The New Jersey Individual Artist Fellowships are competitive awards to New Jersey artists in 12 different disciplines granted solely on independent peer panel assessment of work samples. The anonymous process is focused on artistic quality, and awards may be used to help artists produce new work and advance their careers. This program is carried out in partnership with the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.
“I am beyond grateful for this meaningful artistic recognition from the NJSCA. It is certainly a welcome honor and the harvest after a lifetime of effort.” Turano said.
Turano plans to utilize her Fellowship to continue to explore and research her work, which she describes as “informed by subtle fields of energy in the human body, physics, and the mapping of architectural patterns in nature. The work challenges the dancer to find physical limitlessness in body and mind, and ultimately connectivity with the viewer.” The goal, Turano says, is “to have the dancer and viewer lifted to a higher realm and ideally transformed by the experience.”
The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, created in 1966, is a division of the NJ Department of State. The Council was established to encourage and foster public interest in the arts; enlarge public and private resources devoted to the arts; promote freedom of expression in the arts; and facilitate the inclusion of art in every public building in New Jersey. The Council receives direct appropriations from the State of New Jersey through a dedicated, renewable Hotel/Motel Occupancy fee, as well as competitive grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. To learn more about the Council, please visit www.artscouncil.nj.gov.