Artists, Writers and Scholars Program
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant strives to strengthen artistic voices, and enhance Georgia’s profile as a place where artists, writers and scholars can live and thrive while offering fresh perspectives on our coastal resources.
Important Dates
Application Deadline
April 30, 2024
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant’s Artists, Writers and Scholars (AWS) program will support artists, writers, and scholars in the humanities to produce professional-quality art and literature that increases awareness of Georgia’s coastal, ocean and marine environments, improves understanding of Georgia’s coastal communities, or helps document history, culture, or heritage of Georgia’s coast. Creative projects that could be supported by this program include paintings, graphic art, sculpture, musical compositions, photography, poetry, science fiction, film, and digital media.
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant will award 3-5 grants that range from $1,000 to $5,000. These grants will be awarded directly to artists and writers.
Eligibility
Artists, writers or scholars who live in Georgia and whose work is related to Georgia’s coastal, ocean and marine environments will be eligible for funding consideration.
Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant encourages applications from individuals from historically marginalized groups, including Black or African-American, American Indian, Hispanic or Latino, female, first-generation college students, veterans, LGBTQ+ and individuals with disabilities.
Guidelines for Submitting Applications
Applications can be submitted directly to Mona Behl at mbehl@uga.edu. Please contact Mona for any questions as well.
Resources
2023-2024 AWS Projects
landscape:effect
Autumn Eckman
- As part of her project, Eckman will bring awareness to the environmental challenges along the Georgia coast through movement film and storytelling. She will create a dance piece that explores environmental awareness as an element of survival through themes related to the effects of human activities on the environment, including climate change, pollution and habitat destruction.
Thresholds: A Symphonic Exploration of Ecological Disturbance
Peter Van Zandt Lane
- Lane will compose a piece for a large ensemble that incorporates data sonification and live electronics, drawing on data from Georgia Coastal Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research site based at the UGA Marine Institute on Sapelo Island. The piece will incorporate composition and data sonification to explore concepts of ecological thresholds and resiliency in the face of environmental disturbances.
What We Have In Common
Jennifer Nolan
- Nolan will be creating five large paintings that highlight moments, situations and emotions that are common to humans but revealed in nature. Her pieces will showcase relationships in the natural world that depict human elements, enabling audiences to better empathize and understand the parallels between human and animal communities.
Bringing Awareness to Threats Facing the Georgia Coast Through Illustration
Josh Stutz
- Stutz’s project will involve illustrating endangered and threatened species in coastal Georgia to be featured in a book that describes the threats they face and explains how the health of the coast is connected to the health of the planet.
2022-2023 AWS Projects
Coastal Magic: Bridging Art and Science to Improve Coastal Georgia Resiliency
Casey Schachner
- Schachner is collaborating with students and faculty at Georgia Southern University to create ceramics using algal biomass produced from algal turf scrubbers, which are mats that remove nutrients from the water and improve water quality. The pieces will later be used in oyster reef restoration projects, but before deploying them, they will be showcased in a special exhibit the UGA Aquarium.
Bridging the Gap Between Art and Science
Dana Montlack
- Working closely with researchers at Georgia Tech who study microbial processes in the salt marsh, Montlack will explore the impacts of a changing climate on the Georgia coast through layered photographs of microorganisms, scientific data, maps and historical elements. The resulting photographs will be showcased at an exhibition in the summer of 2023.
Capturing seasonal and artistic changes in the marsh
Kip Bradley
- Bradley has selected six coastal locations that he will paint four times over the span of a year. He will share the process of painting each site on his blog, documenting the history and ecology at each site as well as observations of the people utilizing these publicly accessible locations.
2021-2022 AWS Projects
A Metal Artist’s View of the Marine Carbon Cycle
Barbara Mann
- Mann is creating five objects out of different types of metal that depict marine processes, like the carbon cycle, and the role of marine life within these processes. The objects include an oyster vessel, a jewelry pendant representing different types of phytoplankton, a large plankton wall installation , a marine carbon cycle necklace, and a vase representing the marine carbon cycle.
Vertical Horizons: Coastal Contracts
Alan Harvey
- Harvey is highlighting the contrast between natural habitats and human encroachment through panoramic photographs, offering a new perspective on the Georgia coast that inspires viewers to think more critically about coastal issues.
The African American Maritime Landscape of Coastal Georgia
Julie de Chantal and Kurt Knoerl
- The project team is working with students at Georgia Southern University to document sites related to Black maritime history on the Georgia Coast. They are building a database available to scholars for further research on African Americans in the region and creating an ArcGIS StoryMap to be used by tour guides or teachers as a study guide for customers or students.