AICA-USA Announces 2025 Art Critic Fellowship Cohort
January 4, 2024
AICA-USA is proud to announce the inaugural cohort of the Art Critic Fellowship Program, a six-week initiative designed to support emerging art critics and writers in the United States. Fellows will engage in four lectures led by award-winning editors and writers to discuss the joys and concerns of writing and editing art criticism today, and will meet one-on-one with their assigned mentors to develop a piece of criticism for publication on the AICA-USA website. The program, rooted in our longstanding commitment to critical writing, aims to provide both educational and professional development opportunities for participants within the dynamic landscape of contemporary art criticism. This fellowship is particularly focused on strengthening the visibility and reach of diverse voices, especially those from non-traditional backgrounds.
As the oldest professional organization for art critics and writers in the U.S., AICA-USA believes that thoughtful, engaged criticism plays a vital role in advancing not only the arts but also the broader cultural discourse. In response to the ongoing challenges faced by writing programs and the diminishing space for cultural coverage in mainstream publications, the Art Critic Fellowship Program aims to ensure that art criticism remains a vibrant and essential part of the cultural ecosystem.
2025 Art Critic Fellows
Emily Alesandrini (she/her) is an arts writer, curator, and art historian working in New Orleans and New York. Her research concerns contemporary representations of race and gender with a particular focus on issues of opacity, ornament, and the diasporic body in art by women and artists of color. Her writing has appeared in ARTnews, The Offing, Burnaway, and BOMB, as well as numerous exhibition catalogues. Alesandrini graduated from Smith College with a BA in Art History and continues her studies as a doctoral student in Art History at Bryn Mawr College.
Koby Chen is a Yale University undergraduate double majoring in History of Art and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration. His research focuses on the intersections of art, politics, and human rights, particularly through post-colonial and diasporic frameworks. He has gained experience through working at Christie’s, where he authored detailed lot essays and conducted research on Modern and Contemporary South Asian Art, and at the Yale University Art Gallery, where he works closely with the curators in the Photographs department. Moreover, his leadership as Head of the Accessibility Committee at the Yale Center for British Art has further honed his commitment to inclusivity in the arts, including creating accessible programming and digital content. With a deep interest in amplifying underrepresented narratives within the art world, Koby is ecstatic to be a fellow with AICA-USA and to work with mentor Dorothy Santos over the next few months to hone his writing skills and develop his critical voice! Outside of poring over photo books and thinking about art, he enjoys spending time at the pottery wheel and watering his miniature orchids.
Francess Archer Dunbar is a writer and poet. She teaches and archives student poetry with O, Miami’s Sunroom program in public schools, and previously worked with the Miami Book Fair and served on the screening committee for the 41st Miami Film Festival. Her writing about her hometown can be found in Burnaway Magazine, the Art Newspaper, and the Miami New Times.
May Howard is a writer, artist, and curator whose work explores the artistic interdependencies between materiality, process, technology, and the body. Her multidisciplinary practice centers the social and political dimensions of spaces and objects. Howard received an M.A. in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022. She currently serves as the Curatorial Assistant of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her writing has appeared in Glasstire, Surface Design Journal, and Burnaway.
Amy Kennedy writes fiction and nonfiction about the ongoing climate crisis and the surreal spaces where heavy industry and community intersect. She created ALongNewThread.com, a website examining ecological grief and environmental injustice. Amy is a Loyola Institute of Environmental Communication Fellow, a DeGroot Foundation Courage to WRITE grantee, and a 2024 Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grant recipient. Her work has appeared in the Southeast Review and Burnaway. Her first book Vanishing Points: Words for Disappearing received an Antenna Press Publishing Award and will be released later this year.
Kit Xiong is a speculative fiction writer and critic interested in the intersections of science, technology, art, and literature. They review fiction for the Buffalo Hive, a local nonprofit arts publication in Western New York. Their other works have appeared in Cornelia, Sine Theta Magazine, and One Teen Story.