May 3, 2021

The Grant Wood Art Colony of the University of Iowa announces the recipients of the 2021-22 Grant Wood Fellowship. Each year, three fellows are selected from an international search to become artists-in-residence and visiting assistant professors at the University of Iowa. The Interdisciplinary Performance Fellowship rotates between Dance, Theatre, and Music, the Music being the focus in the coming year. Through a competitive process, the following talented artist was selected by his peers: Josh Henderson. He accepted the offer and explains, "[I am] very excited to have the opportunity to work with the talented students at the University of Iowa and teach courses on concepts that I feel passionately about and believe are going to define the future of professional music making."

The university offered the School of Art and Art History Fellows a second year to ensure they received all of the engagement opportunities that the Fellowship typically offers, but were restricted due to COVID safety measures. As such, the following artists will continue as Grant Wood Fellows: Johnathan Payne (Painting & Drawing) and and Elena V. Smyrniotis (Printmaking).

During her year at the university, Theatre Fellow Margarita Blush made a great impact on her students, empowering them to explore ideas and movements through her classes and production. Over the last two weekend in April, UI students performed, "Ascend," an original devised play directed by Blush. This main stage production was the first in-person performance since the onset of COVID restrictions. Read more in a Daily Iowa article.

During their year at the University of Iowa, the fellows will live at the Grant Wood Art Colony, each teach one course per semester, engage community members across the state, and make work. The Grant Wood Art Colony will host several lectures and an end-of-year exhibition.

More information about these and former Grant Wood Fellows can be found by clicking on Current and Past Fellows.