JANS – Diane Williams of Jackson, MS has been awarded a $4,250 fellowship grant from the Mississippi Arts Commission. This grant is a portion of the more than $1.7 million in grants MAC awarded in Fiscal Year 2025.
Williams expressed gratitude and stated, “A fellowship for my mixed media fiber art creations will help with a deeper exploration on the impact three-dimensional designs can have on reaching a new audience and will help me to offer this study to other sight-limited artists who want to explore their creativity. I like to create more fiber arts designs that causes a reaction from more than one of our five senses: seeing, touching, and now adding potpourri into three-dimensional designs enhances the storytelling (you can smell the aroma).
“I would like to create an exhibition for people with visual disabilities or blindness. The fellowship would also allow me an opportunity to enrich my art studio so that I can offer classes in the studio and online.
“Finally, the fellowship would allow me an opportunity to learn more about hand embroidery stitches, stump work embroidery, and fabric dying using natural elements.”
MAC’s annual grant funds come from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Mississippi State Legislature. Awards were made in 92 Mississippi House of Representatives districts and 52 state Senate districts.
“Mississippi is synonymous with the quality of art that emits from our state. The arts enhance the quality of life and local economies,” said David Lewis, executive director for the Mississippi Arts Commission. “With the generous support from the Mississippi Legislature, we can activate our citizens’ innate creativity and invest in our communities.”
The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency serving more than two million people through grants and special initiatives that enhance communities, assist artists and arts organizations, promote arts education, and celebrate Mississippi’s cultural heritage. MAC is funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation for Mississippi, and other private sources.
For information about the Mississippi Arts Commission, contact Ellie Banks, Communications Director, at 601-359-6546 or ebanks@arts.ms.gov, or visit http://www.arts.ms.gov.
