Charlotte Street Foundation Fellows · 2017

Karen McCoy · Stephen Proski · Samara Umbral

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Charlotte Street Foundation annually honors three outstanding Kansas City based visual artists with unrestricted cash awards. These Charlotte Street Awards recognize locally based artists who are creating outstanding artwork and provide financial support, critical attention, and increased exposure for Award Fellows with the aim of fostering their continued artistic and professional development. Through the Awards program, Charlotte Street Foundation seeks to contribute to the vitality of Kansas City’s arts community, making Kansas City alive with collaboration, passion, ideas and surprise.

The 2017 recipients were selected by a panel of local and national curators.

Karen McCoy earned a BA from Northeast Louisiana University in 1972, an MA from Northern Illinois University in 1977 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978. She is a professor of art in the sculpture department of the Kansas City Art Institute. Recent projects have included a residency at the Wintergreen Music Festival in Virginia and an exhibition at Chroma Projects in Charlottesville, VA. Her work on paper Two Scoops for Meniscus (1989) is part of the Oppenheimer Collection at the Nerman Museum.

Stephen Proski was born in 1988 in the Bay Area, California, and raised in Phoenix, AZ. In 2010 he graduated with a BFA in painting and creative writing from the Kansas City Art Institute, and he currently lives and works in Kansas City, MO. Proski has shown locally in Kansas City at 50/50, Bunker Center for the Arts, and Epsten Gallery and nationally at Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, and Red Fox Gallery in Bedford, NY.

Samara Umbral was born in 1987, raised in St. Louis, MO, and graduated in 2009 with a BFA in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute. Soon after graduating, Umbral relocated to New York City. Her solo show Kids at the Nerman Museum in 2012 featured Felicity and Eileen, a painting from the Oppenheimer Collection. She has had solo exhibitions at Haw Contemporary, and in 2010 she had an exhibition at ATM Gallery in New York. She currently lives and works in Kansas City.

Reception and Opening will be held on Nov. 16 starting at 6 p.m.