ARTS COUNCIL FELLOWSHIPS ARE 'PROPELLING'

Rapid City musician Nancy Williams, with her clarinet along Box Elder Creek.

What would you do with a $5,000 fellowship from the South Dakota Arts Council?

Rapid City ceramic sculptor Yoko Sugawara invested in a larger kiln. Mark Zimmerman, an artist from Nemo, explored the Bad River — sketching, photographing and writing along the way.

Randall Blaze rebuilt his studio. “I had an arts center up on the reservation at Cuny Table, and it burned a couple of years ago,” says the Native American visual artist. “I lost everything I owned so the fellowship was a way to start over. I am almost finished with it.”

Fellowships play an important role in the state arts community because each honoree receives a $5,000 grant to support a project or particular need. A panel does extensive reviews of each applicant’s plans.

Nancy Williams, a classical musician in Rapid City, is also a 2023 fellow. Her project is multi-tiered, and includes performances as well as a marketing program for her method book, Woodwind Improvisatory Techniques. The text helps music students add improvisation to their solos. “During the classical period, there was a culture of improvisation in which the composers did not fully finish the composition. They expected the performers to do that,” she explains.

The fellowships are both a recognition of past accomplishments as well as an investment in the artists’ future contributions. “This has already propelled my career in unexpected ways,” Williams says.

Brookings artist Mark Stemwedel and Mitchell poet Barbara Duffey are also recipients of 2023 fellowships.