#  Meet the 2026 Artist Development Fellowship Recipients 

 





April 22, 2026

 

 

 

    ![Photos of the 2026 OFA Artist Development Fellows](/sites/g/files/omnuum4081/files/styles/hwp_1_1__960x960_scale/public/2026-04/2026%20OFA%20Artist%20Development%20Fellows.jpeg?itok=tWbxv23r) 

 



 

 Top (from left): Andrew Kang ’27, Cory Maxwell’28, EJ Barthelemy ’27, Lara Tan Rui Qi ’27, Madeline Phuong ’27, Richardine Mamam Nbiba ’27, Yael Danon ’28, Sheerea Yu ’27



   

THE OFFICE FOR THE ARTS ANNOUNCES 8 UNDERGRADUATE ARTISTS TO RECEIVE ARTIST DEVELOPMENT FELLOWSHIPS

The Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Office of the Dean for the Arts and Humanities announce the 2026 recipients of the annual [Artist Development Fellowships](/node/1382613). The program supports the artistic development of students demonstrating unusual accomplishments and/or evidence of significant artistic promise. The program is administered by the OFA, the [Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships](https://uraf.harvard.edu/) and the [Mignone Center for Career Success](https://careerservices.fas.harvard.edu/), and is open to sophomores and juniors, and seniors in extraordinary circumstances, currently enrolled in Harvard College.

Learn more about opportunities offered by the [Office for the Arts](https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/).

## Literature

**Andrew Kang ’27,** a resident of Dunster House concentrating in Social Studies and Statistics, is awarded a Fellowship to conduct research for a novella about Democratic primaries and the volunteers who staff them, and to attend the Kenyon Writers workshop. Kang leads the Harvard Undergraduate Meditation Club and volunteers with the Petey Greene Program. He has studied with Raven Leilani and Namwali Serpell.

**Richardine (Richie) Mamam Nbiba ’27,** a resident of Adams House pursuing an honors concentration in English, has been awarded a fellowship to support the development of a poetry manuscript titled *Poems of a Borough on Fire: How the Bronx Burned Black*. Her creative and critical work engages documentary poetry, poetic experiment, and archival research to examine urban history, Black life, and the afterlives of fire, displacement, and cultural memory in the South Bronx. She served on the Poetry Board and Executive Board of *The Harvard Advocate*. Richie will present her manuscript at the CMES Disaster Studies Colloquium, with a focus on writing about disasters.

**Sheerea Yu ’27,** a resident of Currier House concentrating in Social Studies and English, is awarded a Fellowship to support the writing of a narrative novella researched during travel from Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Shenandoah National Park. In 2025, Yu won the Harvard English Department’s Edward Eager Memorial Prize for Prose. At Harvard, she studied fiction with Teju Cole and Paul Yoon. She is currently an Intern and Fiction Reader at *Harvard Review*, a Poetry Board member of *The Harvard Advocate*, and a News Executive at *The Harvard Crimson*.

## Music

**Yael Danon ’28,** a resident of Quincy House, is a Harvard-Berklee joint studies student, singer-songwriter, and co-producer, awarded a fellowship to support songwriting and production activities in New York City culminating in the completion of her album *Evil Eye*. Her music blends Middle Eastern and alternative Latin influences, with a focus on storytelling and genre exploration. She has performed at the Sanremo Music Festival in Italy, opened for Sebastián Yatra in Panama, and will perform at Harvard's Yardfest on April 19th, opening for Ravyn Lenae. She released her debut album *Diary Girl* in 2023. Alongside her artistic work, she founded “The Mix Network,” a cross-university music industry community spanning multiple Boston schools with 400+ members, supporting emerging artists and students pursuing careers on the business side of music.

**Cory Maxwell ’28,** a resident of Mather House and a double concentrator in South Asian Studies and Mathematics, is awarded a fellowship to travel to Tamil Nadu, India to engage in intensive study of the vina (a South Indian lute) in the Karaikudi tradition at Brhaddhvani. Maxwell is a trombonist with the Harvard Jazz Orchestra and has also served as a pit member for musicals. A student of Carnatic (South Indian classical) music, Maxwell’s fellowship plans will build on previous study of the vina begun in 2025 in South India.

**Lara Tan Rui Qi ’27,** a resident of Cabot House double concentrating in Music and Government with a secondary in European Hist, Politics & Society, is awarded a fellowship to attend the Oxenfoord International Summer School where she will attend masterclasses in opera, art song, and chamber music. A Singaporean-Malaysian soprano, Lara has performed with ensembles such as the Singapore Symphony Children’s Choir, New Opera Singapore, the Harvard University Choir, Harvard College Opera, Bach Society Orchestra, and Handel and Haydn Society. Equally passionate about music scholarship, performance, and administration, she has held leadership and production positions in various Harvard arts organizations, including the University Choir, HCO, and Lowell House Opera.

## Visual Arts

**Ethan-Judd “EJ” Barthelemy ’27,** a resident of Winthrop House pursuing a double concentration in Art, Film, and Visual Studies and Economics, is awarded a Fellowship to develop *Daydreams*, a photography project documenting working- and middle-class Gen Z at the threshold of adulthood in New Jersey that will serve as the visual foundation for a narrative feature film of the same title. President of *Indigo Magazine*, Barthelemy has worked in film and media at Lionsgate and NEON Rated, and his work has been featured in *The Harvard Advocate* and galleries in Cambridge, MA and Exeter, NH.

**Madeline L. Phuong ’27,** a resident of Adams House pursuing a double concentration in Sociology and Art, Film and Visual Studies with a secondary in Ethnicity, Migration, Rights, is awarded a Fellowship to observe immigration hearings in San Francisco, CA and explore the rituals of due process through urban sound studies and digital wood carvings. An Officer of the Refugee Fieldwork Program, Phuong has been involved in migrant resettlement in Massachusetts, immigration legal services in Minnesota, and refugee camp education in Epirus, Greece. She is currently a research assistant on refugee-related projects at the Harvard Department of Sociology and the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies.

**Council on the Arts members at the time of selection were:**   
Sean Kelly (Chair) Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy; Dean of Arts and Humanities; Remo Airaldi, American Repertory Theater; Lecturer on Theater, Theater, Dance & Media; Alicia Anstead, Producer, Harvard Arts Festival; Associate Director for Programming and Communications, OFA; Daniel Chong, Professor of the Practice in Music, Parker Quartet; Fiona Coffey, Director, OFA; Angélica Durrell, Director of Programs, OFA; Elizabeth Epsen, Manager of College Dance, OFA Dance Program; Phillip Howze, Associate Senior Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media; Ruth Stella Lingford, Senior Lecturer on Art, Film and Visual Studies; Laura Quinton, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media; Matt Saunders, Professor of Arts, Film and Visual Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies; Yosvany Terry, Senior Lecturer on Music, Director of the Jazz Orchestra; Laura van den Berg, Senior Lecturer, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English