Three at UAB awarded Alabama State Council Arts grants

William Price

John Powers

Eric Essix

Three UAB employees are among 12 recipients of fellowship grants awarded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts for 2011-12. Fellowship grants are awarded to individual artists and are based on merit of work, career achievement, career potential and service to the state, according to the ASCA’s announcement, and are the most prestigious of its grants awarded to individuals.

UAB Assistant Professor of Music William Price, D.M.A., was awarded a $5,000 music fellowship grant. ASCA said his works :reflect classical artistry and proficiency as a composer and arranger and demonstrate great potential for promoting and expanding the performing arts in Alabama.”

UAB Assistant Professor of Art John Douglas Powers, M.F.A., was awarded a $5,000 sculpture fellowship grant. The ASCA wrote that Powers’ “kinetic sculpture, installations, animation and video works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. Drawing from areas as diverse as natural history, architecture and the history of technology he is engaged in an intense investigation of what lies at the intersection of cinema, computation, music and physical space.”

Guitarist Eric Essix, artist coordinator for UAB’s Alys Stephens Center and Teaching Artist at the ASC’s ArtPlay, was awarded a $5,000 music fellowship grant. The ASCA proclaims Essix “is known as a versatile, proficient and significant contributor to the jazz industry, continuing the strong jazz legacy in Alabama. He has garnered national recognition as a jazz musician and continues to show great potential as an artist. Essix’s original compositions and arrangements celebrate his Southern roots.”