PBSC professor awarded $15,000 Artist Innovation Grant

Palm Beach State College professor Samantha Salzinger has been awarded a $15,000 Artist Innovation Grant from the Broward County Cultural Division in partnership with the Community Foundation of Broward. The grant is designed to encourage risk-taking, exploration of artistic pursuits, career advancement, interactivity, and sustained commitment to artistic work.

"Through this grant, I was able to expand my artistic practice, experiment with new techniques, and refine my ideas in ways that deepen my work," said Salzinger. "With this support, I can further investigate themes that have long driven my practice—blurring the line between reality and illusion, the handmade and the artificial, the beautiful and the unsettling."

As part of the grant, Salzinger is developing the project “Sugar Coated,” a series of handcrafted dioramas and illuminated light boxes that explore the contrast between enchantment and reality. The work transforms familiar imagery into immersive landscapes that invite viewers to look closer—revealing layers of depth, detail, and unexpected narratives.

"By funding this exploration, the grant not only advances my own work but also helps me engage audiences in new and thought-provoking ways. It is a catalyst for growth, allowing me to develop work that is more immersive, conceptually ambitious and impactful," said Salzinger.

Salzinger has a longstanding art career. Prior to coming to Palm Beach State, she was director of exhibitions for the Art and Culture Center of Hollywood in Florida. She also has served as an adjunct professor at Broward College and Florida International University. She has held many museum exhibitions throughout Florida. Her work also resides in many prominent permanent collections, including the recent acquisition in the Perez Art Museum in Miami. Broward New Times listed her in 2016 as one of “Ten Broward Visual Artists You Need To Know.”

A Fort Lauderdale resident, she received a bachelor’s degree from FIU and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University Graduate School of Art, where she was awarded the George Sakier Memorial Scholarship. More about the grant can be found here.