Artist Grant Initiative
In alignment with Haystack’s mission to connect people through craft, the Artist Grant Initiative (AGI) is a 3-year program intended to provide financial support and mentorship for three annual cohorts of emerging and early-career artists. Each cohort collaborates on a capstone project that documents and celebrates the evolution of their practice throughout the course of the program. The capstone is featured on Hyperallergic—an online art publication—and on Haystack’s website and YouTube channel.
Selected artists are awarded $10,000 each in unrestricted grants and participate in both group and individual online mentorship sessions with mentor artists selected by Haystack. The mentors lead sessions dedicated to portfolio reviews, group work critiques, and topics such as branding, professional practice, and network development.
The Artist Grant Initiative is made possible by support from the Windgate Foundation.
2026 COHORT
The 2026 awardees are Annika Earley, Jaden Estes Carlson, Will Grimm, Alejandra Salinas Pérez, Angelique Scott, Liza Stout, Alvaro Villa, and Haniel Wides. A special thank you to the 2026 jurors, Bryana Bibbs and Michael Velliquette, as well as the mentors, Malene Barnett and Susie Ganch. Learn more about all the artists, jurors, and mentors below!
Photo by Kerry Constantino
Annika Earley
ABOUT
Annika Earley (she/they) makes intimate works on and out of paper about the strange and mundane rituals of her alter-ego/fairy godmother/personal demon named Batshit. Her work considers the demands and joys of parenthood, sensuality and sexuality, and humor. Earley has been a resident at the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Monson Arts, and Surf Point Foundation, and has received support from the St. Botolph Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Kittredge Fund, among others. Earley’s work has been shown most recently at Palladium/Athena Project and Working Loose.
annikaearley.com | @annikaearley
PROJECT SUMMARY
“During the next six months, I would like to complete at least five new pieces and line up at least one exhibition outside of Maine. There are some material experiments I am thinking about, but they are still nebulous.”
Jaden Estes Carlson
ABOUT
Jaden Estes Carlson (she/her) is a ceramic artist based in Kearney, Nebraska whose work explores the interplay between personal identity and societal expectations. Utilizing hand-building techniques, she crafts forms that draw inspiration from textile traditions and architectural motifs. She often approaches the vessel as a metaphor for the human experience, using pattern, surface, and form to examine ideas of vulnerability and resilience. Her surfaces feature bold, loose geometric patterns accented by rich color and earthy terra sigillata.
jadenestescarlson.com | @jadenestescarlson
PROJECT SUMMARY
“I am looking forward to establishing a studio space and getting an amazing kick-start on my career as a working artist! I am excited to be part of this cohort and am eager to absorb all the knowledge, advice, and wisdom from the awesome mentors!”
Will Grimm
ABOUT
Will Grimm (he/him) received a BFA in Fiber from Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Fibers & Material Studies from Tyler School of Art. His intricately dyed and quilted textile-collages have been exhibited nationally, including at Visions Quilt Museum and Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts, and featured in publications such as Fiber Art Now and Curated Quilts. Grimm previously worked at Praxis Fiber Workshop in Cleveland, Ohio, and is passionate about preserving and celebrating textile traditions through contemporary craft.
PROJECT SUMMARY
“My main goal for this mentorship is to continue researching and developing an almanac of fiber-specific studios, nonprofits, residencies, museums, workshops, and schools that will eventually be published as a public resource and distributed broadly. I am also looking forward to getting to know my cohort mates and mentors!”
Alejandra Salinas Pérez
ABOUT
Alejandra Salinas Pérez (she/her) is a metalsmith and contemporary jeweler born in the United States and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. Her practice investigates identity, memory, and belonging through jewelry and objects informed by resilience, care, and cultural inheritance. Influenced by her experiences as a mother and community arts educator, she creates work rooted in connection and storytelling. Her work has been exhibited in Under Fire 3, The Earring Show, Wear/Ware, Alchemy 5, Metal Complexions, and La Frontera.
alejandrasalinasperez.com | @alejandrasalinasperez
PROJECT SUMMARY
“During the mentorship, I aim to develop a new body of contemporary jewelry and metalsmithing work exploring motherhood, cultural memory, and identity across generations. I hope to strengthen my technical and conceptual practice and gain mentorship and field connections.”
Angelique Scott
ABOUT
Angelique Scott (she/her) is a Caribbean-American artist and educator whose practice explores Afro-diasporic material culture, ancestral memory, and Black spiritual life through ceramics, glass, and textiles. Rooted in familial traditions of care and craftsmanship, her sculptural vessels and forms serve as sites of ritual, remembrance, and storytelling. Scott holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA in Ceramics from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture. Her national and international residencies include Penland, Haystack, Vermont Studio Center, Arrowmont, Hambidge, Ibura Arts, and the Skopelos Foundation. She facilitates ceramics and indigo workshops, centering accessibility, education, cultural preservation, wellness, and collective making.
angeliquescott.com | @Ceramics.ByAngelique
PROJECT SUMMARY
“I aim to strengthen my creative development by expanding my installation practice, building a sustainable studio business, growing a collector base, and navigating institutional acquisitions. I also want to deepen my research and writing practice, learning how to thoughtfully translate cultural histories into ambitious new sculptural work.”
Liza Stout
ABOUT
Liza Stout (she/her)’s artwork explores the connection between the body and caregiving tools, highlighting the unseen repetition of labor. Raised in a resort town in Colorado, sustained by hospitality and service, she grew up working in restaurants. Tending to guests trained her in a particular, detailed attention: the folding of a napkin or mopping a floor. In her artwork, she brings that same mindfulness to repetitive tasks such as sanding wood back and forth. Through material tasks, the making of objects feeds directly into her work with the body and performance.
PROJECT SUMMARY
“I am preparing for a solo exhibition in March 2027. I have spent a lot of the 2026 summer making new work, including a wooden laundry basket inspired by a Shaker furniture design that allowed sisters to carry loads of laundry together. I am bending wood that folds and curves around the necks and shoulders of whoever is carrying it, entangling the basket with the body to show the connection between labor and care. This fall, I will work through a photo performance of this new work as well as a couple more sculptures.”
Alvaro Villa
ABOUT
Alvaro Villa (he/him) is a first-generation Mexican American from Oak Cliff, Dallas, Texas. A ceramic and mixed-media sculptor, his profound connection to the moon, his Mexican ancestry, and traditions of witches and healers shape his spirituality and artistic practice. He received an MFA in Ceramics from Alfred University and now lives in Westchester County, New York, with his magical cat, Lluna, while serving as an Artist in Residence at Clay Art Center.
PROJECT SUMMARY
“I hope to create a travel plan and schedule for my father and me to visit his home village in Michoacan, Mexico for the first time to have a deeper understanding of my ancestral lands, visit local artisans, and gather local clay for my sculptural ceramic and glass project.”
Haniel Wides
ABOUT
Haniel Wides (they/them) is a Boston-based artist, woodworker, and jester-of-all-trades, who makes furniture that functions as both relics and activatable sites of queer sexual expression. Much of Wides’ life has revolved around ensuring and promoting access to trade skills and tools for systematically marginalized groups, leading workshops in wood and metalworking for incarcerated and queer youth, women and gender non-conforming (GNC) people, the elderly, and disabled adults. They operate their art studio and business out of Charlestown Furniture Makers, a shared woodshop in Boston, Massachusetts.
manibus.studio | @totally.literally | @manibus.studio
PROJECT SUMMARY
“I want to make at least two new works if possible, and make plans for another show similar to one I produced in March 2026 called Designed for Deviance.”
