Recent works by Fellowship recipients on display through March 27
MONTGOMERY, Ala., (January 26, 2026) — The Alabama State Council on the Arts presents the 2025 Fellowship Spotlight, an exhibition of recent works by Alabama-based artists who were awarded fellowships in visual arts, craft, and media/photography.
The exhibition focuses on the exploration of color, community, and narration. Each piece—whether quilt, collage, photograph, or sculpture—offers a distinct perspective that, collectively, presents a visual language highlighting Alabama’s creative landscape.
Erin Dailey’s collages explore identity of the creative self through form, shape, and color. Intersecting with Dailey’s sense of color, Nancy Goodman’s quilts are influenced by solid, saturated colors and shapes. Interrogation of ideas focused in community, built environment, and visual narration merge within Will Jacks’ photography, Bethany Moody’s fiber works, and Cynthia Wagner’s installation and collages. Human connection and observation are at the core of Michael Swann’s figurative paintings and Kat Griffith’s bronze sculpture. Narratives of the contemporary Deep South in Charity Rachelle’s photographs and Roscoe Hall’s painting allow for an investigation into social complexities and conformity.
“The fellowship program fosters our state’s creative talent through direct support of artists,” said Elliot Knight, executive director of Alabama State Council on the Arts. “Showcasing the works of this cohort of fellows reinforces the Council’s mission to celebrate and advance Alabama’s vibrant arts community.”
The 2025 Fellowship Spotlight is on view until March 27, 2026.
Exhibiting Artists
Erin Dailey of Florence was awarded a 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship. She is a mixed-media artist whose work explores the relationship between art, design, and play. Her practice addresses expressing creativity through play and explores the identity of the creative self in motherhood. She considers geometric form, color, and grid structure as the foundational ideas for her work and utilizes paper and upcycled cardboard packaging in her collages. Dailey holds a BA in architecture from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science & Art in New York City.
Nancy Goodman of Mobile was awarded a 2025 Craft Fellowship. Her art quilts are informed by all the places she’s lived, but a year spent in Gabon, Africa, was the most influential on her practice. Inspired by the Gabonese use of color, Goodman began using solid, saturated colors in her quilts. Her work has been exhibited at the University of Mobile, Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Wiregrass Museum of Art, and the Eastern Shore Art Center. This is her second Fellowship from the Council on the Arts.
Kat Griffith of Birmingham was awarded a 2025 Craft Fellowship. Griffith is a metal artist whose style is sleek and modern with a touch of the natural world streaming in and out of every concept like a river. It is meant to challenge the observer and bring an inquisitive and playful conversation to the table. Her creations include jewelry, home goods, sculpture, and public art commissions.
Roscoe Hall of Birmingham was awarded a 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship. A chef by trade, Hall’s art employs the contemporary narratives of the migration of African Americans from the North to the Southeastern U.S. His narratives of the contemporary South using what he calls “ingredients” are cultivated within crops picked at their peak in his paint pigments. Hall’s works have been acquired by The Birmingham Museum of Art, University of Alabama, and Kalamazoo Art Institute.
Will Jacks of Troy was awarded a 2025 Media/Photography Fellowship. Jacks is a process artist best known for his photographic work. He incorporates explorations with land, objects, sound, video, and community engagement into his practice. His research examines the blurred areas between art and journalism, individual and collective, and the impact of each on the other. Jacks holds an MFA in studio art from the Maine College of Art, an MA in journalism from the University of Mississippi, and currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Art/Photography at Troy University.
Bethany Moody of Odenville was awarded a 2025 Craft Fellowship. As an artist whose practice combines fiber, painting, and sculptural techniques to interrogate ideas of community, domesticity, sustainability, and the built environment, Moody has exhibited nationally, most notably at COOP gallery (Nashville, TN), the Waiting Room (Minneapolis, MN), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (Buffalo, NY), Collar Works (Troy, NY), The Overlook Place (Chicago, IL), and Little Berlin (Philadelphia, PA). They hold a BFA and MFA from the University of Montevallo and the University at Buffalo, SUNY, respectively. Moody is currently artist-in-residence at Studio by the Tracks and an instructor of foundations at the University of Alabama.
Charity Rachelle of Birmingham was awarded the 2025 Gay Burke Memorial Photography Fellowship. She is a lens-based documentary artist exploring tradition and tribalism in the U.S. with a concentrated gaze on the Deep South. Rachelle’s long-form photo series, “The Promised Land,” documents the daily lives of religious community members living on a compound in rural Alabama. Through her work, she investigates humankind’s tendency toward group conformity, calling attention to complexities that are too often reduced to stereotypes and clichés.
Michael Swann of Tarrant was awarded a 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship. Swann works primarily as a painter but enjoys utilizing a variety of mediums; in additional to oils, these include printmaking, airbrushing, and materials commonly used in the automotive field. Thematically, his interests range from human connection, memories, spiritualism to surrealism. He runs Gallery VOX, a contemporary art space in Tarrant. Swann holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Birmingham Southern College.
Cynthia Wagner of Huntsville was awarded a 2025 Visual Arts Fellowship. Wagner, a mixed media artist, photographer, and painter, moved to Huntsville, AL, in 2012 after living all over the U.S. and Europe. She holds degrees in painting and visual communications/photography, and her work has been seen in many public settings and is held in several corporate and museum collections. She considers herself a visual narrator, illustrating fleeting, decidedly human stories through visual metaphors using various artistic mediums.
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About the Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery
The Georgine Clarke Alabama Artists Gallery promotes the creative talents of Alabamians through exhibitions, publicity, and educational programs. Located on the first floor of the RSA Tower (201 Monroe Street, Montgomery, AL), the gallery is free and open to the public, Monday–Friday, 1:00 pm–4:45 pm. To schedule a weekday visit outside of these times, contact 334-242-5150 or amy@arts.alabama.gov.
About Alabama State Council on the Arts
The Council on the Arts is the official state agency for the support and development of the arts in Alabama. The Council works to expand and preserve the state’s cultural resources by supporting nonprofit arts organizations, schools, colleges, units of local government, and individual artists. Arts programs, assisted by Council grants, have a track record of enhancing community development, education, cultural tourism, and overall quality of life in all regions of the state. Alabama State Council on the Arts grants are made possible by an annual appropriation from the Alabama Legislature and additional funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.