The Clemente Center Announces Inaugural Van Lier Fellowship Recipients Jesús Hilario-Reyes and Tichacoco
The Clemente Center Announces Inaugural Van Lier Fellowship Recipients
Jesús Hilario-Reyes and Tichacoco
Awarded Studio Spaces, Professional Development, and $20,000 Stipend
Artists to Exhibit in Duo Exhibition at The Clemente in 2027
Left: Jesús Hilario-Reyes, photography by Chance Allen. Right: Tichacoco, image courtesy of Elephant Magazine.
New York, NY – April 27, 2026 – The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center is proud to announce artists Jesús Hilario-Reyes and Tichacoco as the inaugural recipients of its 2026–2027 Van Lier Fellowship. This residency supports two New York City-based visual artists between the ages of eighteen and thirty, providing them with resources including studio space and a $20,000 stipend. Tichacoco and Hilario-Reyes’s work will be shown in the 2026 Historias Reveladas building-wide exhibition and in their first major duo show: a dedicated exhibition in The Clemente’s newly renovated galleries in late 2027.
Executive Director for The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, Libertad Guerra states: “We are proud to award the Van Lier Fellowship to Tichacoco and Jesús Hilario-Reyes, a brand new program at The Clemente providing deep support to artists under thirty at pivotal moments in their career. Their artistic practices embody The Clemente’s commitment to expanding cultural and civic life by supporting bold, experimental, and community-engaged artists. I trust that they will benefit from the studio space in our historic building, and access to our network of curators, diversity of artists, and urban thinkers.”
Hilario-Reyes and Tichacoco’s practices both revolve around questions of identity, community, and the environment. Tichacoco works to reclaim narratives around indigenous and campesino communities, particularly in El Salvador and its diaspora, via performances, poetry, and sculptural costuming. Hilario-Reyes explores the intersections of collective experience, particularly those of queer communities, through nightlife and ecological systems, demonstrated through immersive installation and a rigorous, multidisciplinary performance practice.
The Van Lier Fellowship reflects The Clemente’s commitment to supporting emerging artists whose practices are bolstered by cultural exchange and critical engagement. In addition to the stipend, production support, and eighteen months of access to studio space, Tichacoco and Hilario-Reyes will have access to The Clemente’s archives and multidisciplinary creative programming. They will receive professional development through monthly mentorship with executive and curatorial leadership, and access to peer organizational networks in the Lower East Side, and the Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (LxNY), a coalition of more than 50 NYC based cultural organizations. The Van Lier fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in The Clemente’s citywide Historias initiative outside of their inclusion in the closing Historias Reveladas exhibition, including the opportunity to contribute to the Nueva York Chronicles digital archive.
The award is made possible by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund, established through the New York Community Trust, to continue the Van Liers’ legacy of arts appreciation by supporting arts groups and training programs. For more information, please visit theclementecenter.org.
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About Jesús Hilario-Reyes
Jesús Hilario-Reyes is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice investigates communal embodiment, nightlife, and ecological “slippage” through multimedia sculpture, installation, and performance. They hold a B.F.A. from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and an M.F.A. from the Yale University School of Art. Their work has been supported by residencies and fellowships including Fonderie Darling, BOFFO Performance Festival, the Bemis Center, Nave Proyecto, ACRE, Lighthouse Works, the Leslie-Lohman Museum, and Baldwin for the Arts.
About Tichacoco
Tichacoco is a Brooklyn-based artist whose work is informed by their identity as part of the Salvadoran diaspora, focusing on themes of memory, displacement, and the reclamation of narratives concerning indigenous and campesino communities. They hold a B.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2021) and have previously worked as a curator and museum educator, with residencies at Fernland Studios and the Curatorial Program for Research.
About the Van Lier Fellowship
The Van Lier Fellowship at The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center supports early-career visual artists in New York City between the ages of eighteen and thirty. Structured as an eighteen-month residency, the fellowship provides a $20,000 stipend, dedicated studio space, and access to The Clemente’s archives. Fellows receive professional development through mentorship with executive and curatorial leadership, as well as opportunities to engage with peer networks through the Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (LxNY). The program culminates in participation in The Clemente’s exhibitions and public programming. The fellowship is supported by the Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust.
About The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center
Founded in 1993, The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center is a Puerto Rican/Latinx multi-arts institution with an inclusive and international vision rooted in NYC’s Lower East Side/Loisaida. The Clemente engages diverse audiences in heritage preservation, neighborhood history, and cutting-edge multicultural experimentation, emphasizing the humanities’ role in bridging civic and cultural life.
As a downtown cultural mainstay for three decades, they focus on cultivating, presenting, and preserving Puerto Rican and Latinx culture while embracing a multi-ethnic and international perspective. Committed to operating in a polyphonic manner, The Clemente provides affordable spaces to artists, small arts organizations, and independent community producers, reflecting the rich cultural diversity of the Lower East Side and New York City. Guided by their namesake’s values of culturally grounded multigenerational leadership, local empowerment, and mutuality, The Clemente is a collaborative hub for creating and co-producing multidisciplinary contemporary work.
The Clemente is a proud co-founder/partner of LxNY Consortium and the Coalition of Small Arts NYC (CoSA NYC).
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For images, further background, or interviews, please contact:
Katrina Stewart
Account Manager, Visual Arts
Blue Medium
T: +1-212-675-1800
katrina@bluemedium.com