DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award

2021 Timeline & Resources

Application: 2021 DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award Application
Application Guidelines: pdf Click here for the 2021 Guidelines (392 KB)
Application Deadlines:
- February 12, 2021
- May 14, 2021
- August 6, 2021
- November 12, 2021
Award Notifications: 15 business days, at the earliest, after quarterly deadline
Workshop Dates: The workshops will take place via Zoom at 5:00 PM unless otherwise stated. Register using the links below.
- January 20, 2021
- April 21, 2021 (register here)
- July 14, 2021 (register here)
- October 20, 2021 (register here)

For updates on grants, workshops, and deadlines
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General Grant Information

As part of its mission, the Arts Council works with local foundations to support and nurture the careers of professional artists. In 2017, the Christel DeHaan Family Foundation (CDFF) and the Arts Council of Indianapolis (ACI) created and piloted a new juried artist grant/award program to provide quick turnaround project funding for professional artists in Indiana that promotes, celebrates, recognizes, and rewards excellence. The aim of the program is to recognize contemporary visual artists and support their exceptional projects.

The DeHaan Artist of Distinction Award Program will honor up to five contemporary visual artists with grants of up to $10,000 each year for aspirational visual arts projects. Each project must demonstrate an immediate need for the requested funds and be completed within the stated deadline. It is intended to allow a high-tolerance for risk and exploration and will provide support for an artist’s creative practice that will help her/him push their work in dynamic ways. Each artist will submit a final report at the end of the process and may be included in a final curated exhibition.

Applications are reviewed quarterly but are accepted on a rolling basis, and may be submitted at any time. All submissions are due by 4:30 pm on the quarterly deadline date. Applications received after 4:30 pm will be included in the next adjudication cycle. The 2021 deadlines for review are February 12, May 14, August 6, and November 12. Upon selection of the award recipient(s), those applications that were not successfully funded will be reopened so that applicants can make edits to their original application and re-submit for a future deadline.

Please note that all grant awards are subject to availability of funds for up to five contemporary artists each year.

For more information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

MEET THE 2020 DEHAAN ARTISTS OF DISTINCTION AWARDEES:

Beatriz Vásquez

Visual Artivist

Vásquez's work experiments with the conceptual use of papel picado, a Mexican Folk art. She transforms layers of intricate cut paper into murals, creates wearable sculptures, and exhibits large-scale installations. Vasquez will use the grant to preserve her delicate and detailed hand-cut paper murals in a secure climate-controlled environment.

Eric Lubrick

Photographer

Lubrick is a photographer whose work represents a visual collection of deconstructing and reconstructing autobiographical moments. His unnamed project is inspired by COVID-19, the political environment, and art-world stereotypes. His project will transform sculptural floral compositions into words or phrases that resonate with many of these divisive themes.

Mason Archie

Painter

Archie is a landscape and figurative painter. His project “The Risk and Beauty of Humanity: Landscapes of the Underground Railroad.” will use landscapes and waterscapes to document historical sites of the Underground Railroad in Indiana as they currently exist. He will also create a book providing historical data on the selected sites.

Samuel Levi Jones

Visual Artivist

Jones will attend a residency at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, New York, to study the art of papermaking with the intention of creating conceptual, stand alone works. Jones will use 20th-century historical texts from Bartholomew County, Indiana, as a reference point for the production of large, two-dimensional paper works addressing the changing nature of historical interpretations and the imperfection that exists in the way history is recorded and interpreted.

THE 2020 DEHAAN ARTIST OF DISTINCTION AWARDEES:
Mason Archie
Samuel Levi Jones
Eric Lubrick
Beatriz Vasquez

THE 2019 DEHAAN ARTIST OF DISTINCTION AWARDEES:
LaShawnda Crowe Storm
Constance Edwards Scopelitis
Lobyn Hamilton
Stuart Hyatt
Jacinda Russell

THE 2018 DEHAAN ARTIST OF DISTINCTION AWARDEES:
Anila Quayyum Agha
Kassim Norris
Artur Silva
Stefan Petranek
Cory Robinson

THE 2017 DEHAAN ARTIST OF DISTINCTION AWARDEES:
Philip Campbell
Shawn Causey
Nhat Tran
Lauren Zoll