Arts Council
Kentucky Arts Council offers awards to exceptional writers, choreographers and composers

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Arts Council will accept applications until March 15, 2012, from professional writers (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, playwriting and screenwriting), choreographers and composers for the Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship Awards and the Emerging Artist Awards.

The highly competitive Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowships of $7,500 are awarded to Kentucky artists who have demonstrated excellence and creativity in their work. The Emerging Artist Awards of $1,000 are also awarded to exceptional artists in the early stages of their career.

An independent panel of reviewers from outside Kentucky, all professionals in the relevant arts disciplines, selects the winners using a blind-jury process. The reviewers do not know the identity of the applicants as they judge their work.

The Al Smith Individual Artist Fellowship supports the advancement of Kentucky artists' careers and publicly acclaims artists creating work of high merit. The fellowship awards are named after retired Kentucky journalist and past Kentucky Arts Council board chair, Al Smith.

To learn more about the fellowship application process, go to http://1.usa.gov/KAC_fellowship. To learn more about the emerging artist application process, go to http://1.usa.gov/KAC_emerging. For more information about the Fellowship and Emerging Artist Awards programs, contact Tamara Coffey at tamara.coffey@ky.gov or 502-564-3757, ext. 479.

The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, creates opportunities for Kentuckians to value, participate in and benefit from the arts. Kentucky Arts Council funding is provided by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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