2026 Grant Recipients
Aela Morgan • Social Justice Grant, Award Recipient
Project: In Pieces Together
In Pieces Together is a mixed-media body of work created from shredded paper and layered paint that examines political division, civic unrest, and the tension between fracture and connection. Through acts of breaking apart and rebuilding, the project asks whether wholeness is possible within a landscape of competing narratives and collective uncertainty.
Aela Morgan is a mixed-media artist based between New York City and Telluride. Beginning with landscape photography and later evolving into painting and collage, her practice explores the human condition through themes of connection and separation, fragility and resilience, and the emotional landscapes that shape our collective and personal lives.
Christy Ferrato • Social Justice Grant, Award Recipient
Project: Obantu Series
The Obantu series confronts systemic oppression and the erosion of basic human rights. The series includes five figures built on 13” artist’s mannequins covered with text, symbols, and found objects. These works operate as vessels for truth and reflect how visual art has historically been used to challenge tyranny, corruption, terrorization, violence, censorship and the denial of civil rights and due process. They stand as radical symbols of defiance against authoritarian structures and demand justice.
Christy Ferrato is a poet, artist, educator, and performance artist whose work has been featured in lectures, publications, poetry performances, and exhibitions at venues and events including the Lake Eden Arts Festival, Taos Poetry Festival, the Re(dress) Poetry Series in Los Angeles, the Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, the Durango Arts Center, the Henderson Fine Arts Center, the Ray Drew Gallery, The Kennedy Gallery, Fusion 708 Gallery, the Strata Gallery, and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her honors include a Best New Poet nomination and two Pushcart Prize nominations, and her poem “On The Road To Julius’s Sheep Camp” was included in the anthology Four Corners Voices, which won the 2025 Colorado Book Award.
Cie Hoover • Social Justice Grant, Award Recipient
Project: Eroded World
"Eroded World" is a proposed large-format (48" x 72") mixed-media wood relief that explores the intersection of environmental degradation and intergenerational justice. The piece will serve as a visual meditation on the "inheritance" of a precarious planet, centering on a father and child standing at the precipice of a shifting landscape.
Cie Hoover is a Colorado-based artist redefining wood as a contemporary medium. Formerly a Nashville music industry professional and touring musician, Hoover’s “Organic Contemporary"” work blends subtractive carving with musical rhythm to explore the connection between nature and the soul. He is the founder of Cie Gallery in Ouray and is represented by Raitman Art Galleries (Breckenridge / Vail, CO), Piper J Gallery (Truckee, CA), and Summit Gallery (Park City, UT).
Jed Smith & Amy Cao • Social Justice Grant, Award Recipient
Project: Los Migrantes
Olivia Perea • Social Justice Grant, Award Recipient
Project: Too Bad
Too Bad is a collage series that explores the complexity of womanhood through a collective, community-based lens. The project is built from anonymous written submissions describing lived experiences of womanhood, foregrounding voices from a range of perspectives rather than a single narrative. It reflects the belief that women in the artist’s community have experienced a wide spectrum of highs, lows, and in-between moments that may not be captured by one individual’s perspective, and it seeks to platform those experiences visually and conceptually. Through this approach, Too Bad offers audiences a more nuanced and expansive view of female identity that extends beyond a singular lived experience.
Olivia Perea is a collage and mixed-media artist living and working in Durango, Colorado. Her studio practice and art history research explores the intersection of visual arts, cultural grey areas, and community engagement. Wether it is creating collaborative artworks, creating zines that detail aspects of her process, or hosting creative workshops, Olivia's personal and professional life is grounded by a want to create approachable and inclusive experiences around visual arts. Olivia holds a B.A. in Studio Art with a Minor in Art History from Fort Lewis College ('25) and currently works as the Collections Education and Research Fellow at the Center of Southwest Studies.