Anand Prahlad | “The Secret Life of a Black Aspie,” Permafrost Book Prize in Nonfiction, 2016
Brenda Beck Fisher | “Artists Never Die” (detail), watercolor
Anne Garney | “La Jolla, California” (detail), oil
Jeffrey Noonan playing his reproduction 17th-century French Baroque guitar
Meet our Missouri featured artists for January
Artists are the backbone of our creative state. Get to know some of the best right here!
Each month, we’re designating four individual artists from all around Missouri as Featured Artists. They create and perform in every sort of genre, from sculpture to storytelling.
Meet our January 2021 Featured Artists! Plus, here’s a highlight of our very first group of artists from December 2020. Enjoy their art here and even more on their own websites—check the links on their artwork, portraits, and bios.
Anand Prahlad
literary author, musician/songwriter, filmmaker, teaching artist
Columbia
Brenda Beck Fisher
painter, watercolorist, interpreter of the beauty in the world
Hannibal
Anne Garney
landscape painter, fauve, expressionist
Kansas City
Jeffrey Noonan
musician—performer, teacher, and scholar
St. Louis
landscape painter, fauve, expressionist | Kansas City
While painting, the beauty of the scene before me becomes mine, a part of me always.
I love to travel, to see and experience the beauty of new places. While traveling, I spend some time exploring, looking for a captivating scene that I would like to paint. As I begin painting on-site, I’m responding to the view before me with my own sense of light and color. Painting with bright and vibrant colors, I have developed a distinctive style, expressing a “celebration of life.” Visitors are welcome to my Studio/Gallery in Kansas City’s Crossroads Art District.
Such Sweet Melodie, one of several ensembles with whom Jeffrey Noonan frequently plays | left to right: Alice Culin-Ellison, Charles Metz, Jeffrey Noonan on his theorbo, Lindsey Adams, Philip Spray
musician—performer, teacher, and scholar | St. Louis
The instruments and the musical scores that I play and study are historical artifacts—but the music I make is not. It is for the here and now, for us—players and listeners—right now.
My musical career includes equal parts performance, research, and teaching. I took up guitar when I was 9 but only began studying it seriously my final year of college. While I have played and taught classical guitar since then, for the past 25 years I’ve focused my music-making exclusively on Early Music, playing lute, theorbo, and early guitars with many of the region’s best Early Music performers. Over the years, I maintained a full schedule of teaching in both the studio and the college classroom. Concurrently, I supported my performing and teaching with wide-ranging musicological research and publishing that include studies of the guitar in American culture, 18th-century violin sonatas, and 17th-century Italian arias.
painter, watercolorist, interpreter of the beauty in the world | Hannibal
I never tire of the application process of watercolor. Knowing when to control the flow and when to let the liquefied pigments be in control is a beautiful dance with a capable partner.
My love for art, evident at an early age, led me specifically to watercolor. Its vibrancy, transparency, and spontaneity provide me continued happiness with each new piece I create. I have had the privilege to win numerous awards and have had the pleasure of seeing my art featured in magazines; on posters, chili cans, CD covers, billboards, and wine labels; as book illustrations and as museum displays.
literary author, musician/songwriter, filmmaker, teaching artist | Columbia
I am driven by a yearning for the place where light enters the darkness.
I grew up in rural Virginia and began my journey into poetry and music as a child. I have always been mesmerized by the rhythms, sounds, and motions of the natural world, and deeply moved by the testimonies of endurance that surrounded me in the black community in which I grew up. These two passions are consistently interwoven in my writing, music, film, and in my teaching. I have published two books of poetry and a memoir, and have won a number of awards and national recognition for my writing. After 30 years of teaching at the University of Missouri, I recently retired and am now working on several new books and music CDs.
Robin Van Hoozer
artist, painter, maker of unusual things
St. Joseph
Whitney Manney
fashion and textile designer
Kansas City
Justin Hamm
poet, photographer, citizen of the American Middle West
Mexico
Bobby Norfolk
storyteller, author, teaching artist
St. Louis
What is the program’s goal?
The Featured Artists program promotes and supports individual artists and demonstrates the variety of creative Missouri talent.
How does the program work?
We feature four artists each month. We highlight and promote each month’s artists via the homepage of the Missouri Arts Council website, the Featured Artists page on the website, monthly email, social media, and links to the artists’ websites. Artists receive a $300 stipend/license fee to feature their work online. Artists are paid directly by the Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Who is eligible?
Individual Missouri-resident artists of any medium with online work that they have ownership to license. (Groups are not eligible.) Mediums may include (but are not limited to) visual art, literature, music, video, dance, theater, storytelling, and traditional arts.
May artists participate if they don’t have a website?
No; an effective website is an essential part of this program. Without it, there is nothing to promote, neither your work NOR a place to send people to benefit you. An artist’s website is an important tool to promote your creative work. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter etc. can supplement with social engagement, but do not effectively allow an artist’s work to be as easily accessed as does a website.
How do artists apply?
Propose your work for consideration via this online form. Support your application with links to your website and other online platforms where your work is located. No work may be sent as an attachment. Work that cannot be accessed online may not be considered. Artists retain full ownership and rights to their work. Artists will allow with their consideration a limited use right to feature their work on the Missouri Art Council website and other platforms. There is no fee to apply.
How are Featured Artists selected?
The Missouri Arts Council staff selects artists with diverse demographics and locations throughout the state who are producing quality original work in a variety of art mediums and genres.
How will artists know if they are selected?
Artists will be contacted directly if they have been selected. If you are not contacted, do not despair! All applicants will continue to be considered as the program continues monthly.
How often should artists apply?
Artists need apply for this program only once. Applications will be kept on file for future consideration.
How long will this program last?
We will continue this program through June 30, 2021. If funding allows, this program may continue.
