Greenfield Community College art professor and photographer Tom Young has been awarded a 2007 Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship. This is an honor anyone would be proud of but, this is not the first time he has received one of these prestigious and competitive financial awards — it's his fifth over the past 25 years.

Every other year between 300 and 600 people apply for the award and only about half a dozen people are recognized in each category. So, for Young to have won this award five times is quite a feat. "It's great when the state gives you recognition — and a chunk of money," he quipped. "I feel lucky and I feel somewhat humbled." The grants range from $5,000 to $7,500 and are given so that artists feel supported in their work and can use that money to free up time to work or to buy materials. Young was awarded $7,500.

The Fellows and finalists for the award in photography are on display in Watertown, outside of Boston. The show is at the Arsenal Center at 321 Arsenal St. The show, called "In Sights: Photography by award-winning Massachusetts artists," will be on display until Nov. 18. The work Young has on display there is a series called "Timeline." "They are landscape as personal narrative. I tell stories about myself and my life though looking at the landscape and weaving into the pictures images of other things that relate to the feeling or content of the landscape image," Young said.

Each work is usually a main photograph with a series of smaller contextual images and sometimes text running across the top or bottom. They are large images at 24 by 30 inches. This summer they were on exhibited at the Hallmark Museum of Contemporary Photography in Turners Falls and some of his work is also on display in the South Gallery at GCC's main campus. Young said he is proud of being honored by the state, not just for himself, but for GCC. He said that all the art teachers in the department are producing artists who exhibit their work around the country and in some cases, like Young's, around the world.

"Our students do very well after graduation, and that is in part because we are producing artists who are connected with the art world at large," Young said. Young teaches a photography course at GCC each semester for the joint program with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Students at GCC can take courses at the Greenfield campus and get credit for them towards at Bachelor's of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) in Photography or Painting from the Mass College of Art and design. "I'm really proud of that and it gives the community access to a world class institution here in Greenfield" Young said.

More information about the Mass Cultural Council can be found at https://www.massculturalcouncil.org. From that page, you can also view Young's photography, as well as art works from other recipients of the grant, by clicking on the "Gallery@MCC" icon in the lower right corner of the page.