Five Local Artists Receive Gloria Burt Sacramento Region Arts Fellowship

Fellowship honors the memory of a local force in the arts community

June 30, 2022

Five area artists have been awarded the Gloria Burt Sacramento Region Arts Fellowship, a joint project of the Sacramento Alliance for Regional Arts (SARA), Blue Line Arts, and the Foundation that honors Gloria Burt, whose advocacy for art invigorated the capital area’s creative community until her passing in 2017.

Selected from a competitive cohort of applicants, the five Fellows specialize in a range of disciplines — including performance art, visual arts, electronic media, and literature — and, over the course of the next year, each will produce work that bridges public institutions or commerce across the Sacramento region.

"The last few years have challenged local communities in so many different and sometimes divisive ways,” said Sheree Meyer, a member of both Blue Line Arts’ and SARA’s boards of directors who served on the Fellowship selection committee. “The arts can help heal, transform, and reconnect us. Through their art, each of these Fellows gives voice to their own stories and to the stories of others. Their works speak to the past, address concerns we face today, and provide hope for the future.”

As part of the Fellowship, each artist will receive a financial award to support the development and implementation of their artwork. The Fellows and the projects they'll pursue are:

• Teresa Forsyth, who will develop and perform “Ghosts of Placer County,” a play that employs collaboratively sourced ghost stories to examine local historical events and their present-day echoes, with Placer Repertory Theater.
• Ameera Evans Godwin, who will partner with American River Conservancy and Arts & Culture El Dorado to explore the phenomenon of wildfire through visual art and recorded interviews, culminating in a live performance, a six-week exhibition, and an online gallery.
• Jaya King, who will collaborate with youth artists from Wellspring Women’s Center to create a large community mural in Sacramento’s Oak Park neighborhood.
• Melissa Muganzo Murphy, who will finalize and premiere “The Big Hysto: A Black Womb Revolution,” a documentary utilizing visual and performing arts to explore the history of obstetrics and gynecology research and practice in relation to Black and LGBTQ+ communities, contextualizing the current impact that medical racism, sexism, and genderism has on health access and outcomes.
• Omari Tau, who will work with students from Los Rios Community Colleges and other collaborators to film “A Day Light Speed,” a micro-opera for soprano and string quartet that explores the relentless demands of families, jobs, and personal needs.

“This Fellowship honors each artist’s creative accomplishments and their shared commitments to uplifting their communities,” said Linda Beech Cutler, the Foundation’s chief executive. “Simply put: There's no better way to celebrate Gloria Burt than to support artists like this year’s Fellows and invest in work like theirs—art that is innovative, inclusive, and inspirational—to help our region recover from the upheaval of the past two years.”

Cutler noted that the Fellowship aligns with the Foundation’s sustained support of the capital area’s creative community. It augments the Foundation’s ongoing investments in the regional arts sector, including the funding it directs through its initiative to Transform the Creative Economy. 

Learn more about our arts initiative

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About the Foundation: Sacramento Region Community Foundation has been the trusted steward of charitable assets, a community catalyst for meaningful change and the advocate for shaping vital impact through philanthropy since 1983. As the center of philanthropy in the Sacramento Region, the Foundation's mission is to transform our community through focused leadership and advocacy that inspire partnerships and expand giving. Learn more at www.sacregcf.org.

About Blue Line Arts: Blue Line Arts is a nonprofit arts center and gallery in the heart of downtown Roseville. The gallery showcases the works of regional and national artists, while engaging our community through arts programming and events, such as artist lectures, workshops and classes for all ages, public art projects, and more. To support a full creative life for all, Blue Line Arts commits to championing policies and practices of cultural equity that empower a just, inclusive, and equitable nation.

About Sacramento Alliance for Regional Arts: The Sacramento Alliance for Regional Arts (SARA) promotes arts education, cultural equity and the creative sector, building recognition and support for artists and arts organizations in the Greater Sacramento Region. SARA achieves this mission by advocating for a more equitable, vibrant, and creative community for all.