CCP instructor Sosena Solomon selected as a 2025 Pew Fellow

The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage has named CCP adjunct instructor Sosena Solomon among this year’s Pew Fellowship recipients. Sosena has been making documentaries for the past 15 years and teaches Digital Video Production at CCP.
 

Supporting artists since 1992, the Pew Fellowships in the Arts program nurtures local artistic talent through 12 annual unrestricted grants. This year’s fellowships total $1 million to support a dozen Philadelphia-area artists, each receiving $85,000 in unrestricted funds.
 

“I aim to expand the boundaries of documentary art, demonstrating its potential not only as a tool for historical record but also as a means of cultural dialogue and healing,” Sosena said in a Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announcement.
 

Through a combination of film, installation, and archival methods, Solomon seeks to document and reimagine the complex experiences of African communities undergoing transition. Foregrounding personal narratives, her work explores culture and identity—as seen in projects like a permanent 12-part film installation for The Metropolitan Museum of Art highlighting major cultural landmarks across sub-Saharan Africa and the caretakers who preserve them. You can read more about the Met film installation here.
 

Sosena was born in Nairobi, Kenya, and moved to the United States. at a young age. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Television Production from Temple University and went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in Social Documentary Film from the School of Visual Arts in New York.