Baruch College Professor Zoe Sheehan Saldana
Wins a 2009 New York State Artists’ Fellowship
Zoe Sheehan Saldana, assistant professor of fine arts, has been awarded a 2009 fellowship grant from the New York State Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), one of 134 presented to artists who are also New York residents. The grants, which are unrestricted, may be used for everything from “art materials to rent” and are awarded for a variety of artistic endeavors including poetry, sculpture, digital arts, filmmaking, crafts and mixed media.
Professor Sheehan who just last year was the recipient of a Dieu Donne residency, is a mixed media creator of clothing, chairs, matches, and other utilitarian objects conjured up out of cloth, graphic design, digital imaging and whatever else comes to hand and to the artist’s imagination. Last year she began a project creating hand-made matches “starting with the tree.” Professor Sheehan says she is currently trying to “involve Sweden in my work,” because that country perfected matches and was also the home of one Ivar Kreuger who created a global monopoly in matches. She is also working on a life vest “to keep us all afloat” in these perilous economic times.
NYFA Fellowship are awarded to artists at all career levels. Since the fellowship program began, some $22 million in grants has been awarded to 3,688 individuals. Past winners have gone on to win the Pulitzer Prize, the Tony Award, the MacArthur Fellowship and other honors and distinctions.
