2024 Empowered Artist Award Recipients

Arts Mid-Hudson is thrilled to announce the 2024 Empowered Artist Award recipients, a prestigious recognition bestowed upon exceptional artists in Dutchess, Orange, and Ulster Counties. This annual award, created in honor of Linda Marston-Reid, the former executive director of Arts Mid-Hudson, provides unrestricted funds to support artists in pursuing their creative journeys.

The Empowered Artist Award addresses the critical need for artists to access unrestricted funds that enable them to continue their artistic practice, elevate their careers, and enhance their visibility within their communities. These grants empower artists to create new works, acquire essential equipment, access educational opportunities, and meet their financial obligations.

2024 Dutchess County Recipient

Jayoung Yoon

“Drawing inspiration from Buddhist philosophy and quantum physics, I explore interconnectedness through shimmering veils crafted from hair and natural fiber materials. These delicate materials and their interweaving reflect both the fragility and interdependence of existence. In my current series, The Fabric of Energy, I create torus-shaped sculptures that visualize continuous energy movement. The Empowered Artist Award enables me to deepen this exploration, advancing the project beyond its early stages through dedicated focus.”

Jayoung’s Upcoming Events

The Faraway Nearby: Eight Asian women artists explore memory, inheritance, and identity

March 5–23, 2025
Opening Reception on Saturday, March 8th, 2025 6–8pm

Curated by Jiyeon Paik

Westbeth Gallery: 55 Bethune Street, New York, NY 10014

For the past five months, eight Asian women artists—Kazumi Tanaka, Jayoung Yoon, sooim lee, Xinyi Liu, Jamie Ho, Junli Song, Lipika Bhargava, and Naho Taruishi—have been engaged in dialogue, reflecting on inheritance, exchanging memories, and shaping new narratives of belonging. Their exchange now takes shape in The Faraway Nearby, an exhibition at Westbeth Gallery where history, art, and lived experience interact.

2024 Orange County Recipient

Rachel Berg

"My interdisciplinary artistic practice draws upon the natural world and Indigenous values, expressing Lakota ontologies through diverse mediums such as paint, plaster, fabric, and found objects. By exploring natural cycles, human connections to ecosystems, and multi-cultural ancestral teachings, I intend to create spaces for reflection and healing, to seek deeper emotional understandings of the universal mystery of life, death, and human interconnectedness with Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ (All My Relations, referring to all living beings)."

2024 Ulster County Recipient

Shani Richards

“As a craft labor activist, I create art to honor my ancestors and provoke viewers to critically engage with the complex truths of America."

Previous Empowered Artist Award Recipients