About the grant

This new grant initiative is for artists of any age who are in the early stages of their career as wax-media artists and who are seeking assistance to support their artistic and professional growth by engaging with an IEA Mentor.

In this initial round of grants, we are seeking to provide a $1000 stipend towards 12 hours of mentoring, over a six to twelve-month period, for three or more artists who have already taken initial steps to exhibit their work and to share it online.

Our Mentoring Grant initiative is named in honor of Melissa Morton Lackman's many contributions to the encaustic community through her leadership roles that spanned more than a decade. As IEA Grants Director, the position held until her recent passing, Melissa was passionate about getting support and resources out to IEA members through a variety of grant programs.

In conversations with Melissa over the past year, we realized that launching a mentorship program could fill a need for artists who are relatively new to encaustics, allowing them to benefit from the experience and wisdom of more established encaustic artists. A mentorship grant could, therefore, be a benefit for both new and experienced IEA members.

Sadly, Melissa died unexpectedly in early spring while undergoing treatment for leukemia.

Determined to bring Melissa's vision to fruition, IEA Board Members worked with a small group of mentors to launch a pilot round of the Melissa M. Lackman IEA Mentoring Grant initiative. We look forward to learning from this pilot and then expanding the mentorship program to include more mentors and to support more mentees in 2025.