I am thrilled to announce that this July I have received an Assets for Artists grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. Additional funding comes from the US Department of Agriculture, the New England Foundation for the Arts and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA).

Here is the text from the Assets for Artists "Artist Spotlight" webpage:

http://assetsforartists.org/2015/06/15/artist-spotlight-maria-scaglione/

Photographer Maria Scaglione is another fabulous new creative in our rural Rhode Island program. Maria creates fine art and commercial photography from her studio in Westerly, RI.

Maria works primarily in portraiture. Maria’s lineage is Italian-American, and many of her portraits feature members of her immediate family, carrying on their old-world traditions in small-town America. Her portraits feature these eclectic, familial characters in intimate spaces; Maria refers to her images as a “small museum of humanity filled with dreams and desires.” Maria’s portraiture is striking both for its eccentricity and its tenderness.

Maria also works commercially from her Westerly studio, with a focus on
weddings and engagements. Drawing from her experience in portraiture and photo journalism, Maria effortlessly captures the full emotion of a couple’s special day.

Maria earned her B.F.A. from Rhode Island College with a focus in Sculpture. She received her M.F.A. from the School of Visual of Arts for photography and related media. Maria also studied in northern Italy and apprenticed in a marble-carving studio under master crafter Alessandra Ricci, where she learned to carve marble with pneumatic tools and by hand. Maria has shown her work in such venues as the Newport Art Museum in Newport RI, Kiernan Gallery in Lexington, VA, the Essex Art Gallery in Essex, CT, Slater Museum in Norwich CT, and Thread Waxing Space in New York, NY. She has received the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Fellowship in Photography and the Anthony Cerino Fellowship from the School of Visual Arts.