South Arts Announces 2025 State Fellows, New Multi-Year Support from Windgate Foundation

Atlanta, GA — May 22, 2025 — South Arts is pleased to announce the 2025 State Fellows for Literary Arts and Visual Arts in its flagship Southern Prize and State Fellowships program. Supporting various practices across literary and visual artistic disciplines, the regional initiative annually awards 18 State Fellows with unrestricted cash prizes of $5,000 each. This year’s fellowship class will now compete for the larger Southern Prize for Literary Arts and Visual Arts awards, which grant an additional $25,000 for the winner and the $10,000 for the finalist, as well as a residency at an artist retreat space. (See full list of fellows below).

In addition to announcing the newest cohort of State Fellows, South Arts is thrilled to receive a significant grant of $200,000 from the Windgate Foundation, which will provide additional support toward the flagship Southern Prize and State Fellowship for Visual Arts program.

“The Windgate Foundation's generous support underscores our shared commitment to elevating visual artists across the South,” said Susie Surkamer, South Arts President and CEO. “This multi-year grant not only expands resources and opportunities for creative practice but also strengthens a core tenet of South Arts’ programming at a time when national arts funding is facing immense challenges. South Arts is deeply grateful for the Foundation’s partnership, which will further strengthen our ability to nurture artistic talent and bridge long standing gaps in regional funding.”

Established in 2017, the Southern Prize and State Fellowships program was created to bring more visibility to the artistic talent and breadth among the Southeastern region. The program was expanded in 2024 to support Literary Arts, the program annually awards a total of $80,000 to nine visual artists and nine literary artists from each state in South Arts’ region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Alongside the State Fellowship award, each selected artist has a chance to compete for the Southern Prize awards.

The 2025 State Fellows for Literary Arts are:

The 2025 State Fellows for Visual Arts are:
 

 In this second-annual State Fellowships for Literary Arts cycle, this cohort selection centered around the genre of poetry. The nine recipients of the program each work among this genre, exploring themes of ancestral and collective memory, Southern identity, racial capitalism, community resilience, familial trauma, feminine strength, and more. Forthcoming cycles will support various genres, such as drama/playwriting, creative nonfiction, and young adult fiction.

In conjunction with the Literary Arts Fellows, the 2025 State Fellows for Visual Arts cohort represents a variety of individual artistic practices and disciplines from quilting and textile works to figurative painting and collages. Alongside their cash prizes, the State Fellows for Visual Arts will be featured in a traveling group exhibition, which will be on display from August 29 through November 2 at KMAC Contemporary Art Museum in Louisville, KY before touring to additional locations across the region (dates and locations to be announced soon).

Fellows of both Literary and Visual arts programs were selected from an open call for applications in which writers and visual artists from across the region were encouraged to apply. Review panels adjudicated submissions and made recommendations based on artistic excellence that reflects the region's rich diversity of artistic expression. Applications for the 2026 Southern Prize and State Fellowship program (both Literary and Visual Arts) will open in the fall of 2025.

The Southern Prize and State Fellowship program is also supported by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation, the South Carolina Arts Commission, Southern First Bank, the Tennessee Arts Commission, the Warner Fund, and individual donors. For more information about the Southern Prize and State Fellowship programs, application eligibility, and additional opportunities from South Arts, please visit southarts.org.

About the Windgate Foundation
The Windgate Foundation is dedicated to supporting significant educational programs in arts and crafts, strengthening the visual arts, and preserving public access to them through projects that foster creativity and innovation.

About South Arts
South Arts advances Southern vitality through the arts. The nonprofit regional arts organization was founded in 1975 to build on the South’s unique heritage and enhance the public value of the arts. South Arts’ work responds to the arts environment and cultural trends with a regional perspective. South Arts offers an annual portfolio of activities designed to support the success of artists and arts providers in the South, address the needs of Southern communities through impactful arts-based programs, and celebrate the excellence, innovation, value and power of the arts of the South. For more information, visit www.southarts.org.

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