KANSAS CITY, Mo, February 19, 2020: Charlotte Street Foundation congratulates visual artist Jillian Youngbird for being chosen as the Charlotte Street representative for the 2020 Art Omi International Artists Residency Program this summer. Charlotte Street is ecstatic to also announce that 2020 Visual Artist Award Fellow Glyneisha Johnson was selected to receive this year’s Byron C. Cohen Award, which allows her the opportunity to travel and attend any national/international art fair of her choosing.
When asked about her Art Omi residency opportunity, Jillian Youngbird responded with enthusiasm saying, “I am thrilled to have been selected for Art Omi. I think it will be such a unique and challenging experience and I feel so lucky to have Charlotte Street’s support. I look forward to taking in new perspectives from all of the other artists I will be spending time with and using them to expand my practice going forward.”
Glyneisha Johnson expressed her excitement to receive the Byron C. Cohen Award, stating, “I am super thankful to have received this opportunity to travel to an international art fair. Being surrounded by like-minded successful artists and peers who influence me will help me continue to build my practice so I can be in those same spaces soon. I am really looking forward to seeing the work while connecting with other contemporary artists!”
In 2005, Charlotte Street added an opportunity for one Visual Artist Award recipient to attend the Art Omi Residency. Art Omi is a highly respected international artists residency program in Upstate New York. All past award recipients are invited to submit applications to Art Omi with one spot guaranteed for a Charlotte Street artist.
Artists are selected by the Art Omi selection panel. Not only does the selected artist benefit from the fully-funded residency and professionally curated exhibition but all applicants have their work viewed by a selection panel comprised of nationally known artists, arts professionals, and art collectors.
The Byron C. Cohen Award provides one Kansas City-based visual artist annually with funding to attend a leading national/international art fair of their particular interest. The award is administered by Charlotte Street and funded by contributions made to Charlotte Street in memory of Byron C. Cohen. The artist for the annual award is selected by a panel of local and national curators as part of Charlotte Street’s annual Visual Artist Awards selection process.
The Byron C. Cohen Award honors gallerist and collector Byron C. Cohen and his passion for art, artists’ travel, and his desire to connect Kansas City and its artists to the national and international art world. Eileen Cohen, Toma Wolff, and Mark Cohen serve as advisors to the Byron C. Cohen Fund at Charlotte Street Foundation.
Funds contributed to date will support one annual Byron C. Cohen Award for five years.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Glyneisha Johnson is a multimedia artist currently living and working in Kansas City, MO. Johnson completed her Bachelor of Fine Art in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2017. Her work has been exhibited in various solo and group exhibitions in the United States, including but not limited to, SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, GE, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, KS, the Union for Contemporary Art in Omaha, NE, Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin, MO, and Haw Contemporary in Kansas City, MO. Johnson was a 2019 Summer studio artist-in-residence at Art Omi in Ghent, NY and will be an upcoming artist-in-residence at Bemis Center in January 2020. Johnson’s work is included in several private and museum collections in the United States.
Jillian Youngbird is a hunter-gatherer, story-teller and visual artist living and working in Kansas City. She studied art at the Kansas City Art Institute and currently works at a non-profit art studio supporting artists with developmental disabilities. She uses found and recycled materials to make photographs, sculpture and installations that invite those in her environment to explore the intentions and inventions found in the communication of history, folklore and culture, and our impact on the natural world.
ABOUT ART OMI
Omi International Artists Residency invites visual artists from every continent, representing a wide diversity of artistic styles, to gather in rural New York State to experiment, collaborate, and share ideas. During four weeks each June-July, concentrated time for creative work is balanced with the stimulation of cultural exchange and critical appraisal. Learn more at http://www.artomi.org.
ABOUT BYRON C. COHEN FUND
The Byron C. Cohen Award honors Byron’s passion for art, artists, and travel, and his desire to connect Kansas City and its artists to the national and international art world. Byron was adamant that exposure to premier art fairs such as Art Basel, New York art fairs, and various satellite fairs would enable collectors and artists to gain a better understanding and appreciation of the visual arts. With this in mind, the Byron C. Cohen Award was established to provide local artists funding to attend premiere fairs. A panel of local and national curators selects the Byron C. Cohen Award recipient annually as part of Charlotte Street Foundation’s annual Visual Artist Awards selection process.
ABOUT CHARLOTTE STREET
Charlotte Street identifies the needs and fuels the evolution of an ever-changing multidisciplinary arts ecosystem, acting as its primary provocateur. Charlotte Street cultivates the contemporary, the exceptional, and the unexpected in the practice of artists working in and engaging with the Kansas City art community. Since 1997, Charlotte Street has distributed over $1.1 million in awards and grants to artists and their innovative projects, and connected individual artists to each other and to the greater Kansas City community. For more information about Charlotte Street, its awards, programs, and initiatives, visit www.charlottestreet.org.
Read the full press release in PDF form here.
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