
Tri-Star Arts is pleased to announce the 2026 Current Art Fund grantees, as selected by this year’s jurors Rebecca Kinslow, Ashley Layendecker, Lester Merriweather, and Chris Molinski.
$7,500 grants have been awarded to:
Nyssa Collins – East Tennessee / Knoxville
Chalet Comellas – Middle Tennessee / Nashville
Maggie Jensen – West Tennessee / Memphis
Mary Laube – East Tennessee / Knoxville
Cesar Pita – Middle Tennessee / Nashville
Vadis Turner – Middle Tennessee / Nashville
Laura Cleary Williams – East Tennessee / Chattanooga
Khara Woods – West Tennessee / Memphis
“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”
Pradeep Dalal, Program Director, The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant