More than 2000 entries were received by the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for its fellowship program, but the field was narrowed to 180 winners from "51 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields."
Gary Abbott, a professor of dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Philip Heying, a photographer in Matfield Green, Kansas were each awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Heying admits he's not used to the attention that has come with the honor and it's made him "a little nervous." The reason, Heying says is, "when you get an award like this, you got to represent. You got to really step it up."
For Gary Abbott, he's still "flying high" to have joined the ranks of previous fellows like choreographers Alvin Ailey and Martha Graham.
The funding that comes with the fellowship creates for Abbott "excitement around the possibility and the freedom that it sort of affords you to create more."
- Philip Heying, photographer
- Gary Abbott, dance choreographer
