Lana Bellamy reports for the Times Union that the MacArthur Foundation has named Sky Hopinka, an assistant professor at Bard College, a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. He will receive an $800,000 no-strings-attached stipend known as a "genius grant." The award is given to "extraordinarily talented and creative" people as an investment in their potential, according to an October 11, news release from Bard. Hopinka is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and a descendant of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño [Lou-eh-SAYN-oh] Indians. His work has been shown at numerous film festivals, including Sundance, the Toronto International Film Festival and the Chicago Underground Film Festival. He was also an inaugural fellow at Forge Project, the Indigenous-focused arts organization in Taghanic, which recently announced a partnership with Bard to support Indigenous studies. The MacArthur Foundation in a statement praised Hopinka's ability to layer imagery, sound and text to "create an innovative cinematic language." Prospective fellows are nominated anonymously by leaders in their respective fields and an anonymous selection committee considers the submissions. Fellowship recipients learn they have been chosen via a phone call from the MacArthur Foundation before the public announcement. Artist Paul Chan, a 2003 Bard alumnus, was also named a MacArthur fellow this year. Read the full story in the Times Union.