Dickinson Awarded NYS Council on the Arts/Wyoming County Arts Council $10,000 Fellowship

One of the paintings from Dickinson's new Fellowship project

Central New York (CNY) Branch Pen Woman Rachel Dickinson was awarded a prestigious $10,000 fellowship from the New York State Council on the Arts and the Wyoming County Arts Council. The fellowship was designed for rural and traditional artists with the intention of creating collaborative projects within their communities.

The ten fellows were awarded to represent their communities across the State in 2024, with a focus on place-based approaches. The goal of the statewide project is to build lasting connections between rural people and places and to acknowledge and support artists living in these rural areas of the State of New York. This project is also meant to celebrate the creativity and innovative nature of the artists.

Rachel's project proposal combines painting and writing. "I will be painting ten portraits of houses in the Village of Freeville (population 503) and then writing a story to accompany each painting about who might have occupied the house when it was first built. Copies of the paintings and the stories will be collected into a manuscript that will be shared with the residents of the village.

Dickinson is the author of seven nonfiction books and numerous articles and publications, including The Atlantic, Smithsonian, Audubon, The Saturday Evening Post, and Outside Online. She has been painting for about four years and writing for her entire adult life.