nwaMASKproject:
This project is a series of masks and oral histories by Fayetteville-based artist Suzannah Schreckhise funded by the Artist 3 6O grant. Schreckhise and poet Molly Bess Rector will conduct interviews with participants, who are interested in contributing materials with personal significance, which will be made into sculptural masks. Go to www.nwaMASKproject.org to apply.
The artist is searching for participants in and near Northwest Arkansas interested in contributing fiber materials and items that hold personal significance for them—items with compelling stories.
Taking into account the culmination of the item, interview, and personalities of the participant a fiber sculpture mask will be made in honor of each participant and gifted back to them after the exhibitions. The masks will be included in exhibitions and a website will document the process and showcase the mask, stories, and an e-zine.
In exchange for their contributions, participants will be given the mask after the scheduled and upcoming exhibitions. You will also receive a professional digital portrait by photographer Andrew Kilgore, and a write-up by Rector to be featured on the project website, an art exhibition, and in the digital catalog, the artist will produce for the series.
About Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance made possible through the support of the Walton Family Foundation, is a three-year pilot program providing grant funding and professional development opportunities to individual artists of all disciplines in the Arkansas counties of Benton, Carroll, Crawford, Sebastian, and Washington.
Practicing artists are eligible for $7,500 project grants, and $1,500 grants are available for student artists. All grants will include learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and build sustainable careers, creating a network of leading regional artists. Artists 360 will reach sixty artists over the course of its first three years.
A Walton Family Foundation grant from Steuart Walton and Tom Walton will allow M-AAA to implement Artists 360, providing $439,500 in direct grants and professional development services for 60 individual artists over the course of its first three years. In elevating this network of local artists, Artists 360 brings value to the greater Northwest Arkansas region overall, creating a place where artists can thrive.