The Bronx Council on the Arts announced 43 Bronx artists who won this year’s “Bronx Recognizes Its Own” (BRIO) awards. Now in its 30th year, the annual BRIO awards support Bronx artists who work in literary, media, visual and performing arts. The winning artists were awarded $5,000 for the work they’ve created. They also get the opportunity to participate in Artists for Community Enrichment (ACE), a public service activity.

Here’s a sampling of this year’s BRIO winners:

Benedict Campbell studied film and television at New York University and is currently a writer and director with a focus on fictional dramas for short and feature films. He has several films that were featured in festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival and Provincetown Film Festival. Campbell recently finished The High Bridge, a short, feature film following a young father.



Davalois Fearon was born in Jamaica and raised in the Bronx, where she showed her love of dance. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Davalois Fearon Dance. This company has a mission to push artistic and social boundaries. Fearon has choreographed on Broadway at the New Victory Theater, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Joyce Theater.


Elio Villafranca is a Cuban pianist who won the 2018 DownBeat Critic’s Poll Rising Stars in the Keyboard Category and was nominated in 2009 and 2018 for a Grammy. He has recorded and performed nationally and internally with several jazz master artists such as Pat Martino, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea, Giovanni Hidalgo and Johnny Pacheco. Villafranca teach at Temple University, The Juilliard School of Music, NYU and Manhattan School of Music.

Learn more about the other 2019 BRIO winners here…

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