Inaugural Boston Arts Fellowship awards $75,000 to three artists.
The Wagner Foundation in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has launched the Wagner Arts Fellowship, awarding three Boston-based artists—L’Merchie Frazier, Daniela Rivera, and Wen-ti Tsen—for their contributions to the local arts community. The recipients will be honored at an inaugural ceremony on May 22nd, coinciding with the Boston Public Art Triennial.
Each fellowship recipient will be awarded an unrestricted $75,000 grant and access to tailored artist support services valued at $5,000, including career consulting, legal advice, and financial planning. Beyond the monetary support, the artists will showcase their work at the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), as part of an exhibition titled “GENERATIONS” organized by the Wagner Foundation. In the coming years, cohorts will also be invited to present their work at the Wagner Arts Gallery in Cambridge.
“Across the arts ecosystem here—from the Boston Public Arts Triennial to the ICA Boston Foster prize to Arrival Art Fair and the many others that support our region’s incredible community—we are collaborating with our peers and partners to elevate artists’ voices at this critical moment, affirming that art matters in this city and across the country,” said Abigail Satinsky, Wagner Foundation program officer and curator of arts and culture.
Working with quilts, metals, and beads, Frazier, born in 1951, creates works that celebrate marginalized communities, often depicting Black figures and family scenes. As a local historian and educator, she also serves as the executive director of creative and strategic partnerships at SPOKE Art. Her work is currently represented by New York’s Halsey McKay Gallery.
I Matter, 2016
L’Merchie Frazier
Halsey McKay Gallery
Born in 1973 in Chile, Rivera works as a professor at Wellesley College outside of Boston. She is known for her installations and paintings that create immersive experiences. Her projects emphasize cultural exchange, drawing from her own background to convey complex social narratives. Rivera has held solo shows at prestigious venues such as the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago, Chile, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Fitchburg Art Museum, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.
Tsen, an 89-year-old painter and sculptor, focuses his art on the lives of the working class and immigrant communities in Boston. He is best known for his public art installation, the “Chinatown Worker Statues” project. This project, supported with $1 million from the mayor’s office of arts and culture in Boston, includes four sets of clay statues depicting workers, each set to be cast into bronze at a sculpture foundry.
“L’Merchie, Daniela, and Wen-ti are important voices in the arts community and deserve both the recognition and a national platform for their work,” said Charlotte Wagner, founder and president of the Wagner Foundation. “At the Foundation, we believe that art is essential to our collective health and well-being. We look forward to ensuring continued support and growth of Greater Boston’s art community through our annual fellowship.”
