LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA — A Hutto graduate was recent recognized for is storytelling through art.
The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy at the Japanese American National Museum awarded the second annual Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship to Adam Wassilchalk, an early-career cultural critic of color who is making notable contributions to the theater, dance and performance art world.
Wassilchalk is a Harlem, New Yorkbased
arts and culture critic, stage manager and production manager. He is passionate about Black, queer and experimental performing arts, with a particular interest in dramatic storytelling that expresses the inner lives of people of color onstage in unique and innovative ways. His reviews have been published in The New Haven Independent as part of the Independent Review Crew initiative, which aims to seed a network of writers in cities across the country to review in-person local cultural events.
A rare funding opportunity for arts writers, the Yamamoto Fellowship launched in August 2023 to encourage diverse cultural and political perspectives that enrich and broaden arts writing as a practice and profession. This year’s focus is on theater, dance, and performance art, given persisting setbacks from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wassilchalk will receive a $5,000 award to support his work over a six-month period.
Wassilchalk received a BA in Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies from Yale University.
The Irene Yamamoto Arts Writers Fellowship is made possible through a gift from Sharon Mizota to honor her late aunt. This project is also supported by Critical Minded, an initiative to invest in cultural critics of color cofounded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
More information on the Yamamoto Fellowship is available at janm.org/democracy/ arts-writer-fellowship.
About Irene Yamamoto Irene Yamamoto (1937 – 2020) was a lifelong lover of the arts. Born in Los Angeles, she was incarcerated with her family during World War II in Gila River, Arizona. Upon returning to Los Angeles, she attended UCLA and had a long career as a production artist for several design and advertising agencies. In her free time, she loved to draw, learn new languages, visit museums, and travel.
