CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship
The CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship was created to celebrate contemporary art, and to support the continued creative work of exceptional Tennessee artists. Unlike other fellowships, nominations and applications from artists are not solicited. A committee of APSU Art + Design faculty compiles a list of outstanding artists from across the state and selects the fellowship recipient. Through the generous support of the Center of Excellence in the Creative Arts (CECA), the selected artist receives $5,000 to aid in the creation of new artwork.
“Since APSU is the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts for the entire state of Tennessee, we wanted to find a way to support artists state-wide,” said Barry Jones, who was chair of the APSU Department of Art and Design at the time the fellowship was established. “There is an incredible amount of amazing artists here, but unfortunately there isn’t much financial support for them. We hope that this fellowship helps a Tennessee artist maintain their practice and to know that we support what they are doing.”
2024-2025 Recipient
The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) at Austin Peay State University (APSU) has announced the 2024-25 recipient of the Tennessee Artist Fellowship, photographer Stacy Kranitz of Smithville, Tennessee.
Kranitz is a photographer based in East Tennessee known for documenting life in the Appalachian region. Through CECA’s Tennessee Artist Fellowship, she will receive $5,000 to aid in the creation of new artwork and additional funding for an artist lecture.
“Working within the documentary tradition, Stacy Kranitz makes photographs that acknowledge the limits of photographic representation,” reads Kranitz’s biography. “Her images do not tell the 'truth' but are honest about their inherent shortcomings, and thus reclaim these failures (exoticism, ambiguity, fetishization) as sympathetic equivalents in order to more forcefully convey the complexity and instability of the lives, places, and moments they depict.”
The CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship celebrates contemporary art to support the continued creative work of exceptional Tennessee artists like Kranitz. Unlike other fellowships, nominations and applications from artists are not solicited. A committee of APSU faculty compiles a list of outstanding artists from across the state and selects the fellowship recipient.
The selection committee was particularly impressed by Kranitz because of her work’s distinctive style and relevance to Tennessee.
Past recipients of the CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship include Maysey Craddock of Memphis, Alicia Henry of Nashville, Andrew Scott Ross of Johnson City, Bryce McCloud of Nashville, Carl E. Moore of Memphis, Benjy Russell of Dowelltown, Karen Seapker of Nashville, Ashton Ludden of Knoxville, Yancy Villa of Memphis, and Jonathan Adams of Knoxville. Learn more about Krantiz here.
Past Recipients
- Jonathan Adams (Knoxville, TN)
- Yancy Villa (Memphis, TN)
- Ashton Ludden (Knoxville, TN)
- Benjy Russell (Dowelltown, TN)
- Karen Seapker (Donelson, TN)
- Carl Moore (Memphis, TN)
- Bryce McCloud (Nashville, TN)
- Andrew Scott Ross (Johnson City, TN)
Alicia Henry
The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Department of Art and Design are pleased to announce the 2016-17 recipient of the CECA Tennessee Artist Fellowship, Alicia Henry. AT 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 13, artist Alicia Henry will present a public lecture on her work at Austin Peay State University.
Alicia Henry received her B.F.A. at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and her M. F.A. at Yale University School of Art. She also attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Henry has received numerous awards, grants, and residencies, for example: a Ford Foundation Fellowship, a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, Art in General, MacDowell Art Colony and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown residencies, and recently the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally and are held in private and public collections across the country, including: Hunter Museum of American Art, Tennessee State Museum, Cheekwood Museum, and Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Museum. She is Professor of Art in the Department of Arts and Languages at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Maysey Craddock
On Monday, Nov. 23, 2016, artist Maysey Craddock presented a public lecture on her work at Austin Peay State University. Craddock was the recipient of the inaugural APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts Tennessee Artist Fellowship.
Maysey Craddock received her MFA from the Maine College of Art and a BA from Tulane University. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including shows in New York, Stuttgart, Berlin, Chicago, Seattle, Dallas, and New Orleans. She is currently represented by David Lusk Gallery in Memphis, Sears Peyton Fine Arts in New York, and Cris Worley Fine Arts in Dallas.
