Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists
Application has closed
DEADLINE: APRIL 5, 2021 @11:59 PM (EST)
The Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists is a $7,000 cash prize designed to make a meaningful impact on the career of a visual artist residing in the Louisville Metro Area by providing support in the form of grants for the execution and exhibition of artwork and other efforts to foster a professional career as a visual artist. Recipients of the Fischer Award must show a commitment to experimentation and the creative use of materials and techniques, and a commitment to pursuing a career as a professional working visual artist.
Eligibility:
Recipients of the Fischer Award must show a commitment to experimentation and the creative use of materials and techniques, and a commitment to pursuing a career as a professional working visual artist. Applicants must be residents living in the Louisville Metro Area for a minimum of six months prior to the application deadline. The Metro Area is defined as Jefferson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Bullitt, Nelson, Meade, Trimble and Henry Counties in Kentucky; and Clark, Harrison, Floyd and Washington Counties in Indiana. Applicants must be a minimum of 25 years old and have completed any formal art training a minimum of three years prior to the application deadline. This is a one-time prize; winners of the Fischer Award are not eligible to apply for future Fischer Awards. The prize may be considered taxable income, so applicants should consult a tax professional. There is no submission fee to the Fischer Award for Visual Artists.
Artists working in the following media are eligible to apply: ceramics, drawing, painting, sculpture, mixed media, printmaking, graphic design, glass. Artists working in architecture, photography, video, time-based media, limited duration installation and the performing arts are not eligible for this award. Both emerging and established artists are encouraged to apply.
The Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists is funded by the Artist Bill Fischer Foundation for Working Artists at the Community Foundation of Louisville. Louisville Visual Art serves as the administrative partner to the project and competition process. For more information, please contact amy@louisvillevisualart.org
Have questions? Visit the Fischer FAQ page here
Bill Fischer has had a lifelong love for art. Mr. Fischer trained with the world-renowned artist David Alfaro Siquieros of Mexico and has had countless exhibits in Louisville at the Jewish Community Center, Arts Club of Louisville, Louisville Visual Art and more. Mr. Fischer has dedicated his life to art and established this fund to invest in artists working in Kentucky.
The Community Foundation of Louisville is the largest charitable foundation in Kentucky with over $485 million in assets and more than 1,450 different funds, each with a charitable purpose defined by the donor. In calendar year 2016, the Community Foundation made 9,000 grants totaling $52 million to local, national and national nonprofits. As a leader in philanthropy, we connect donors, nonprofits and civic partners to create lasting impact in community. We have the expertise to help you do more than you ever thought possible with your charitable giving. Join us in being a force for good in our community. For more information, visit www.cflouisville.org and follow us on Twitter at @cflouisville.
The Community Foundation of Louisville, with partner Louisville Visual Art, is pleased to present the 2020 Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists to Lori Larusso.
Louisville-based artist Lori Larusso’s tireless studio practice produces vibrant images of familiar subjects, rendered with razor sharp clarity and wit. For 20 years without a pause, solo and group exhibitions of Lori’s work have graced local, national and international venues, including the inaugural KMAC Triennial in 2019. Her consistently experimental and evolving work has earned her numerous awards and residency fellowships.
A committed instructor of visual art, Lori has taught at colleges and universities since 2003, with recent stints at the Kentucky College of Art + Design, Spalding University and the University of Kentucky. She is also an active member of Louisville Visual Art’s network of local artists, regularly participating in events such as art[squared] and Open Studio Weekend.
Lori says, “The Fischer Award will allow for vital experimentation, as well as refinement of technical and conceptual aspects of my work. The timing is perfect for this award to supplement several residency fellowships I’ve been awarded for late 2020 through 2021, at which I’ll focus on my practice and discuss ideas, processes and materials with selected artists from all over the world. I’ll benefit from their critique, and connections to a broader professional network will expand my opportunities to produce and exhibit new work.”
Lori Larusso not only exemplifies the kind of practitioner Bill Fischer intended to support, her work as a teacher cultivates generations of artists studying in Louisville who may in turn win their own Fischer Awards.
The Community Foundation of Louisville and Louisville Visual Art congratulate Lori on her success and on her selection as this year’s Fischer Award Winner! We look forward to seeing the impact of the prize on her evolution as an artist.
The Community Foundation of Louisville, with partner Louisville Visual Art, is pleased to present the 2019 Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists to William Duffy.
Duffy has been part of the fabric of Louisville’s art scene for nearly four decades, working both as a sculptor as well as a teacher, including serving as an instructor for Louisville Visual Art’s Children’s Fine Art Classes and in the Jefferson County Public Schools.
“One of the things that my folks told me growing up was, ‘Someone helped you. Don’t you forget. You reach back and you help someone else,’” Duffy said while accepting the award. “And so, I’ve been doing that now for about 40 years or so, of reaching back into schools and the community centers and what have you. There’s more of a reward doing that than it is sometimes doing my own work. But I’m getting older now and I want to get out some of the things that’s been stirring in me for a long time.”
He'll now have that chance. The Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists comes with a $5,000 grant, which Duffy intends to use to realize a life-long dream.
“I work small because my studio is rather small, but I always had a dream of enlarging some of these works and seeing them out in public,” Duffy said. “It’s been my dream for a long time to have one, or two pieces even, in my city. The city that I grew up in.”
