Seventeen Greater Boston artists honored as 2025 Brother Thomas Fellows

Geoffrey Booras
Ceramic Artist
Geoffrey Booras produces experimental ceramics, painting, and sculpture in many forms. His practice contemplates the puzzling relationship humans have with nature, looking specifically to land use and resource extraction, as well as the history of science, exploration, and philosophy. His work has been shown at Gildar Gallery, Denver; Haw Contemporary, Kansas City; and The Museum of Longing and Failure in Germany. Booras has been artist-in-residence at Mass MoCA, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center, Arctic Circle Residency, Wassaic Project, Banff Art Centre, and The Rockefeller Foundation’s Pocantico Residency. Booras is a former apprentice to renowned sculptor Toshiko Takaezu. He holds master’s degrees from Harvard University (EdM) and State University of New York at New Paltz (MFA), and studied geology and art at Skidmore College (BA). Booras is a 2025–26 Fulbright U.S. Scholar for artistic research in Iceland and Greece.

Alison Croney Moses
Craft
Boston-based artist Alison Croney Moses creates wooden objects that reach out to the senses—the smell of cedar, the color of honey or the deep blue sea, the round form that signifies safety and warmth, the gentle curve that beckons to be touched. Born and raised in North Carolina by Guyanese parents, making clothing, food, furniture, and art is embedded in her memories of childhood. She carries these values and habits into adulthood and parenting— creating experiences, conversations, and educational programs that cultivate the current and next generation of artists and leaders in art and craft. Her work is in the collections at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, and Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. She received the 2022 USA Fellowship in Craft, 2023 Boston Artadia Award, and was a finalist for the 2024 LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize. Her work has appeared in American Craft magazine and Boston Art Review. In 2023, WBUR included Moses in its list The Makers, and the Boston Globe reviewed her first solo. Moses holds an MA in sustainable business & communities from Goddard College and a BFA in furniture design from Rhode Island School of Design.

Holly Curcio
Ceramic Artist
Holly Curcio makes ceramic figures that live somewhere between a real and imagined world. She likens them to a diary entry, or a poem that others are privy to, giving viewers a glimpse of the story. Working with personal narratives allows her to find connection with various states of being, process emotions, and reflect on living. Originally from Massachusetts, Curcio received her BFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and MFA from Arizona State University. She has exhibited locally and nationally, completing public art commissions in Sacramento, California, with artist residencies at Anderson Ranch Art Center, Red Lodge Clay Center, and Mudflat Studio, among others. She is a recipient of an Artist Fellowship in Sculpture from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Curcio works as an art restorer of objects by day and maintains her studio at Mudflat Studio in Somerville, Mass.

v. nico d’entremont
Transdisciplinary Artist, Educator, and Organizer
Through sculpture, experimental documentary, ritual/ performance, inter-species collaboration, and socially engaged art, v. nico d’entremont’s creative practice blurs the edges of studio art, spiritual practice, and traditional research, placing equal value on embodied, ancestral, and academic knowledge. Exploring systemic concerns through personal stories, their work seeks counter-narratives and challenges preconceived notions of Queerness, mental illness, and disability, creating pathways for individual healing and aiming toward collective liberation. D’entremont graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a BFA in sculpture and art education, and from UCLA with an MFA in sculpture. With commissions and solo exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Commonwealth & Council, d’entremont has also exhibited at anonymous gallery, Human Resources, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Boston Center for the Arts Mills Gallery, Chapman College Art Gallery, Cerritos College Art Gallery, and Palomar College’s Boehm Gallery. D’entremont has held residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, BANFF, The Joan Mitchell Center, Art Omi, Lighthouse Works, ACRE, SPACES Cleveland, Berwick Research Institute, and Boston Center for the Arts, and received grants from the Joan Mitchell Center, the Social Practice Art award, and the Collective Futures Fund.

Ifé Franklin
Black/Queer/Interdisciplinary Artist/Elder
Ifé Franklin is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and creates in Roxbury, Mass. A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1989, Franklin currently holds a Boston Center for the Arts Studio Residency. She also owns and operates IfeArts®, which includes ancestor slave cabin installations, drawing, collage, photography, fiber arts, ancestor processions, and hush harbors. She often works collaboratively with other artists and organizations. Franklin’s work has been exhibited in South Carolina and throughout the Boston area and is in the permanent collection of The Fitchburg Museum of Art in Massachusetts and The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. She believes it is her destiny to create and use her talents to convey that she is an ambassador of ancestral healing, wellness, truth, and joy. She conjures these frequencies through her art practice.

Earl Howard
Ceramic Artist
Earl Howard is a Massachusetts-based ceramic artist whose work blends craftsmanship, innovation, and deep respect for process. His wheel-thrown vessels reflect an ongoing exploration of material, form, and the relationship between heat and glaze. Howard began working in ceramics in the early 1990s at Feet of Clay, a cooperative pottery studio, and further developed his practice through studies at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. From 2002 to 2005, he operated Barn Studio Pottery in West Medford, producing work and teaching classes in wheel throwing, hand building, and glaze formulation. Howard is a co-founder of West Medford Open Studios, which was established in 2000 and is a vibrant community art event that brings visibility to artists at all stages of their careers. His background as a Cambridge fire lieutenant, with degrees in fire administration and fire science, brings a distinctive perspective to his ceramic practice, particularly in understanding the transformative role of heat and materials. A longtime member of Jerome Street Studios and an active exhibitor, Howard continues to pursue new possibilities in clay, driven by a lifelong passion for craftsmanship and creative discovery.

Danielle Jones
Poet & Multimedia Artist
Danielle Jones is a poet, artist, and educator. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Best New Poets, Memorious, Rattle, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writer’s Award, a St. Botolph’s Club Artist Award, and a Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship. She teaches writing at UNH, where she directs the Nossrat Yassini Poetry Festival and manages YAS Press. Jones’s first full-length collection, Hunger, will be published this fall by Bordighera Press. Born in Italy, raised in Alabama, Jones has lived in Salem, Mass., for the last 15 years. She’s a member of the Salem Writers’ Group and the Salem Athenaeum Lit Committee. She also has a decade-long history with Mass Poetry, and has been involved with the Mass Poetry Festival, the Poet-in-Residence program, and is co-founder of the Teen Spoken Word Program. She directs the Boston Book Festival poetry track in collaboration with Mass Poetry. Jones has taught writing workshops in classrooms across Massachusetts, as well as in museums, libraries, prisons, and on the streets of Salem. A visual artist as well, she has organized four public art installations, including the “Poetry Dress,” which emphasized mentorship and included the work of over 70 female writers. daniellejonespoet.com.

Brian Lim
B-Boy, Founder and Director of The Flavor Continues
Brian Lim is a first-generation born Teochew-Chinese Cambodian American, Lynn, Mass. native, and lifelong B-Boy. Known best as Brian Pistols, an alias given by a mentor following a Breaking tradition of being named by keepers of the culture, his experience began as a pre-teen competing and performing across Massachusetts. This journey culminated in competition titles spread over 14 years at home and abroad, and two seasons as a resident performer at Boston Celtics home games. Through a U.S. Department of State initiative, Lim served as a diplomat and cultural ambassador, fostering cross-cultural exchange through Hip Hop art forms in Russia and Portugal.

He is passionate about community organizing; determined to pay it forward and pay it back, to give back and give more to the communities, culture, and artform that have empowered him. His passion project jam Entering ShaoLynn (an ode to his ancestry, hometown, and Hip Hop’s love affair with Kung Fu) brings a Hip Hop feel back to Breaking jams, emphasizing the cypher and culture in a time where there is too much focus on the competition. Today, he is a proud Founder & Director of The Flavor Continues, a nonprofit organization enacting social change through Street & Club dance.

Rui Lopes
Filmmaker
Growing up in Cape Verde, Rui Lopes was nurtured by his single mother’s support of his artistic talents, which, he says, “kept me safe and engaged.” After moving to the U.S. in 1997, he won a gold key at the 2005 Boston Globe Scholastic Arts Award. He studied fine arts at the Art Institute of Boston, but realizing that sustaining a career as a fine artist would be difficult, he decided to leave school. This led him to San Francisco, where he discovered a passion for filmmaking, blending storytelling, visuals, and activism. He returned to Boston to pursue filmmaking seriously, founding Anawan Studios to create equity for BIPOC filmmakers in Massachusetts. Lopes produced two films that appeared in the Roxbury International Film Festival at the Museum of Fine Arts in June 2025, and Anawan was among the first 10 grant recipients of the Boston Creator Incubator + Accelerator, founded and supported by NBA players Jaylen Brown and Jrue Holiday’s nonprofits.

Thato Mwosa
Writer/Director
Thato R. Mwosa is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, illustrator, and professor whose work centers Black and African immigrant narratives with emotional depth and social impact. Originally from Botswana and now based in Boston, she brings over two decades of experience telling stories that amplify marginalized voices—especially those of Black women and girls. Her debut feature, Memoirs of a Black Girl, premiered at the Boston Globe’s Black History Month Film Festival and won Best Feature at both the Hamilton and Roxbury International Film Festivals. Her films explore themes such as youth violence, mental health, and immigration. A 2024 alum of both the Stowe Story Labs Narrative Lab and The Writers Lab, Mwosa also served as a mentor at the 2024 Pan African Screenwriting Lab. She is the creator of SAWA Trivia, an educational game celebrating African history and culture, and author of 14 African Women Who Made History. She is also the creative force behind the Black Girl Joy Book Club, a reading community she co-founded to inspire Black and Brown girls through literature. Mwosa is an Assistant Professor of Screenwriting at Emerson College and has taught screenwriting at Boston University and Lesley University.

Dave Ortega
Cartoonist
Dave Ortega is an award-winning cartoonist whose work explores history, memory, and identity. He is the author and illustrator of Días de Consuelo, a graphic novel based on his grandmother’s childhood during the Mexican Revolution. In 2024, he was invited to be a Visiting Artist at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ortega’s comic art is in the permanent collections of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum. In 2016, he was invited by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston to create Comics: Frame by Frame, an interactive project featured in its Art Lab. He has exhibited widely at comic and art book fairs across North America, including the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, New York Art Book Fair, Small Press Expo, and Latino Comics Expo. Currently, he is developing Hacienda, a self-published comics series praised by The Comics Journal as “Ambitious Comic book writing doesn’t get much smarter than this.”

Felipe Ortiz
Public Muralist & Fine Artist
Felipe Ortiz is a Colombian artist specializing in painting, from traditional easel work to murals and public installations. He earned his BFA in 2D Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2009. Ortiz has exhibited in prestigious venues such as the Fuller Craft Museum, Punto Urban Art Museum, and DeCordova Museum’s corporate loan collection. His installations have been part of projects with the Knight Foundation and Northeastern University. Ortiz was selected to showcase his work at the Governor’s office as a part of Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month, recognizing his positive influence on the state. He was awarded the 2018 Mass MoCA Assets for Artists Grant and the 2023 Massachusetts Cultural Council’s STARS residency grant to continue to lead the Harvest mural project in East Boston. He also founded FORA, a company fostering cross-country cultural exchanges through exhibits, public art, and workshops. In 2025, he launched Eastie Rising, a MOAC-funded public art initiative that reactivates East Boston’s public spaces through temporary installations and community-led events.

James Perry
Multidisciplinary Artist and Photographer
Based in Boston, James Perry is known for his powerful storytelling and dedication to preserving Black history through visual art. A proud graduate of Boston Arts Academy, Perry draws deep inspiration from his Mission Hill roots, channeling the city’s diverse cultural landscape into work that is both raw and emotional. As the founder of J. Perry Fine Art and the author of the Living Artfully newsletter, Perry has built a respected platform that amplifies local voices and engages the public in meaningful conversations about art, identity, and community. His portraits have been featured in exhibitions across Boston, including the Museum of Fine Arts, where one of his pieces was shown alongside the Obama portraits and now resides in the museum’s archives. Perry has collaborated with institutions like the Dillaway Thomas House and the Department of Conservation and Recreation to create permanent installations honoring Boston’s historic Black figures. He has also partnered with Pfizer, LabCentral, Turning Art, and Lendlease to help curate rotating local art exhibitions. Perry continues to use his art as a vehicle for healing, legacy-building, and community empowerment.

Dr. Karen Michele Walwyn
Albany Record Recording Artist, Concert Pianist, Composer, Florence Price Champion, and Professor of Music at Berklee College of Music
Karen Walwyn is the first female African American pianist/composer to receive the Steinway Artist Award. She made her New York solo piano debut at Merkin Hall following her two-CD series for Albany Records, Dark Fires, offering premiere recordings of works by African American composers. American Record Guide said, “Walwyn’s pianism is superb,” and Fanfare magazine said, “Walwyn gets through this technically demanding program with aplomb.” A champion and scholar of Florence Price, Walwyn premiered Price’s rediscovered Piano Concerto in One Movement; NPR’s Bob McQuiston said, “Walwyn provides a magnificent account of the concerto, displaying her considerable technical skills.” As a composer, Walwyn received the Global Music Awards Gold Medal – Award of Excellence for Reflections on 9/11. Fanfare wrote: “Imaginatively conceived and executed, it both disturbingly transposes the catastrophe into appropriately cataclysmic sound and artistically suggests the aftermath’s lingering sense of numbing devastation.” Recently named a Steinway Spirio Artist, Berklee College of Music Professor Walwyn is in constant demand nationally and internationally both for concert performances of repertoire from Frédéric Chopin to Florence Price and for commissions ranging from solo instrumental to orchestral works.