PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 8, 2025
Two Mainers were among a class of 22 “exceptional, creative, and inspiring people” named MacArthur Fellows Wednesday, an honor often referred to as a “Genius Grant.” Artist Jeremy Frey, a Passamaquoddy weaver based in Eddington, and Margaret Wickens Pearce, a Rockland-based cartographer who creates maps that foreground Indigenous understanding of place, were both named as fellows by the MacArthur Foundation. The award comes with an unrestricted grant of $800,000. Frey, 46, grew up on the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Motahkomikuk (Indian Township) and has taken the Wabanaki practice of basketmaking and launched it into the world of fine art. Pearce, 60, is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Through collaboration with Indigenous communities, her work blends archival materials and other forms of historical knowledge to create maps that center Indigenous understandings of land and place.