The Mid-America Arts Alliance has announced the recipients of its 2024 Artists 360 Awards, the seventh and final cohort of the program.

Since its launch in 2018, Artists 360 has been a catalyst for artistic growth in Northwest Arkansas, awarding 169 grants across five categories to 157 artists, all made possible through the generosity of the Walton Family Foundation.

In the final cohort, three alumnae of the Department of English's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation - Mayssa Hashaad, Elizabeth Muscari and Hiba Tahir - are among the 31 Northwest Arkansas artists honored by Artists 360.

Creative Writing and Translation alumna Mayssa Hashaad, who is also a current Ph.D. candidate in the U of A's Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies Program, received an Artists 360 Practicing Artist Grant.

"Receiving the Artists 360 grant is not only a recognition of my creative practice but also an immense support in advancing my work of bridging the linguistic and cultural gap between English and Arabic," she said.

"With this award, I'll focus on my ongoing efforts in literary translation, bringing underrepresented voices in Arabic literature into greater global visibility," she added. "This opportunity allows me to contribute to a deeper understanding of the shared human experience across languages and cultures."

Hashaad is an avid translator, editor, Fulbright Scholar and educator from Egypt. She's currently working as a graduate teaching assistant and as the translation editor for the Arkansas International literary magazine. She is a recipient of the James and Ellen Wadley Roper Fellowship, the Carolyn F. Walton Cole Scholarship in Creative Writing and the Vance and Mary Celestia Parler Randolph Fellowship in English for leadership and academic achievement in language, literature and/or folklore.

Alumna Elizabeth Muscari also received an Artists 360 Practicing Artist Grant for her poetry.

She said she was honored to be selected and that "This opportunity will support the development of my manuscript, a collection of poems that explores the intersection of women's health and environmental care in this region. I believe that poetry, when informed by well-supported ecological and health research, has the potential to shed light on how women's well-being is intertwined with the well-being of the land."

"I am thrilled to be part of such a talented cohort of artists and express my heartfelt thanks to the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Artists 360 and the Walton Family Foundation for their valuable support, and to my mentors in U of A's M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation for their continued encouragement," she added.

Muscari is a poet living in Fayetteville whose work most recently appeared or is forthcoming in Gulf Coast, The Journal, The Texas Review and Muzzle Magazine, among others. She is the recipient of a Walton Family and Carolyn F. Walton Cole Poetry Fellowship, the Felix Christopher McKean Award and earned a nomination for 2024 Best New Poets.

Alumna Hiba Tahir, who holds an M.F.A. in poetry, received an Artists 360 Community Activator Grant of $17,500, building upon her previous Artists 360 Student Artist grant award.

"I'm honored and ecstatic to receive this award and look forward to using it to further expand and develop Tightwires, my YouTube channel and podcast about navigating art and writing outside academic and institutional confines," Tahir said.

"Notable featured guests have recently included New York Times Bestselling authors Hannah Whitten and S.K. Ali and local authors Andrea L. Rogers, Cal Paule and CD Eskilson," she added. "This grant will allow me to feature more local guests and community members in the years to come."

Tahir is a YA author and full-time English instructor and instructor coach at the U of A. In addition to her M.F.A., she holds B.A.s in both English and news editorial journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Carolyn Walton Cole Endowment Fund, the J. Chester and Freda S. Johnson Graduate Fellowship, the James T. Whitehead Award, a 2020 Artists 360 Student Artist grant from Mid-America Arts Alliance and a 2021 Individual Artist Fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council. She is represented by Rachel Ekstrom Courage of Courage Literary. 

Toni Jensen, director of the M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing and Translation, said Hashaad, Muscari and Tahir are all impressive alumnae who have excelled in their respective art forms.

"We're so proud of the recent Creative Writing M.F.A. alumni who've earned this prestigious, competitive award, but we're not surprised," Jensen said. "All are excellent, hard-working writers, and each one has a unique and important voice."

Artists 360, a program of Mid-America Arts Alliance, made possible through the support of the Walton Family Foundation, provides grant funding and professional development opportunities to individual artists of all disciplines in the greater Northwest Arkansas area. Projects funded by the grant range across disciplines within the arts, including literature, film, performance, mixed media, sculpture and more.

Those recognized include undergraduate students, graduate students and post-education artists working within the community and improving their craft. Grants include learning opportunities to develop entrepreneurial skills and build sustainable careers, creating a network of leading regional artists.

To celebrate the final cohort and the overall impact of the Artists 360 program, Mid-America Arts Alliance invites the public to its annual Artists 360 Full Circle Showcase at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 27, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

To learn more about the impact of Artists 360, watch interviews with program alumni on YouTube.

For biographies and more information about Mid-America Arts Alliance's Artists 360 past grant recipients, visit artists360.art.

Story by Isabella Sotlar, Fulbright College Comunications and Creative Services intern.

This story also appeared in the Fulbright REVIEW publication.