Marlon Mullen, longtime artist at Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development Art Center (NIAD), joins Richmond artist Christy Chan as among 12 Bay Area recipients of the Fleishhacker Foundation’s prestigious Eureka Fellowship.
The Eureka Fellowship, one of Northern California’s most substantial artist grants, provides each awardee with $40,000 in unrestricted funds to use as they see fit, whether for materials, studio rent, research or travel.
The current cycle (2026–2028) distributes awards in groups of four annually, following a competitive nomination and application process. In January 2025, more than 100 Bay Area arts organizations were invited to nominate artists. Nearly 160 nominations were submitted, leading to more than 130 applications.
“NIAD is beyond thrilled to see Marlon Mullen’s work recognized with this award,” said Amanda Eicher, director of NIAD Art Center. “Falling within the same year as his solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, it is truly a milestone to see this acknowledgement of his career as a painter and as a member of the contemporary arts conversation in California.”
Mullen’s exhibition marked MoMA’s first solo exhibition for an artist with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Eicher congratulated all recognized artists, noting Chan and Oakland-based artist Sahar Khoury, also recognized as a Eureka Fellow, “have been deeply involved in NIAD’s studios as curatorial voices, workshop leaders, and collaborators.”
The awardees represent a wide variety of media and were chosen by a distinguished jury drawn from institutions outside the Bay Area. The jury included Dr. Rhea L. Combs, director of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.; Rosario Güiraldes, Curator of Visual Arts at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and Paul C. Ha, Director of the MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, MA.
For more information about the Eureka Fellowship Program, visit the Fleishhacker Foundation website.
