29 Oregon Artists Awarded Career Opportunity Program Grants (Photo) -05/21/25
Salem, Oregon – In the second round of FY2025 Career Opportunity Program grant awards, the Oregon Arts Commission and The Ford Family Foundation have awarded $97,791 to 29 artists for career development projects.
The awards include $44,344 from the Oregon Arts Commission for all artistic disciplines and $53,447 in supplemental funding for 15 established visual artists through a partnership with The Ford Family Foundation’s Visual Arts Program. Individual grants range from $1,000 to $8,299.
Career Opportunity grants support individual Oregon artists by enabling them to take advantage of timely opportunities that enhance their artistic careers. Most grants support the artists’ participation in residencies, exhibitions or performance opportunities.
“This grant program invests in the career growth of talented Oregon artists,” said Arts Commissioner Jason Holland, who led one of two review panels. “Such support helps artists build visibility and opens doors to new creative paths and collaborations."
The Ford Family Foundation funds are available to established Oregon visual artists who are producing new work in the fields of contemporary art and craft.
FY2025 Career Opportunity Program round two grant award recipients are:
Rebecca Burrell, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support Burrell’s post as artist-in-residence at Uppsala University’s Centre for Gender Research in Sweden through the Fulbright Student Program for the 2025-26 school year. Burrell will artistically analyze how feminine freedom is portrayed in Swedish film, through digital media and printed book works.
Suzanne Chi, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support a two-week creative research project in Berlin, Germany, with multi-disciplinary artists Olivia Ancona and Scott Jennings, resulting in the creation of a new performance work.
Kimberly Smith Claudel, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the material and transportation costs for a solo exhibition at the Vestibule Gallery in Seattle, Washington, in October 2025.
Matthew Claudel, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $4,000
To support production and travel costs to Venice in May 2025, where Claudel will install an exhibition at the Venice Biennale of Architecture – an interactive experience showing a new urban narrative driven by the potential of advanced manufacturing building on a case study in Portland.
Epiphany Couch, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the creation of new work for a group exhibition at Stove Works contemporary art space in Chattanooga, Tennessee, from Aug. 1 to Nov. 15; to cover travel costs for participation in the panel discussion; and to expand the reach of the artist’s work to new audiences.
Fernanda D'Agostino, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $6,007
To support Field Studies, a year-long engagement/workshop at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in conjunction with its “Knowing Nature” programming, culminating in a performance/installation in April 2026.
Ime Etuk, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support travel to and participation in the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival in August, where Etuk’s feature film, “Outdoor School,” will screen for a national audience, providing significant career advancement, networking opportunities and professional development.
Ethan Gans-Morse, Phoenix
Oregon Arts Commission $1,516
To support travel to Los Angeles to participate in a recording session during the summer of 2025, at which Grammy Award-winning pianist Nadia Shpachenko will record Gans-Morse’s composition, “Bomb Shelter Variations.”
Damien Gilley, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $2,216
To support Gilley’s solo exhibition “Vista Vista” at Maryhill Museum of Art in Washington from Aug. 1 through Nov. 15. Gilley will create a 10-by-48 feet wall installation and will be giving an artist talk to the public promoted by the museum to regional communities.
Brian Gillis, Eugene
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $2,500
To support “Washington Ware,” a para-institutional project (running from Sept. 19 to Oct. 15) that will transform the Harold Washington College’s President’s Gallery into a cooperative pottery that produces tableware to benefit vulnerable people and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Patricia Vazquez Gomez, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $2,500
To support participation in a residency at Hangar Center for Artistic Research in Lisbon, Portugal, in the fall of 2025.
Emily Kepulis, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $1,000
To support travel expenses associated with attending the CloverMill Artist Residency in Giessenburg, The Netherlands, June 19-22.
Joy Kloman, Hood River
The Ford Family Foundation $2,500
To support Kloman’s international artist residency at Hangar Center of Artistic Research in Lisbon, Portugal, in March 2026.
Jenna Lechner, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,750
To support Lechner’s attendance at a two-week artist residency with the National Park Service at the Oregon Caves National Monument & Preserve in Cave Junction, Oregon, from late May through early June.
Marne Lucas, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $3,000
To support an art and science artist residency at PLAYA in Summer Lake, Oregon, Nov. 6-15, where Lucas will film new black and white, infrared, thermal landscape video, and develop a collage on paper series from her “transmundane” prints embellished with metal leaf.
Mack McFarland, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $2,745
To support McFarland’s travel and on-the-ground expenses to attend and co-organize one of the four panels of the Norway conference Circuits of Experiences, Research and Knowledges, which is dedicated to strengthening international networks in contemporary art, with a strong focus on current curatorial discourses.
Ryan Meagher, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support a cross-cultural musical exchange, Lluvia Verde, that unites Xalapa’s Son Jarocho heroes with Portland's jazz innovators. Musicians from each city will collaborate on new compositions blending traditions and culminating in a performance at the Montavilla Jazz Festival, Aug. 29-31.
William Morrow, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $8,000
To support research travel, a publication and participation in programming for the major survey exhibition Morrow is guest curating for the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sept. 26 through Jan. 11, 2026. The exhibit is entitled “Ed Bereral: Wanted for Disturbing the Peace.”
Roger Peet, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $2,500
To support Peet’s exhibit of artwork at Gallery G in Hiroshima, Japan, in August for a collaborative installation with two other artists during the 80th anniversary commemoration of the use of the first atomic bomb.
LeBrie Rich, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,970
To support attending an 18-day artist residency in September at Ragdale, where Rich will develop a new body of work.
Tracy Schlapp, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $2,500
To support travel to the Museum of International Folk Art to present about The PonyXpress and participate on a panel for the exhibition "Between the Lines: Prison Art & Advocacy;" to teach writing workshops; and to develop curriculum from the exhibition to publish on prison tablets nationwide.
Ketzia Schoneberg, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $2,000
To support Schoneberg’s residency at Virginia Center for Creative Arts (VCCA) in Amherst, Virginia, from May 28 to June 9.
Stephanie Simek, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,458
To support the production of a new multi-media project to be made during an artist residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, Washington, in November 2025.
Garrett Sluski, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $3,750
To support Pepper Pepper’s first institutional solo visual arts exhibition “Pink Moment and Other Works” at Seattle Central College’s M. Rosetta Hunt Art Gallery in early fall 2025.
Andrea Stolowitz, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the showing of Stolowitz’s new play, “Number Our Days,” as part of the 2025 Cork Midsummer Festival in Ireland June 13-22.
Chet Udell, Corvallis
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support a year-long artist residency at Hatfield Marine Science Center, where Udell will develop a combination of interactive environmental art installations, acoustic ecology sound compositions and community workshops that connect the coastal environment, community, science and the arts in Newport.
Samantha Wall, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $8,229
To support Wall’s 2026 solo exhibition at Seattle Art Museum, on display from February through September 2026.
Jonathan Walters, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,650
To support an opportunity for international collaboration, to create networking and groundwork-building opportunities to help theater artist Walters expand his career in Oregon and abroad; Walters will lead several different workshops and trainings in Zimbabwe in September.
Jennifer Wright, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support “Long Strings,” an immersive, interactive and visually stunning concert experience that will transform Zidell Shipyard’s cavernous barge building into a gigantic, one-of-a-kind sculptural musical instrument; the concert event is July 18-19.
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The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine commissioners, appointed by the governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The Arts Commission became part of Business Oregon (formerly Oregon Economic and Community Development Department) in 1993, in recognition of the expanding role the arts play in the broader social, economic and educational arenas of Oregon communities. In 2003, the Oregon Legislature moved the operations of the Oregon Cultural Trust to the Arts Commission, streamlining operations and making use of the Commission’s expertise in grantmaking, arts and cultural information and community cultural development.
The Arts Commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon Legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust. More information about the Oregon Arts Commission is available online at: artscommission.oregon.gov.
