Isaac James ’27 Awarded VMFA Fellowship

By Brian Laubscher
March 6, 2026

Washington and Lee University student Isaac James '27 was one of 24 professional artists and college students statewide selected to receive the Visual Arts Fellowship from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA).

The VMFA awarded $154,000 in fellowships to professional artists as well as graduate and undergraduate students. James was one of five undergraduate students who were selected to receive a $4,000 fellowship award. Additionally, 12 professional artists received $8,000 each, five graduate students were awarded a $6,000 fellowship, one student received a half fellowship award of $2,000 and one student received the Cy Twombly Graduate Fellowship valued at $6,000.

A studio art and mathematics double major from Charlottesville, Virginia, James submitted a project titled "Photographs from Beede Warp," a series of 12 prints produced as a final project in professor of art Christina Bowden's Experimental Photography class. His winning project, submitted at the suggestion of his major adviser Leigh Beavers, instructor of art, featured photographs made through a technique of exposing silver gelatin photographic paper using lasers and prisms. Prints from James' winning project are part of an exhibition currently on view in the Wilson Hall Tiny Gallery.

"I am so incredibly humbled by the encouragement from my mentors and friends, professors Bowden and Beavers, Liz Ligouri, Christine Carr and Elena Lee," said James. "Without their dedication and generosity, none of this would be possible. I truly stand on the backs of giants. The opportunity to express the beauty of creation is a privilege I hold with the greatest care and reverence."

Established in 1940 through a contribution by John Lee Pratt of Fredericksburg, Virginia, VMFA's Visual Arts Fellowship program is a vital source of funding for visual arts and art history in the Commonwealth. The museum has awarded more than $6.5 million in fellowship awards to Virginians since its inception. Recipients of VMFA's Visual Arts Fellowship must be residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia and may use the money they receive as they desire.

"As a student-artist, this fellowship has given me the financial confidence to continue to pursue experimental photography," said James. "I would like to continue my work in electromagnetography on larger-scale papers, perhaps incorporating multiple exposures or implementing collage techniques. I hope that a larger scale of these prints will fully capture the haunting beauty of these refraction forms."

Located in Richmond, Virginia, the VMFA is one of the largest comprehensive art museums in the U.S. The VMFA opened in 1936 as a state agency and privately endowed educational institution. Its purpose is to collect, preserve, exhibit and interpret art and to encourage the study of the arts.

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