Exactly 40 years ago, the Utah Artist Fellowship Program began through the Utah Division of Arts and Museums. Originally the program was only for visual arts, but now it incorporates literary and performing arts.
Utah artists apply for this award at the beginning of the year and the organization notifies the recipients in early May.
This year's performing art discipline is music.
“I love, love, love writing music and performing my music," said Maddie Wilson, a singer-songwriter from Cedar Hills.
Wilson started her music journey on YouTube in 2010 making cover videos before she began writing her own music. She revisited all her previous work when applying for the fellowship.
“It was a lot of fun to put together and kind of put together my life's work and everything I've ever done,” Wilson said.
She plans to put this money towards her music videos and take a trip to Nashville to sing and write music with other writers.
Another recipient is Ogden resident Kellie Bornhoft, who placed in the visual arts and design category.
“I was really honored to find out that I got it," Bornhoft said.
Her project is called Touchstone. It’s about understanding the minerals that make up the human body. She says this $5,000 award will help fund the project.
The fellowship program was made possible by three organizers, one of whom is Alyssa Hickman Grove. She’s the communications and literary arts manager at the Utah Division of Arts and Museums.
Hickman said this is one of the highest awards an artist can win from the State of Utah.
“This is an unrestricted award in that they don't, there is no piece of work that they have to produce as a result of getting this award," she said.
The organization awarded a total of $90,000 to 18 artists. Each artist can only win once in their lifetime.
“It really is just something that acknowledges that they're at a pivotal point in their career," Hickman said, "where having this award and this recognition could really help them move to the next level in their career.”
This year’s recipients competed against almost 300 other applicants for the fellowship and were judged by distinguished arts specialists from other states.
