Indy Arts Council

Indy Arts Council announces the 2024 DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award Winners

People of Culture

Grant program has supported 36 artists with over $390,000 since 2017.

Five Indiana artists have been selected for the 2024 DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award, presented by the Indy Arts Council with generous support from Christel DeHaan. This award provides contemporary visual artists with grants of up to $10,000 to pursue aspirational projects. A panel of visual art professionals selected India Cruse-Griffin, Huner Emin, Maria Schechter, Meredith Setser, and Tom Torluemke as this year’s award winners. Their final projects are shown during a special exhibition at Gallery 924. 

“The Indy Arts Council and Christel DeHaan launched the program in 2017 to allow Indiana-based artists to explore, take risks, and push their creative practice in dynamic new ways,” said Kavita Mahoney, VP at Indy Arts Council. “These artists are pushing the field of visual arts forward with new materials, new artistic processes, and underrepresented stories.”

Meet the 2024 DeHaan Artists of Distinction

India Cruse-Griffin is a professional collage artist and retired art teacher. Her art is based on family, growing up in Indiana, and is created with a collection of newspapers, magazines, and acrylic paint. She began showing and exhibiting throughout the county in art galleries, university exhibitions, and museums, all while she taught high school art simultaneously. She retired from teaching in May 2023 and has continued her artistic career, completing works for Gainbridge Fieldhouse, BUTTER Fine Art Fair, and Indiana University, and many other venues.

 

Huner Emin is a multimedia artist who grew up in south Kurdistan/northern Iraq and is now based in Bloomington, Indiana. His work has been exhibited internationally in various museums and galleries, including the CICA Museum of Art in South Korea, the Agora Gallery in NYC, and the Duhok Gallery of Art in Kurdistan/Iraq. Huner is a recipient of many awards and grants, including the DC Art Commission Fellowship and Foundation for Contemporary Art Grant.

“The Dehaan Artist of Distinction Award is a great honor and a significant source of support for my practice as I continue to work on my ongoing project, Testimonies from Mount Sinjar,” said Huner Emin. “[This award] represents a critical role in bringing this multidisciplinary work to fruition, a project that will span years of my artistic endeavors.”

The Dehaan Artist of Distinction Award is a great honor and a significant source of support for my practice." — Huner Emin

Maria Schechter, an artist for 30 years, co-creates with the natural world using mycelium composites and plant-based palettes. Her grants include the UCLA Artist Achievement Award and the Center for Cultural Innovation Grant, Los Angeles, CA. She has exhibited with the Anderson Museum, Minnetrista Museum and Gardens, Triton Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum. She has been published in Eluxe Magazine, The Ecological Citizen, and Nature Evolve Magazine. Maria earned her bachelor of fine art from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA, and a masters degree from Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany. Maria lives in Bloomington, Indiana.  

“The DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award facilitates the next step in my career as an artist by providing me with a studio,” said Maria Schechter. “This dedicated space allows me to develop sustainable works spotlighting our fragile ecosystems and the need for continued stewardship of the natural world.” 

 

Meredith Setser is a printmaker and textile artist who currently teaches at the Herron School of Art + Design. Her work tends to run the gamut from 2D prints on paper to sculpture and installation forms, and often uses printmaking processes such as screen printing and etching, as well as textile practices like feltmaking, embroidery, and lacemaking. She has exhibited internationally in solo and group exhibitions at Proyecto ’ACE in Buenos Aires, Argentina; Open Studio Centre in Toronto, Canada; and CICA Museum in Gimpo, South Korea. Meredith has received several grants and fellowships, including an Efroymson Contemporary Fellowship in 2011; a Third Space Artist Project Grant in 2019; the Indy Art Council’s Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship; and an IU Indianapolis New Frontiers Grant in 2014.

 

Tom Torluemke is an Indiana-based, contemporary artist. Born in Chicago, Illinois, his practice spans 40+ years and includes works in painting, drawing, sculpture, and installations in various mediums. Tom is known for his powerful, no-holds-barred approach to subject matter relating to socio-political, ethical, and humanistic themes. With over 150 solo and group exhibitions and 30 public art commissions throughout the Midwest, his work testifies to the relevance and scope of his ideas and his ability to present them in a meaningful context within their communities. In April 2025, a monograph, Tom Torluemke: Live! On Paper, 1987 – 2024, will be released worldwide, published by SKIRA editore, Milan, and with principal essay and editing by Dan Cameron.

"The DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award facilitates the next step in my career as an artist by providing me with a studio." — Maria Schechter

Applications are now open for the 2025 DeHaan Artist of Distinction Awards. They will be reviewed in two rounds (due May 4 and October 19). Applicants may apply in either or both rounds.

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Media contact

Melissa Rowe: mrowe@indyarts.org
Director of Marketing & Communications, Indy Arts Council

About Indy Arts Council

Indy Arts Council is central Indiana’s leading arts advocacy and services agency. Their mission is to champion arts and culture. Indy Arts Council believes every resident should experience arts and culture in a way that nourishes and inspires them. This vision of a creative life for all is central to the work they do to support artists, arts organizations, and the community.

Image: Manufacatured Democracy (2021) by Huner Emin

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