Caroline Woolard, Moore’s 2018 Walentas Endowed Fellowship Artist, has received a fellowship grant from AmbitioUS, an initiative of the Center for Cultural Innovation. AmbitioUS encourages the development of burgeoning alternative economies and social contracts in ways that artists and cultural communities can achieve financial freedom.
The fellowship grant will support a one-year research project, led by Woolard, to investigate emergent online networks and cooperative business models for higher education in the visual arts. Woolard has been exploring the idea of an alternative business model for art school education for many years, including co-founding international peer-to-peer learning network Tradeschool.coop (2009-2019). This funding affords time and resources to explore cooperative business models for delivering higher education in the arts that are based on collectivized approaches that bring costs down for emerging artists.
Woolard is the first recipient of the Jane and David Walentas Endowed Fellowship, a prestigious award launched in 2018 that underscores Moore’s ongoing commitment to social engagement by offering opportunities to thoughtful artists who bring their vision for the future of cultural production to the Moore community and the larger artistic community of Philadelphia. Woolard holds the position through June 2020.
She is an assistant professor of sculpture at the University of Hartford. Her work can be viewed at her website, carolinewoolard.com, and at her project website, studycollaboration.com.
