Fields Artist Fellows are selected from a competitive pool of applicants, representing artists of all media, including writers, filmmakers, visual artists, multimedia artists, cultural heritage artists, musicians, and performing artists.
For event inquiries or other opportunities, please contact the artists directly. Learn more about the Fields Artist Fellowship program.
Crystal Akins Meneses, Lincoln City | Music
2019–21 Fields Artist Fellow
Crystal is an interdisciplinary creative who activates community music and art through activism and spiritual care. Learn more about her work and arts nonprofit at activateartsnow.com.
Read Crystal’s reflection on being a Fields Artist Fellow in “Creating Joy, Art, and Social Change.”
Gabriel Barrera, Ashland | Visual Arts
2019–21 Fields Artist Fellow
Gabriel Barrera is a Mexican American/Chicanx visual artist with a BFA from Pratt Institute. His artwork is rooted in advocacy, social justice, and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) youth mentorship. Mentored by BIPOC women in the field, his social justice commitment grew during his twenty-year scenic art career. He currently operates ScenicG, a business providing services in art/design, workshops, facilitation, and mentorship. Gabriel used the fellowship to increase his mentorship of BIPOC youth in Southern Oregon, develop culturally specific art workshops, create a webcast series focused on art and justice, and produce multi-medium artworks that tell and illustrate stories on BIPOC identities and experiences in the Rogue Valley.
CarlaDean Caldera, Madras | Cultural Heritage 
2021–23 Fields Artist Fellow
CarlaDean Caldera is a Culture Bearer and Advocate of the Northern Paiute. As a scholar and teacher since 2000, CarlaDean has shared her love and knowledge of Northern Paiute Bands cultural legacies. Of the Tuhudyatuka Numu – Deer-Eater Band of Northern Paiute, Watah Family-Silver Lake, Oregon, her work is dedicated to Our Elders who came before and who are here now so that Our Ways will live on through futuristic learning and teaching. She used the fellowship to share Northern Paiute culture, teachings, and the Numu Yaduan language, using digital technologies, public events, and outings.
2019–21 Fields Artist Fellow
Artist website | Instagram | Facebook
Mic Crenshaw was born and raised in Chicago and Minneapolis and currently resides in Portland. Crenshaw is an independent Hip Hop artist, respected emcee, poet, educator and activist. He is the Lead U.S. Organizer for the African HipHop Caravan and uses Cultural Activism as a means to develop international solidarity related to Human Rights and Justice through Hip Hop and Popular Education. In his teenage years, he actively confronted white supremacist gangs that were a growing part of the hard-core music scene. Mic eventually moved to Portland, where he quickly became one of the most respected artists in the Northwest, and his community efforts have had both local and international impact. In addition to his highly-acclaimed work in spoken work and Hip Hop, Mic co-founded GlobalFam, a non-profit (EducationWithOut Borders 501c3) project to create and maintain a computer center for disadvantaged youth in Burundi, Central Africa. Over 400 people have received free training, and it is now expanding, generating revenue and creating jobs. Mic also partnered with Education WithOut Borders (EWOB), which supports education, music and art initiatives in Portland and beyond and serves as an umbrella for the local Books For Prisoners chapter and GlobalFam itself. Mic Crenshaw has toured and collaborated with Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Rakim and other Hip Hop legends. Mic was voted 2016 Portland Oregon’s best Hip Hop Artist. Since 2012 Mic has toured in Cuba, Russia, Germany, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya and other countries where he facilitates Hip Hop Cultural Exchange opportunities for youth. He is currently a Teaching Artist in Residence at multiple schools and a co-producer of the It Did Happen Here Podcast and the Rose City Rising city-wide youth Hip Hop compilation.
Read Mic’s reflections on his Fields Artist Fellowship: “We Are All Existing in an Opportunity Gap.”
2019–21 Fields Artist Fellow
Ka'ila Farrell-Smith is a contemporary Klamath Modoc visual artist, writer, and activist based in Modoc Point, Oregon. Her work has been exhibited at Out of Sight, Museum of Northwest Art, Tacoma Art Museum, WA; Missoula Art Museum, MT and Medici Fortress, Cortona, Italy; and in Oregon she has work in the permanent collection of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and Portland Art Museum. Ka'ila Farrell-Smith received a BFA in Painting from Pacific Northwest College of Art and an MFA in Contemporary Art Practices Studio from Portland State University. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder and is a land defender on the front lines, fighting resource extraction projects across the Pacific Northwest.
Read Ka’ila’s reflections on her Fields Artist Fellowship: Art and Activism in Modoc Point.
Jason McNeal Graham, Bend | Music and Visual Arts
2021–23 Fields Artist Fellow
Artist website | Instagram | Facebook
Jason Graham is a multiethnic, multimedia, multivitamin artist living in Central Oregon. Writing, painting, and music are his three main channels. He was recently selected for the group exhibition "Black Matter,” curated by Tammy Jo Wilson. His work in music and writing has been featured on TEDx, NPR, the NBA, and several other three letter acronyms. Graham (who often presents as MOsley WOtta) was an invited resident scholar at Goddard College, a skittish alum of Diverse Intelligences Summer institute, and a humble brag Slam Poetry Champion for the State of Oregon. Graham is finishing his tenure as Bend, Oregon’s first Creative Laureate, the third such position in the nation. With this fellowship, he plans to produce multimedia performances, collaborative murals, and storytelling that will creatively address and explore system inequities specific to Oregon and encourage dialogue throughout the state.
Sharita Towne, Portland | Visual and Multimedia Art
2021–23 Fields Artist Fellow
Sharita Towne is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Portland. Born and raised on the West Coast of the US along Interstate 5 from Salem to Tacoma and down to Sacramento, Sharita is a true granddaughter of the great migration. She is most interested in engaging local and global Black geographies, histories, and possibilities. In her work, a shared art penetrates and binds people–artists, audience, organizers, civic structures, sisters, cousins, and landscape–in collective catharsis, grief, and joy. Sharita holds a BA from UC Berkeley, an MFA from Portland State University, and was recently appointed Program Head of the Pacific Northwest College of Art’s MFA in Visual Studies. She will apply this fellowship to researching, planning, and developing space for communities affected by displacement and forced migration, including a mobile art center and an existing community space in Northeast Portland, currently used for art, research, and printing. She also plans to expand her studio practice to include new forms and emergent technologies.
Joe Whittle, Enterprise | Photography, Writing
2019–21 Fields Artist Fellow
Born and raised in rural Wallowa County, Joe Whittle is an enrolled Caddo Nation tribal member and a person who has experienced the opportunity gap firsthand. He is a photographer and self-taught writer who has gained notoriety as a freelance journalist bringing Indigenous representation to outlets such as The Guardian, USA Today, Outside Magazine, High Country News, the New York Times, HuffPost, and many other publications.
Read Joe’s reflections on his Fields Artist Fellowship: "The Value of Your Story."
Joe’s photo essay “Reciprocity of Tradition,” was published in Oregon Humanities Spring 2020 issue.
Comments
No comments yet.