DAMASCUS, PA— Tannis Kowalchuk, artistic director of Farm Arts Collective has received both national and state-wide recognition for her work leading Farm Arts Collective and directing Dream on the Farm, a multi-year environmental theatre performance on Willow Wisp Organic Farm.

Anonymous Was a Woman Award

Tannis received the prestigious national award called Anonymous Was a Woman administered through The New York Foundation for the Arts. The prize of $15,000 was awarded for her continued work on the Dream on the Farm a series of climate change and environmentally themed site-specific plays directed by Kowalchuk on Willow Wisp Organic Farm every summer.  Kowalchuk initiated the project in 2020 and the series enjoyed its seventh installment this year with a performance entitled “Johnny Appleseed: An Historical Fantasia.”

A total of 27 projects were selected from 1,206 applications by artists who focus on environmental issues and advocacy. The winners of the award include locations California, Guatemala, Iowa, New York, Nevada, Panama, Puerto Rico, Wisconsin, and for Tannis here in the Upper Delaware Region. “The extraordinary response to this year’s Environmental Art Grant makes clear how urgently artists are engaging with the climate crisis,” said Susan Unterberg, founder of Anonymous Was A Woman. “These projects don’t only call attention to environmental change—they preserve knowledge, strengthen communities, and imagine new ways of living with and caring for the world around us.”

PA Cultural Exchange Fellowship

Kowalchuk also received a fellowship from PA Humanities for PA Cultural Exchange (PaX), an inaugural program, wherein fellows will receive $10,000 and participate in a statewide exchange designed to strengthen Pennsylvania’s humanities and creative network.

Selected from 350 applicants, PA Cultural Exchange (PaX) consists of 50 Pennsylvania artists, storytellers, historians, educators, organizers, scholars, and other cultural leaders. The fellowship was created to strengthen and support cultural practitioners’ work and careers, help forge connections within the sector across regions and disciplines, and build a statewide network for learning, collaboration, and shared problem-solving. The 18-month PA Cultural Exchange consists of three core elements: immersive cultural exchanges in three Pennsylvania regions, $10,000 to support each fellow’s individual practice, and the creation of a statewide network of cultural practitioners. Tannis will travel to Pittsburgh for the first exchange in September followed by a gathering in spring 2027 in the PA Wilds and in fall 2027 in York.