DONATE: This giving season, support NBAF’s year-round arts programming!
DONATE

HORIZON
AWARDS

NBAF’s Horizon Awards for Emerging Artists seeks to help aspiring emerging artists of African descent to scale their careers. The award is highly competitive and grants the recipient in each category with a $10,000 awards package to fund their practice.

Winning emerging artists have been working in their respective fields for at least three to seven years, have a proven track record of success, and have dedicated themselves to a career in their field.

NBAF’s Horizon Awards for Emerging Artists seeks to help aspiring emerging artists of African descent to scale their careers. The award is highly competitive and grants the recipient in each category with a $10,000 awards package to fund their practice.  

Winning emerging artists have been working in their respective fields for at least three to seven years, have a proven track record of success, and have dedicated themselves to a career in their field.

2024 HORIZON AWARD FOR EMERGING ARTISTS

This invite-only competition awards 1 emerging artist of African descent with a $10,000 prize to fund their practice. In honor of NBAF's 2024 Celebration Under the Stars concert, NBAF limited this year’s candidates to emerging Musicians!

2024 HORIZON AWARD WINNER

ANGELICA HAIRSTON

HARPIST

About the Artist

Angelica Hairston is an Atlanta-based harpist, educator, sound practitioner, and change-maker.

Renowned for her mastery of the harp and dedication to amplifying the voices of the African Diaspora, her performances intersect wellness and liberation, drawing global acclaim and garnering notable engagements like her 2023 Artist Residency at Palm Heights Resort in Grand Cayman, and 2024 appearances at esteemed venues like Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Woodruff Arts Center.

As the recipient of the prestigious 2023 Sphinx Organization’s MPower Artist Grant, Angelica was invited to perform and conduct groundbreaking research at the University of Ghana in Accra. Her dedication to equity in the arts has earned her widespread recognition, including being one of the youngest recipients of the Georgia Governor’s Awards for the Arts & Humanities and the 2020 Atlanta Magazine Women Making a Mark Award, both of which honor her significant contributions to Georgia’s cultural and civic landscape. Angelica has also performed concertos with renowned orchestras such as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Montgomery Symphony, and Daytona Solisti Chamber Orchestra, and has appeared at the International Harp Academy of the Pacific in Vancouver, Canada, and the Judith Liber Academy in Lake Como, Italy.

Angelica holds certifications in Music Therapy and Sound Healing from the University of the District of Columbia, a Master of Music Industry Leadership as a 2015 MLK Fellow from Northeastern University, and a Bachelor of Music from The Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where she studied under world-renowned harpist Judy Loman. In addition to her performance career, she serves as the visionary founder and Executive Director of Challenge the Stats, an Atlanta-based nonprofit empowering artists of color to use music as a tool for social justice.

For bookings and to remain updated on Angelica's impactful work, please visit her website at www.angelicahairston.com or follow her on Instagram @angelharpist.

2023 HORIZON AWARD WINNER

CHRISTIAN NOLAN JONES

FILMMAKER

About the Artist

Christian Nolan Jones was raised in Atlanta, GA and attended Howard University & New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. He honed his creative skills shooting music videos for artists such as Cam'ron, A Boogie, and French Montana.

In 2022, Christian’s latest short film, GLITTER AIN’T GOLD, won the Special Jury Award for Directing and Community Filmmaking at the famed South By Southwest Film Festival. It recently premiered online via Short of the Week and was selected as a Vimeo Staff Pick. That same year, he directed an episode of Issa Rae's latest show, RAP ISH, for HBO Max. He’s currently developing his debut feature film, KINFOLK, which is set to be produced in 2024.

2022 HORIZON AWARD WINNERS

Ayana
Ross

Visual Artist

About the Artist

Ayana Ross (b. 1977) is a Georgia native, currently living and working in McDonough and Atlanta, Georgia respectively. Ross received a MA in Painting from Savannah College of Art and Design (2021), a MA in Liberal Art from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (2014) and a BS in Design and Merchandising from Georgia Southern University (2000). As a full time artist, Ross has received recognition as the 2021 Bennett Prize winner and is a current Mint Atlanta Leap Year fellow.

Ross’ work has exhibited in a number of group shows including the Bennett Prize, Rising Voices traveling exhibition, and featured in publications, including American Art Collector magazine. Her work is in notiable collections, including the Bennett Collection, the Kent Kelley Collection and the SCAD permanent collection. In 2023 Ross will have her first solo museum exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, MI, which will travel the US from 2023-2025.

Malesha J. Taylor

Music

About the Artist

Malesha Jessie Taylor is an Atlanta-based vocal artist, songwriter and collaborator. She is also the Founder of museSalon Collaborative, the recent Curator in Residence with Art on the Atlanta BeltLine. Their recent PolyRhythmiQ Juneteenth Festival featured the premiere of her original song with Salah Ananse, Okorie Johnson and the Atlanta Music Project Youth Choir entitled, “Claiming a Black Future,” which we hope to release and perform this fall with NBAF!

Malesha composed and recorded, “Becoming,” a vocal soundtrack to accompany the artwork of Charly Palmer alongside cellist, Okorie Johnson and producer, Salah Ananse as seen in “Departure” at Hammond House Museum. Malesha also composed the song “Rite to Freedom,” the vocal soundtrack resounding inside Charmaine Minniefield’s Praise House Project in residence at Emory University. Malesha’s AfroHouse Single “Free,” which is in the dance music compilation AfroHouse Essentials Vol. 15 with LW Recordings.

Natrice
Miller

Film

About the Artist

Natrice Miller is photographer/filmmaker whose personal work focuses on documenting the Black experience in America. Clients and publications include The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The United Negro College Fund. She graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Journalism and Graphic Communication in 2005. In addition to exhibiting photography in Atlanta and The U.S., her short films have shown at The NBAF Resurgence Black Film Festival, Crassh Film Festival in Cambridge, England and Atlanta Contemporary. She currently resides in Atlanta with her husband and son.

2021 HORIZON AWARD WINNERS

Victor
Jackson

Music

Jamie
Harris

Visual Arts

Nakia
Stephens

Film
linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram