Our 2025 Artist in Residence's Project Has Been Approved for $25,000 Award from the National Endowment for the Arts
January 31, 2025
The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) for a Grants for Arts Projects award of $25,000. This grant will support “My Recipe, Our Potluck” the residency project of the Eliot School’s 2025 Artist in Residence, illustrator Yuko Okabe. The NEA will award 1,127 Grants for Arts Projects awards nationwide totaling more than $31.8 million as part of the recent announcement of fiscal year 2025 grants.
“The NEA is proud to continue our nearly 60 years of supporting the efforts of organizations and artists that help to shape our country’s vibrant arts sector and communities of all types across our nation,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson, PhD. “It is inspiring to see the wide range of creative projects taking place, including the Eliot School’s ‘My Recipe, Our Potluck’ project.”
“We are incredibly grateful to once again receive an NEA Grant, which enhances our ability to provide meaningful artistic experiences for our students. 'My Recipe, Our Potluck' will not only allow our Artist in Residence, Yuko Okabe, to guide our young artists in exploring their creativity but also empower them to share their unique stories through art,” said Eliot School Executive Director Scott Evans. “This project presents an exciting opportunity for our students to connect with one another and the broader community, utilizing the transformative power of the arts to cultivate empathy, celebrate diversity, and build lasting connections.”
“My Recipe, Our Potluck” will generate a series of gouache paintings with mixed media elements—including ink pens and pastel pencils— that interpret stories of individual and collective experiences with food. Okabe and a group of teen artists will also create artwork reflecting project themes to share with gallery visitors in the form of small take away items. Stories featured in the final exhibit will be gathered through a series of community engagement workshops co-designed and facilitated by Okabe and teen artists, and hosted by neighborhood-based non-profits. These workshops will include elements such as storytelling circles, refreshments from neighborhood restaurants, and collective art making exploring core project questions such as: “How can food help to preserve culture and build connections?” and, “Who has access to which food, and why?”
Just as guests bring special culinary dishes to a potluck gathering, each story will contribute a unique component to the final exhibition which will appear at Piano Craft Gallery August 22 through September 7, 2025. The exhibition will include thematically connected work by Okabe presented alongside work by teen artists.
For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.
