The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Visual Arts Fellowship Program was established in 1940, through a generous contribution from the late John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, to foster the creative efforts of Virginia’s best artists and most promising art students. The VMFA Fellowship Program continues to be a vital source of funding for professional artists, as well as undergraduate and graduate students, who demonstrate exceptional creative ability in their chosen discipline. In the program’s history, VMFA has awarded nearly $6 million to more than 1,500 Virginia artists.
In addition to providing financial rewards to all recipients, VMFA exhibits works by past fellowship winners in VMFA’s Amuse Restaurant and Claiborne Robertson Room, VMFA’s Pauley Center Galleries, and select spaces at Richmond International Airport. Fellowship recipients have also shown their work in the galleries of the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton and the Capital One Commons in Richmond.
Click here to learn more about the VMFA Fellowship Program, including how to apply.
Professional Fellows
Kamari Branch
Richmond
Film and Video
Mamadou Dia
Charlottesville
Film and Video
Matt Eich
Charlottesville
Photography
Ali Kaeini
Richmond
Painting
GM Keaton
Richmond
New and Emerging Media
Richmond
Sculpture
Richmond
Sculpture
Richmond
New and Emerging Media
Harrisonburg
Mixed Media
Graduate Fellows
Chantilly
Painting
American University
Burke
Photography
George Mason University
Alexandria
Photography
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond
Painting
Virginia Commonwealth University
Charlottesville
Art History
University of Virginia
Isabelle Ostertag is a doctoral candidate researching English medieval architecture under Dr. Lisa Reilly. Her dissertation, “Porta Caeli: Lay Piety and Marian Devotion in the Parochial Lady Chapels of East Anglia,” analyzes lay Marian devotion in medieval England through an examination of parochial chapels dedicated to the Virgin Mary in East Anglia.
Cy Twombly Graduate Fellow
Richmond
Sculpture
Virginia Commonwealth University
Undergraduate Fellows
Vienna
Drawing
Wake Forest University
Arlington
Photography
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond
Photography
Virginia Commonwealth University
Vienna
Painting
Rhode Island School of Design
Midlothian
Film and Video
Maryland Institute College of Art
Jurors
Professional Fellowship Juror
Jennifer Inacio, Associate Curator, Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, Florida
Graduate Art History Juror
Betsy Chunko-Dominguez, Professor of Art History, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia
Graduate and Undergraduate Visual Arts Juror
Veronica Jackson, Visual Artist, Curator, and Interpretive Exhibit Designer, Bedford, Virginia