The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA) has announced that three artists will each receive $6,000 annually for three years as part of a multi-year grant program. The recipients are filmmaker Ashish Avikunthak and musician Laura Cetilia, both from Providence, and printmaker and graphic artist Lois Harada from North Providence.
This grant initiative, now in its fourth year, is designed to help artists pursue significant self-identified goals within their practices. In addition to financial support, the program offers a cohort community with meetings and learning opportunities tailored to grantees’ needs. Participants are required to submit an annual report and maintain residency in Rhode Island throughout the three-year period.
“As this relatively new program embarks on its fourth year, these three-year grants are an example of our continuous work to support artists as creators, community connectors, and small businesses,” said RISCA’s Executive Director Todd Trebour.
“We are proud to be giving artists, Ashish, Laura and Lois, a rare opportunity to intensely focus on their artmaking and help them support work that contributes to R.I.’s vibrant arts and culture community and our overall economy.”
Ashish Avikunthak is recognized as an Indian avant-garde filmmaker, film theorist, archaeologist, and cultural anthropologist. His films have been featured in retrospectives, solo shows, major film festivals worldwide, group exhibitions, and museums. He was named Future Greats 2014 by Art Review. Avikunthak’s academic work has appeared in several scholarly journals including those published by Cambridge University Press. He holds a doctorate in cultural anthropology from Stanford University and has taught at Yale University; he currently serves as a professor of film/media at the University of Rhode Island.
