“I’m an artist that makes weird work,” remarked Daniela Rivera, Professor of Studio Art at Wellesley. “Well, not weird, but some of the pieces are too large, or some of them are to be seen and used during an exhibition period. They get dismantled and they don’t exist anymore, so supporting my practice is really hard.”

Last month, Rivera was named one of three recipients of the inaugural Wagner Arts Fellowship, a new initiative recognizing socially engaged visual artists in Greater Boston. She joins visual activist and public historian L’Merchie Frazier and painter-sculptor Wen-ti Tsen in receiving the award, which includes a $75,000 unrestricted grant and access to supplemental professional development services such as financial planning, career consulting and legal support. Recipients are nominated anonymously by their peers, underscoring the respect and recognition they have earned among the artistic community. 

Rivera, who started teaching at Wellesley 16 years ago, highlighted how this unique opportunity can be transformational for an artist. “I think the most important thing about this fellowship is how it’s being done, also putting you in touch with professional consultants to make a sustainable practice. I’m discovering aspects of being an artist that I didn’t even know after being an artist for so many years.”

Drawing heavily from her upbringing in Chile and immigration experience to America, Rivera’s work explores themes of migration, displacement and belonging. 

“I started thinking of my awareness of art and culture. How was it built?” Rivera explained, “And it was built through a lot of information brought from the West, through colonization, mixing with what’s already there. And that was sort of like the thing that was creating my identity.” 

Distance from the influences constituting her identity allowed her to reflect on their scale, in turn appearing in her artwork. 

“I started to think about cultural migration from before the Spaniards arrived. In the continent we had influence from the Inca Empire and Mapuche people — all of these things created clashes and mixed different types of formations of identity. And then the influence of colonial, religious and Catholic imagery. So being [in Boston], I started looking at those influences and types of movements from a distance, and I started thinking about all of those moments at a global scale, and became really interested in displacement, migration and ideas of belonging and experiences of belonging, too.”

In an interview with The Wellesley News, Abigail Satinsky, Program Officer and Curator of Arts and Culture at the Wagner Foundation, spoke to what success looks like for the inaugural fellowship. To Satinsky, it’s about community and long-term impact: “[I hope] Boston is known for a place that supports its artists, and that when people come to come through town they see that there’s an active civic discourse that involves artists that are part of the conversation. And so in doing this, we hope to establish, you know, as an annual program that will continue into the future, that there will be more and more artists that see themselves as part of this cohort, that feel like that. This is a place that they can stay.”

The fellowship will culminate with the artists presenting their work at the MassArt Art Museum as part of an exhibition titled “GENERATIONS,” organized by the Wagner Foundation to coincide with the launch of the 2025 Boston Public Art Triennial, an ambitious citywide showcase of public art commissions. Running from May 22 to November 30, “GENERATIONS” will offer Boston residents the chance to engage with the fellows’ socially engaged pieces.

As for what to expect from Rivera? For her, support received from the Wagner Foundation has been a “big incentive to keep working and also expand the work outside of the studio.” Besides showing some other pieces that are relatively recent, she will be creating a completely new piece for the “GENERATIONS” exhibition. Here at Wellesley, we certainly cannot wait to see what’s in store.