WATERVILLE, MAINE .- Awarded to scholars, researchers and artists whose work aligns with the Lunder Institute’s mission of expanding the boundaries of American Art, fellowships foster experimentation, research and production at all stages of practice by providing space, time and resources to incubate leading work in the field.

Each fellow engages with the Colby campus community, the museum’s collection and the broader Waterville community through onsite visits with academic departments, public programs, workshops or studio visits and research using the Colby College Museum of Art’s collection.

Additional information about these fellows and opportunities to engage with them on campus will be announced throughout the year.

ANNOUNCING 2027 FELLOW COHORT

Jerome Reyes and Matthew Villar Miranda, Ossorio Fellows


Jerome Reyes. Photo: Jeremy Keith Villaluz

Jerome Reyes is an artist, researcher and educator based in San Francisco and Seoul who specializes in long-term, collaborative projects that intersect with architecture, archival history and social practice.


Matthew Villar Miranda, 2021. Photo: Joshua Gutierrez.

Matthew Villar Miranda is a Ph.D. student in Art History at Stanford University, where his research focuses on modern and contemporary art of the Philippines and its diaspora. His work examines the intersections of colonialism, migration and visual culture, often highlighting underrepresented narratives within American and global art history.

Established in 2019 and supported by the Ossorio Foundation, the Alfonso Ossorio Creative Production Grant provides financial support to artists affiliated with the Colby Museum and its Lunder Institute to further their intellectual pursuits, research and the creation of new artworks that expand the boundaries of American art.

As part of their fellowship, Reyes and Villar Miranda will collaborate on a project titled “Congregations in Five Acts,” which reexamines the legacy of Alfonso Ossorio through transpacific, queer and diasporic frameworks. Their work will bridge original scholarly research with artistic production, utilizing Ossorio’s concept of "congregations" to gather artists, thinkers and the community through five interrelated stages of inquiry.

A CLEARING (Alana Dao and meg willing), Lunder Institute Fellow

A CLEARING is a poetry-centered arts collaborative co-founded and co-directed by Alana Dao and meg willing. Dao is a Portland-based writer whose practice navigates the relationships between food, race and contemporary culture, while Farmington-based willing is a poet and book designer whose creative work explores fragmented memory through the integration of text and image.

Their fellowship will center on a year-long creative cycle that invites a diverse group of collaborators to create original art and writing in conversation with a selected poem.

Ruby Sky Stiler, Lunder Institute Fellow

Ruby Sky Stiler is a Maine-born, Brooklyn-based artist utilizing a multi-dimensional practice to reimagine art historical archetypes and the history of figuration. Drawing from her background in printmaking, she creates intricate relief paintings and sculptures that navigate the tension between flatness and three-dimensionality while subverting traditional gendered tropes.

Stiler’s fellowship will focus on the formal and material legacy of artist Louise Nevelson and its intersection with Stiler's own interdisciplinary practice. Her work involves navigating the tension between flatness and three-dimensionality — utilizing sculptural wall reliefs, collage and contemporary fresco techniques to deconstruct traditional art historical archetypes — while exploring themes of abstraction, feminism and the conservation of complex sculptural works

Formerly announced fellows returning in 2027 include Demian Din�Yazhi’, Alexandra Grant and Hannah Haynes.

INAUGURAL FACULTY FELLOW


Gwyneth Shanks.

Gwyneth Shanks, assistant professor of performance, theater and dance, was named the inaugural Lunder Institute Faculty Fellow earlier this year. Her work draws on visual and performance studies, queer theory and critical race studies, and postcolonial theory to demonstrate how performance and performative art can expose the colonialist structures and histories embedded within arts institutions and contemporary art.

Shanks’s forthcoming book, “Another Museum is Necessary: Transient Performance in the Wake of Institutional Critique,” is currently under contract with Duke University Press. Her research and performance work have been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the MAP Fund and the Maine Arts Commission, among others. Before joining the Colby faculty, she was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Walker Art Center and earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles. As a performer, she has collaborated with renowned artists and companies, including the Trisha Brown Dance Company and Marina Abramović.

Gwyneth Shanks and student fellows Raine Brossard ’27 and April Levy ’27, presenting their work on developing A Handbook for Speculative Curation, an experimental publication exploring how speculative fiction can reimagine art education, preservation, museum display, and curatorial practice. Drawing on the Lunder Institute Audio Archives and the Colby Museum’s efforts to expand art historical narratives, the project questions traditional museum practices and imagines new relationships to material culture and history. The presentation on Dec. 3, 4–5:30 p.m. will also include a participatory workshop element, inviting attendees to engage with the ideas and questions at the heart of the project.

CONTINUING K–12 ARTIST EDUCATION FELLOWS

In collaboration with Colby Arts, Lunder Institute invited currently employed K–12 teachers to apply for stipends and shared studio use within our creative community. The opportunity is designed to support educators who maintain an active arts practice and are interested in working alongside fellow artists in a vibrant, collaborative environment.

Selected participants receive access to studio space at Greene Block + Studios and opportunities to engage with the public through open studios. K–12 Artist Educator Fellows continuing this academic year include Adele Drake (Hampden Academy), Jessica Hamilton-Jones (Waterville Alternative High School), and Jeffrey Orth (Richmond Middle and High School).

Applications for the next cycle of K–12 Artist Education Fellowships will open in January 2027. Educators from all artistic disciplines are encouraged to apply. To be eligible, applicants must be current K–12 educators with a non-toxic arts practice, able to participate in at least two First Friday Open Studios annually and ideally interested in facilitating workshops.