Two Mainers have won the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Wednesday morning announced that Jeremy Frey, 46, of Eddington and Margaret Wickens Pearce, 60, of Rockland are among this year’s recipients of the fellowship.
Frey, a member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, is a visual artist who works within the tradition of Wabanaki basketmaking, which his mother, Frances Frey, taught him early on. He later went on to get an apprenticeship at the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance.
“Through experimentation with color, form, and materials, he forges a singular aesthetic that blurs the boundaries between craft, design, and contemporary art,” the foundation said in its profile of Frey.
His work has been exhibited at the Portland Museum of Art here in Maine; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Through her work and maps, Pearce explores Indigenous understandings of land and place.
“Pearce’s cartographic practice reflects Indigenous worldviews and modes of knowledge-making, in particular deep collaborations with others and inclusion of many voices. In making Indigenous historical, environmental, and political narratives visible in the North American landscape, Pearce supports Indigenous communities’ efforts to reassert sovereignty over traditional lands, resources, and practices,” the foundation said in its profile of her.
Pearce, a member of the Potawatomi tribe, graduated from Hampshire College in 1989 and went on to get her Ph.D. from Clark University in 1998. She has taught at Humboldt State University, Ohio University and University of Kansas.
Her work has been exhibited at the Leventhal Map and Education Center at Boston Public Library, The Field Museum in Chicago, and the Onsite Gallery at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto.
The MacArthur Fellowship is awarded annually to those who are exceptionally creative, show promise for future advances and have the potential to create new works thanks to the award. It goes to writers, artists, scientists, teachers, entrepreneurs and others who demonstrate the ability to impact society in “significant and beneficial ways.”
The $800,000 “no-strings-attached” award is paid out in quarterly installments over five years.
