Miami’s Visual Arts Awards

The Ellies

The Ellies celebrate the individual artists who are the backbone of Miami’s visual arts community.

Artists have helped Miami become one of the most culturally vibrant cities in the United States. For longtime residents and first-time visitors alike, the visual arts are a central part of the Miami experience. We hope this grant program, which is offering up to $500,000 this year, will be a game changer both for our visual artists and our city, by providing working artists with the resources they need to do their best work.

Ellie Schneiderman

We’re delighted to name these awards in honor of our founder, Ellie Schneiderman, a visionary who recognized the power of supporting artists in their work. As Ellie often said, Oolite Arts is here to help artists help themselves.

Awards

The Ellies

The Ellies are offered in four categories to support Miami-Dade working and emerging artists, art educators, and established, professionally accomplished artists.

The Ellies Creator Awards

The Creator Awards support individual artists with grants of $2,500 to $25,000 to realize a significant visual arts project that will advance their careers. These projects should be bold ideas that speak to our community and our times. These awards are open to all Miami-Dade artists. A panel of arts leaders will select recipients from the applicant pool.

The Ellies Teacher Travel Grants

Teacher Travel Grants will provide K-12 art teachers with $5,000 in funds for travel that will ultimately enrich their classroom curriculum. By encouraging teachers to explore and share art experiences with their students, these grants will help create the audiences that our museums and arts organizations need to thrive. The opportunity is open to all Miami-Dade art teachers, grades K-12. A panel of arts leaders and educators will select the recipients.

The Michael Richards Award

The Michael Richards Award is a nomination based award, given to a Miami-Dade artist who has created a recognized body of original, high-quality works of art over a sustained period of time and who, through their practice, is achieving the highest levels of professional distinction in visual arts. This artist is someone who has established and sustained their practice in Miami and has given back to the community throughout their career in a variety of ways. The award will support the selected artist’s practice and creative growth through a stipend of $75,000 over a two-year period.

Michael Richards (1963 – 2001), to whom this award pays tribute, was an incisive, provocative, and poetic artist whose body of work primarily addresses racial inequity and social injustice. Richards, an Oolite Arts alum, passed away tragically in his art studio in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. A jury of national and local curators and experts will both nominate candidates and select the award winner.

About Michael

Learn about the Oolite Arts alumnus whom this award pays tribute to.

The Ellies Social Justice Award

The Ellies Social Justice Award honors a visual artist who has made a commitment to working for equality in their daily lives and artistic practice. This award will support the selected artist’s practice and creative growth through a stipend of $25,000. A jury of artists and social justice leaders will nominate candidates and select the award winner.

The Ellies

Meet the 2022 Ellies winners

The Ellies:
2022 Creator Award Winners

Alexandra Fields O’Neale

2022 Creator Award Winner
Amanda Linares

Amanda Linares

2022 Creator Award Winner
Anastasia Samoylova

Anastasia Samoylova

2022 Creator Award Winner
Antonia Wright

Antonia Wright

2022 Creator Award Winner
2020 Creator Award Winner
Cara Dodge

Cara Dodge

2022 Creator Award Winner
Carlos Sandoval De Leon

Carlos Sandoval De Leon

2022 Creator Award Winner
Carolina Casusol

Carolina Casusol Valle

2022 Creator Award Winner
Carolina Cueva

Carolina Cueva

2022 Creator Award Winner
Clara Toro

Clara Toro

2022 Creator Award Winner
Coralina Rodriguez-Meyer

Coralina Rodriguez Meyer

2022 Creator Award Winner
2019 Creator Award Winner
Cornelius Tulloch

Cornelius Tulloch

2022 Creator Award Winner
2020 Creator Award Winner
Dainy Tapia

Dainy Tapia

2022 Creator Award Winner
Dara Friedman

Dara Friedman

2022 Creator Award Winner
2018 Creator Award Winner
Ema Ri

Ema Ri

2022 Creator Award Winner
Fola Akinde

Fola Akinde

2022 Creator Award Winner
Francisco Masó

Francisco Masó

2022 Creator Award Winner
2020 Creator Award Winner
George Sanchez-Calderon

George Sanchez-Calderon

2022 Creator Award Winner
Jacek Kolasiński

Jacek Kolasiński

2022 Creator Award Winner
Jayme Kaye Gershen

Jayme Kaye Gershen

2022 Creator Award Winner
Jee Park

Jee Park

2022 Creator Award Winner
Johann C. Muñoz

Johann C. Muñoz

2022 Creator Award Winner
Larissa Perez

Larissa Perez

2022 Creator Award Winner
Lee Pivnik

Lee Pivnik

2022 Creator Award Winner
2020 Creator Award Winner
Leslie Gomez-Gonzalez

Leslie Gomez-Gonzalez

2022 Creator Award Winner
Liz Ferrer

Liz Ferrer

2022 Creator Award Winner
2019 Creator Award Winner
Margaret Cardillo

Margaret Cardillo

2022 Creator Award Winner
Monica Uszerowicz

Monica Uszerowicz

2022 Creator Award Winner
Nadia Wolff

Nadia Wolff

2022 Creator Award Winner
Oscar Rieveling

Oscar Rieveling

2022 Creator Award Winner
Rhonda Mitrani

Rhonda Mitrani

2022 Creator Award Winner
Ricardo E. Zulueta

Ricardo E. Zulueta

2022 Creator Award Winner
Robert Thiele

Robert Thiele

2022 Creator Award Winner
Rose Marie Cromwell

Rose Marie Cromwell

2022 Creator Award Winner
2019 Creator Award Winner
Smita Sen

Smita Sen

2022 Creator Award Winner
Smith Durogene

Smith Durogene

2022 Creator Award Winner
T. Eliott Mansa

T. Eliott Mansa

2022 Creator Award Winner
2019 Creator Award Winner
Victoria Ravelo

Victoria Ravelo

2022 Creator Award Winner
William Osorio

William Osorio

2022 Creator Award Winner
Yi Chin Hsieh

Yi Chin Hsieh

2022 Creator Award Winner