2026 Emerging Artist Fellowship
Join us in welcoming our 2026 Emerging Artist Fellows, Jayna Dias, Gabrielle Deacon, Elijah Hamilton-Wray, & Catherine Liebowitz!
Our 4th Annual Emerging Artist Fellowship will spend 15 weeks within our community. This fellowship provides time, space, and support as they develop their creative practice, establish professional relationships, and expand their artistic networks. Learn more about our 2026 Emerging Artist Fellows below.
JAYNA DIAS
ABOUT JAYNA
Jayna Dias is a Senegalese-American visual artist and performer that creates works rooted in the complexity of the Black diaspora. Through drawings, paintings, and the body, Dias creates visual exemplifications of the intricacy of Black identity, Western colonialism’s intervention on it, and how deconstruction can be a powerful tool in reasserting it. Her work investigates themes of misogynoir, cultural hybridity, and fetishization channeled through lived experiences, family lineage, and academic research. Unstable compositions, expressionistic figures, boisterous colors, and found materials are all utilized in her practice to stage invitations for viewers to engage with the underrepresented themes she depicts. Above all, Dias’ practice is about visibility.
Dias earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Art from the University of Southern California in 2024. She has exhibited around Los Angeles, shown in Venice, Italy during the 2024 Biennale, and has work in the Newport Historical Society’s collection for their Center of Black History. She completed an academic research fellowship through the Frank C. Munson Institute at the Mystic Seaport Museum in 2025 and was a visiting resident at Real Time & Space in Oakland during February of 2026. Currently practicing in Los Angeles, Dias also works as a Visitor Experience and Community Engagement Associate at the California African American Museum.
ABOUT GABRIELLE
Gabrielle Deacon is a studio artist and illustrator based in Appalachian Ohio. Her work revolves around social critiques of her experiences, utilizing mixed media in order to discuss a range of subjects from the trauma of digitalization to the food service industry. These experiences are not only her own but belong to many, and it is her intention to connect with community and viewers
through research and visual exploration.
Deacon received her BFA with a concentration in painting from Ohio Wesleyan University in 2024. Currently, she is a professor at Shawnee State University as well as a waitress at a family-owned restaurant, The Scioto Ribber. Deacon’s passion for storytelling through visuals has led her to showcase her work at various exhibitions in New York, Baltimore, and Columbus. Most recently, Deacon’s work was displayed in the “Women of Appalachia” exhibition at the Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, where she earned the “Best In Show” award. Gabrielle Deacon is committed to observing the world while blending her love of traditional techniques with the dynamic possibilities of digital media, embracing the ever-evolving nature of the art world.
GABRIELLE DEACON
ELIJAH HAMILTON-WRAY
ABOUT ELIJAH
A Graduate of Northern Vermont University in Johnson, VT, Elijah received his MFA in Studio Art. With a love of comic book characters and Japanese animation from an early age, he often emulated those particular styles.
Though his work does not especially represent those genres anymore, there is reference to it in his current practice. He tends to incorporate certain fantastical elements in his work that blend with realistic representation. His main mediums are oil and acrylic paint, but he’s also experienced in
watercolor, printmaking, and drawing. In 2021 he moved to Kalamazoo, MI to work as Post-Baccalaureate of Art at his undergraduate alma mater, Kalamazoo College, where he guided graduating art students through their senior year and helped arrange numerous art shows and exhibitions. He now works as an artist in East Lansing, MI.
ABOUT CATHERINE
Catherine Liebowitz is a sculptor who works primarily in clay, plaster, and stone. Their work focuses on the abstraction of fragments of human anatomy, which result in forms that feel alive but no longer human.
Catherine has participated in a number of student shows as well as a group intern show at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in Vermont after spending last summer as one of their intern residents. Most recently they had a Certificate Graduation Exhibition at the New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting, and Sculpture, and are now excited to see how this body of work will continue to develop from working with the diverse group of artists that the Bethany Arts Community contains.
CATHERINE LIEBOWITZ
This fellowship is generously supported by
Thank you to our funders. Residencies and programs at Bethany Arts Community are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s office and the New York State Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, ArtsWestchester and Westchester County Government, Westchester County Board of Legislators, Humanities NY, NEFA, The New York Community Trust Westchester, and numerous individual donors.
Bethany Arts Community is proud to have earned a Candid Gold Seal of Transparency 2026 on GuideStar.