Saint-Gaudens Fellowship
The Saint-Gaudens Fellowship was created in 1978 as an annual award presented to an emerging artist practicing primarily in the United States. The Fellowship is awarded to those with an exhibition record that demonstrates exceptional talent, but who are not yet firmly established and may benefit from further recognition and financial assistance. A committee of trustees and artist advisors, including past Fellows, nominate and selects artists every spring.
Fellowship benefits
In addition to receiving a monetary grant, Fellows exhibit their work during the following year at the Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park in Cornish, New Hampshire. The Fellows’ exhibitions are meant to reflect the ideals of Saint-Gaudens, who was an innovative sculptor and a mentor to emerging artists, and to enhance public interest in his life, work, and the creative process.
“Receiving the Saint-Gaudens Fellowship felt transformative. This windfall of support was helpful in immediate and pragmatic ways. Along with that came something beyond practical. I experienced an unexpected, and at first almost unconscious, sense of freedom. This feeling was like magic. After a site visit to the park, my work rapidly started to shift and open up. Ideas that had been percolating for a long time came pouring out, leading to an incredibly productive and exciting working period. This was, and continues to be, a true joy.”
–Jennifer Paige Cohen,
2019 Saint-Gaudens Fellow

Katie Bell, 2016 Fellow. Line of Play, 2020. Laminate, acrylic, wood, aluminum, rubber, drywall, solid surface, plexiglass, cue balls
2022 Fellow – Eto Otitigbe

Eto Otitigbe, photo by Anthony Artis
Eto Otitigbe
Eto Otitigbe is interested in recovering buried narratives and giving form to the unseen. He is a polymedia artist whose interdisciplinary practice includes sculpture, performance, installation, and public art. His work intersects history, community, and generative design to transform historical and cultural references into biomorphic forms and pattern. Otitigbe’s public works includes temporary installations in Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens, NY) and Randall’s Island Park (New York, NY). His current public commissions include: Peaceful Journey (Mt. Vernon, NY, 2022); Cascode (Philadelphia, PA); Emanativ (Harlem, NY). He was a member of the Design Team for the Memorial to Enslaved Laborers at UVA (Charlottesville, VA) where he contributed to the creative expression on the memorial’s exterior surface.
Otitigbe’s work has been in solo and group exhibitions that include 2013 Bronx Calling: The Second AIM Biennial, organized by the Bronx Museum and Wave Hill; Abandoned Orchestra, Sound Sculpture installation and performance with Zane Rodulfo, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; The Golden Hour, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, GA, curated by Oshun D. Layne; and Bronx: Africa, Longwood Gallery, Bronx, NY, curated by Atim Oton and Leronn P. Brooks.
Otitigbe’s fellowships and awards include Creative Capital for Tankugbe Incubation Lab, the CEC Artslink Project Award for travel and cultural projects in Egypt, and the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the National Museum of African Art where he explored the intersection of Urhobo language and historical objects.
His curatorial projects include directing the es ORO Gallery in Jersey City, NJ (2007-09) and co-curating, alongside Amanda Kerdahi, the Topophilia Exhibition in Nees, Denmark (2017) as part of the ET4U Meetings Festival in Denmark.
He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture in the Art Department at Brooklyn College. He received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, an M.S. in Product Design from Stanford University (M.S.) and an MFA in Creative Practice from the University of Plymouth.
Fellows of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial
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2022
Eto Otitigbe
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2021
Courtney M. Leonard
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2020
No Fellowship Awarded
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2019
Jennifer Paige Cohen
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2018
Ruby Sky Stiler
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2017
Fabienne Lasserre
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2016
Katie Bell
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2015
Shellburne Thurber*
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2014
Kirsten Hassenfield
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2013
Jane Marsching
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2012
Elana Herzog
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2011
Darren Blackstone Foote
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2010
Mary Temple
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2009
Rachel Hayes
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2008
Claire Watkins
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2007
Alyson Shotz
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2006
Ann Carlson & Mary Ellen Strom
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2005
Hirsch Perlman
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2004
No Fellowship Awarded
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2003
Tara Donovan
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2002
Willie Cole
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2001
Do Ho Suh
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2000
Peter Shelton
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1999
Carlos Dorrien
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1998
Amy Hauft
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1997
Alison Saar
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1996
Judy Pfaff
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1995
Jon Kessler
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1994
Win Knowlton
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1993
Judith Shea
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1992
Jene Highstein
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1991
No Fellowship Awarded
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1990
Cameron McNall, Susan Rodgers
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1989
Kate Ericson & Mel Ziegler
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1988
Michael Gitlin
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1987
Petah Coyne
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1986
Andrew Topolski
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1985
No Fellowship Awarded
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1984
Walter Dusenbery, James M. Wolfe
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1983
Alex McFarlane
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1982
No Fellowship Awarded
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1981
Nicholas B. Edmunds
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1980
Philip Livingston
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1979
Edwin Rothfarb
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1978
Daniel Sinclair

Elana Herzog, 2012 Fellow. Romancing the Rock, 2010, Installation at Tang Museum, Sarasota Springs Metal staples, textile on Drywall