Arts Foundation Kicks Off 2026 By Celebrating Jackie Reeves and Lauren Wolk as its Artists of the Year
Credit: Photo by Julia Cumes and Lipe Borges
Pair will be recognized at celebration on April 1st at Cotuit Center for the Arts. RSVP here
January 5, 2026 (Cape Cod, MA) – For the first time since the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod launched its Artist of the Year in 2022, it is recognizing two artists for the award which celebrates a Cape-based artist whose work shapes thought, inspires change, and creates a deeper sense of connection in the community.
The Arts Foundation has selected multidisciplinary artist Jackie Reeves of Sandwich, and author, poet, and visual artist Lauren Wolk of Centerville, as its 2026 Artists of the Year.
“Individually, both Jackie and Lauren would be perfect choices for this award, but together through The InkLine Project they are shining a bright light on how artists can work collaboratively to use art to positively express their thoughts and feelings about important issues facing our lives, our communities, our country, and our world,” said Arts Foundation Executive Director Julie Wake. “Over the course of this year, we look forward to celebrating the meaningful difference that both Jackie and Lauren have made and continue to make on Cape Cod and beyond through their work.”
“To share this spotlight with Lauren is very special,” said Reeves who was lived on Cape Cod since 1995. “It has already inspired me to think bigger about where I’m going as an artist. I feel like I am not winding down, but I am just ramping up. I think it is going to inspire a deeper connection to my individual practice as well as the work I’m doing with Lauren.”
“My whole life, I’ve worked on my craft, so I really appreciate this honor,” Wolk said. “I am so happy to be sharing this award with somebody who really deserves this recognition. Jackie is not only a great artist, but a great person I’ve known for 19 years. Through The InkLine Project, I’ve come to know her in a new way. She really is a stellar human being.”
As part of the award, the Arts Foundation will celebrate the pair at a reception at the Cotuit Center for the Arts on Wednesday, April 1st, 5:30 -7 pm. To register for the free event, visit artsfoundation.org.
Reeves and Wolk will also participate in a panel discussion with the previous Artists of the Year — painter Jo Hay (2022) of Provincetown, multimedia artist Mark Adams (2023) of Truro, photographer Julia Cumes (2024) of Brewster, and visual artist Joe Diggs (2025) of Osterville — to talk about their work, the creative process, and the role of art in addressing societal issues.
And they will appear as guests on the upcoming season of the Arts Foundation’s Creative Exchange podcast.
In December 2024, Reeves reached out to Wolk, sending her a one-and-a-half-minute animation that depicted the figure of a woman born out of a creature with wings. She asked Wolk if she had any poetry to go as a voiceover with the video.
“I added words which were inspired by the images and added some music,” said Wolk. That was the first of 32 separate InkLines the pair have created since then, combining visual art with animation with poetry with spoken words with music.
The films were accepted into last year’s Provincetown International Film Festival and won an award at The Williamsburg International Film and Music Competition. They have also been screened locally at both the Cape Cinema in Dennis, and the Cotuit Center for the Arts. In June 2025, they received a $4,500 grant from the Arts Foundation in support of the project.
They have submitted the shorts to more film festivals this year with the goal of showing them at other venues, including high schools, colleges, museums, and theatres.
“This is a nice counterbalance to the longer work I do,” said Wolk of the project. “This is so immediate. I get the InkLine from Jackie and I usually sit down right away and crank out the words before finding music. We really want to maintain a sense of spontaneity and freedom as we make these films.”
Reeves said it has given the pair a third space in which to work creatively. “Through this, I feel like I’ve gotten into Lauren’s mind and I’m hearing her poetry and seeing how she interprets my artwork,” said Reeves. “It is such a mystery how she writes and how she does it so quickly.”
It has allowed both Wolk and Reeves to broaden their creative voices.
Born in Montreal into a family of artists – both of her parents were architects – Reeves has explored the power of art her entire life. When she arrived on Cape Cod in 1995 with her husband Bruce, her initial foray into the arts was creating murals in public and private spaces. That eventually evolved into her own practice which is rooted in experimentation and a deep engagement with the human figure.
Her paintings have been exhibited throughout New England and nationally, and her work has been featured in The Boston Globe, WHITEHOT Magazine, Art New England, and Artscope. Her talent has been recognized with awards and fellowships supporting artistic excellence and community engagement.
Reeves holds an MFA in painting from Massachusetts College of Art and Design through the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She maintains her studio practice at the Old Schoolhouse Studios in Barnstable Village, while sharing her knowledge and expertise with others as an educator in classes and public programs across the Cape.
In addition to being named Artist of the Year, Reeves will be having a solo exhibit of her work at the Provincetown Art Association and Museum (PAAM), which is being curated by artist Bert Yarborough and which opens in early May and runs through mid-July.
She also is one of 17 artists tapped to create a sculpture for the Art Complex Museum in Duxbury, as part of its upcoming exhibit, Under Construction: America at 250, which opens on June 14th and runs through August 29th, 2027, in recognition of America’s 250th birthday.
2026 is also shaping up as a busy one for Wolk whose 5th novel, Cande Island, will be released in paperback this spring. It was first published as a hardcover by Penguin Random House last April.
Wolk will release her first-ever picture book, The Outermost Mouse, in May 2026. It tells the story of a mouse who lives in The Outermost House on Nauset Beach as the Blizzard of ’78 approaches.
And at the end of 2026, she will team up with Brett Warren for an exhibit at the Cape Cod Museum of Art. It will feature assemblage and mixed media created by Wolk and poetry by Warren, pieces that are primarily focused on the natural world.
“I really want to keep the engine running because 2025 was a very, very challenging year for all of us, whether we admit it or not,” Wolk said. “I got through it because I kept myself busy creatively. I wish I didn’t have wolves nipping at my heels, but I do like being busy and being productive, and I hope 2026 is as productive as last year.”
An author, Wolk had her first novel, Those Who Favor Fire, published by Random House in 1999. Her second, Wolf Hollow, was a New York Times bestselling novel published by Dutton in 2016. It won a 2017 Newbery Honor, the 2016 New England Book Award, a 2017 Jane Addams Honor, and the 2018 Massachusetts Book Award, among other honors.
The following year, Dutton published Wolk’s Beyond the Bright Sea which won the 2018 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and was short-listed for the New England Book Award and the Carnegie Award (U.K.). Echo Mountain (2020) was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. Wolk followed that up with My Own Lightning, a sequel to Wolf Hollow, which was released in 2022. Collectively, her books have won over 50 state book awards.
Wolk is the Massachusetts Reading Association’s 2024 Children’s Literature Award winner.
A 1981 graduate of Brown University, Wolk has worked as a writer for the Battered Women’s Project at the St. Paul American Indian Center; a senior editor with a Toronto publisher; a high school English and creative writing teacher; and, from 2007 to 2021, the Associate Director of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod in South Yarmouth.
The Arts Foundation’s Artist of the Year is made possible through support from William Raveis Real Estate, Donald C. McGraw Foundation, South Shore Playhouse Associates, Cape Cod Foundation, Cape and Coast Bank, Cape Cod 5 Foundation, John K. & Thirza F. Davenport Foundation, Coca-Cola Beverages Northeast, and the Arts Foundation’s Patron Program.
For information on supporting the Arts Foundation’s Artist of the Year, contact Amy Tuttle at atuttle@artsfoundation.org or 508-362-0066, ext. 2.
Learn more about Lauren Wolk at her website here. And learn more about Jackie Reeves at her website here.
