Artisphere names 2026 Emerging Artist Scholars ahead of Greenville festival
Artisphere has named three recipients of its 2026 Emerging Artist Scholarship: Evelyn Beck, Adam du Shole and Jenny Foley. Selected through a jury process, the artists will receive booth space and a spot in an exhibition workshop and will show their work May 8–10 in Downtown Greenville, joining 140 visual artists at the festival.
The scholarship program supports artists who have developed a significant body of work but are not yet earning a living as festival exhibitors. Textile artist Evelyn Beck came to fabric through a lifetime of sewing and a post-retirement return to the medium.
Drawn to its texture and malleability, she builds semi-abstract textile collages from hundreds of overlapping pieces, beginning with manipulated photographs on a computer before printing patterns, transferring them to freezer paper, and fusing the cut shapes to a fabric background.
She finishes each piece by quilting on a sewing machine to add depth and texture. Water and movement—echoes of her South Florida childhood—recur in her work, alongside themes of community and connection, including a piece depicting soldiers being rescued by a helicopter.
Beck holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in English from Florida State University, has exhibited in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia, and is a founding member of the Upcountry Fiber Artists. Her work has appeared on the covers of the 2022 and 2026 Multifaith Calendars and on the brochure cover of the 2020 Greater Greenville Master Gardeners Symposium.
She received an Emerging Artist Grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission and an artist grant from the City of Clemson Arts Center, and lives in Anderson, SC. Adam du Shole’s practice draws on a childhood spent near the water and a long fascination with myth and memory.
Born in Newport, RI to a Navy family, he moved frequently for 18 years across the United States. After earning a BA in Comparative Literature from Mercyhurst University, he taught ESL in Tokyo, where he renewed his interest in the arts. He later enrolled in the Rochester Institute of Technology’s MFA program in 2D Animation and moved to New York City, working across animation, advertising, design and visual merchandising.
Seeking space to develop his own work, he relocated to Greenville, SC and began combining painting, sculpture, storytelling and geometry. Du Shole describes his pieces as artifacts—fragments of the past retold through patterns and symbols inspired by ancient stories—occupying a space between painting and sculpture, using bold colors and modern design, with forms influenced by folk traditions.
Charleston, SC-based sculptor Jenny Foley explores the quiet meeting place between humanity and the natural world. Through figurative forms that intertwine storytelling, emotion and spirituality, she creates pieces that invite contemplation. The 2026 scholarship recipients will exhibit alongside 140 visual artists during Artisphere, scheduled for May 8–10 in Downtown Greenville.