We are delighted to introduce our 2019-2020 20/20 Fellows!
20/20 Artist Fellowships are unrestricted $15,000 cash awards accompanied by $5,000 professional development stipends to allow BIPOC and Native artists from any discipline or career stage the agency to decide how to use the funding in support of themselves, their businesses, communities and independent creative practices, and do not require recipients to create projects or exhibit artwork.Felicia Perry
Felicia Perry is an ARTrepreneur specializing in movement, fashion, design, performance art, and curating spaces. Felicia danced professionally as a member of the Ananya Dance Theatre from January 2017 to April 2019. Her work with ADT included facilitating workshops combining movement and social justice. As well as designing and creating interactive art installations using textile and design. As a performing artist she has captivated audiences around the world.
Perry is an activist who serves on the Executive Committee of the Association for Black Economic Power, and Founding Board member of Village Financial Cooperative.
Her dedication to community has led her to work with the West Broadway Business and Area Coalition as a Business Resources Coordinator and an activator of vacant spaces as a means to economic and social development. Using Art as a catalyst to create a vibrant business corridor, she manages projects such as the 3-day FLOW Northside Arts Crawl and Open Streets West Broadway.
Felicia is an on air host of “DesignHER Life” at 98.9 KRSM Community Radio station, where she interviews women and non-binary ARTreprenuers about creating their own life and career paths to support their artistic passions.
Kaamil A. Haider
Kaamil A. Haider is Somali born visual artist and graphic designer based in Minneapolis. He has received his B.F.A. in Graphic Design at the College of Design, University of Minnesota. In his art practice, Kaamil considers the power of memory and archives in relation to his personal experiences and that of his larger community. With over a dozen exhibitions, themes of discussion found in his artworks are constant discourse within the Somali diaspora communities, such as, the passage of knowledge, rituals and physical connection with their heritage as they forge a new life in their receiving societies.
In addition, Kaamil is a co-founder of Soomaal House of Art, a Minneapolis based Somali artists collective supporting a growing number of emerging and established Somali artists living in Minnesota and beyond. He is the recipient of the 2018 University of Minnesota Alumni Association’s U40 Alumni Leader Award for his academic achievement and community engagement through Soomaal. Kaamil is one of the two 2019 Soomaal Fellows, an initiative by Soomaal House of Art and in partnership with Augsburg University Art Galleries.
Tish Jones
Founder & Executive Director of TruArtSpeaks, Tish Jones is a poet, performer, educator and organizer from Saint Paul, Minnesota. She has performed at CBGB, Kaplan Theater, The Walker Art Center, Intermedia Arts, The Cedar Cultural Center and more. Her work can be found in the Minnesota Humanities Center's anthology entitled, Blues Vision: African American Writing from Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2015), the 2011 and 2013 Saint Paul Almanac, and the Loft Literary Center's Nation of Immigrants audio CD.
A graduate fellow of the inaugural Intercultural Leadership Institute, Jones has always had a passion for bridging arts & culture, civic engagement and youth development. Senior Field Building Strategist for Youth Speaks and Co-Director of Brave New Voices, her work explores the ways in which art can function as a tool for social transformation, liberation and education. For more on her personal praxis in this arena, see Jones’ TEDxMinneapolis talk on Spoken Word as a Radical Practice of Freedom.
Leslie Barlow
Leslie Barlow's paintings share stories through portraiture that explore the politics of representation, identity, otherness, and racial constructs. She investigates these through the use of the personal; often creating works depicting family relationships, friends, people in her community, and personal experiences. Barlow's work has been exhibited both locally and nationally, and been featured in Vice, Huffington Post, Hyperallergic, and Shades of Noir (UK). She has received two Minnesota State Arts Board Grants and the 2019 McKnight Visual Artist Fellowship, and has been commissioned for several large site-specific projects including work for the Hennepin County Medical Center and the TCO Performance Center Vikings facility.
In addition to her studio practice, Barlow teaches at the University of Minnesota and Juxtaposition Arts, and collaborates with Public Functionary to lead the new emerging artist project Studio 400. With the 20/20 Fellowship, Barlow will continue expanding what Studio 400 can be, with the goal to support and sustain the practices of even more BIPOC artists. Barlow is also an active member on the leadership team of MidWest Mixed, an organization that works to expand our understanding of race and identity through educational outreach, arts engagement, and a biennial conference.
Thanks & Acknowledgements
The 20/20 Artist Fellowship is supported by contributions from the Bush Foundation and the Surdna Foundation. Candidates were identified through an open application process and went through a panel review process where awardees were selected by a jury of artists and art supporters including: Bill Cottman, Jeremy Staab, Tio Aiken, Teeko Yang, MK Nguyen, and Dameun Strange. Thanks to all applicants and the jury!