Piedmont Arts - Martinsville, VA

Richmond, VA (Feb. 17, 2026) — The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) is pleased to announce the 2026–2027 recipients of its Visual Arts Fellowship awards. This year, 24 professional artists and graduate and undergraduate students have received awards totaling $154,000 to further their artistic careers.

Established through a generous contribution made by John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1940, VMFA’s Visual Arts Fellowship Program marks its 86th anniversary this year. As a vital source of funding for visual arts and art history in the Commonwealth, the museum has awarded more than $6.5 million in fellowship awards to Virginians since its inception.

“We at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts are truly honored to have the opportunity to recognize the talented student and professional artists through our longstanding fellowship program,” said Director and CEO Alex Nyerges. “Each year, through one of the largest fellowship programs of its kind in the United States, we highlight and provide transformative financial resources and exhibition opportunities to help advance the artistic careers of talented Virginians. This effort is a core part of the museum’s mission.”

Recipients of VMFA’s Visual Arts Fellowship awards must be residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia and may use the money they receive as they desire.

Museum curators and working artists serve as jurors to select the award recipients. This year, Jamillah James, the Manilow Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (Illinois), served as the professional-level juror. The graduate art history juror was Kelvin Parnell, the Endowed Assistant Professor in Arts of the Americas at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). Bernadette Moore, the Director of Exhibitions and Marketing at Piedmont Arts (Martinsville, Virginia), served as the juror for the graduate and undergraduate visual arts categories.

VMFA has awarded 12 professional-level fellowships of $8,000 each to the following artists:

Jordan Bruner (Richmond), painting
David Carlson (Arlington), painting
Jessie Coles (Charlottesville), mixed media
Riley Goodman (Richmond), photography
Travis Head (Blacksburg), drawing
Kathleen Kennedy (Richmond), crafts
Lauren Moses (Charlottesville), painting
Ph??ng-Duyên H?i Nguy?n (Charlottesville), mixed media
Manavi Singh (Haymarket), photography
Lauren Thorson (Richmond), drawing
Sasha Waters (Richmond), film and video
Benjamin Wright (Virginia Beach), mixed media

Five graduate students have been awarded $6,000 each:

Katy Layman (Leesburg), painting, Virginia Commonwealth University
Elizabeth Schweizer (Richmond), crafts, Virginia Commonwealth University
Michelle Smith (Annandale), sculpture, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Jeremy Starn (Harrisonburg), photography, James Madison University
Liza Wimbish (Charlottesville), art history, University of Virginia

Undergraduate fellowships of $4,000 each have been awarded to five students:

Isaac James (Charlottesville), photography, Washington and Lee University
Thomas Smith (Reston), photography, Virginia Commonwealth University
Sky Standley (Blacksburg), new and emerging media, Blacksburg High School
Laura Teele (Richmond), painting, Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology
Michelle Vallieres (Virginia Beach), mixed media, Green Run Collegiate and Governor’s School for the Arts

One undergraduate student has been awarded a half-year fellowship of $2,000:

Eva McMullan (Ashburn), printmaking, Virginia Commonwealth University

This year’s recipient of the Cy Twombly Graduate Fellowship award of $6,000, supported by the McClintic Endowment, is Richmond resident Sirena Pearl, who is studying painting at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Offered through the VMFA Statewide program, Visual Arts Fellowship awards are largely funded through the Pratt Endowment and the J. Warwick McClintic Jr. Fellowship Fund. In addition to providing financial awards to all recipients, VMFA exhibits works by past fellowship winners in VMFA’s Amuse Restaurant, Claiborne Robertson Room and Pauley Center Galleries, as well as at the Richmond International Airport. Several past and present fellowship recipients have also shown their work in the galleries of the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton and the Capital One Commons in Richmond.

For more information about the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and its Visual Arts Fellowship Program, visit VMFA.museum.

About the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the United States. VMFA, which opened in 1936, is a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art, and to encourage the study of the arts. Through the Office of Statewide Partnerships Program, the museum offers curated exhibitions, arts-related audiovisual programs, symposia, lectures, conferences, and workshops by visual and performing artists. In addition to presenting a wide array of special exhibitions, the museum provides visitors with the opportunity to experience a global collection of art that spans more than 6,000 years. VMFA’s permanent holdings encompass more than 50,000 artworks, including the largest public collection of Fabergé outside of Russia, the finest collection of Art Nouveau outside of Paris and one of the nation’s finest collections of American art. VMFA is also home to important collections of Chinese art, English silver, French Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, British sporting and modern and contemporary art, as well as renowned South Asian, Himalayan and African art. In May 2010, VMFA opened the James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing I after a transformative expansion, previously the largest in its history. A new expansion, the McGlothlin Wing II, is scheduled to open in 2029. Comprising more than 170,000 square feet, it will be the largest expansion in the museum’s history and will make VMFA the fourth largest comprehensive art museum in the United States.

Named the 11th-best art museum in the U.S. by The Washington Post, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts is the only art museum in the United States open 365 days a year with free general admission. For additional information, telephone (804) 340-1400 or visit VMFA.museum.