Individual Artist Award

The Masks We Wear / The Masks We Inherit is a multidisciplinary exhibition by Alexander Alvarez exploring identity as both a personal construction and a cultural inheritance. Through Sculpture, Ceramics, Mixed Media, and Immersive installation, the project examines how memory, mythology, and lived experience shape the ways we present ourselves, inviting viewers to reflect on what we reveal, what we hide, and how we connect across differences.

Heart Sessions is an inter-generational space where black women are called to gather to discuss matters of the heart. The event is anchored by heart-centered meditations, intentional dialogue, creative art making and nourishment. We are guided by the question, 'Black Woman, How's Your Heart?'

Songs from the Interior is a new body of original music by Beth McKee, inspired by the diverse cultural influences of Central Florida and blending soul, country, blues, rock, and Afro-Caribbean traditions. The project will be developed through live performances with local collaborators and shared with Central Florida audiences, culminating in a recorded collection of songs.

In January of 2027, Orlando playwright Bethany Dickens Assaf will present four staged readings of her newest plays: Rooftop, Mother’s Little Helper, Mechinae, and East Florida Zombies. Each of these new works represent her unique perspectives on fandom and gender, blending her feminist perspective with intimate storytelling. A time of conversation will follow each reading, generating feedback to propel the plays toward production-ready drafts.

This project will bring immersive poetry groups to three Orlando nonprofits serving marginalized communities. Blending spoken word poetry with evidence-based clinical practices, this program empowers participants to use poetry as a lifelong practice for creative expression and emotional resilience.

"Frontlines to Fiction" is a 3-part interactive reading and storytelling workshop series hosted in Orange County, designed to bridge the military-civilian divide. Led by retired U.S. Command Sergeant Major and local author Charles, the events will combine readings from his published military fiction with specialized creative writing seminars. This initiative empowers Central Florida vets and Families with the literary tools to translate their own lived experiences into compelling narratives.

Fenomenca is a compelling flamenco dance theater production set in a striking circus-inspired world, telling the story of Pastora’s journey from oppression to empowerment through art. Blending traditional flamenco with contemporary theatrical storytelling, the work creates a visually rich and emotionally resonant experience. Directed by Central Florida artist Daniela Perez and primarily performed by emerging artists, Fenomenca expands access to flamenco while engaging diverse communities.

This project will expand access to community-based watercolor classes focused on intuitive, expressive painting. Through welcoming, low-pressure workshops, participants will explore creativity, reduce stress, and build meaningful connections through art.

This one-week arts-in-education residency immerses K–12 students in African musical theatre through hands-on experiences in music, dance, and storytelling. Students participate in an audition process for featured roles and collaboratively create an original performance rooted in African cultural traditions and contemporary expression, culminating in a vibrant showcase for the school and broader community.

Nostálgica: Symphonic Legacy Re-Release is my relaunch of selected original songs from my first album, a foundational work in my artistic journey that was never fully made available on digital streaming platforms. The project includes a symphonic reimagining of “Nostálgica,” a new remix of “Cayman Nights,” and the digital reintroduction of additional songs from this early body of work, reconnecting it with new audiences in Central Florida and beyond.

This interdisciplinary theater project uses performance, puppetry, and audience interaction to explore the historical control, silencing, and reclaiming of the female body. Through humor and critical storytelling, it addresses gender inequality, sexual education, and cultural narratives, creating an engaging experience that fosters dialogue, empowerment, and social awareness within diverse communities.

I will host a specialized workshop led by master instructor Maestra Angie Glez where Students of all ages will learn and refine traditional dance techniques from the Tixtla region of Guerrero, Mexico, while gaining insight into the cultural context expressed through movement and costume. Participants will strengthen their connection to their heritage and share their learning through performances at community events across Central Florida.

Support for finalization/polishing and submission to agents/presses of my debut novel, The Lesser Birds of Paradise. The novel is an absurdist, tragicomic journey through various Bohemias of the last century, seen through the eyes of a musician, a writer, and a teenage filmmaker.

Cosmos is an introspective journey through the vast realm of the inner universe. Cosmos echoes through themes of freedom, legacy, solitude in the digital era, love, & connection with our ancestors & ourselves. Cosmos speaks with mind-bending simplicity but preserving its poetic voice. Sonically, this work layers reverberant harmonies, modern rock beats with an ancestral twist, & a lead vocal full of sincerity from performance to final tracks.

This project will bring a fully-paid Illustrator Visit to two Title 1 Elementary Schools. The presentation will deepen children’s appreciation for books by illuminating the process behind illustrating a book and detailing how illustrations made Illustrator Jenin Mohammed go from a reluctant reader to an avid reader to a professional artist. The project aims to promote Ms. Mohammed’s books, which encompass black joy and diversity, and connect student families to a local independent bookstore.

I will expand my Orlando Contra Dance series, growing our core of highly-skilled social dancers and increasing the community to the point of financial viability. I will refine my curriculum for teaching intermediate to advanced contra dancing (perhaps the first, anywhere). Dancers participate in America's folk traditions, do aerobic exercise, hear traditional live music (Appalachian old-time, Irish, Scottish), and meet diverse people. Grant funds will pay Florida-based musicians and callers.

Collective Love is a participatory, conceptual art project where Central Florida community members come together at the Orlando Museum of Art to turn individual expressions of love into a shared work of art.

The Emotional Support Friends is a mixed media project using marker drawings, soft sculpture, and community murals to raise mental health and neurodivergent awareness in Central Florida. The project involves engagement opportunities and partnerships intersecting mental health education and visual arts. Rooted in community, it aims to empower youth, adults, and elders to dismantle mental health stigma and foster open conversation around shared experiences of pain and healing through the arts.

Papier-mâché Seashell highlights the work of Lindsay Deifik, a Central Florida artist and UCF Professor, in dialogue with Emmy Thelander. The exhibition at the Casselberry Arts Center in December 2026 explores survival strategies across biological and psychological systems. Pairing Deifik’s “Fantasy Arsenal” with Thelander’s chart-based works, the exhibition examines how individuals navigate uncertainty. Interactive elements invite visitors to map priorities and design adaptive responses.

Stories in Thread: Airing of the Quilts invites the community to celebrate the seasonal tradition of airing quilts—a practice that honors their beauty, history, and craftsmanship. Showcasing the stories, memories, and cultural heritage woven into each piece, bringing families and neighbors together. Through this shared experience, quilts become more than works of art—they become meaningful connections within the community.

Unfolding Planes: A Synthesis of Glass, Mosaic, and Oil is an expansion of my artistic practice, transitioning my background in oil painting into a large-scale, multimedia folding screen or room divider composed of elements in stained glass, mosaic, and paint. By synthesizing traditional craft and contemporary painting, this project explores the tensions between domestic privacy and public visibility while establishing a technical foundation for future large-scale public art commissions.

Support from United Arts will enable me to travel throughout Lake County’s extensive waterways to create a new series of gouache studies and large oil paintings. Focusing on the quiet hours of dawn and twilight, these works will highlight the restorative beauty of this region, home to more than 1,000 lakes including the expansive Harris Chain. This unique landscape offers a rich and inspiring foundation for meaningful artistic exploration.

Over the last five years, Chill Artistry’s Hand Bound Books have become a favorite throughout Central Florida as an accessible, artist-made alternative to mass-produced books, journals, and sketchbooks. This funding will support the production of a collection of books for the upcoming holiday market season. It will allow for expanded paper options, new binding styles, and additional product offerings, all bound by hand with found objects or original art for the covers.

Coverband is an art project, project space, and zine. Over an eight month period starting in September of 2026, the Coverband space will host six one-night exhibitions that prioritize experimental and project-specific work made by regional artists. To celebrate the finish of the season in May of 2027, we will also be creating and distributing a collaborative zine built around the theme of reimagining new modes of cultural production within existing frameworks.

Objects in Hand will bring museum-grade historical artifacts — WWII cipher machines, Cold War spy cameras, meteorites, and 17th-century paintings — directly into Central Florida high school classrooms. Students will examine and handle real objects alongside interactive 3D scans, connecting material history to STEM, world history, and art curricula. The program will be free to schools and designed to reach students who may never visit a specialized museum.

“Unapologetically Me: A Poetry Experience” is a workshop series led by artist and educator Shayna “Simba X” Castano that empowers participants to explore self-love, identity, and healing through creative expression. Participants engage in guided writing, performance, and reflection to build confidence and amplify their voices, culminating in a community showcase and a published chapbook of their work.

In Zoetrope – Recursive Self‑Improvement Loop, a team retro‑futuristic robots endlessly constructs a new robot on a factory floor, each frame capturing a moment in their mechanical choreography. When the zoetrope spins, the scene becomes a hypnotic loop of creation and self‑replication. The work explores the dual nature of technology—its promise, its imperfections, and the human fingerprints embedded in every system we design.

A mix of photography and technology over the course of one year. Stay tuned to find out what will be shown at a free solo exhibition at Orlando City Hall in April 2027.

Form, Function, Folks is a mixed media painting series in which I honor Black architects and African diasporic architectural traditions, exploring what it means to inhabit spaces built by Black hands. I'll be partnering with Black-owned firms including Adjaye Associates and Moody Nolan to bridge material craft, spatial history, and identity through works in raffia, adobe, and acrylic, culminating in a Central Florida exhibition and free public programming.