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# Seven Artists, Writers, and Musicians Among 2014 MacArthur Fellows
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/seven-artists-writers-and-musicians-among-2014-macarthur-fellows/
- Published: 2014-09-17T15:17:44.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:16:36.000Z
- Description: Of this year's 21 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, better known as the 'genius grant,' seven come from the arts.
- Author: Mostafa Heddaya
- Tags: News, MacArthur Fellow, MacArthur Foundation, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![9084477177_c95723c3af_z](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/09/9084477177_c95723c3af_z.jpg)

A scene from the Joshua Oppenheimer documentary ‘The Act of Killing’ (courtesy Drafthouse Films, still via Drafthouse Films/Flickr)

Of this year’s 21 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, better known as the ‘genius grant,’ seven come from the arts. [Rick Lowe](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/920/?ref=hyperallergic.com), who abandoned his training as a painter to found Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, was one of the artists profiled in Tom Finkelpearl’s book on socially engaged art, *What We Made*, [reviewed by Hyperallergic here](https://hyperallergic.com/what-tom-finkelpearl-and-many-others-made-and-might-make/) (incidentally, Finkelpearl now heads New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs). The MacArthur Foundation describes Project Row Houses, which consists of 22 small houses in a historically African-American neighborhood restored in 1993 with a group of fellow artists, as “a vital anchor for what had been a fast-eroding neighborhood.” Lowe is presently [in residence](http://www.nashersculpturecenter.org/pages/news-press/press-releases/news?id=38&ref=hyperallergic.com) at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.

Cartoonist and graphic memoirist [Alison Bechdel](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/908/?ref=hyperallergic.com) received the award for her rendering of “familial relationships in multilayered works that use the interplay of word and image to weave sophisticated narratives,” a style she pioneered with her [*Dykes to Watch Out For* ](http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/strip-archive-by-number?ref=hyperallergic.com)(1983–2008)strip and developed in several book-length efforts. In addition to her work as an artist, she is well-known for the Bechdel test, which comes from one of her *Dykes* strips and [quantifies gender bias](http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-dollar-and-cents-case-against-hollywoods-exclusion-of-women/?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Hollywood films. Hyperallergic previously reported on the Bechdel test’s adoption [in Sweden](https://hyperallergic.com/92192/swedes-to-apply-gender-ratings-to-movies/), and the South Carolina state legislature’s [budgetary penalization of colleges for teaching her LGBT-themed books](https://hyperallergic.com/south-carolina-legislature-penalizes-colleges-for-teaching-gay-themed-books/) (Bechdel’s *Fun Home* is a commonly [banned book](https://hyperallergic.com/57906/i-read-banned-books/), according to the American Library Association).

Documentary filmmaker [Joshua Oppenheimer](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/923/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is cited for his “unique mode of filmmaking that mixes the real and the invented,” exemplified in a diverse body of work covering subjects from the Louisiana Purchase to labor conditions on plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. In 2012 he released the widely acclaimed *The Act of Killing,* [reviewed by Hyperallergic here](https://hyperallergic.com/83040/when-a-documentary-film-unveils-a-massacre/); his most recent documentary, [*The Look of*](http://thelookofsilence.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com)[ *Silence*](http://thelookofsilence.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), was produced by Werner Herzog.

Across the arts, other winners of the prize — which [consists](http://www.macfound.org/pages/about-macarthur-fellows-program/?ref=hyperallergic.com) of an unrestricted grant of $625,000 — were poets [Terrance Hayes](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/915/?ref=hyperallergic.com) and [Khaled Mattawa](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/922/?ref=hyperallergic.com), playwright [Samuel D. Hunter](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/918/?ref=hyperallergic.com), and musician [Steve Coleman](http://www.macfound.org/fellows/911/?ref=hyperallergic.com).