Two SMFA alumni—Ridley Howard (MFA '99) and Daniel Rich (MFA '04)—are among the 2012 New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Artist Fellowship recipients. A total of 94 Fellowships of $7,000 each were awarded in Fiction; Film/Video; Folk/Traditional Arts; Interdisciplinary Work, and Painting disciplines.

Howard lives and works in Brooklyn. Leo Koenig Gallery says Howard's practice, "...spans over a decade and grows out of a personal amalgamation of experience, fiction, illustration, cinema, design, and the history of painting."

Rich also lives and works in Brooklyn. According to Peter Blum Gallery, "Rich translates photographs into paintings that question the iconographic role architecture has played in politics and its historical use as an icon for the propagation of certain sociopolitical and religious beliefs."

First launched in 1985, NYFA's competitive Artist Fellowship Program has provided over $26 million in unrestricted cash grants to artists in 15 disciplines at critical stages in their careers. Past recipients include the winners of five Academy Awards, five Tony Awards, eight Pulitzer Prizes and 15 MacArthur "Genius" Fellowships. The funds can be used in any manner the artists deem necessary to further their careers.