Meet This Year’s Joan Mitchell Fellows

Wake up, babe, the winners of the Joan Mitchell Foundation fellowships — one of the most coveted prizes in art — just dropped. Among the artists receiving the $60,000 award are Atlanta-based Krista Clark, Blue Ridge Mountains-based vanessa german, and Lexington, Kentucky-based Dianna Settles. What does the award mean to these artists? “Stability,” sculptor Beatriz Cortez told Senior Editor Valentina Di Liscia flatly.

Yep. It’s one of the hardest thing in the art world to come by — look no further than the San Diego Museum of Art, which just laid of 11 workers, almost a tenth of its staff. Or even to the continued destruction of Ukrainian cultural sites by the Russian military, affecting almost 200 arts educational institutions and 150 museums and galleries. 

And yet, and yet. Despite it all, there are still those among us who dare dream for a more stable, equitable, and wonderful future — check out Chenoa Baker's interview with Maori Karmael Holmes, founder of the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia, which took place late last week. “Let’s look at the work that’s being made and what it has the power to do,” Holmes said, “always concerned with creating a better world.”

—Lisa Yin Zhang, associate editor

News

• The Joan Mitchell Foundation announces the recipients of its 2026 Fellowships, one of the most coveted prizes awarded to visual artists in the United States. 
• Russian missile attacks have damaged or destroyed over 4,500 cultural sites, according to a statement from Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture.
• The San Diego Museum of Art lays off 11 employees, citing “rising operational costs” and funding uncertainties.

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