The Brother Thomas Fund was established at the Boston Foundation in 2007 to honor the legacy of Brother Thomas Bezanson, a Benedictine monk and world-renowned ceramic artist, who wanted the sale of his work to help other artists, as his friends had helped him.
Toward the end of his life, Brother Thomas joined forces with Sue and Bernie Pucker, owners of the Pucker Gallery on Boston’s Newbury Street, to continue his legacy.
The goal of the biennial Brother Thomas Fellowship program is to support and celebrate a diverse group of Greater Boston artists working at a high level of excellence in a range of disciplines—the visual, performing, literary, media and craft arts—and to enhance their ability to thrive and create new work. The Boston Foundation also hopes that fellowship winners will have greater access to a variety of markets, including galleries, residencies and commissions, and that the importance of artists to the vitality of Boston will be more broadly recognized.
Each Brother Thomas Fellow receives an unrestricted award of $15,000—thus fulfilling the needs of artists and the wishes of the donor.
Brother Thomas Fellows are selected in alternate years based on an inclusive, two-step process of nomination and panel review. A diverse group of nominators from Boston’s large pool of nonprofit arts leaders, academics, gallerists, collectors and for-profit arts presenters select the initial pool of artists. The nominators focus on mid-career artists to assure that the fellowships are awarded to individuals who have made a firm commitment to their art and are working at a high level of achievement. Nominators also give extra consideration to artists who are at a catalytic moment in their life and career when a fellowship could have a transformative impact. The Fellowship program acknowledges that even established artists may struggle for the resources they need to advance their art.
The nominated artists submit work samples, a resumé and an artist statement for consideration by a multi-disciplinary panel convened at the Boston Foundation.
All panelists complete a conflict of interest disclosure form to ensure a fair and equitable process. Should a conflict of interest arise, these individuals do not participate in this portion of the panel process.
The Boston Foundation believes raising their visibility will also increase their access to galleries, residencies and commissions, and demonstrate the importance of artists to the vitality of Boston. Since 2007, $1,080,000 in funding has been awarded to 72 Fellows. The quality and the range of their work are astounding, and are matched by their intense dedication to their work. As former Brother Thomas Fellows welcome new award winners, a larger “fellowship” of encouragement and support has emerged in the community of artists.
If you are interested in helping us grow the Brother Thomas Fellowship program, you may contribute directly to the fund. If you are a donor or a collector who would like to learn more about Brother Thomas’s works of art as a way of supporting the fund, please contact us at 617-338-1700.
The ceramic work of Brother Thomas Bezanson is displayed in more than 80 museums around the world, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Vatican. The largest and most diverse collection is in the Pucker Gallery on Newbury Street in Boston. Owners Sue and Bernie Pucker had represented Brother Thomas’ work over the decades and became his close friends. Toward the end of his life, they joined forces to create a legacy to benefit other artists: Today, proceeds of the sale of his works held by the Pucker Gallery go to the Brother Thomas Fellowships.
Brother Thomas knew that for most artists, the journey is a challenging one, and that even established artists may struggle for the resources they need to advance their art. The biennial Brother Thomas Fellowship program supports and celebrates a diverse group of Greater Boston artists working at a high level of excellence in the visual, performing, literary, media and craft arts—bolstering their ability to thrive and create new work.
Josephine Burr
Ceramics
L’Merchie Frazier
Fabrics & Textiles
Dey Hernández
Interdisciplinary Performance
Kaovanny Holguin
Music Performance
Jonathan Bailey Holland
Music Composition
Tatiana Johnson-Boria
Literary Arts: Poetry
Fred Liang
Mixed Media/Ceramics
Fabiola M. Mendez
Music Performance
Patricia Zarate Perez
Music Performance
Moe Pope
Music Performance
Allison Maria Rodriguez
Video Installation
Grace Talusan
Literary Arts: Writing
Chanel Thervil
Mixed Media
Susan Thompson
Fabric & Textiles
Cynthia Yee
Literary Arts: Writing
Karen Young
Cultural Organizing
Jorge Santiago Arce
Performing Artist
Anjimile Chithambo
Musician
Shaumba-Yandje Dibinga
Dancer/Performer
Robert Gibbs
Muralist
Ashe Gordon
Musician (Violist)
Arthur Halvorsen
Ceramicist
Yara Liceaga-Rojas
Poet/Performer
Porsha Olayiwola
Poet
Oompa
Musician
Valerie Stephens
Performing Artist/Storyteller
Billy Dean Thomas
Musician
Kyla Toomey
Ceramicist
Jean Appolon
Choreographer/Dance Educator
Sandeep Das
Musician
Maya Erdelyi
Animator/Director
Maria Finkelmeier
Percussionist/Composer
Patrick Gabridge
Playwright/Author
Regie Gibson
Performer/Poet
Stephen Hamilton
Visual Artist/Educator
Kathryn King
Ceramic Artist/Teacher
Shaw Pong Liu
Violinist/Composer
Marsha Parrilla
Choreographer
Hakim Raquib
Photographer
Evelyn Rydz
Visual Artist
Enzo Silon Surin
Poet
Yu-Wen Wu
Interdisciplinary Artist
Nicole Aquillano
Ceramic Artist
Halsey Burgund
Sound Artist and Musician
Danielle Legros Georges
Poet
Raúl Gonzalez III
Visual Artist
Napoleon Jones-Henderson
Visual Artist
Masako Kamiya
Visual Artist
Balla Kouyaté
Composer/Musician
Sandrine Schaefer
Performance Artist
Michelle Seaton
Author
Jae Williams
Filmmaker
Ambreen Butt
Multimedia Artist
Lorraine Chapman
Choreographer
Sean Fielder
Choreographer
Ekua Holmes
Visual Artist
Matti Kovler
Composer
Megumi Naitoh
Ceramic Artist
Sachiko Akiyama
Sculptor
Angela Cunningham
Ceramic Artist
David Valdes Greenwood
Playwright/Author
Wendy Jehlen
Dancer
Chandra Dieppa Ortiz
Painter/Sculptor
Robert Todd
Documentary Filmmaker
John Oluwole ADEkoje
Filmmaker/Playwright
Kati Agócs
Composer
Barbara Helfgott
Poet
Richard Hoffman
Poet
Brian Knep
Video Artist
Alla Kovgan
Dance-based Filmmaker
Tracy Heather Strain
Documentary Filmmaker
Heather White
Jeweler/Designer
Boston-born ceramic artist and mixed media sculptor Josephine Burr’s minimalist, abstract sculpture draws on ceramic traditions ranging from architecture to domestic objects, capturing ideas of time, handwork and the unnoticed spaces of daily life. Burr received her B.A. from Earlham College and MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Program in Artisanry. She has exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, with artist residencies at Reykjavik School of Visual Art, Babson College, Haystack School of Crafts, and others. Burr teaches at Massachusetts College of Art and Design and has taught and given workshops and lectures at several other universities and art centers.
L’Merchie Frazier’s social justice frame as a public artist, historian, activist, poet and multimedia visual artist engages one-life work, “Save Me from My Amnesia.” She is Director of Education and Interpretation for the Museum of African American History, Boston/Nantucket, creating programs, lectures and workshops with her mission to expand the American historical narrative. Her artistic residencies and awards include residencies in Brazil, Africa, Taiwan, Costa Rica and the Boston Foundation’s Brother Thomas Artistic Fellowship. Her work appears in several publications and in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the White House, Museum of Art and Design and the Mia.
Dey Hernández is an Afro-Caribbean interdisciplinary artista, permaculturist, cultural organizer, curator and designer. As a border artist between Puerto Rico and Boston, Hernández untangles this so-called nation’s complicated diasporic and colonial histories, centering on collaborative projects and practices. In a myriad of formats, they create counter-hegemonic narratives throughout their work while finding joy in the ordinary. Hernández received a master of architecture degree from the University of Puerto Rico. Currently, Hernández is the co-host, producer, and director of the podcast, When We Fight, We Win!, director of projects at AgitArte, and a member of Papel Machete and Danza Orgánica.
Kaovanny Holguin is a performing artist and true fusion in her existence. Representing a hybrid, Spanglish generation, she fuses sounds and movement from her Latinx upbringing and from Black artists who raised her across several musical genres. Holguin’s live experience awakens audiences with a unique, energetic exchange. Coming from a lineage of bold writers, Holguin speaks to dualities in culture, religion, identity, sexuality and everything she’s learning that it is and is not. Using writing and music to celebrate, communicate and worship, Holguin naturally floats between her masculine and feminine energies in her delivery to connect, educate and then entertain.
Jonathan Bailey Holland’s works have been commissioned and performed nationally and internationally. He was the first Composer in Residence for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has held similar roles with the Detroit and South Bend Symphonies, among others. He has received honors and awards from the Boston Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Fromm Foundation, American Academy of Arts & Letters, American Music Center, ASCAP, Presser Foundation, and more. He holds degrees from Curtis Institute of Music and Harvard University. Holland is Chair of Composition, Contemporary Music, and Core Studies at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Tatiana Johnson-Boria’s writing explores identity, inherited trauma and healing. Her work was selected as a finalist for the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest (2020) and the Solstice Literary Poetry Prize (2020). She received honorable mention for the Academy of American Poets Prize (2020, 2021) and Auburn Witness Poetry Prize in Southern Humanities Review (2019) and was a 2017 Pushcart Prize nominee. She completed her MFA in creative writing at Emerson College and is a 2021 Tin House Scholar. She serves on the board for VIDA: Literary Arts. Find her work in or forthcoming at Ploughshares, Kenyon Review, Pleiades and others.
Fred H.C. Liang received his BFA from the University of Manitoba and MFA from Yale University. Liang’s work is in numerous public and private collections, including Fidelity, the Gund Collection, and Brandeis University’s Rose Art Museum. He has exhibited internationally—from Boston and Berlin to Cadiz and Beijing, and recently completed residencies at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Chile and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. Honors include Massachusetts Cultural Council Arts grants in painting, printmaking and works on paper, and the 2020 Joan Michell Foundation Grant. Liang is a professor and Coordinator of the Printmaking Department at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Fabiola M. Mendez is a Puerto Rican cuatro player, educator and composer taking part in a musical movement, crossing over lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz and Latin. A 2018 graduate from Berklee College of Music, Mendez has worked with and performed for artists such as Totó La Momposina, Eddie Palmieri, the Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, and Pedro Capó, among others. She currently works as an independent artist throughout the Northeast and Puerto Rico, collaborating with organizations such as Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), Celebrity Series of Boston, Fred Rodgers Productions, Hyde Square Task Force, and Agora Cultural Architects.
Patricia Zarate Perez was born and raised in Chile and came to the US at age 21. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Therapy from Berklee College of Music and a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from New York University. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Panama Jazz Festival, Assistant Professor of Berklee’s Music Therapy Department, and is part of the Advisory Board of the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. She is also a student in the Global Inclusion and Social Development doctoral program at the University of Massachusetts and homeschools her three children from birth to college.
Lyricist and visual artist Moe Pope reflects on equality, love, family, community and the human experience through music. The Roxbury native has been part of the bands Mission, Electric Company, Project Move, and is currently lead vocalist for STL GLD, with a studio album in progress. The Boston-based hip hop band draws from indie rock, punk, soul, jazz and more to create its unique style and performances rich with visual art, musician collaborations and audience interaction. With work released at the Museum of Fine Arts and a historic collaborative performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Pope shatters unwarranted limitations imposed on hip hop.
Allison Maria Rodriguez is a first-generation Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist working predominantly in video installation. Her work focuses extensively on climate change, species extinction and the interconnectivity of existence. Through video, digital animation, performance, photography, drawing, collage and installation, Rodriguez creates immersive experiential spaces that challenge conventional ways of knowing and understanding the world. Her work has been exhibited locally and internationally, in both traditional and non-traditional art spaces. In addition to her practice, Rodriguez is also a curator, educator and arts organizer.
Grace Talusan is a writer, teacher, immigrant and author of the memoir The Body Papers, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing, the Massachusetts Book Awards in nonfiction, and was a New York Times Editors’ Choice selection. Her short story, “The Book of Life and Death,” was translated into several languages, including Filipino, for the Boston Book Festival’s One City One Story program. Currently, Talusan is the Fannie Hurst Writer-in-Residence at Brandeis University, where she teaches creative writing and is working on her first novel.
Haitian American artist and educator Chanel Thervil combines abstraction and portraiture to convene dialogue around culture, social issues and existential questions. At the core of her practice lies a desire to empower and inspire tenderness and healing among communities of color through the arts. She holds a BFA in painting from Pace University and a master’s degree in art education from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She’s been a catalyst for change via educational collaborations, public art and residencies with institutions like The Museum of Fine Arts, The Boston Children’s Museum, PBS Kids and nonprofits across Boston.
Susan Thompson is both a textile artist and art educator. She lives and works primarily in the Greater Boston area. Her work reflects the diverse cultural influences that she has encountered in her travels abroad and in her own cultural heritage. Her African ancestors have been a major and recurring theme in much of her work. Her art creates unique designs, telling stories that communicate the struggle and soul of her people. She is represented in public and private collections and is currently an artist in the African American Master Artists in Residence Program at Northeastern University.
Cynthia Yee is an educator, writer, artist and artistic collaborator. She writes creative, nonfiction essays from the viewpoint of an American-born Taishanese girl coming of age in Boston’s Chinatown and Combat Zone through the 1950s and ’60s. Yee has discovered that her humble stories of one girl, one street, and one time in Boston history resonate with many, and have significance in modern times. She continues exploring the themes of what makes for thriving community life and child development, how structural racism oppresses, how feminism can be nurtured, and how social justice can look in America.
Karen Young is a cultural organizer, taiko player and educator based in Boston. Young combines taiko and creativity with community organizing strategies to empower, engage and inspire people into action. As a 2018 Boston Artist in Residence, she used the arts to bolster the voice of elders concerned about street safety from BCYF Grove Hall Senior Center in Dorchester. She is a Live Arts Boston awardee, the founding director of The Genki Spark, and the co-founder of the Brookline Cherry Blossom Festival. Through her projects, Young works to preserve and grow a vibrant, diverse arts ecosystem in Boston.
The artists who have received fellowships to date are extraordinary. Past fellows have won numerous awards and prizes during and after their fellowships, and been recognized among the leading artists in their disciplines nationally and internationally. They, along with all future Fellows, will make tremendous contributions to the art world over the course of their lives and will enrich our community in ways we can only imagine.
For full biographies of these Fellows at the time they were recognized with their fellowships, click here.
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| Jean Appolon Choreographer/Dance Educator |
Sandeep Das Musician |
Maya Erdelyi Animator/Director |
Maria Finkelmeier Percussionist/Composer |
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| Patrick Gabridge Playwright/Author |
Regie Gibson Performer/Poet |
Stephen Hamilton Visual Artist/Educator |
Kathryn King Ceramic Artist/Teacher |
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| Shaw Pong Liu Violinist/Composer |
Marsha Parrilla Choreographer |
Hakim Raquib Photographer |
Evelyn Rydz Visual Artist |
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| Enzo Silon Surin Poet |
Yu-Wen Wu Interdisciplinary Artist |
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| Nicole Aquillino Ceramic Artist |
Halsey Burgund Sound Artist and Musician |
Danielle Legros Georges Poet |
Raúl Gonzalez III Visual Artist |
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| Napoleon Jones-Henderson Visual Artist |
Masako Kamiya Visual Artist |
Balla Kouyaté Composer/Musician |
Sandrine Schaefer Performance Artist |
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| Michelle Seaton Author |
Jae Williams Filmmaker |
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| Ambreen Butt Visual Artist |
Lorraine Chapman Choreographer |
Sean Fielder Choreographer |
Ekua Holmes Visual Artist |
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| Matti Kovler Composer |
Megumi Naitoh Ceramic Artist |
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| Sachiko Akiyama Sculptor |
Angela Cunningham Ceramic Artist |
David Valdes Greenwood Playwright/Author |
Wendy Jehlen Dancer |
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| Chandra Dieppa Ortiz Painter/Sculptor |
Robert Todd Documentary Filmmaker |
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| John Oluwole ADEkoje Filmmaker/Playwright |
Kati Agócs Composer |
Barbara Helfgott Poet |
Richard Hoffman Poet |
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| Brian Knep Video Artist |
Alla Kovgan Dance-based Filmmaker |
Tracy Heather Strain Documentary Filmmaker |
Heather White Jeweler/Designer |
The artists who have received fellowships to date are extraordinary. They, along with all future Fellows, will make tremendous contributions to the art world over the course of their lives, and will enrich our community in ways we can only imagine.