This year’s artist grantees create work from a wide array of vantage points and perspectives. Themes of personal and racial identity, and what private fleeting moments reveal about us are explored by photographer Merik Goma. Sculptor Lauren Fensterstock looks to the dramatic events of ecosystems and the celestial “sky-scape” as metaphors to express personal narratives. Collage artist John Lawson creates modern colorful portraits of fellow community members, giving visibility to people he feels may have been overlooked. 

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has two grant programs that nurture artists at every stage of their artistic development; The Martha Boschen Porter Fund and the Artists Resource Trust (A.R.T.). Together, both programs encompass support for emerging artists, mid-career artists, or artists devising new projects and technical innovations. Creative fields supported span visual art, writing and performance. In 2023, grants were awarded to twenty-nine individual artists and six organizations that support artists. Together, these grants total over $215,000.  

Artist Spotlights

MERIK GOMA  A.R.T. Grantee 

Photographer Merik Goma writes short stories and poems to create character narratives of people of color to feature in his photographs. He then constructs sets of fictional home interiors, and, like a film director, uses color and lighting design to evoke emotion and tell a story. His photos of solitary individuals at home at night, subtly illuminated, invite viewers to contemplate the private moment they are being shown, and what the subject’s story might be. Goma shares that people of color often must navigate the gazes of others in their day-to-day lives in the public eye; these private moments can become a kind of personal sanctuary and are often depicted as a return and devotion to their authentic selves. The objects in the rooms have their own narrative roles as aspects of self-created ritual. Often, a sense of loss and absence is expressed. Goma finds these liminal periods of the day revealing and a rich source for further exploration. His new work will utilize day and night as anchoring points for the narratives, to ground the start and end of the day as rituals, expressing the preparation and decompression from the experience of daily life. Merik Goma’s website.

LAUREN FENSTERSTOCK  A.R.T. Grantee  

Sculptor Lauren Fensterstock explores the concept of personal transformation by looking to science, the celestial world, and Buddhist philosophy for inspiration. Suns, storms, black holes, mystery, and cycles of regeneration can “mirror” emotional states of being. Her large-scale constructions of crystals, chandelier parts and reflective materials are a kind of self-portraiture. Recent works incorporate graphite-colored forms encrusted with glass, mirrors and gems that could equally evoke sea life, asteroids, rainstorms or cells viewed under a microscope. Her creative process for a finished piece can take up to two years, and includes writing, drawing, and model-making. Lauren is looking forward to experimenting with lace-like elements in new work supported by her grant during a residency in Umbria, Italy, and will show finished pieces at the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York City in November. Lauren Fensterstock’s website.

JOHN LAWSON  Martha Boschen Porter Grantee 

Portrait Artist John Lawson used his Martha Boschen Porter grant for a downpayment on an art studio space near his home. Having lost two studio spaces to flooding, once in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, and once here in the Berkshires, this grant comes at a pivotal time. He is now energized to create work in his new space and is looking to the future. 

While in New Orleans, Lawson constructed large-scale artworks encrusted with discarded Mardi-gras beads. In the aftermath of Katrina, he discovered collage as a new visual language during a retrieval of remaining portions of original works on paper. This new approach to portraiture also allowed him to incorporate items meaningful to his subjects-a map, or a photo of a loved one. Lawson seeks out people who make daily contributions to community life but who may never have an opportunity to commission a portrait of themselves. It is this sense of “shyness” and humility that Lawson finds humbling himself. Two of Lawson’s portraits from this current series are on exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Jacksonville Florida. 
John Lawson’s website. 

The value of The Martha Boschen Porter Fund and A.R.T. grants is twofold. They allow artists to focus solely on their artistic projects and play a part in the development of the artist’s body of work over time. Just as significantly, Fensterstock shares, they are a meaningful validation of the path the artists have chosen, and of their achievements thus far.  

Deadline is October 15 to apply for 2024 grants. Applications are open now for The Martha Boschen Porter Fund and The Artists Resource Trust for Individuals and The Artists Resource Trust for Organizations.