9 folk artists honoured with national fellowships

Clockwise from top left: Artemio Posadas (Photo by Maria Virginia Prieto Solis), Theresa Secord (photo by Steve Wewerka), Bounxeung Synanonh (photo by A. Kitchener/ACTA), Bryan Akipa (photo by Mike Wolforth Rapid City, South Dakota), Michael Vlahovich (photo by Edwin Remsberg, courtesy of Maryland State Arts Council), Clarissa Rizal (photo courtesy of the artist), Billy McComiskey (photo by Edwin Remsberg, courtesy of Maryland State Arts Council), Leona Waddell (photo by Clinton Lewis/WKU), and Joseph Pierre “Big Chief Monk” Boudreaux (photo by Robert N. Brown, Ph. D.) (Collage courtesy of National Endowment for the Arts)

WASHINGTON—Nine artists have been given the nation’s highest honour for folk and traditional arts.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced its 2016 National Heritage Fellows this week. They will be recognized at a concert Sunday at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall and again at an awards ceremony in September.

The fellows each get a $25,000 cash prize.

Performers at Sunday’s concert will include past recipients of the NEA heritage fellowship.

This year’s recipients are: Brian Akipa of Sisseton, South Dakota; Joseph Pierre Boudreaux of New Orleans; Billy McComiskey of Baltimore; Artemio Posadas of San Jose, California; Clarissa Rizal of Juneau, Alaska; Theresa Secord of Waterville, Maine; Bounzeung Synanonh of Fresno, California; Michael Vlahovich of Tacoma, Washington; and Leona Waddell of Cecilia, Kentucky.