Work by Jillian Marie Browning, "The Trees You Grew Up With Have Not Forgotten You," 2025Two University of Alabama at Birmingham faculty members have been awarded fellowship grants from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
The ASCA is the official state agency for the support and development of the arts in Alabama. Its competitive fellowship grant program empowers emerging and established artists and arts educators to hone their skills and pursue innovative projects. Supporting individual artists is key to Alabama’s creative growth, according to the ASCA. The fellowship grant recipients represent some of Alabama’s most talented individuals working in arts education, craft, dance, design, music, photography, poetry, prose, theater and visual arts.
This year, the award amount was increased from $5,000 to $7,500 to better support Alabama’s creative community. These investments bolster confidence and professional growth and enrich communities and inspire future generations.
James Braziel of Remlap, Alabama, was awarded a $7,500 Prose Fellowship. Braziel teaches creative writing in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of English. He is the author of multiple books, including the award-winning story collection “This Ditch-Walking Love” (Livingston Press) and novels “Birmingham, 35 Miles” (Bantam) and “Snakeskin Road” (Bantam). Braziel’s most recent book is “Glass Cabin,” a collection of poems co-written with his wife, Tina Mozelle Braziel, who was awarded an ASCA Poetry Fellowship. “Glass Cabin” is about building their home by hand in rural Alabama and was published in 2024 by Pulley Press, whose mission is to elevate and highlight rural poets. “Glass Cabin” was Southern Literary Review’s 2024 Poetry Book of the Year.
Jillian Marie Browning of Birmingham, Alabama, was awarded a $7,500 Gay Burke Photography Fellowship. Browning is assistant professor of photography in the UAB College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Art and Art History. Their practice engages feminism, identity and the contemporary Black experience through photography, printmaking and alternative photographic processes. Browning’s work is in the permanent collections of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, New York, and the Southeast Museum of Photography, among others, and their solo exhibition “The Trees You Grew Up with Have Not Forgotten You” was recently featured at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea.
Alabama’s artists and arts educators help strengthen the cultural, educational and economic vitality of our state, says Elliot Knight, executive director of the Council on the Arts.
“Their creativity connects communities, empowers young people and preserves the traditions that make Alabama unique,” Knight said. “The Council on the Arts is proud to invest in these individuals so they can deepen their craft, pursue new opportunities and continue contributing to the well-being of the places they call home. Supporting artists is one of the most meaningful ways we can ensure Alabama’s communities remain vibrant, connected and full of possibility.”
The ASCA works to expand and preserve the state’s cultural resources by supporting nonprofit arts organizations, schools, colleges, units of local government and individual artists. Alabama State Council on the Arts grants are made possible by an annual appropriation from the Alabama Legislature and additional funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information and updates, visit arts.alabama.gov.