Students, Staff Receive Artist Fellowship Awards

Sarah K. Moore and Ben Nickol, both graduate students at the University of Arkansas (above), received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Arkansas Arts Council. Matthew Goldberg, a staff member (below), also received an Individual Artist Fellowship.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Two graduate students and a staff member were recipients of Artist Fellowship Awards presented recently by the Arkansas Arts Council at its annual Governor’s Arts Awards ceremony on Tuesday, Oct. 6, at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

The Arkansas Arts Council recognized Ben Nickol and Sarah K. Moore, both graduate students at the University of Arkansas. Nickol and Moore received Individual Artist Fellowships from the Arts Council. Nickol received one for his work in short stories, and Moore received one for her work in film and video.  

This year, the Arkansas Arts Council awarded nine artist fellowships worth $4,000 each. The fellowship awards are unconditional awards that recognize individual artistic ability. The three categories were contemporary and traditional crafts, short stories, and film and video.

Nickol is a teaching assistant for undergraduate English classes at the University of Arkansas. This year, he was awarded the Baucum Fulkerson Award in Fiction by the University of Arkansas’ English department. A cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame, Nickol is currently working on his Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing at the University of Arkansas. Nickol said the goal of his fiction writing is to use humor in a way that adds emotional depth to the problems his characters face.

Moore is a video support specialist in the Multimedia Resource Center at the University of Arkansas. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from the University of Arkansas and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in journalism at the university. Moore worked for three years in San Francisco as a production coordinator and a production assistant. She said she is attracted to experimental styles that incorporate layered imagery and sounds and both traditional and non-traditional animation techniques.

The Arkansas Arts Council also recognized Mathew Goldberg, an academic counselor and mentor for a college preparatory program at the University of Arkansas, with a fellowship in the Short Stories category.

Goldberg earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical and biomedical engineering from Duke University and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Arkansas. He has held engineering positions in Arkansas, Virginia and Texas, and has taught at schools in Maryland, Indiana and Arkansas. In 2003, Goldberg was a finalist for the Iowa Review Award for his collection of short fiction. He received the John Clellon Holmes Memorial Award in Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas and the Truman Capote Literary Trust Scholarship. His work has been published in North American Review, American Short Fiction, Shenandoah, The Southeast Review and The Archive. Goldberg said his writing deals with disconnected characters struggling for connection in a cold world.

The Arkansas Arts Council was established in 1966 to enable the state of Arkansas to receive funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1971, Act 359 gave independent agency status to the Arts Council, with an executive director and a 17-member council appointed by the governor. In 1975, the Arts Council became an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

As an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Arts Council shares the goals of all its agencies, of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas.

The other agencies are the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the Old State House Museum. Funding for the Arkansas Arts Council and its programs is provided by the state of Arkansas and the National Endowment for the Arts.