Three Rhode Island Artists Receive $30,000 MacColl Johnson Fellowships
Finalists also awarded $3,000 stipends and national residency opportunities through Artist Communities Alliance
[Providence, RI] Three Rhode Island artists—Steven Johnson, Kirstin Lamb, and Siena Smith—have been named recipients of the Robert and Margaret MacColl Johnson Visual Arts Fellowships, each receiving an unrestricted $30,000 award from the Rhode Island Foundation. Selected from a pool of 144 applicants, the Fellowships are among the largest no-strings-attached grants available to artists in the United States.
Administered in partnership with Artist Communities Alliance (ACA), the Fellowship pairs direct financial support with national field expertise, bringing together a panel of artists and arts professionals from across the country and connecting recipients and finalists to residency opportunities that extend the impact of the award.
In addition to the three recipients, finalists Joanna Cortez, Kannetha Brown, and Samuel Aguirre will each receive $3,000 stipends. This year’s recipients and finalists will attend residencies at Hyde Park Art Center and Ucross Foundation through ACA’s national residency network.
You can read the full Press Release here.
2026 Fellowship Recipients
Steven Johnson
Steven Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist working across drawing, installation, printmaking, photography, and oral history. Their practice centers Blackness as protagonist, creating counter-narratives that challenge dominant representations of oppression. Johnson plans to develop a new body of work documenting HIV/AIDS and “War on Drugs” survivors across historically Black and Latino communities, combining large-scale drawings with extensive oral history collection.
Kirstin Lamb
Kirstin Lamb’s paintings of forest environments emerge from a meticulous translation of photographic patterns into gridded, hand-painted compositions. Rooted in Rhode Island landscapes, her work explores perception, ecology, and the experience of moving through space. Lamb will use the Fellowship to expand her research through travel and to create larger-scale works.
Siena Smith
Siena Smith works with textile processes, including the Jacquard loom, to examine histories of labor, material culture, and Black identity. Her work reclaims industrial tools historically tied to slavery, activating them as sites of memory, resistance, and cultural expression. Smith will use the Fellowship to deepen her engagement with textile history and expand her practice in specialized maker spaces.
Panelists
As part of ACA’s role in the Fellowship, a national panel of artists and arts professionals was convened to review applications and select recipients and finalists. The panel brought together diverse practices across disciplines, geographies, and artistic lineages.
Nat Decker is a Los Angeles–based artist working across technology, sculpture, and performance. Their practice explores the politics of alienation, liberatory networks, and disability aesthetics. Decker has exhibited and presented work internationally and has held fellowships with Supercollider (SciArt), Eyebeam, and the Processing Foundation. They are a current staff member at ACRE and a participant in NEW INC.
Sara Black's work uses building and horticulture as time-based methods, incorporating materials such as diseased wood, ecosystem-specific plants, and inherited structures. Her practice interrogates individualism and imagines entangled futures. Black is an associate professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has exhibited widely, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Park Avenue Armory, and international biennials.
James Allister Sprang is a multidisciplinary artist creating audiovisual poems that blend performance, sound, and sculptural forms. His work explores deep listening, resilience, and diasporic lineages. Sprang has presented work at institutions including Tate Modern, The Kitchen, and the Apollo Theater, and is a recipient of fellowships from the Knight Foundation, Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and Montalvo Arts Center.
Pooja Pittie is a Chicago-based visual artist whose painting and fiber work explore the relationship between body and mind, movement and stillness. Living with muscular dystrophy, her practice reflects on resilience, memory, and identity. Pittie’s work is held in major collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and she has exhibited at Art Miami and EXPO Chicago.
Libby Paloma is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores intersectional identity through maximal aesthetics, humor, and textile practices. Their concept of “world-softening” frames softness as a radical and generative force. Paloma has exhibited nationally and has held residencies at The Clemente, Vermont Studio Center, and the Wassaic Project.
Joe Sinness is a multidisciplinary artist based in St. Paul, Minnesota. His work spans painting and conceptual illustration, with exhibitions at institutions including the Minneapolis Institute of Art and Rochester Art Center. A three-time McKnight Fellow, Sinness also teaches studio art and works professionally as a concept illustrator.
About the Fellowship
Established in 2003, the MacColl Johnson Fellowships rotate among visual artists, writers, and composers over a three-year cycle. The program reflects a shared commitment between the Rhode Island Foundation and Artist Communities Alliance to support artists through unrestricted funding and access to time, space, and community.
Through this partnership, ACA contributes national perspective and infrastructure to the Fellowship, supporting equitable selection processes and connecting artists to residency opportunities that extend the life of the award.
ABOUT THE RHODE ISLAND FOUNDATION:
The Rhode Island Foundation is the largest and most comprehensive funder of nonprofit organizations in Rhode Island. Through civic leadership, fundraising, and grantmaking, the Foundation works with partners across the state to create lasting impact.
ABOUT ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE:
ACA is the international service organization for artist residency programs and artist-centered organizations. ACA's mission is to advocate for and support artist residency programs as a means of advancing the endeavors of all artists. Founded in 1991, ACA currently has more than 250 members in 50 U.S. states and 20 countries, working on behalf of 1,500 residency programs worldwide. Since 2004, ACA has provided more than $4 million in direct grant funding to artists and artist residency centers.