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The Center for Art, Research and Alliances (CARA) is pleased to announce its newest Fellowship awardees: multidisciplinary artist Napoleon Jones-Henderson and the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation. The CARA Fellowship, now in its second year, is awarded to mid-career artists and artists’ estates and legacies who have demonstrated a profound commitment to their craft and cultural impact. The Fellowship program will provide Jones-Henderson and the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation with unrestricted 75,000 USD grants in addition to individually tailored support over a two-year term.
Napoleon Jones-Henderson and the legacy of Valerie J. Maynard, stewarded by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, were selected for their significant contributions to the transformation of arts ecosystems. Both Jones-Henderson and Maynard showcase lifelong dedication to centering and celebrating Black identities and experiences. Maynard herself was a pivotal figure in the Black Arts Movement and Jones-Henderson remains one of the last of the original ten members still active in AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), among other community movements. Working across mediums such as textiles, sculpture, print-making, and community gathering, both artists’ transformative art practices honor Afro-diasporic histories, both familial and cultural, while paving the way for the future generation of artists through education.
Over the two-year term, Fellows work closely with the CARA team to create supportive frameworks surrounding their practices. CARA takes a holistic, relational approach to its work with all Fellows, seeking to center artists’ needs and desires through open dialogue and resource sharing. Additional support provided by CARA varies for each Fellow, but can include archival assistance, debt counseling, legal advice, support navigating social services, and facilitated connections with relevant scholars and curators.
The Fellowship awardees were selected following a rigorous process of nomination and deliberation. Over 50 nominations were received from a diverse cohort of 20 arts and cultural workers, artists, and writers including: McKenzie Wark, David Teh, Gerardo Mosquera, Meg Onli, Pablo José Ramírez, Tavia Nyong’o, Emily Johnson, Steffani Jemison, Lia Gangitano, Zakiya Collier, and Rianna Jade Parker, among others. This process reaffirms CARA’s commitment to supporting a wide range of artist’s practices, responding to feedback from community members across geographic contexts and disciplines.
About Awardees
Napoleon Jones-Henderson (b. 1943, Chicago, Illinois, lives and works in Roxbury, Massachusetts) is a renowned artist known for his long-term commitment to cultural representation and community engagement. A key figure in AfriCOBRA (African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists), founded in 1968, as well as other intergenerational networks of Black artists, his work creates images inspired by the lived experiences and cultures of communities in the African diaspora. Beyond his artistic creations, he has been an influential educator and mentor, holding various academic positions and engaging in community-building through art. The support of CARA’s Fellowship will allow for the continuation of Jones-Henderson’s practice through the multi-media expansion of his ongoing series Requiem for Our Ancestors and the creation of portraits of his family, which he calls a visual memoir.
Valerie J. Maynard (b. 1937 in Harlem, New York, d. 2022, Baltimore, MD) was a prolific sculptor, printmaker, designer, and educator. She has been internationally renowned for an artistic practice centered on Black resistance to social injustice, the beauty of Black life in spite of those injustices, and the impact of ancestral memory on the descendants of enslaved Africans. Since Maynard’s passing in 2022 her legacy has been stewarded by the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation, a non-profit trust intentionally established by the artist, composed of her collaborators, friends, and fellow artists. The mission of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation is to sustain, expand, and preserve the legacy of Valerie J. Maynard, her art, and her impact on a global scale, while also nurturing the next generation of Black women artists. The Fellowship will serve to support the sustainability of the Foundation’s critical work.
The CARA Fellowship was developed with support from United States Artists and is generously funded by the Karsh Family Foundation.
