Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts Receives National Endowment for the Arts Support for “Made in USA” Artist’s Residency

The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts is pleased to announce it has been approved by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to receive a Grants for Arts Projects award. This $30,000 grant will support “Made in USA,” the Eliot School’s 2023 artist’s residency with photographer Feda Eid. 

This is one of 1,251 Grants for Arts Projects awards across the nation, totaling nearly $28.8 million, that were announced by the NEA as part of its first round of grants for this year.  

“The NEA is proud to support arts projects in communities nationwide,” said NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson. “Projects such as the Eliot School’s strengthen arts and cultural ecosystems, provide equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, and contribute to the health of our communities and our economy.” 

“We are humbled to be honored with this prestigious national grant,” said Eliot School Board Chair Melony Swasey. “Our Artist in Residence program allows the young people in our intensive Teen Bridge program to work closely with some of the most exciting artists in Boston. It’s a life-altering opportunity for young people who are following a path toward lives enriched by the arts.” 

As the daughter of Lebanese parents who fled the country's 1982 civil war, Feda Eid is guided by her family's American journey and her own childhood growing up as an Arab and Muslim in the US. She believes in visualizing personal narratives to broaden our perspectives and connect us across differences. Her work uses set design, tableaus, textiles, adornment, abundant color, and photography to express some of the tension and beauty in experiences normally lost in translation. 

The artist will work with a team of Teen Fellows, peer-selected from the Eliot School’s Teen Bridge program, to create a body of themed work for public display later in 2023. Through Teen Bridge, the Eliot School provides multi-year intensive learning space for young people from Grade 8 through high school, with creative youth development in leadership, employment, life and art skills. It draws its participants from Boston Public Schools, with a preponderance of young people from low-income households, many of whom are first or second generation Americans, and forms part of the Eliot School’s mission to inspire lifelong learning in craft and creativity for all. 

Feda Eid’s work has been featured and exhibited at the Peabody Essex Museum, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Lesley University, Sasaki Architecture, Columbia University, and The Shed NY, among others. She was awarded the Museum of Fine Arts Boston Emerging Studio Artist Fellowship in 2018,was a Luminary and 2019 Visiting Studio Artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and held a residency at MASS MOCA studios in 2022. 

For more information on other projects included in the NEA’s grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news.

Find out more information about the Eliot School’s Artist in Residence and Teen Bridge programs.