Jo Ann Williams Artist Fellowship

When you live life in a way where you've changed the world for the better, you've accomplished a major key to living the best life that you can. 

Jo Ann Williams did just that as an educator in North Carolina for 30 years. She touched the lives and changed the world for so many strangers and friends alike. Williams focused on underserved youth and their families, and she stood strong in her belief that every child, regardless of their background or abilities, deserved the opportunity to learn.

With great pride we celebrate her life's efforts and we honor her memory by announcing the Jo Ann Williams Artist Fellowship.

The fellowship encompasses her passion for education and equity and is built on those tenets. Curator and Black On Black Project founder Mike Williams created the fellowship to share his mother's ideals with the world.

The Jo Ann Williams Artist Fellowship provides studio space and other resources to emerging artists. Recipients will work closely with the Black On Black Project to create a solo show of the body of work created during the fellowship. 

We also announce that award-winning artist Dare Coulter was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Jo Ann Williams Artist Fellowship. Coulter is primarily a figurative sculptor and painter, and had both sculpture and painted works in the first "Black On Black" exhibition. Coulter has been working in the studio space provided through the fellowship since August and will present her solo exhibition "Right Before We Fly" March 1 to 29 at Anchorlight in Raleigh.

The opening reception for "Right Before We Fly" will be March 3. Details to come.