DURHAM -- The Durham Arts Council will honor 15 local area artists selected to receive Ella Fountain Pratt Emerging Artists Grants in 2012. The artists will be honored at the annual Emerging Artists Awards Ceremony and reception Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. in the Durham Arts Council PSI Theatre and Semans Gallery.
Tickets for the evening event will be available starting Wednesday. The awards event will feature music and remarks by jazz vocalist and songwriter Lois Deloatch (Emerging Artist 1995) and dancer and choreographer Gaspard Louis (Emerging Artist 2010).
The Awards Ceremony will be dedicated to the late Mary D.B.T. Semans, who inspired and supported the creation of the Emerging Artists Program, with her husband Dr. James H. Semans.
The Emerging Artists Grant Program seeks to enable individual artists who have mastered the basic techniques of their art form to complete projects that will establish or enhance their professional careers.
Counting the current recipients, 435 grants have been made to area artists during the program’s 28-year history. Past recipients include six-time Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon; painter and Guggenheim Fellow Beverly McIver; and violinist and Presidential Scholar in the Arts Nicholas Kitchen.
Here is a list of 2012 honorees:
-- Diane Daniel, literature
-- Notasia DeRubertis, film
-- Laurel Ferejohn, literature
-- Anne Gregory, painting
-- Christine Hager-Braun, craft
-- Hope Marasco, music
-- Kristin Taylor, dance
-- Sasha Bakaric, craft
-- Nuno Gomes, mixed media
-- Gracelee Lawrence, sculpture
-- Chance Murray, mixed media
-- Will Ridenour, music
-- Anita Woodley, drama
-- Matthew Ford, photography
-- Drucilla Pettibone, craft
