Tanisha Brown and Yvonne Manipon Awarded 2025 Roger Welsch Opportunity Fund
Congratulations to Tanisha Brown (Artist Development Director, South Carolina Arts Commission) and Yvonne Manipon (Arts Specialist, Folk and Traditional Arts Program, Hawai’i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts), who are recipients of the 2025 Roger Welsch Opportunity Fund.
In 2023, the American Folklore Society received a gift from the Welsch family in honor of Nebraska folklorist and storyteller Roger Welsch. The Roger Welsch Opportunity Fund is an endowed fund that will support travel and attendance to the AFS Annual Meeting for those who are practicing in the field as folklorist professionals or students who are new to AFS, to have an opportunity to participate in the Annual Meeting and learn with others in the field.
Tanisha N. Brown is a multi-disciplined artist-entrepreneur, arts administrator, leadership developer, and business consultant. She received an associate degree from Midlands Technical College and studied Theatre, Speech, and Dance at the University of South Carolina, from which she received a bachelor’s degree in Media Arts. She has worked in multiple industries from marketing and IT to higher education and municipal business, and she thrives in the arts. Before joining the staff of the SC Arts Commission (SCAC), she was the Office Manager of One Columbia for Arts & Culture, the city’s Local Arts Agency. Brown has served on many boards, including Columbia Opportunity Resource (COR), PhotoSC, and the Midlands Housing Alliance for the Transitions Homeless Center.
Tanisha enjoys driving economic development within her home state through advocacy and amplification of local arts and culture. As Artist Development Director at SCAC, she provides leadership related to building and sustaining support for individual artists throughout the state, in all disciplines, and at various stages in their professional careers. Her current focus includes mentoring Emerging Artists and Artists’ Business Initiative grantees. Brown’s recent highlights include being the recipient of Columbia Regional Business Report’s 2024 Columbia Regional Women of Influence Award and listing in Marquis Who’s Who in America.
Yvonne Manipon is the Arts Program Specialist for Folk and Traditional Arts at the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. A museum educator, art instructor, and plein air painter, her work explores the natural and cultural landscapes of Hawai‘i. She holds an MA in Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA in Fine and Applied Arts and Art History from the University of Oregon. Yvonne is deeply committed to inclusive, place-based cultural programming and is passionate about supporting advanced, sustained training and mentorship for the next generation of cultural practitioners—helping to build the cultural capacity of Hawai‘i’s living traditions.
Join us in welcoming Tanisha and Yvonne to the Annual Meeting in Atlanta and online!
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