media, performing, visual, and interdisciplinary arts. This regional residency is open to arts professionals 18 years or older who reside in the 26 counties in Western North Carolina impacted by Hurricane Helene. 

With sufficient funding, Trillium Arts will offer four HEAR awards in early 2025, at no cost to the artists.

Flood Map from the North Carolina State Climate Office. Yellow dots indicate major flood areas.

HEAR Artists Will Receive:

• A $700 relief stipend

• Private accommodations for up to seven consecutive nights during the months of February or March 2025 in a one-bedroom, ground floor suite. Learn more about the artist suite HERE.

• Welcome dinner

• Restorative time to reflect, rejuvenate and create

• Shared use of the grounds, including firepit, hot tub and waterfall area

• Use of a variety of supplies and onsite creative spaces that include a contemplation gazebo and a 380 square foot open air, covered workspace. Learn more HERE.

• Basic kitchen supplies and all household goods (towels, linens, paper products, etc.)

• Access to high speed fiber optic internet and laundry

Eligibility

• Applicants must currently reside in one of the affected counties and be 18 years of age or older.

• Applicants must be activity working in one of the following artistic fields: literary, media, performing, visual, and interdisciplinary arts

• Applicants must have been substantially impacted by Hurricane Helene.

• Artists at any stage of their careers are invited to apply. There is no application fee.

• This opportunity is intended for individual artists; nonprofits are not eligible.

TIMELINE
Applications are being accepted NOW. Applications for HEAR are reviewed by a panel. The deadline to apply is Friday, January 3, 2025 at 11:59pm. 

The application is intentionally short & only requires applicants to complete a handful of questions and upload supporting documents.

LEARN MORE AND START YOUR APPLICATION HERE
 

Artful Impact 2024 Fundraiser! Featuring Orlando Corona, Trillium Artist in Residence

Live Art and Jazz on December 6th! Proceeds Benefit the Community Housing Coalition

Trillium is delighted to be part of this upcoming fundraiser on Friday, December 6 to benefit the Community Housing Coalition (CHC) of Madison County. Event proceeds will support CHC’s vital mission of providing safe and healthy homes for those affected by Hurricane Helene.

We are grateful to our friends at Mars Landing Galleries for putting this amazing event together! A special highlight will be speed painting by Orlando Corona, Trillium's Fall 2024 Artist in Residence. Orlando's artwork will be inspired by the live jazz performance by the Mark Guest Jazz Trio.  Orlando will speed paint two canvases that evening, at 5:30pm and 6:45pm.

The canvases will be raffled off and folks can purchase raffle tickets at the gallery through December 20. Proceeds from the raffle of Orlando's paintings go directly to CHC.

But wait, there's more! Mars Landing Galleries is currently exhibiting work by over twenty incredibly talented visual artists. Throughout November and December 2024, Mars Landing will donate 20% of all fine art gallery sales to support CHC and those who are desperately in need. 

You can shop the art collection online HERE and support a great cause!

This event is co-sponsored by the Madison County Arts Council and by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

Announcing Orlando Corona As Trillium's Fall 2024 Artist in Residence

Trillium Arts is delighted to welcome Orlando Corona of Greenville, SC as our Fall 2024 Artist in Residence this December. Orlando will spend a week at Trillium's Artist Suite to rejuvenate and further his visual art practice. Orlando  was selected from an application pool based on his artistic merit and his commitment to exploring new techniques while engaging with nature here at Trillium. We can’t wait to see what emerges from his creative inquiry!

Website/Portfolio: orfamivisualart.com
Instagram: orfamivisualart

Orlando Corona is a prolific young artist located in Greenville, South Carolina. He specializes in painting, printmaking and murals, starting only a few years ago but exceeding expectations by becoming a successful professional artist in the Upstate and beyond. Orlando draws deep inspirations from his roots as a first-generation Mexican immigrant, and strives to tell stories about his own experience, yet outgrow cultural stereotypes and limits. He aims to inspire others through his work and be an integral part of his community and the world.

Artist Statement:
"At the Trillium Arts residency, I look forward to using the secluded, serene space to improve my watercolor and ink painting skills by drawing inspiration from the surrounding scenery. By immersing myself in this physical and mental space, I know I will be able to focus on my goals and do what I love- create and make meaningful art."
 

Trillium Arts Awards Three North Carolina Choreographic Fellowships in 2024

Trillium Arts is delighted to announce Kristi Vincent Johnson, Nicole Vaughan-Diaz and Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs as awardees of Trillium's second annual North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Award. These extraordinary artists, who hail from locations around the state, will be in residence at Trillium during the months of August and September. Each group will be joined by their dancers and/or key collaborators to advance their projects toward completion.

THE NORTH CAROLINA CHOREOGRAPHIC FELLOWSHIP (NCCF), launched in 2023, provides established North Carolina based choreographers and their dancers with a full menu of resources and benefits including private lodging, rehearsal space, administrative mentorship, per diems and a $1,000 honorarium. If they so choose, NCCF awardees may opt to engage/interact with Trillium's growing cohort of regional and local artists. NCCF residencies are seven to nine days in length, providing space and time to deepen creative endeavors and rejuvenate in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. 

Following an open call application process earlier this spring, a panel reviewed a robust and competitive set of applications. The panel selected the awardees with a priority given to artists who are at a catalytic point in their career and/or are actively incubating a new project for future public presentation.

“The 2024 Awardees were selected as Trillium's NCCF Fellows not only because of their artistic merit, but also because their projects reflect a diverse range of ways that dance holds up a mirror to our contemporary times," says Phil Reynolds, Trillium Arts President. "Trillium is honored to support these artists who enhance the creative community for the entire state of NC."

MEET THE AWARDEES

Kristi Vincent Johnson. Photo courtesy of the artist.

KRISTI VINCENT JOHNSON

Durham, NC
Instagram: @profkvj

Kristi Vincent Johnson, a Louisiana native, is an artist-educator, choreographer, filmmaker, and scholar whose work transcribes the joys, struggles, triumphs, and tragedies that shape our identity and define our shared humanity. Over her two-decade career in higher education, Kristi has created more than 40 choreographic works and has received commissions from organizations such as The Ernie Barnes Foundation and the NC Museum of Art. Her acclaimed films, I Want To Ask The Trees and The Communion of White Dresses based on the poetry of the NC Poet Laureate, Jaki Shelton Green, have been presented in such festivals as the San Francisco Dance Film Festival, the Longleaf Film Festival, the San Francisco Arthouse Film Festival, and the Black Truth Film Festival. Her creative work for both stage and film exemplifies the high value she places on community and collaboration. As a result, Kristi was selected as the 2021 NC Campus Compact Engaged Faculty Scholar to initiate community-campus partnerships and advance the scholarship of engagement at her respective institution. Kristi Vincent Johnson holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Texas Christian University and a Doctorate of Education in Kinesiology from UNC Greensboro. Currently, she serves as Assistant Professor and Director of Dance at North Carolina Central University, where she is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Repertory Dance Company.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
"During my residency, I plan to start production on my new film, "Black Being," which is inspired by the powerful poetry of Jaki Shelton Green, the NC Poet Laureate. The location, which covers 22 acres of stunning land, provides an ideal environment for exploring site-specific choreographic prompts and developing ways to integrate the natural spaces with choreographic intention. We will use these movement explorations to investigate approaches to creating a harmonious relationship between the movement, the landscape, and the figurative language used to illustrate the theme of “perseverance" highlighted in the poem. This program promises to be a transformative experience beyond anything a typical studio could offer, as it will challenge us as artists to embrace risk-taking and employ innovative techniques essential to crafting thought- provoking and aesthetically satisfying work. Upon completion of the film, my intention is to submit it to a variety of film festivals, with the goal of broadening the reach and recognition of documentary poetry, dance, and film."

Nicole Vaughn-Diaz. Photo courtesy of the artist.

NICOLE VAUGHN-DIAZ

Asheville, NC
Website: nvdproject.com
Instagram: @nvdproject
Facebook: www.facebook.com/nvdproject

Nicole Vaughan-Diaz is a choreographer, performer, and filmmaker, based in Asheville, North Carolina. Originally from Miami, FL, Vaughan-Diaz earned a BFA in Dance Performance from the University of South FL (2013), where she was granted the BRAVO and Hope Rietschlin scholarship awards for exceptional artistry.
 
As a performer, Vaughan-Diaz has been an integral member of the critically acclaimed Kate Weare Company (NYC), from 2013 to current. Additionally, Vaughan-Diaz has performed works by Doug Varone, Rosie Herrera, Sasha Waltz, Michael Foley, Kate Hilliard, Luke Murphy, and ODC/Dance.

In 2019, Vaughan-Diaz founded NVD Project, and has since presented work at venues including: Judson Memorial Church (NYC), The Public Theater (NYC), Arts on Site (NYC), and more. Vaughan-Diaz’s choreographic work has been hand-selected and presented by The Future Dance Festival (NYC), the North Carolina Dance Festival (Greensboro, NC), and was awarded the Challenge Winner Award (2019) for the 24th Annual DanceNOW Festival of New York City. In 2023, Vaughan-Diaz was commissioned by the American Dance Festival to present a new work as part of the Made In NC series, and was recently named a 2024 ‘Artist in Residency’ at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York City.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
Nicole Vaughan-Diaz’s intention with the Trillium Arts NC Choreographic Fellowship is to begin reviving her long-awaited evening-length piece titled, Maeror; originally crafted in NYC and placed on hold following the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The piece, named after the Latin word for ‘grief’, is a trio dance performance about exactly that – the lasting impact of grief and the many forms and faces it often emulates. Through sophisticated and risky partner-work, carefully curated gestural phrasing, and tender thought-provoking imagery, the work aims to seek collective growth and understanding surrounding loss, in hopes of learning how to best recognize and support each other during times of
bereavement. The Trillium Fellowship will allow the work time and space to be reawakened to a new cast of performers and to continue developing material critical to shaping the narrative of the piece. Nicole will be joined by two dance artists and a filmmaker to document her process.

The Yoggs. Photo courtesy of the artist.

CHRIS YON AND TARYN GRIGGS (THE YOGGS) 
Winston-Salem, NC
Website: chrisandtaryn.com
Instagram: @vodvilyon and @taryngriggs

Taryn Griggs and Chris Yon create original dance works that are deadpan slapstick, understated melodrama, autobiographical science fiction, cubist vaudeville, asymmetrically consonant explorations of magic and virtuosity in everyday movement.  They met at the Bessie Schönberg Artist Residency at The Yard in 2002 and have been working together ever since. They were participants in the dance communities of New York City, Minneapolis, and Iowa City, before moving to Winston-Salem.  Chris and Taryn’s choreographies have been presented across the US, Canada, Ireland, and France. In New York, in addition to the presentation of their work at La MaMa, Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, The Kitchen, and Danspace Project, they appeared together in the work of David Neumann, Yoshiko Chuma, Karinne Keithley Syers, and Sara Rudner.  During their years in the Twin Cities, they were both McKnight Fellows, co-curators for Choreographer’s Evening at the Walker Art Center, and their work was presented as part of the Walker’s Momentum Dance Series at The Southern, Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts, Jaime Carrera’s Outlet Performance Festival, and 9x22 at the Bryant Lake Bowl.

Since moving to Winston-Salem, their work has been commissioned by the North Carolina Dance Festival (NCDF), American Dance Festival (ADF), and they have developed a platform for new work and collaborations through Interstitial: A site specific dance during the changeovers between art exhibits at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art.  Griggs teaches at UNCSA, Yon at Appalachian State University.   Their current project is Yoggs Family Newsletter (2014-present) which has been workshopped Southeastern Center for Contemporary Arts (WS,NC) as part of their Interstitial series, The Southern Theater (MPLS) part of the Candy Box Festival, Goodyear Arts Center (CLT) as part of the North Carolina Dance Festival, as part of the Modes of Capture Symposium (Limerick, IE),, and this spring at La MaMa Moves (NYC).  It is receiving generous residency support through the second annual Trillium Arts North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship ahead of its premiere at the Nasher Art Museum co-presented by the American Dance Festival on September 12, 2024.

FELLOWSHIP PLANS:
As part of their Trillium Arts North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship Residency, Chris Yon and Taryn Griggs will be working on an evening length version of their Yoggs Family Newsletter, a dance that explores memory and how one family tells its story narrated by their daughter Bea, ahead of its premiere at the Nasher Art Museum co-presented by the American Dance Festival on September 12.  They will be joined in residence by collaborators: theater director Cindy Gendrich and video artist Steve Morrison. They will be using the Red Barn Studio at Trillium as a proxy for the great hall at the Nasher Museum where the Yoggs and their collaborators will experiment with how to integrate the audience into their trio as momentary chorus members to their family stories, dances and drawing games.

Congratulations to this year's awardees! 
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