Lila Shull (left) and Nancy Ariza (right)
Please join us in congratulating Nancy Ariza and Lila Shull for being selected as the 2026 McKnight Printmaking Fellows? Highpoint is very excited to host them for this program in 2026.
Each year, two artists are awarded the fellowship following a thorough review process. The panelists Jazmine Catasús and Sean Caulfield engaged in extensive and careful evaluation of the robust applicant pool. Then they met with selected finalists and deliberated, ultimately awarding hte fellowshipto Lila and Nancy.
The McKnight fellowship provides the artists with 12 months of access to the cooperative printshop at Highpoint, a $25,000 unrestricted award, a fellowship exhibition in Highpoint’s galleries, along with much more.
Both Lila and Nancy are already embedded into the community at Highpoint. For more than a decade, Nancy has been a co-op member, teaching artist, staff member, and she has developed and led artist programs. Shortly after relocating to the twin cities in 2021, Lila joined the co-op and has been a fixture ever since. Like Nancy, Lila has also shared her technical and conceptual expertise with the hIghpoint community through her teaching.
During the fellowship, Lila is excited to continue developing and expanding upon a series she began in 2025. She loosely describes these works as “paper quilts”, but she admits that term “doesn’t paint the whole picture.” She said “These pieces are ambitious because of the scale, and the variety of techniques I'm using for each one. I'm ready to dig deeper into these, conceptually and visually.”
Lila is excited by the opportunity to share this experience with another artist she admires, She believes it creates the possibility “to push each other in creative ways but also serve a supportive role through stages of experimentation, risk taking, and the unknowns of new work.”
When asked what the fellowship means for her, Lila responded “Receiving this fellowship provides leverage. Recalibration and risk taking is difficult to get funded and it is a rare thing to be able to protect those vulnerable moments at this stage of my career; the McKnight provides security. With this opportunity, I am able to be more expansive in my practice. This means, I do not have to downsize my ideas because of costs or logistics. I look forward to taking full advantage of all the support this fellowship offers to sustain and my practice beyond just the work.”
Oral histories and traditions have been an important part of Nancy’s practice for the last few years. She looks forward to continuing her exploration of these topics during the fellowship. She’s also excited about “engaging in thoughtful conversations with our guest critics and dedicating time in the studio for technical, process-based explorations. And to continue connecting with members of the Highpoint community and its expansive and generous network.”
“This award arrived at a truly exciting and transitional moment in my artistic career,” Nancy said “It will give me the space and resources to dedicate more creative energy to the development and sustainability of my studio practice.”
Oral histories and traditions have been an important part of Nancy’s practice for the last few years. She looks forward to continuing her exploration of these topics during the fellowship. She’s also excited about “engaging in thoughtful conversations with our guest critics and dedicating time in the studio for technical, process-based explorations. And to continue connecting with members of the Highpoint community and its expansive and generous network.”
“This award arrived at a truly exciting and transitional moment in my artistic career,” Nancy said “It will give me the space and resources to dedicate more creative energy to the development and sustainability of my studio practice.”
About the artists:
Nancy Ariza (she/her) is a Mexican American visual artist and educator. Drawing from her Mexican heritage, Ariza’s artistic practice explores the themes of cultural preservation and memory, familial ties, and storytelling, expressed through a combination of traditional and alternative printmaking processes, natural pigments, and textiles.
Ariza has exhibited across the United States at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, in San Francisco, CA; Janet Turner Print Museum at California State University in Chico, CA; Prospectus Gallery and Blanc Gallery in Chicago, IL; among others. She has received awards from the Jerome Foundation, Forecast Public Art, and Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.
Outside of her studio practice, Ariza runs Amilado Press, a print studio dedicated to collaborative and community printing and artist residencies. She is an active member of the Twin Cities arts community, serving on the Leadership Council of Serpentina Arts, the board of directors of Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center, and the Minnesota Artist Exhibition Program Advisory Committee at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
Ariza holds an MA in Education and Graduate Certificate in Culturally Responsive Teaching from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota, as well as a BFA in Printmaking and BA in Art History from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Lila Shull (she/her) is a printmaker based in St. Paul, Minnesota. Working in printmaking, painting, and drawing, her practice pays particular attention to the shift between objects and patterns related to memory. This work wrestles with the problems (and possibilities) that arise from unreliable personal narratives.
Shull holds her MFA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and a BFA from Winthrop University in Rock Hill SC. She has been awarded residencies at In Cahoots, Arrowmont School of Crafts, and Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland. Her work has been shown nationally at the Foley and Unix Galleries in New York City, Coagula Curatorial in Los Angeles, CA, Mint Museum in Charlotte, NC, and the Devos Art Museum in Marquette, MI. Currently, she is a full-time faculty member in the College of Design Innovation, at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN.
About the review panelists:
Jazmine Catasús is Artistic Director and one of the Master Printers of the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop (RBPMW) at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts (EFA). She has been involved with EFA RBPMW since 2013. Catasús works with community members and the public within the printshop facilities and the archive. She has collaborated on printmaking projects with artists such as Lizanina Cruz, Kameelah Janan Rasheed, and Dindga McCannon. Catasús has led printmaking workshops at several institutions, including the Center for Contemporary Printmaking (Norwalk, CT), Print Center New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. She is also a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute.
Sean Caulfield was named a Canada Research Chair in Fine Arts (Tier 2) from 2001 – 2011, Centennial Professor from 2011 – 2021, and is currently a Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, living and working in Treaty Six territory, Amiskwaciy Waskahikan, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has exhibited his prints, drawings, installations and artist’s books extensively throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Recent exhibitions include: Found Anatomies, Peter Robertson Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (2022); The Flood, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (2016); The Body in Question(s), UQAM Gallery, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (2012); Perceptions of Promise, Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA/Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta (2011).
Caulfield has received numerous grants and awards for his work including: The Special Award of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, Krakow Triennial, 2015; SSHRC Dissemination Grant: Canadian Stem Cell Network Impact Grant; SSHRC Fine Arts Creation Grant; Canada Council Travel Grant; and a Visual Arts Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council, Illinois, USA. Caulfield’s work is in various public and private collections including: Houghton Library, Harvard University, USA; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England; Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA. In 2017 Caulfield was elected to the Arts Division of the Academy of the Arts and Humanities of the Royal Society of Canada.
