Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke celebrated that once again Brooklyn arts and cultural organizations received a truckload of National Endowment for the Arts 2015 grants announced this week to support their work in the community.
A total of more than $1 million was awarded to institutions in Brooklyn, such as the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, La Troupe Makandal, Groundswell Community Mural Project, BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn, and the Pratt Institute.
“Since 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts have provided critical support for organizations that want to expand access to the arts in communities across the United States. The projects in Brooklyn that earned grants demonstrate that we are an internationally renowned center of culture: the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival by BRIC Arts|Media|Bklyn, the Frisner Augustin Haitian Drum Festival by La Troupe Makandal, and the Soul of BK Festival by the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts,” said Clarke.
“These exhibitions and performances and the other projects that earned grants from the National Endowment for the Arts are a testament to the diversity of the arts here in Brooklyn, and their relevance to people in this community and elsewhere. I congratulate the organizations that earned grants and wish them continued success!”
Below is a complete listing of the Brooklyn grant award winners, the amount of the award and a summary of what the money will be used for.
A Public Space Literary Projects Inc. (aka A Public Space) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication and promotion of the journal “A Public Space,” as well as a mentorship program pairing selected emerging writers with established authors. In addition to receiving rigorous editorial guidance and publication in the journal, emerging writers will have the opportunity to tour with their mentors. A web series will provide writers and readers with a behind-the-scenes look into the journal’s artistic and editorial processes.
Archipelago Books, Inc. (aka Archipelago Books) $70,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication and promotion of international fiction and poetry titles. Planned translations include books by authors such as Maja Haderlap (Austria), Jose Eduardo Agualusa (Angola), Dulce Maria Loynaz (Cuba), Christos Ikonomou (Greece), Halldor Laxness (Iceland), Antonio Moresco (Italy), Elias Khoury (Lebanon), Homero Aridjis (Mexico), and Lojze Kovacic (Slovenia). Books will be distributed worldwide, and national book tour events will feature bilingual readings and discussions with authors and translators.
Art Council Inc. (aka Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue) $20,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support a professional development series for artists and curators. Selected artists will receive studio visits and feedback from a guest curator who works outside of the immediate community. Each curator will present a series of public programs hosted by local cultural partners in both their home city and in the artist’s community. Programming may include discussions, artist interviews, or presentations about an emerging artist’s work, disseminated through Artadia’s website. Proposed host cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Bang on a Can, Inc. (aka Bang on a Can) $50,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music To support the Summer Festival of Music, a performance series and resident teaching facility for emerging composers and contemporary music performers. Hosted by the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in North Adams, the festival will feature concerts by the Bang on a Can All-Stars, resident teaching faculty, and students of the festival in galleries and in community venues. Community engagement activities will include a family concert and a free performance at Windsor Lake Park. The finale of the festival will be the annual Bang on a Can Marathon, an event featuring musicians and composers from around the world.
Beth Morrison Projects (aka BMP) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Opera To support the commission and development of “Anatomy Theater” by composer David Lang and co-librettist Mark Dion. In 18th-century England, medical specialists produced “moral spectacles” in which bodies of executed criminals were dissected in front of a paying audience. These morbid explorations sought to determine if the internal anatomy of a morally corrupt person was fundamentally different from that of a person pure of soul. A contemporary reflection on a historical event, the opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang follows English murderess Sarah Osborne from confession to execution, denouncement, and public dissection. The libretto comprises found texts and anthropological investigations from the period. The creative team may comprise director Bob McGrath, designers Bill Morrison and Laurie Olinder, conductor Christopher Rountree, and mezzo-soprano Peabody Southwell (Sarah Osbourne). Production workshops may occur in Brooklyn at BRIC in the spring of 2016.
Big Dance Theater, Inc. (aka Big Dance Theater) $25,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support multidisciplinary art works and related activities. Works will include two world dance premieres and re-staged pieces performed for the first time by the Big Dance Theater ensemble and its design team. Solos, duets, and group works will feature the company’s performers, under the artistic leadership of Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar.
BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, Inc. (aka BRIC) (On behalf of Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival) $40,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support a performing artists series at the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival and related activities. The series will feature free public performances by contemporary artists of various genres. Scheduled artists include choreographer Camille A. Brown & Dancers; actor Denis O’Hare and director Lisa Peterson and their collective Homer’s Coat; singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo (Benin); and vocalist Martha Redbone.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc. (aka Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM)) $50,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support the Next Wave Festival and related activities. The festival will feature new work by artists working in all disciplines. Proposed artists include puppeteers/media artists Phantom Limb Company, dancer/choreographer Reggie Wilson and his Fist & Heel Performance Group, and choreographer and painter Shen Wei. BAM will present as many as three productions for New York City high school students, as well as provide pre-show workshops in their classrooms.
Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Inc. (aka Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX)) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities To support an urban artist residency program. The focus of the project will be to support artists from dance, theater, and performance art fields in the creation and presentation of new art work. Financial support is also provided for teaching artists and curators, as well as for the care of participating artists’ children.
Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy, Inc. (aka N/A) $45,00o FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support the Concert Ensemble Training and Performance Program. Middle and high school students will participate in weekly rehearsals and perform throughout the year in a variety of venues. Students will learn through the “Cross-Choral Training Method,” a curriculum designed by Brooklyn Youth Chorus, teaching students vocal music using a sequential, experiential, and developmentally appropriate method. For 2016-17, the 25th Anniversary, Brooklyn Youth Chorus will collaborate on commissions and special projects with a range of guest musicians and composers.
Chez Bushwick, Inc. (aka Jonah Bokaer) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance To support the creation and presentation of a new work by choreographer and Artistic Director Jonah Bokaer. Rules of the Game will be created in collaboration with visual artist Daniel Arsham and composer Pharrell Williams. The artists will draw their inspiration from the works of dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936). The work will premiere at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas, with live music by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. While in Dallas, Bokaer, Arsham, Williams, and the dancers will conduct free classes and workshops at Booker T. Washington High School of the Performing Arts.
College Community Services, Inc. (aka Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America To support performances by Step Afrika! and related outreach activities. In addition to public performances at the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, project activities will include a free, pre-performance engagement lecture exploring the roots and evolution of stepping, from its origins in 19th-century South Africa to its contemporary form. Stepping is a synchronized poly-rhythmic form of group dancing characterized by intricate footwork, rhythmic clapping, and self-percussive body work, using the body as an instrument. Audiences will be drawn from south central Brooklyn communities that include a significant number of African-American and lowincome residents.
Dance Films Association, Inc. (aka Dance Films Association) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance To support the Dance on Camera Festival, and the Dance on Camera Tour. The Dance on Camera Festival (DOCF) is the world’s longest running annual international dance film/video festival. The first DOCF took place at New York University in 1971, and has been co-presented with the Film Society at Lincoln Center since 1997. The festival will include premieres of domestic and international films, a student film competition, and Meet the Artist, a series of panel discussions and work-in-process screenings. Selected filmmakers whose work is shown at the Dance on Camera Festival are invited to become part of a shorts compilation accessible online, or as a physical DVD. The Dance on Camera Tour brings feature films and short films from the New York-based festival to venues across the world. Film festival presenters, art venues, and interested educators can curate from the collection to bring films to any location at any time.
Dance Theatre Etcetera, Inc. (aka N/A) $30,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support the Red Hook Fest featuring dance and music artists. Performances will take place in multiple venues throughout the Red Hook area, including Hometown Barbeque, Louis J. Valentino Jr. Park and Pier, the PS 15 Playground, and neighborhood streets. The festival will engage community members of all ages through prefestival workshops, performance opportunities for local youth, and community involvement in all stages of planning and implementation.
Discalced, Inc. (aka Mark Morris Dance Group) $60,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance To support the creation and presentation of a new work. The work, titled “Layla and Majnun,” will be based on an acient Arabian love story popularized by the 12th-century Persian poet Nizami. The work, choreographed by Mark Morris, will explore the story’s themes of love, madness, and mysticism. The production will be accompanied by Asian and Middle Eastern music performed by Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. The work also will feature Azerbaijani singer Alim Qasimov and his daughter Fargana, who have collaborated with the Silk Road Ensemble in the past. British painter Sir Howard Hodgkin will design the scenic elements and costumes. “Layla and Majnun” will premiere at Cal Performances in Berkeley, and the singers and musicians of the Silk Road Ensemble will perform alongside the Mark Morris Dance Group. The project will include a variety of outreach activities such as artist’s talks, discussion on the history of “Layla and Majnun,” music and dance workshops, films, and exhibits.
Electric Lit, Inc. (aka Electric Literature) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication and promotion of “Recommended Reading,” a free, weekly digital fiction magazine. Each week, the magazine publishes one piece of fiction, introduced or recommended by a well-known author, editor, or publisher. The magazine provides an avenue for readers to discover new voices and revisit old favorites from a fresh perspective, and all issues are archived and available online free-of-charge.
Esopus Foundation, Ltd. $30,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support the creation and distribution of the publication “Esopus.” The publication will feature long-form contemporary artists’ projects, writing on the arts by creative practitioners from various disciplines, fiction and poetry, visual essays, interviews, archival material, and a themed CD of music commissioned from established or emerging musicians. Previous editions have included artists such as John Baldessari, Jenny Holzer, Alex Katz, Barbara Bloom, Ed Ruscha, Richard Misrach, William Christenberry, and Kerry James Marshall, alongside the work of lesser-known or emerging artists.
Eyebeam Atelier, Inc. (aka Eyebeam) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities To support residencies for artists. Resident artists will be provided with studio space, housing, meals, local transportation, and administrative support. Artists will be encouraged to share their work with the public through exhibitions and installations, performances, panel discussions, workshops, and other opportunities to introduce the work to a broad audience.
Groundswell Community Mural Project, Inc. (aka Groundswell) $60,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support the Summer Leadership Institute. Under the guidance of professional artists, teens from underserved communities will create large-scale public artworks themed on critical issues in their own neighborhoods. Youth will learn about public art, artists, and artmaking traditions while engaging in sequential skill-building activities that build technical skills in composition and art making in a variety of media.
id Theatre, Inc. (aka id Theater) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater To support the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. Professional theater artists from Idaho and around the nation will meet with student and community artists in McCall, Idaho, for as many as two weeks of rehearsals, workshops, discussions, and staged readings. The conference will focus on supporting rural playwrights, the mentorship of young artists, and actively engaging the community in the creative process.
Immaterial Incorporated (aka Cabinet) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication and promotion of the multidisciplinary magazine “Cabinet.” The magazine features creative projects by essayists, novelists, historians, scientists, philosophers, artists, and others on an eclectic array of topics. Issues will be promoted through talks, screenings, workshops, and panels, as well as through social media and the magazine’s website.
International Contemporary Ensemble Foundation, Inc. (aka International Contemporary Ensemble(ICE)) $30,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music To support OpenICE, a commissioning, engagement, and touring project with related educational activities. Plans will include concerts, workshops, and educational activities. Proposed residencies may take place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Chicago and Springfield, Illinois; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Louisville, Kentucky; New York, New York; and Kansas City, Missouri, among others. Each residency may feature concerts of as many as 25 newly commissioned works alongside established repertoire, free hour-long performances with spoken commentary, educational events for students to create new works, public discussions, open rehearsals, and digital online documentation with videos of performances.
Issue Project Room, Inc. (aka ISSUE Project Room) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support residencies for emerging artists. The program will provide interdisciplinary artists with yearlong residencies which will include a stipend and rehearsal space, as well as marketing, curatorial, and technical support. The new works created during the residency will premiere at Issue’s theater space in Brooklyn, and partner organizations throughout New York City.
La Troupe Makandal, Inc. $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts To support the Frisner Augustin Haitian Drum Festival. Master Haitian drummers will offer instruction in as many as eight workshops. Additionally, a panel of ethnomusicologists, folklorists, and Haitian scholars will discuss the current state of Haitian drum music. The festival will conclude with a concert of Haitian dance and drumming to commemorate the late 1999 NEA National Heritage Fellow Frisner Augustin (1948-2012).
Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian Arts (aka MoCADA) $20,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support the Soul of BK Festival. The festival highlighting contemporary art of the African diaspora will feature work in music, visual arts, performance, literature, and dance. Activities will take place in parks, on the streets, and in front of and inside local businesses throughout Brooklyn.
Music Forward (aka The Knights) $25,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music To support a commissioning and performance project of new works for chamber orchestra and chorus by The Knights at the New York Philharmonic Biennial. The Knights will perform the world premiere of works by composers Lisa Bielawa, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Colin Jacobsen, co-commissioned by and performed with the San Francisco Girls Chorus and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The program will include recent works by New-York based composers Nico Muhly (“Impossible Things” written for tenor, violin, and string orchestra) and Timo Andres (“Comfort Food”). The concert will be presented in the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
New Art Publications, Inc. (aka BOMB Magazine) $30,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support the publication of “BOMB Magazine.” Content for the quarterly publication will highlight the work of selected artists through the presentation of interviews, artist portfolios, artist-generated texts, and new literature including fiction and poetry. Through collaborative dialogue, artists working across various genres and media reveal their ideas, concerns, and creative processes.
Noel Pointer Foundation, Inc. (aka NPF) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support Saturday Strings, an instrumental music program for New York City youth. Students learn through small group and individual instruction on Saturdays at the Youth Arts Academy of Restoration Plaza in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. Students play violin, viola, cello, double bass, guitar or piano in private and group lessons and participate in ensembles designed for every level, beginner to advanced. The program highlights music by African-American composers such as Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, and Noel Pointer. The program includes workshops for parents of participating students to illuminate best practices for instrument care and at-home rehearsal, and opportunities for students to perform in the community.
NURTUREart Non-Profit, Inc. (aka NUTUREart) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support an exhibition series for emerging contemporary artists and curators. The series will include both group and solo exhibitions, “Videorover,” a platform for emerging video artists.
One Story, Incorporated (aka One Story) $20,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication of “One Story” and “One Teen Story,” as well as classes and workshops for writers of all levels. The magazines, which are geared to readers of literary fiction and readers of young adult fiction respectively, follow a unique model of distributing one new story to subscribers each month. One Story also plans to offer a range of educational programming, including craft-based workshops for writers in the New York area; summer workshops for writers across the country; and online writing classes that give students a look behind the scenes at editorial processes and/or focus on a specific craft technique such as the development of character or dialogue.
Open Source Gallery, Inc. (aka Open Source Gallery) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support a series of exhibitions by artist collectives and artist-run organizations with an emphasis on international exchange. Participating artists may include Rawiya, an all-female photography collective from the Middle East; guerilla-art.mx, a German-Mexican mural collective; Michigan-based art collective SiTE:LAB; and Berlin-based iCollective comprising artists, curators, and scientists. Each exhibition will include an artist presentation and a moderated lecture series.
Opening Act, Inc (aka Opening Act) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support the After-School Theater Program. Taught by professional teaching artists, youth from underserved communities across New York City will be guided through a free, year-long program that uses improvisation, acting games, and writing exercises to develop creativity, collaboration, and acting and improvisational techniques. During Saturday Master Class, students will learn how to audition for college theater programs, take part in a workshop on the process of applying for college and financial aid, and engage in mentoring sessions with professionals in the field. Select students will be invited to audition for the Summer Theater Arts and Leadership Conservatory and to join the Student Leadership Council. These students, along with alumna of the program, will further develop their leadership skills, create original theater, and serve as ambassadors for the organization. The culmination of the program is an original production, created and performed by the students in professional theaters.
Performance Space 122, Inc. (aka PS122) $40,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works To support the presentation of new works at the COIL Festival. PS 122’s festival will feature commissioned work by emerging and mid-career American artists. New works will include “Yesterday Tomorrow,” a musical by Annie Dorsen, “DISCOTROPIC,”an interdisciplinary performance installation by niv Acosta, and “GO FORTH,” a theater piece and photography installation by Keneza Schaal. The festival will also present “Panopticon,” a multimedia dance performance by choreographer Jillian Pena, and “bewilderment and other queer lions” by composer Samita Sinha.
Pratt Institute $40,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support the Pratt Young Scholars Program. Teenagers from underserved communities will attend Pratt Institute’s Saturday Art School and the Design Initiative for Community Empowerment (DICE), an after-school program that introduces youth to design. In addition to participating in a sequential visual arts education program, students will participate in a college readiness program and a mentorship program. Additionally, students have access to a three-year career exploration program designed to equip participants for postsecondary success.
Primary Information Inc (aka Primary Information) $20,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support the publication of a series of artists’ books. As many as seven artists’ books from the early 1960s to the present will be reproduced and made available in print and online. The project will recreate works of minimalism, conceptual art, and performance art by artists such as Douglas Huebler, Lawrence Weiner, Tuli Kupferberg, Ariel Dorfman, and Armand Mattelart.
Reel Stories Teen Filmmaking, Inc. (aka Reel Works) $40,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education To support free after-school and summer filmmaking workshops for teens. Students will produce and distribute short documentaries about their lives under the mentorship of professional filmmakers. The intensive afterschool workshops challenge students to develop personal narratives and to connect their own stories to broader issues they face in their community. Participants will receive a youth media “digital badge” as a representation of the skills and accomplishments students receive in film and media education.
Residency Unlimited Inc. (aka RU) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support an artist residency program. Participating artists will receive project management, logistical and technical support, access to studio space, and the opportunity for weekly curatorial studio visits. All applications are reviewed by a panel that includes other artists, art administrators, independent curators, and advisors. Each residency will last approximately three months and will conclude with a public presentation of the artists’ new work.
Rooftop Films, Inc. (aka Rooftop Films) $75,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Media Arts To support the 2016 Summer Series, held in outdoor settings throughout New York City. The programming includes screenings of independent films, both feature-length and short works, with accompanying live music and entertainment. Films presented are either New York or U.S. premieres. During the summer of 2015, films included Crystal Moselle’s “The Wolfpack,” Trey Shults’s “Krisha,” and Matthew Bate’s “Sam Klemke’s Time Machine.” Some of the locations for next year’s exhibition include the Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn, the Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, and the Bronx Terminal Market on Staten Island.
Smack Mellon Studios, Inc. (aka Smack Mellon) $25,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support the Artist Studio Program. Participating artists will have access to studio space, specialized equipment, technical support, professional development opportunities, and an honorarium. A panel of artists, curators, and critics will select the artists from an open call. Participating artists will have studio access for as many as ten months.
St. Ann’s Warehouse Inc. (aka St. Ann’s) $40,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater To support the Space and Time initiative. The project employs a model of producing and presenting that offers enhanced development periods, production resources, and extended performance engagements of new works. Proposed works include a production of “The Last Hotel” by Enda Walsh, a music theater collaboration with composer Donnacha Dennehy, and “Nice Fish” by Mark Rylance and Minnesota poet Louis Jenkins, based on Jenkins’ prose poems about ice fishing on a frozen lake. The initiative also may feature the world premiere of Taylor Mac’s “A 24-Decade History of Popular Music, 1776-2016,” a 24-hour performance piece that combines performance art, design, music, and history into a work exploring American music from its founding to the present.
Triangle Arts Association Limited (aka Triangle Arts Association) $10,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities To support residencies for visual artists and related activities. Serving as many as 30 artists per year, the majority of whom are artists of color and women, the artist residency will emphasize the creation of community and cross-cultural exchange through art. With the participation of the residents, Triangle also will host frequent programs such as open studio weekends, lectures, artist talks, screenings, exhibitions, curator-led tours, and educational activities that are free and open to the public.
Ugly Duckling Presse, Ltd. (aka Ugly Duckling Presse) $15,000 Brooklyn, NY FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature To support the publication and promotion of books of poetry and prose. Publications will include work in translation and texts in hybrid forms. Planned titles will be released through the press’s Emerging Writers Program; Eastern European Poets Series; Lost Literature Series; and Dossier Series, which presents work with a unique investigative impulse. Books will be promoted through the website, an e-newsletter, print and social media, and bookfairs.
UnionDocs, Inc. (aka UnionDocs) $15,000 Brooklyn, NY FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Media Arts To support the Documentary Bodega Series. The multimedia presentations in this series combine film, video, audio, photography, and performance work based on nonfiction storytelling. Recent programs range from a selection of short films that were exhibited at the Ann Arbor Film Festival to a screening of Jason DaSilva’s documentary, “When I Walk.”
UrbanGlass New York Contemporary Glass Center Inc. (aka UrbanGlass) $15,000 FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts To support GLASS: The UrbanGlass Art Quarterly magazine. Providing a scholarly view of the field of glass as an artistic medium to its approximately 3,000 subscribers, each edition of the magazine will include as many as three feature-length pieces on the venues, personalities, and events affecting the field, as well as reviews of museum and gallery exhibitions from abroad. The project will include public discussions and lectures documented through the magazine’s Quarterly Blog.
