Author NM recognized by the Andy Warhol Foundation

Every day for the past two decades, Rebecca M. Schreiber has taken steps towards a goal.

Whether it’s teaching undergraduates and graduate students at the University of New Mexico or working on personal research projects, Schreiber remains focused and rarely takes breaks.

His research focuses on issues of migration between the United States and Mexico and examines the relationships to place, identity and dislocation through forms of visual culture.

His work is recognized by the Andy Warhol Foundation with an Artistic Writers Fellowship. She is one of 20 writers nationwide – and the only one from New Mexico.

The grant will go to his next book and project, “Visualizing Displacement in the Americas: The Aesthetics of Mobility and Immobilization”.

“I’m very excited about this,” says Schreiber. “The Warhol Foundation contacted me to tell me that I had been chosen. There aren’t many scholarships in my field of study and that’s quite an honor.

According to the Andy Warhol Foundation, the 2021 Arts Writers Grant cycle awarded a total of $ 695,000 to 20 writers.

Grants range from $ 15,000 to $ 50,000 in three categories – articles, books and short writing.

Grants support projects aimed at a general and specialized artistic audience, ranging from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth academic study.

“The Andy Warhol Foundation Artistic Writers Grant supports a vital component of the visual arts ecosystem: writers. These critics and academics do the important job of chronicling, contextualizing and complicating our contemporary moment as expressed by artists, ”said Joel Wachs, president of the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. “The Arts Writers Grant recognizes the rigorous and generous commitment of artistic writers to artists and their work and celebrates their ability to inform artistic interventions in the structures that govern our contemporary cultural moment. “

Pradeep Dalal, director of the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Artistic Writers Grant, said it was exhilarating to see the enormous geographic reach and international setting of this year’s many grantees.

“Emphasizing the role of communities of artists, with practices that literally cover all continents, these projects express the desire for exchanges that cross borders as well as those that establish connections through ‘South-‘ axes. South “unexplored, rather than falling back on Europe or American art stories,” says Dalal.

Schreiber received the scholarship in the book category.

She teaches in American Studies and says her research helps her understand art as it is shaped by historical context.

“This book is my third and they all deal with migration between the United States and Mexico and displacement in Central America,” she says.

Schreiber’s work also helps give asylum seekers a voice.

“I met Caleb Duarte, who is part of an artistic collective, she says. “He came to UNM to speak about four years ago. The collective he works with has organized art classes for asylum seekers. It’s about telling their own stories. The way these stories are portrayed in the media is not reality. It is about them who represent their own life.

Schreiber says the grant will support the cost of research that involves travel.

“It will also cover the expense of including images for the book,” she says. “(It’s a) better way for people to see the pictures and get a better sense of the artwork.”

Two or three more years of research should be done before the book is released.

Schreiber hasn’t slowed down and conducts phone interviews and meets people in person.

“This is a very special grant,” she says. “My work hopefully helps artists gain visibility. “