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MECA&D Alum, Faculty Receive Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Grants

Veronica Perez MFA ’16, Printmaking Program Chair Adriane Herman, and Sculpture Program Chair Joshua Reiman have been awarded grants from The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation.

The Ellis-Beauregard Foundation offers project grants for Maine artists across all genres. They provide five $10,000 grants for projects to be completed within the 2025 grant year. The foundation is interested in supporting bold, compelling, and risk-taking work within and outside the standard exhibition venue. Successful projects should embrace unconventional approaches to art-making, encourage critical dialogue, foster collaboration, and explore new models of community interaction. Applicants may focus on a larger project’s distinct chapter, aspect, or component.

Veronica Perez is an artist rooted in the community, exploring themes of erasure, identity, and interdependency through their braiding circles workshops. In 2020, they were awarded the Ellis-Beaureguard Visual Arts Fellowship and the inaugural fellowship at the David C. Driskell Black Seed Studio at Indigo Arts Alliance in 2021. In 2022, they were a fellow at the Lunder Institute at Colby College and subsequently had their first solo exhibition titled voices, whispering at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art. Currently, Perez is an Administrative Assistant at Indigo Arts Alliance and co-organizer at Tender Table, uplifting Maine’s Black and Brown community through storytelling and food. They reside in Westbrook, Maine, with her partner and child.

Adriane Herman is an artist known for exploring accumulation and release in physical and emotional landscapes. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows at various galleries and museums across the United States and internationally. She holds a BA from Smith College and an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has been an artist in residence in Varanasi, India; Weymouth, Nova Scotia; Yarmouth, Maine; Kansas City; and Coatepec, Mexico, and has lectured at over fifty institutions worldwide. Adriane resides in Southern Maine, drawing inspiration from the local recycling center for her art.

Joshua Reiman’s work spans sculpture, film, video, assemblage, and photography. He authored Strange Devices, a collection of writings focused on neospatial practice. Reiman’s work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and film festivals across North America, Europe, North and West Africa, Japan, and Australia. Joshua earned his MFA in Sculpture from Syracuse University and his BFA in Sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute. Reiman and his family reside in an 1880s brick house in Portland, ME, with their dog Otto R. Mutt.