Conference Fellowships

The MAFA Conference Fellowships were established to support guild and associate members working with fiber; to help promote, expand and preserve fiber arts; and to encourage the sharing of valuable information within the MAFA community and with the general public.

Each fellowship provides a cash award to a conference participant who will pass on learning from the conference within the MAFA region. The Fellow may do so in an educational setting, guild meeting, a study group, a public demonstration, or other appropriate venue.  The entire award is paid post-conference, once all program requirements are met. For 2025, MAFA will offer up to 10 Fellowships of $400 each to help offset the cost of a conference workshop.

Read the reports of previous Conference Fellows to see how they have approached their projects.

Eligibility

Fellowships are awarded based on the applicant’s involvement in and serious intention to promote fiber arts and the applicant’s commitment to document and report their fellowship activities to MAFA.

The applicant must be involved in the fiber arts, but may be at any level of expertise (novice, intermediate, experienced). Financial need is not a criterion. The applicant must be able to attend the upcoming MAFA Conference.

  • Fellowships are open to any member of a MAFA guild and to any MAFA associate member who lives in the MAFA region (CT, DE, DC, MD, NC, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV).
  • The applicant must be nominated by her/his MAFA guild* or by a teacher or mentor residing in the MAFA region.

*A guild may nominate more than one applicant.  However, it is highly unlikely that more than one applicant from a single guild will be selected.

Application Process and Timeline

  • Applicants must first register for the upcoming MAFA Conference.
  • Submit an online Fellowship application no later than April 15th.
    A downloadable Fellowship Application Preview is available.
  • Include a description of a proposed post-conference fellowship project, showing how the knowledge and skills acquired at the conference will be shared with others in the MAFA region. Specific details, such as time and place, may be added later.
  • Attach a letter of recommendation from an officer or board member of the sponsoring MAFA guild, or, if you are an Associate Member, from a teacher or mentor in the MAFA region. Alternately, the letter of recommendation may be submitted directly to grants@mafafiber.org. The application is incomplete until both the online form and the letter of recommendation are received.
  • You may save your work and return to it later.
  • All applicants will be notified of MAFA’s decision around May 15 of the conference year.

Fellowship Requirements

In order to receive her/his award, each fellowship recipient is expected to:

  • Attend the MAFA Conference and participate in their selected conference workshop.
  • After the conference, submit a written report finalizing plans for your fellowship project.  This is an opportunity to clarify or modify the original project plans from your application, as needed. This initial report may be published on the MAFA website, and is due by October 1st following the conference.
  • Plan to complete your proposed fellowship project no later than December, unless a later date is agreed to by the Grants Committee.
  • Submit a final fellowship project report including photographs.  Attach MAFA Photo Release forms, as needed, in accordance with MAFA’s photo release guidelines (see sidebar). This report and related photos, which will be published on the MAFA website, is due by January 5th, or 30 days after completion of the fellowship project.
  • Arrange for a guild officer or board member of the sponsoring guild (or your sponsoring teacher) to send a letter to the Grants Committee confirming completion of the fellowship project.

Reports and photographs should be submitted as email attachments to grants@mafafiber.org.  The reports should be suitable for posting on the MAFA website.  That is, do not include your email, phone number or other personal information.  Please attach the report rather than typing it into the body of the email.

For questions or more information, please contact the Grants Committee at grants@mafafiber.org.