Amanda Breitbach, a second-year Master of Fine Arts student in the Department of Art and Art History’s photography program, has been selected as the recipient of an Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life/Joy of Giving Something, Inc. $2,000 fellowship award.
“I am very excited about receiving the Joy of Giving Something Fellowship,” Breitbach said. “Because it was a national competition, I knew that it would be competitive, and I am excited that the committee believed in my research about agriculture and land use. I have a strong interest in art that engages people from different backgrounds to think creatively about solutions to shared problems and challenges, and I hope that membership in Imagining America and attending the conference will help me develop that interest.”
Breitbach also received a $500 travel stipend to attend the 2014 Imagining America national conference Oct. 9-11 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Imagining America is a consortium of universities and organizations dedicated to advancing the public and civic purposes of humanities, arts and design. The goal of the fellowship program is to elevate photography and digital media as a pathway for students to pursue their careers and make a difference in their communities.
Breitbach grew up on a family farm and ranch in eastern Montana. She attended Montana State University, graduating in 2004 with degrees in photography and French. Prior to attending graduate school at UNL, she was a volunteer with the United States Peace Corps in West Africa and worked as a newspaper photographer and reporter.
Her work has been exhibited at the Great Plains Art Museum, Eisentrager-Howard and MEDICI Galleries in Lincoln, Nebraska, as well as at the University of Kansas Art and Design Gallery in Lawrence; the Rourke Museum in Moorhead, Minnesota; the Clarridge Gallery in Bellevue, Washington; Waterworks Gallery and Loft Gallery in Miles City, Montana; and the Emerson Cultural Center and Lightwriter Gallery in Bozeman, Montana.
She was recently named a graduate fellow at the Center for Great Plains Studies, and her research focuses on the complex relationships between people and land.