We are proud to announce the fifth cohort of WaterFire Accelerate, a year-long professional development program supporting artists under 30 as they build sustainable creative careers while living and working in Rhode Island.
Supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, WaterFire Accelerate provides emerging artists with mentorship, professional training, and real-world opportunities that strengthen both artistic practice and entrepreneurial skills. The program responds to a growing need among early-career artists seeking pathways to remain in Rhode Island while developing long-term creative careers and professional networks.
The fifth cohort includes six prolific young artists: Aja Delgado, Pamela Fernández, Liam Fifer, Yasmine Hassan, Amelia Rozear, and Rachel Turner; spanning a variety of mediums, from illustration and film photography to mixed media and printmaking. The new WaterFire Accelerate cohort embarks on their journey this month and will culminate in a group exhibition at the WaterFire Arts Center gallery in Fall 2026, continuing WaterFire’s commitment to supporting the next generation of Rhode Island artists, while engaging in monthly meetings, events, and site visits.
The 2026 cohort was selected by a committee intentionally bringing together regional arts professionals, WaterFire staff leadership, and program alumni representation. Committee members generously contributed their time and professional insight and include Anissa Pjetri, Curatorial Assistant, Costume and Textiles, at the RISD Museum; Christopher Roberts faculty in the Theory, History of Art and Design department and the Experimental and Foundation Studies division at RISD; Laura Duclos, Director of Arts Programming and Communications at WaterFire Providence; and Dorian Epps, WaterFire Accelerate Alum.
Each year, interest in the program continues to grow, with expanding applicant pools and increased public engagement through the cohort’s culminating exhibition at the WaterFire Arts Center.
2026 WaterFire Accelerate Cohort Members
Aja Delgado
Aja’s practice is a vibrant exploration of nostalgia, emotional vulnerability, and play. Working across printmaking, painting, collage, textiles, clothing customization, and mixed media, Aja creates layered pieces that honor both vulnerability and joyful experimentation. Color and shapes are central to her work, they act as emotional channels, drawing connections between the playfulness and enjoyment of creating, along with the inner depth of feeling so deeply. Much of Aja’s creativity is fueled by emotion. Aja turns to art as a way to process feeling, to revisit formative moments, and to translate the unexplainable into something physical. Whether through the layering of prints, the gesture of a brushstroke, or the customization of a garment, Aja approaches making as both a healing act and a playful one. Aja aims to create work that invites viewers into a space where vulnerability is not only visible but celebrated.
Pamela Fernández
Pamela Fernández is a Providence-based interdisciplinary artist. Immigrating at a young age from the Dominican Republic her cultural identity and idea of home have been created from fragments pieced together from her own lived experiences, familial stories and media. She tries to make sense of these puzzle pieces to create one that is authentic to her. Her work embodies trying to put these fragments together to answer and explore her questions about her ancestry, culture and ideas of home and how these have impacted her personal identity and have formed her relationship to the Caribbean-Diaspora at large.
Liam Fifer
Liam Fifer, also known as Leia, is a multidisciplinary artist from Woonsocket, Rhode Island, working in experimental 2D and 3D media including sculpture, collage, and printmaking. Their deeply personal practice explores disability, chronic illness, gender fluidity, and the limits of the body through themes of resilience, spirituality, humor, and connection to the natural and metaphysical world. Liam holds an Associate in Fine Arts from the Community College of Rhode Island and has exhibited work in galleries, community spaces, film festivals, and underground pop-up shows.
Yasmine Hassan
Yasmine is an interdisciplinary artist, engineer, and industrial designer from a working-class, tri-cultural household of African immigrants. Informed by this background and influences from music, Black and brown pop culture, animation, DIY and counter-cultural spaces, Yasmine’s practice spans furniture and public design/build projects, woodworking, digital fabrication, mural painting, animation, physical computing, and graphic design. Through community-rooted, narrative-driven work, she explores how public art, participatory placemaking, and accessible technology can spark dialogue, surface overlooked histories, and empower marginalized communities to reshape their environments.
Amelia Rozear
Amelia Rozear is a traditional painter and illustrator based in Providence, RI. After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2022, she has pursued her love of traditional art-making through oil paint, watercolor, mixed-media, and rug tufting. Her work engages themes of transformation, pulling elements of a divine “other world” into scenes of girlhood, original narratives, and imagined reality. She is fascinated by the numerous ways narrative illustration has shaped history, and looks forward to publishing graphic novels of her own. Outside of her studio, Amelia can be found sharing her expertise as a teaching artist, editing her art history podcast, or browsing the stacks at the Providence Athenaeum.
Rachel Turner
Rachel Turner is a photographer based in Providence, Rhode Island whose work explores the intimacy of everyday life. Rachel tries to slow things down, to notice what’s right in front of everyone and to bring a sense of presence to the world around her. Rachel works primarily in photography shooting with 35mm and 120mm films. Painting has recently become another way she translates what she sees, using color and line to express emotion and movement.
The 2026 cohort will be led by Sergio Maciel, Programs and Design Coordinator at WaterFire Providence, who brings a strong commitment to artist mentorship and community-centered creative practice.
Follow these artists journeys as they go through the WaterFire Accelerate Program by checking out the @WaterFireAccelerate Instagram!
For more information about the WaterFire Accelerate program, visit waterfire.org/accelerate.
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About the author
Caitlin McDonough, Brand Strategy Coordinator, has been a force at WaterFire since starting over four years ago. Being a life-long Rhode Islander has shaped her view on all things Providence and the growth of the arts community which brought her to WaterFire. Focusing on social media, videography, marketing and merchandise - her expertise in these areas has helped strengthened WaterFire's voice and brand across platforms.
