The Iowa Artist Fellowship provides support to individual artists who demonstrate exceptional creativity in the arts and a commitment to contributing to the vitality of the arts in Iowa. The program advances the artistic careers of Iowans through funding and professional development.
Fellowship recipients exemplify the following program priorities:
Excellence and Innovation: Artwork achieves unique artistic vision through highly creative means in concept and form exemplifying excellence or innovation in the field.
Career Readiness: Artist is at a pivotal stage in artistic career and committed to advancing artistic practice.
Public Value: Artist contributes to the vitality of arts in Iowa by actively engaging Iowans through artistic practice.
Funding for the program is made possible by an annual appropriation by the Iowa Legislature to the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
Eligibility
Individual artists 25 years or older who are current, full-time Iowa residents and have been full-time Iowa residents since December 3, 2021.
Applicants must be originating, non-interpretive artists working in any artistic discipline(s) including visual arts, performing arts, filmmaking, music, or creative writing.
Application Process
Applicants must submit an online Intent to Apply form by 11:59 PM on December 3, 2024, to determine eligibility.
Eligible applicants will be invited to submit a full application, which will be due by 11:59 PM on January 21, 2025.
Please review the Program Guidelines found in the resources section below for additional information on eligibility requirements, use of funding, reporting requirements and the review process. The applicant questions and scoring rubric can also be found in the guidelines.
Ali Hval is a multidisciplinary artist based in Iowa City and is currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Painting and Drawing at the University of Iowa. Her work challenges traditional expectations of femininity and sheds light on issues of women’s bodily autonomy. An avid public artist, Ali has also completed over 40 public murals and projects in various Iowa communities.
Ali has exhibited her work across the country and had mentions in New York Jewelry Week, Create! Magazine, and The New Yorker. She is a former recipient of the Windgate Fellowship from the Center of Craft, Creativity, and Design.
Jillian Moore is a full-time artist, writer and workshop instructor based in rural Cedar County, Iowa. Moore was also co-founder and Director of the CRANDIC-based intersectional feminist art collective known as Bluestockings for 8 years.
Vi Khi Nao was born in Long Khanh, Vietnam, and immigrated to the United States at a young age. Her work includes poetry, fiction, film, and cross-genre collaboration, and has been featured in periodicals such as Conjunctions, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Chicago Review, Glimmer Train, the Baffler, and McSweeney's, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading anthology. A former Black Mountain Institute fellow, she lives in Iowa City.
Rachel Morgan, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, is the author of the chapbook, Honey & Blood, Blood & Honey (Final Thursday Press, 2017). Her work appears in several anthologies, most recently, Let Me Say This: A Dolly Parton Poetry Anthology and Prairie Schooner, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and Shenandoah. She is the winner of the 2020 Fineline contest and the 2023 Language of the Land Fellowship. Her writing has been supported by a fellowship while at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, where she earned her M.F.A. in poetry, and from the Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow. She is an associate professor of instruction at the University of Northern Iowa, and she edits for America's oldest Literary Magazine, the North American Review.
Jill Wells is an Iowa-based interdisciplinary artist, advocate, and mentor renowned for her innovative, narrative-driven, and multi-sensory approach to art. A native of Indianola, Iowa, Wells earned her B.F.A. from Drake University. Her work, which delves into critical themes of accessibility, disability inequality, race, and history, is distinguished by its use of tactile and Braille-infused public art. This unique approach not only enhances access to art for people of all abilities but also enlightens us about the power of inclusive art, setting her apart in the art world.
In 2023, Wells achieved a significant milestone by creating Iowa’s first 3D tactile mural and mural model plaque for Martin Luther King Elementary School. As the inaugural artist and fellow of color at The Harkin Institute (2022–23), Wells had the honor of representing the United States and Iowa on a panel at the United Nations in Austria. Beyond her art practice, Wells is dedicated to mentoring through ARTIST X ADVOCACY (AXA), an annual paid program for youth and young adults she founded to nurture emerging talent and advocate for inclusivity in the arts.
