Boston Art Review and Praise Shadows Art Gallery are pleased to announce our 2026 Emerging Boston Art Writing Fellows: Christian Jones, Rene Zhang, and Garry Nitz! These three fellows were selected from a competitive pool of 18- to 21-year-old applicants from across Greater Boston and represent our fourth cohort of fellows since 2022. During this paid, multi-semester program, fellows will be guided through a curriculum designed to introduce them to different forms of art writing, hone their voices, and learn the inner workings of a contemporary art gallery. They will participate in hands-on workshops and field trips with writers, editors, curators, nonprofit leaders, and media professionals, including but not limited to: Arielle Gray (WBUR), Cristela Guerra (Report for America), Dina Dietsch (Tufts University Art Galleries), Niara Hightower (Jupiter Magazine), and Jeffrey De Bois (ICA / Boston). The fellows will have opportunities to work at Praise Shadows Art Gallery and—by the end of the program—pitch a project that will be published on our platforms. We can’t wait to share more about what these fellows get up to in the coming months. If you see them out and about, please say hello!
Rene Zhang (she/they) is a student and artist from northern New Jersey. As a junior at the SMFA at Tufts University, she specializes in graphic design, print media, and exhibition production. She is currently on the Student Programming Committee at Tufts University Art Galleries. Zhang’s research interests include postmodernism, activist art, typography, diasporic heritage, and gender. Her most recent project was a curatorial proposal about teeth.
Christian Jones (he/him) is a Filipino-American writer and photographer from Chicago, currently pursuing a MA in writing, literature, and publishing with a minor in philosophy at Emerson College. He is co-editor-in-chief of milk crate and a freelance proofreader with Penguin Random House. He is a convener with The Jar and a self-proclaimed serial side-quester.
Garry Nitz is a West Virginia-born writer and student at Harvard University where he studies comparative literature and Black studies. As editor-in-chief of Indigo Magazine, Nitz’s writing explores contemporary Black art from the perspectives of critical theory and performance studies, with a specific interest in humor. He has previously worked with n+1 Magazine and McSweeney’s.
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If you’re interested in learning more about how to get involved with or support our writing fellows, please contact us.
Boston Art Review is supported through the BAR Giving Circle along with art_works, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston Cultural Council, Girlfriend Fund, and the Wagner Foundation.
If you’re interested in helping us sustain this program, please consider making a tax-deductible gift to support the next generation of arts writers Boston and beyond.
