Virginia’s largest art fellowship program awards $154,000 to 24 artists

For 86 years now, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has been writing checks to artists across the Commonwealth, and the tradition isn’t slowing down. The museum just announced its 2026–2027 Visual Arts Fellowship recipients, awarding a combined $154,000 to 24 professional artists and students working in everything from painting and photography to film, printmaking, and new media.

The fellowships, funded largely through an endowment established by Fredericksburg philanthropist John Lee Pratt back in 1940, have distributed more than $6.5 million to Virginia artists over the program’s lifetime. That makes it one of the largest fellowship programs of its kind in the United States, and a quietly massive pipeline of support for working artists who don’t always have easy access to funding.

Who got the awards

Twelve professional artists each received $8,000 fellowships this cycle. The list spans the state geographically, with recipients based in Richmond, Charlottesville, Arlington, Blacksburg, Haymarket, and Virginia Beach. The mediums are just as varied: Jordan Bruner, David Carlson, and Lauren Moses were recognized for painting; Riley Goodman and Manavi Singh for photography; Travis Head and Lauren Thorson for drawing; and Sasha Waters for film and video, among others.

On the student side, five graduate students received $6,000 each, with recipients studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, James Madison University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Five undergraduates picked up $4,000 fellowships, and one undergraduate, Eva McMullan of Ashburn, received a half-year fellowship of $2,000 for her work in printmaking at VCU.

A separate honor, the Cy Twombly Graduate Fellowship (supported by the McClintic Endowment), went to Richmond’s Sirena Pearl, a painting student at VCU.

What’s notable about the undergraduate recipients is their range. Two are high school students: Sky Standley from Blacksburg High School, recognized for new and emerging media work, and Laura Teele from Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology, recognized for painting. That’s a pretty meaningful vote of confidence for artists who haven’t even started college yet.

No strings attached

One detail worth highlighting: recipients can use the money however they want. There’s no stipulation that it go toward supplies or tuition or a specific project. That kind of unrestricted funding is rare and, for a lot of working artists, far more useful than a grant tied to deliverables.

The jurors who selected this year’s fellows came from outside the museum. Jamillah James, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, judged the professional category. Kelvin Parnell from the University of Arkansas handled graduate art history selections, and Bernadette Moore, who leads exhibitions and marketing at Piedmont Arts in Martinsville, juried the graduate and undergraduate visual arts categories.

Beyond the money, past fellowship recipients get exhibition opportunities at venues including the VMFA itself, Richmond International Airport, the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, and Capital One Commons in Richmond. It’s a solid bit of visibility on top of the financial support.

The VMFA, which is one of the only art museums in the country open every single day of the year with free general admission, is currently in the middle of a major expansion. The McGlothlin Wing II, scheduled to open in 2029, will add more than 170,000 square feet and make VMFA the fourth-largest comprehensive art museum in the U.S. But for now, the fellowship program remains one of the quieter and more consistent ways the museum puts resources directly into the hands of Virginia’s artists.

More information about the fellowship program is available at VMFA.museum.