Alumnus wins Kresge Artist Fellowship

Grand Valley alumnus Hubert Massey (’83) is among the 12 awardees to receive a 2011 Kresge Artist Fellowship. The fellowship provides a $25,000 award, public recognition and professional practice opportunities to literary, performing and visual artists in metropolitan Detroit.

Massey works in a variety of media to create large public art installations. He is noted for collaborating with communities to create art that tells their stories. His installations can be seen in Detroit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit Athletic Club, Campus Martius and outside the IRS building. His first fresco commission, “Exporting and Importing of Knowledge,” was installed at Grand Valley’s Pew Grand Rapids Campus in 2000.

Kresge Artist Fellowships provide artists with the time and resources to explore and develop their work over the yearlong fellowship period. The fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis and the awardees were chosen out of hundreds of applications by a panel of distinguished local and national artists and arts professionals. 

The fellowships are funded by the Kresge Foundation and administered by the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Now in its third year, Kresge Arts in Detroit has given more than $1.3 million to local artists, which has, in turn, helped to sustain a healthy cultural life in Detroit.

Learn more about Hubert Massey in Grand Valley Magazine or visit his website, www.hubertmasseymurals.com.