The Tierney Fellowship workshops took place at the Michaelis School of Fine Art earlier this year. Pictured above from left to right are: Graeme Williams (Market Photo Workshop); Jo Ractliffe, Julia Rose Clarke (artist) and Anna Steilau (UCT).

The ninth annual Tierney Fellowship Programme took place from 3-5 February 2016. The South African leg of the international event is hosted in partnership with WITS School of Arts, The University of Cape Town’s Michaelis School of Fine Art and the Market Photo Workshop. Each year, the country’s most promising photographic artists are awarded the prestigious one-year fellowship. The 2016 recipients are Sitaara Stodel (Michaelis School of Fine Art), Tsepo Gumbi (MPW) and Nocebo Bucibo (WITS). 

Established in 2003 by the Tierney Family Foundation, the Tierney Fellowship aims to discover and support the best, young emerging artists in the field of photography. Fellows receive a cash grant as well as ongoing guidance from a mentor so that they can develop a complete body of work towards a professional exhibition. An important goal of the Foundation is to help new artists navigate the challenges they encounter typically at the beginning of their professional careers.  So in addition to the financial reward, recipients become part of a global community of artists who support, advise and network with each other.

Previous Michaelis recipients of the Fellowship include: Robert Watermeyer (2008); Vincent Bezuidenhout (2010); Aubrey Tseleng (2011); Nobukho Nqaba (2012) and Ashley Walters (2013) and Thandiwe Msebenzi (2015). Josephy says that Tierney fellows were initially selected from only the most prestigious American East Coast art schools, such as: Bard College; Yale University School of Arts; the International Centre of Photography, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Parsons the New School for Design and School of Visual Arts.  “The initiative was subsequently extended to include prominent art schools and universities in South Africa, Mexico, China and India. It is particularly noteworthy that after ten years of global Tierney Fellowships, from 2014 only the South African fellowships have continued to be funded by the Tierney Family Foundation,” says Josephy.

Mentorship is an important part of the Tierney programme. Fellows are mentored internally (from within the host institution) and by renowned experts in the field. Market Photo Workshop have also appointed Pieter Hugo, Mikhael Subotzky and Nontobeko Ntombela to be mentors. Sitaara Stodel is mentored by UCT senior lecturers, Jean Brundrit and Svea Josephy. She says the fellowship has opened up many opportunities that she would have otherwise struggled to access on her own. "I was awarded the Tierney Fellowship not long after graduating from Michaelis. While juggling multiple jobs I struggled to find the time and funds to carry on creating art. This fellowship has given me the amazing opportunity to create a body of work that has been critiqued not only by my mentors Svea Josephy and Jean Brundrit, but a variety of people including artists, professors, an anthropologist, a photojournalist, among others. At the end of the fellowship, the work that I make belongs to me, which means that I get to exhibit it and enter it into competitions which could act as a springboard for my art career" says Stodel.

Fellows remain connected to the programme even after the structured mentorship relationship ends.  Seminars and critiques enable ongoing interaction between current and past recipients and, at the end of the term, the individual’s work is sent to New York where it has previously been exhibited as part of New York Photo Week or Photoville and also on Rencontes de Bamko, in Mali. “In South Africa, we host a group show for the local fellows who are also required to put together a catalogue, which documents their work and the fellowship journey,” says Josephy.