Oregon Community Foundation, in partnership with Oregon Humanities, has named four Oregonians to the Fields Artist Fellowship, which awards $150,000 over two years to Oregon-based artists working to address community issues through creativity and cultural expression.
Amber Kay Ball (Portland) is a Citizen of Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Born in Portland, she is a director, playwright, visual artist and community-based advocate. As a contemporary Native multi-practice artist, Amber uses theater, multimedia and beadwork as mediums for sharing stories, truths, laughter and joy. These mediums allow Amber to critically explore, honor, and weave Native pasts, presents, and futures in a just and liberated methodology. She is a cofounder of Native Playwrights PDX and works to support multigenerational Native theater makers in the process of new play creation and direction. Ball plans to use her new Fields Fellowship to tour her play Finding BigFoot in new locations across Oregon. The grant would allow her to hire a producer, create paid acting opportunities for Native actors, and offer community workshops on playwriting. Ball also hopes the Fellowship creates an opportunity to slow down so that she can invest more time in writing new works and developing her creative practice.
Yanely Rivas Maldonado (Salem) is a working-class printmaker, cultural worker and educator with ancestral roots in the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico—lands traditionally steward by the P'urépecha. Her art practice has been sowed in community and has flourished in the versatile soil of social justice movements and solidarity efforts she’s been a part of over the last decade. Their art is an offering and prayer for a world where we are all beautifully free and interconnected—living in good relationship with the lands, waters and beings that so graciously nourish our hearts. They create artwork to weave us across the continuum of past-present-future and to leave seeds of ancestral memory, resistance, joy and hope along the path back to center—back to home. Yanely’s primary creative mediums are printmaking, digital illustration and social practice art. Over the last couple of years, she’s been deepening her art practice in traditional cultural arts including basket weaving, natural dyes, beadwork and gourd art. Yanely plans to use the Fellowship as an opportunity to invest time in foundational arts training and creating a sustainable studio space for printmaking, natural dyeing and traditional crafts. The grant will support her vision to organize a community Steamroller Printmaking event and a residency in Oaxaca, Mexico, while strengthening ties with cultural bearers in the U.S. and Mexico.
Talilo Marfil (Portland) is a West Bisayan immigrant, Filipino-American hip hop artist and community leader dedicated to advancing youth voice, cultural preservation and equitable access to creative resources. For over a decade, he has developed and led arts-based programs for marginalized youth, including co-founding Ascending Flow in East Portland and helping create Keys, Beats, Bars at MacLaren Youth Correctional Facility in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority. He is the founder of Peer Tribe Foundation, an organization that creates funding opportunities for artists and leaders making measurable impact in their communities. Talilo’s work bridges artistry and service, centering storytelling as a tool for healing and change. Talilo plans to grow his music career by expanding his fan base and creating high-quality projects. The grant will support travel to the Philippines to deepen his role as a cultural bearer, learning and reviving pre-colonial traditions with indigenous tribes. It will also help him develop the Peer Tribe Foundation, continue hip-hop workshops for youth in correctional facilities, and launch a portable recording studio project in Oregon.
Ernesto Javier Martínez (Eugene) is a queer Chicano/Puerto Rican writer, educator and filmmaker. He was born in Oakland, California, raised bi-nationally between Mexico and the United States, and currently lives in Eugene. He studied literature at Stanford and Cornell, becoming a university professor at the age of 28. Ernesto pivoted toward artistic work when he collaborated with illustrator Maya Gonzalez, authoring When We Love Someone, We Sing to Them, the first bilingual children’s book published in North America about a boy who loves a boy. This book earned two International Latino Book Awards and was selected for the American Library Association's “Rainbow Book List." He began working as a screenwriter and filmmaker when he collaborated with director Adelina Anthony, writing and producing his first short film, La Serenata, winner of 11 best film awards and distributed by HBO Max. He went on to apprentice in children's educational television, eventually writing for shows like Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Sesame Street and Lyla in the Loop. He is best known for co-writing, with Jill Cozza-Turner, the animated kids’ movie Daniel Visits a New Neighborhood: The Movie (PBS Kids), which introduces a new Latinx family to the Emmy award-winning Daniel Tiger franchise. Ernesto’s work has earned him the Lambda Literary Award, Imagen Award, Spark Award for Oregon Artists, HBO Latinx Short Film Competition Award, and fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and NALIP. This support comes at a pivotal moment as Ernesto transitions from recent success with his live action feature La Serenata to bold new projects that challenge stereotypes and inspire hope. Ernesto plans to produce an animated TV pilot, The Boy Who Became a River, a fantasy adventure that honors migrant struggles and uplifts queer Latinx youth. The grant will help him create sustainable ways to develop content in Oregon, reducing the need for costly travel while building a local creative community.
In addition to the four fellows, eight finalists will also receive a one-time award of $10,000, along with professional development, networking, and community-building opportunities throughout the fellowship.
- Jefferson Greene (Warm Springs)
- Fish Martinez (Siletz)
- Chisao Hata (Portland)
- Oluyinka Akinjiola (Portland)
- Anthony Hudson (Portland)
- Concepcion Samano (Falls City)
- Micah BlackLight Lael (Ashland)
- Jose Antonio Huerta (Springfield)
Oregon Community Foundation, in partnership with Oregon Humanities, administers the program and convene gatherings for the fellows. Funding is provided by the Fred W. Fields Fund of Oregon Community Foundation.
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