Seven CoA+A Faculty Receive Artist Support Grants from the Arts & Science Council

Seven faculty in the College of Arts + Architecture are among the 137 recipients of 2025 Artist Support Grants allocated by the Arts & Science Council. Awarded annually, Artist Support Grants fund professional and artistic development for emerging and established artists to help them enhance their skills, grow their practice and share their creativity with the Charlotte region.

The Artist Support Grant program is administered by the Arts & Science Council and made possible by the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. This year the ASC awarded more than $404,000 in grants to artists in Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Cleveland, Gaston, Lincoln and Rowan counties. Typical awards are $3,000.

Adjunct Lecturer Audrey Baran ’03 will use her award to attend the American Dance Festival Dance Professionals Workshop in Durham this summer to grow as a choreographer and educator through immersive mentorship by eminent dance artists.

Professor of Painting Maja Godlewska’s grant will help underwrite the production of “Saltmarsh: A Study in Vulnerability.” The project is a series of mixed-media works on paper that Godlewska is creating through a residency in coastal Tasmania, Australia.

Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary/3D Art Thomas Schmidt received a grant to support his upcoming solo exhibition, “Encoded Surface.” The grant will help fund shipping materials, professional documentation, and public engagement for this mid-career retrospective, which will take place Jan. 5 -Feb 7, 2026, in the Dalton Gallery at Rock Hill’s Center for the Arts.

Associate Professor of Music Elizabeth Sullivan, oboist, received a grant to complete the final editing, mastering and production for a professional chamber music album with Trio Village. Learn more about Trio Village and its music here.

Anne R. Belk Distinguished Professor of Violin David Russell received an award in support of his recent album of Andalusian-influenced classical music for violin and piano, with castanets and flamenco guitar.

Assistant Professor of Dance Ashley Tate received funds for a research trip to Chicago to attend the International Conference on Urban Affairs and conduct archival and community-based research on Hazel Johnson’s environmental justice work. This research in in preparation for a 2025-26 North Carolina Choreographic Fellowship from Trillium Arts.

Professor of Directing Robin Witt received a grant to prepare to direct a world premier by a prominent British playwright at Chicago’s Steep Theatre. The funds will support a dramaturg, travel to and from Chicago and rehearsal/research costs.

In addition to these faculty, Department of Art & Art History alumni Kalin Devone ’15, Sharon Dowell ’02, Nadia Meadows ’20 and Ajané Williams ’22 received Artist Support Grants.

Pictured above, Stacked Vases by Thomas Schmidt.