MINNEAPOLIS (6-1-25) – Pillsbury House Theatre is proud to announce the two recipients of the 2025 McKnight Fellowships for Community-Engaged Artists: DejaJoelle and Mai’a Williams. Identifying and sup-porting exceptional mid-career Minnesota artists, the McKnight Fellowships for Community-Engaged Artists provide recipients with a $25,000 award, resources to meet with local and national arts and cultural profes-sionals, and works with the fellows to support their professional development and new creative initiatives. These fellowships are funded by a generous grant from the McKnight Foundation and administered by Pills-bury House Theatre. For more information about the fellowship program and future opportunities, visit our website at https://pillsburyhouseandtheatre.org/mcknight-artist-culture-bearer-fellowship/ The 2025 McKnight fellows were selected from a group of 36 applicants by a panel of arts professionals of varying backgrounds whose careers intersect with community-engaged artistic practice in different ways. This year’s panelists were; Helina Metaferia (NYC, NY), Fox Spears (Orlando, FL), and Eric Perez (Chicago, IL).

ABOUT THE 2025 FELLOWS

DejaJoelle is a Black-centered Healing Artist, Choreographer, Director, and Cultural Healing Curator. She believes Dance serves as our connection to ourselves, our communities, and our overall Divinity. DejaJoelle creates in-tentional spaces for Black Community to discover their rituals and practices toward Healing using Dance, Body Reclamation, and Revolutionary Love Practices.

Mai’a Williams is a writer and artist, living in Minnesota. It was their living and working with Egyptian, Palestinian, Congolese, and Central American indigenous mothers in
resistance communities that inspired their life-giving work and art-making practices. They are the co-editor of the anthology, Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Front Lines and the author of the memoirs, This is How We Survive: Revolutionary Mothering, War, and Exile in the 21st Century, The Future of Love, Apocalypse Here, and In a World Full of Sleeping Giants, You Get to be Awake.

ABOUT THE PANELISTS

Helina Metaferia is an interdisciplinary artist working across collage, assemblage, video, performance, and social engagement. Metaferia received her MFA from Tufts University’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She’s held solo exhibitions at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; RISD Art Museum, Providence, RI; and Museum of African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA. Her work was included in the 2023 Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates. Metaferia is an Assistant Professor of Social Practice Art at Brown University in the Visual Art department, and lives and works in New York City.

Fox Spears is a contemporary visual artist as well as Program Manager of Fellow-ships for First Peoples Fund. He is an enrolled member of the Karuk Tribe and currently resides with his husband in Orlando, Florida.

Eric Perez is an artist and educator in the city of Chicago. Primarily a photographer, his work fo-cuses on his experience of being a Marine during his two deployments as part of the Global War on Terror. As Project Manager for Floating Museum, he deploys his skills in photography and videography to document Floating Museum’s projects. He was selected to be a National Endowment for the Humanities Veteran Fellow (2022) with the emerging Veterans Art Move-ment. In 2023, he was awarded the annual David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation award and residency at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Guidelines

The intent of the McKnight Artist and Culture Fellowship Program is to recognize and support artists and culture bearers who are beyond emerging and have sustained experience in their area of practice. Fellows demonstrate accomplishment, commitment, and excellence that contributes to their field and that impacts and benefits people in Minnesota. 

Artists who are eligible for these fellowships: 

1. MN Residency: Applicants must have or maintain MN residency for at least one year prior to application (i.e. since March 21, 2024) and for the duration of the fellowship year.
2. Exclusive Application: Applicant may only apply to ONE McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowship discipline within the 2025 program year. For a list of all McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowships visit: https://www.mcknight.org/programs/arts-culture/mcknight-artist-culture-bearer-fellowships/#apply 
3. Applicants are beyond emerging and have sustained experience: Are mid-career with a body of work that demonstrates a sustained level of accomplishment, commitment, and artistic excellence. Have at least eight (8) years of professional experience implementing community-engaged art. Community-engaged projects, public exhibitions, or initiatives undertaken as part of a degree-seeking program at an institution of higher learning will not be considered, i.e. senior or thesis exhibitions, juried student shows, etc. 
4. No Full-Time Student Status: Applicants may not be enrolled full-time in any academic program.
5. No Conflict of Interest: Applicants may not be staff, board, or immediate family of the McKnight Foundation or Pillsbury House + Theatre/Pillsbury United Communities. For the purposes of McKnight Artist and Culture Bearer Fellowships, program partner faculty and independent contractors are not considered staff and may apply, even to a Fellowship from an organization for which they work. 
6. Prior Recipients: Wait 5 Years and New Body of Work: Anyone who received a fellowship in any discipline in or before 2019 is now eligible to apply and must demonstrate growth in creative practice and a new body of work. 
7. Program Participation: Be willing to participate in all aspects of the fellowship program, including some meetings, and scheduled dialogue with national experts.

*The Fellowship Program Director screens applicants to ensure eligibility.