On June 20, the National Endowment for the Arts named quilter Marion Coleman among its 2018 National Heritage Fellows — widely considered the most prestigious form of recognition for folk and traditional artists in the United States. This year’s fellows will be recognized at a ceremony in Washington DC on September 26 and with a live concert on September 28.
With support from a 2007 Creative Work Fund grant, Coleman, along with Dolores Vitero Presley and Julia Vitero, created a series of quilts on themes of healthy life choices that were used to reinforce the work of the Bay Area Black United Fund’s Critical Mass Health Conductor program. The artists’ quilts created through this collaboration were first shown in 2009 at the Fund’s African American Health Summit.
The Creative Work Fund extends hearty congratulations to Marion.