Rich O’Donnell, director of the Electronic Music Lab in the Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and Jess Dugan, an exhibition preparator for the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, are among 10 recipients of the Regional Arts Commission’s 2016 Artist Fellowships.
Also receiving a 2016 award is clay artist Ruth Reese, who earned her master of fine arts degree in sculpture from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts in 2002.
The annual fellowships, launched in 2013, are designed to support the development of the individual artist’s career, providing the necessary time and space to study, reflect, experiment, explore and create. They are among the few multidisciplinary fellowships of their kind in the United States. Each recipient receives an award of $20,000.
O’Donnell is a virtuoso percussionist, composer, designer and builder of percussion and electronic instruments, as well as a teacher, writer and producer. He is co-founder of the HEARding Cats Collective and has performed extensively with the St. Louis Symphony. His current work focuses on abstract drumming with virtual percussion using the KYMA sound-design system.
Dugan is a visual artist who explores issues of gender, sexuality, identity and community. Her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the San Diego Museum of Art, among others. Her photographs have been featured in The New York Times, CNN and elsewhere.
For more information, visit www.racstl.org.