The Florida Keys Council of the Arts announces local artist Rock Solomon as the 2006 winner of the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual and Media Artists.

Solomon receives a prize of $15,000 in the fellowship program, joining 11 other artists from South Florida so honored in this year's SFCC competition. The $15,000 fellowships are the largest such awards provided by local arts agencies in the United States and are scheduled to be approved by the Miami-Dade County Commission in February 2006.

A five-year resident of Key West, Solomon is a filmmaker/multimedia artist who includes musical composition, sculpture, charcoal, pen & ink drawing, photography, screenwriting, film direction and camera operation and set design in his portfolio of mediums. He owns Red Light Studios, a recording and multimedia production company.

Solomon was awarded an Art Reach grant from Florida Keys Council of the Arts in 2004. He has screened several of his short films at the Tennessee Williams Fine Arts Center and the Waterfront Playhouse.

"Winning this award modifies all my plans in every way," Solomon said. "I will now have much-needed money for art supplies, DVD equipment and other materials for all projects that I am working on simultaneously."

The Consortium, an alliance of the arts councils of Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Martin Counties, awarded the fellowships to five visual artists from Miami-Dade County, four from Broward County, two from Palm Beach County and one from Monroe County. Fellowships were awarded at $15,000 and $7,500 levels.

The recipients are: John Bailly, Miami-Dade County ($15,000); Tim Curtis, Miami-Dade County ($15,000); Jacin Giordano ($7,500), Miami-Dade County; Julie L. Kahn, Miami-Dade County ($15,000); Chad Tingle, Miami-Dade County ($7,500); Giannina Coppiano Dwin, Broward County ($7,500); Eric Freedman, Broward County ($15,000); Christina Pettersson, Broward County ($15,000); Asser Saint-Val, Broward County ($7,500); Amy Gross, Palm Beach County ($7,500),; Denise Moody-Tackley, Palm Beach County ($7,500); and Rock Solomon, Monroe County ($15,000).

The recipients were selected during a two-panel tier process which included the participation of regional and national arts experts. Selection by the regional panel was totally anonymous, based solely on the quality of the artists' work as evidenced by slides or video/films submitted. The regional panel included Rina Carvajal, Miami Art Central, Miami-Dade County; Michael Mills, Museum of Art, Ft. Lauderdale, Broward County; Peggy Levinson Nolan, 2002 Fellowship Recipient, Broward County; Barron Sherer, Chief Programmer, Cinema Vortex, Miami-Dade County; Geoffrey Thomas, 2005 Fellowship Recipient, Broward County; and Kara Walker Tome, Armory Art Center, Palm Beach County.

The regional panel forwarded their recommendations to the national panel, which was comprised of Jim Czarneicki, S/RI Cultural Planners, St. Paul; Lee Kelley, City of Chicago Art in Public Places, Chicago; Michelle Materre; Third World Newsreel; New York City; Paul Roth, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C., and Ela Troyano, Filmmaker, New York City. All five national judges participated in the final recommendations.

An exhibition featuring the works of the twelve recipients will be presented at the University Galleries of Florida Atlantic University during the summer of 2006. The South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowships for Visual and Media Artists is a cooperative project funded in part with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, the Boards of County Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and Monroe Counties, and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.

The South Florida Cultural Consortium is funded in part with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, the Florida Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, the Boards of County Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and Monroe Counties, and the Palm Beach County Cultural Council.