National Endowment for the Arts Awards $650,000 for Florida Projects
December 2, 2014
While visiting Miami-Dade County, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Jane Chu announced today that in their most recent round of funding, Florida organizations will receive grants totaling $650,000. Twenty-six Florida nonprofits will receive grants ranging from $10,000 to $90,000. Additionally, one Florida poet has been awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship for $25,000.
Chairman Chu said, "Since coming to the NEA, I have met with many NEA grantees and have seen first-hand the positive impact they have on their communities. These new projects will continue to demonstrate the power the arts have to deepen value, build connections, and foster an atmosphere of creativity and innovation both at the community level and with individuals throughout the nation."
In its first fiscal year 2015 announcement, the NEA will award $29.1 million in 1,116 grants in three categories: Art Works, Challenge America, and NEA Literature Fellowships in Creative Writing. The full list of Florida grantees with a description of their projects and award amounts is below.
Coral Gables Cinemateque, Inc.
$10,000 Coral Gables, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support Sabor Latino, a film series and related outreach activities. The new series will provide an expanded selection of alternative, Spanish-language films specially curated to promote independent, art-house cinema with an Ibero-American focus.
GableStage, Inc.
$10,000 Coral Gables, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the production of "Choir Boy" by Tarell Alvin McCraney. The play explores issues of bullying, sexual identity, and differences in beliefs and lifestyles faced by a gospel choir at a fictional prep school for boys. The work will encourage dialogue about tolerance and compassion in the face of tradition. The production will serve as the center of the company's annual educational programming, and will be presented free-of-charge to South Florida students.
Hermitage Artist Retreat, Inc.
$10,000 Englewood, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities
To support artist residencies and related activities. Participating artists will create environmentally conscious work inspired by local ecologies. Hermitage recently added environmentally sensitive property to its campus with the intention of restoring and protecting the area as a preserve for artists and the general public. These curated residencies will help draw attention to the environmental needs of the Florida coast.
Broward County Board of County Commissioners
$15,000 Fort Lauderdale, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Local Arts Agencies
To support a symposium, The Creative and Cultural Industries and the Future of Latin America's Economy. The symposium will explore Latin America's impact on the arts economy of South Florida. With its diverse population and close proximity to the Latin American and Caribbean markets, Broward County is recognized as a gateway to international trade. Speakers will include individuals with expertise in policy, business, and government, reflecting a range of national perspectives and innovation within their respective countries.
Old Dillard Foundation, Inc.
$10,000 Fort Lauderdale, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support a series of jazz concerts and workshops honoring the jazz saxophonist Julian Cannonball Adderley. Adderley's historical impact within the Fort Lauderdale community, as a former teacher at Dillard High School, will be celebrated during concerts that will feature Nat Adderley Jr., the nephew of Cannonball Adderley who is also a jazz pianist and a rhythm and blues music arranger. The Dillard High Center for the Arts Jazz Band will perform, and students will participate in jazz performance workshops led by professional jazz artists.
Hollywood Art and Culture Center, Inc.
$15,000 Hollywood, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support an artist residency and exhibition of puppets, paintings, and illustrations by Los Angeles-based artist Wayne White. Best known as a designer, puppeteer, and voice-over actor on "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," White creates oversized puppet heads using styrofoam, cardboard, scrap metal, and other low-cost materials. During a two-week residency, the artist will work with the local community to develop a large-scale puppet to accompany the exhibition, which will include White's word paintings, drawings, illustrations, cartoons, and sculptures.
ACA of Central Florida, Inc.
$10,000 Longwood, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support a concert of traditional classical music of India and related activities. Featuring violinist Kala Ramnath, the project will include a performance and a public outreach workshop to generate interest in traditional Asian music.
Enzian Theatre, Inc.
$25,000 Maitland, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Media Arts
To support the 24th Florida Film Festival. Short films and documentaries, work from abroad, and American independent movies will be presented. The festival also will include industry forums, panel discussions, and "meet the filmmaker" events.
Cannonball Miami Inc.
$15,000 Miami, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities
To support residencies and related activities for interdisciplinary artists and scholars. Residencies will include housing, workspace, travel allowance, administrative and technical assistance, and monthly stipends. Participating artists and scholars will conduct research, create new work, and have the opportunity to lead seminars and workshops for the public.
Miami Art Museum of Dade County Association, Inc.
$25,000 Miami, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support the exhibition "Tapies: From Within," a retrospective on the works of Catalan artist Antoni Tapies (1923-2012). The exhibition will include works by this 20th-century abstract artist, including his early Surrealist-inspired paintings of the 1940s, his rejection of formalism, and his experimental practice with unusual and textured materials. His work in mixed media, incorporating common elements such as clay dust, hair, wire, and string, is considered one of his most important and original contributions to art practice. Later in his career, he explored assemblage, using building materials and objects such as doors, shipping palettes, bedsteads, and window frames. The museum plans extensive public programming, including school outreach to help contextualize the exhibition.
Miami Dade College
$30,000 Miami, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the presentation of theater, dance, and musical artists. MDC Live Arts will present a series of creative exchanges between artists that have been a part of the organization's history and local artists who have been influenced by those artists. Pairings will include artists Inbal Pinto and Avshalom Pollak (Israel) with Octavio Campos (United States); AfroReggae (Brazil) with Guitars Over Guns (United States); Teatro en el Blanco (Chile) with Teatro Avante (United States); and Urban Bush Women (United States) with local Miami-based dancers.
FUNDarte, Inc.
$25,000 Miami Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support Out in the Tropics, a contemporary performing arts series. Performances will include a collaboration between writer Caridad Svich and Force-Collision Interdisciplinary Ensemble, as well as a musical performance and video installation by songwriter and performance artist Holcombe Waller. The series also will feature a night of song and video by M. Lamar, and the comedic theatrics of solo artist Marga Gomez. Engagement activities will include panel discussions, workshops with artists, artist talks, and post-performance discussions.
Miami City Ballet, Inc.
$50,000 Miami Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support the commission and premiere of a new ballet by choreographer Justin Peck. Set to Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu's "Piano Concerto No. 1," Peck may collaborate with costume designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, lighting designer Brandon Baker, and visual artist Shepherd Fairey for the set design. With this commission, the company will expand its repertoire and in doing so, engage the next generation of dance patrons while infusing dance with new artistic voices that embody the future of the art form.
New World Symphony, Inc.
$90,000 Miami Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the Musician Professional Development Program. Under the artistic direction of Michael Tilson Thomas, the program will utilize performances, coaching, and community outreach activities to prepare young artists for successful musicianship in the orchestral field. Conductors, composers, soloists, and orchestral/chamber musicians will train and mentor emerging musicians on aspects of musical technique, audience engagement, communication skills, orchestral auditioning, stage presence, and health issues.
Rhythm Foundation, Inc.
$25,000 Miami Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support Big Night in Little Haiti. The free monthly event will feature live music, neighborhood processions, and art exhibitions, as well as arts and craft activities for children. Artists being considered include Haitian "konpa" groups Nu Look, Harmonik, and T-Vice, and big bands Orchestre Septentrionale and Shleu Shleu Allstars. The festival may also present "rasin" (roots) artists Samba Zao and Kudjai and young folk artists Wanito and Aroze Twoubadou. The series also will feature local Haitian bands, jazz combos, school-based ensembles and marching bands.
Sinfonia Gulf Coast
$10,000 Miramar Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support performances featuring electric violinist, composer, and producer Tracy Silverman, with related outreach activities. The project will include in-school workshops for economically disadvantaged students, primarily located in rural Okaloosa and Walton Counties, as well as community engagement activities at local libraries.
Atlantic Center for the Arts, Inc.
$25,000 New Smyrna Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities
To support artist residencies and related activities. Interdisciplinary residencies will provide mid-career and emerging artists a chance to work with master artists. The master artists will determine the focus of the residency session and set criteria for their selection of resident artists, known as "associates," selected through a competitive application process. In addition, the center will support a summer creative writing residency for teens with mentorship from veteran writers.
Creative Clay, Inc.
$25,000 Saint Petersburg, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support Art for All Kids. The initiative is a full-time visual, performing, and literary Artists-in-Residence in healthcare program at All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. Students will engage in art making with professional, practicing artists who are trained to navigate healthcare settings. The artists also will help children develop their ability to learn skills and unlock their imaginations to create works of art. The project also will increase access to the arts for patients and their families, and will support the healing process during patients' hospital stays.
Asolo Theatre, Inc.
$10,000 Sarasota, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the development and production of a musical about choreographer Hermes Pan. Under the guidance of Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards, a creative team that may include Tony Award-winning director Frank Galati, choreographer and dancer Noah Racey, and American musical theater specialist Aaron Gandy, will create an artistic exploration of Hermes Pan's influence and legacy. Pan (1909-90) worked with Fred Astaire for many years, co-choreographing the dances for more than half of Astaire's movie musicals.
African Caribbean Dance Theatre, Inc.
$25,000 Tallahassee, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support the Florida African Dance Festival. The festival is a conference featuring African immigrant artists in dance and drum workshops as well as a public performance. Students will learn the dance vocabulary, rhythms, and cultural significance of dances and drumming from the African nations represented by the instructors. Additionally, a health care forum will address some of the diseases (such as high blood pressure and diabetes) that disproportionately affect the African-American community.
Artist Series of Tallahassee, Inc.
$10,000 Tallahassee, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support an artist residency featuring the New York Brass Arts Trio. In addition to a public performance, the Trio will conduct workshops for Title I school students in Leon and Gadsden County school districts and master classes with members of the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra.
Evans, Kerry James
$25,000 Tallahassee, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry
Florida State University
$10,000 Tallahassee, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support the creation and installation of a mural, with related activities. Lead artist Joelle Dietrick will work with youth who attend PACE Center for Girls, an accredited, nonprofit school for economically disadvantaged girls, located in Jacksonville. Students will take photos of their own homes, and with assistance from Dietrick, will incorporate their photos into a collaborative work of media art, created during a series of computer programming workshops.
Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
$55,000 Tampa, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the multidisciplinary Cultural Intersections Performance Series. Featured artists will include world music artists Zap Mama and Antibalas, classical music and hip-hop group Black Violin, jazz artists Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, dance ensemble Savion Glover's STePz, and Swiss mime-masque theater company Mummenschanz. Outreach components will include master classes, workshops, question-and-answer sessions with the artists, and school visits.
VSA Florida
$10,000 Tampa, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support a performance series and associated workshops featuring artists with disabilities. As part of the University of South Florida's annual AccessiBull month-long disability awareness event, the program will present a variety of dancers with and without disabilities and showcase innovative mobility technologies.
City of Tarpon Springs, Florida
$35,000 Tarpon Springs, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support documentation and presentation of the region's Greek traditions by the Cultural and Civic Services Department. The Tarpon Springs Center for Gulf Coast Folklife will host an exhibit about Greek music in America that will be complemented by concerts, workshops, and dance performances. A documentation project will build a digital collection of images, interviews, and music, serving as the basis for an additional exhibit featuring local tradition bearers. Additionally, the Gulf Coast Folklife Festival will feature Greek artistic traditions as well as NEA National Heritage Fellows from the region.
Norton Museum of Art
$45,000 West Palm Beach, FL
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support the exhibition "Imaging Eden: Photographers Discover the Everglades," with accompanying catalogue. The exhibition will juxtapose an historical overview of photography from the Everglades with works by four international artists. The historical images will provide a context for the second component of the exhibition, a collection of works exploring the Everglades today, commissioned specifically for this exhibition. Created by artists from the United States (Catherine Opie), Germany (Wolfgang Tillmans), South Korea (Jungjin Lee), and the United Kingdom (Simon Norfolk), these works will offer an international perspective on an ecosystem of global significance.
The Florida Division of Cultural Affairs would like to congratulate these organizations on their selection as NEA grantees. We look forward to seeing their proposed projects come to fruition for the benefit of the grantees, their communities, and the arts across Florida.
Please follow the conversation about these projects on Twitter at #NEAFall2014.
The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $5 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. To join the discussion on how art works, visit the NEA at arts.gov.
