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News
ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES
YEAR 2 CULTURE BUILDS COMMUNITIES GRANTS
The Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester, in collaboration with Citibank and the City of Rochester, announces grant recipients for the second year of the award-winning Culture Builds Communities program.
A total of $54,500 will be distributed to six neighborhood associations to enable Rochester artists to work with neighborhood residents to create a lasting work of art. The purpose of each project is to support neighborhood pride through art-making. The grants program is managed by the Arts & Cultural Council, and funded equally by the City of Rochester and Citibank. The grants range in size from $4,500 to $12,000.
"This year we are supporting an extraordinary group of community projects that feature a wide range of artistic collaboration," said the Arts Council's executive director, Sally Gaskill. "Virtually every project is a multidisciplinary work, with visual arts and media, literature, and performing arts. Most importantly, we are excited by the neighborhood involvement that is present in each project."
The projects include a quilt and music theater piece that will celebrate the history of Sector 4 in southwest Rochester; a film and book that will celebrate the diversity and strengths of the 14621 neighborhood in the northeast quadrant; new playground sculpture for the Neighborhood of the Arts; and two projects that will celebrate the legacy of important African-American leaders: a multi-media exhibition about Dr. Freddie Thomas, and a book and installation that will honor James and Bessie Hamm.
The projects will be completed during 1999. A complete description with contact information is below.
CULTURE BUILDS COMMUNITIES 1999 GRANTS
Culture Builds Communities is a program of the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. Funding is provided by Citibank and the City of Rochester.
1. Baden Street Settlement (Sector 10, Northeast Rochester)
Grant: $11,000
Contact: Ron Thomas, 325-4910
Artists: Luvon Sheppard (painting), Dale Davis (writing), and Almeta Whitis (theater)
For a multidisciplinary work, Spirit Robbers and Spirit Builders, which will address crime and murder through the creation of a mural, a literary publication and a performance. Members of the community, in collaboration with the Friends and Families of Murdered Children/Victims of Violent Crimes, will participate in the development and creation of each aspect of the project.
2. Group 14621 (Sector 9, Northeast Rochester)
Grant: $12,000
Contact: Joan Roby, 266-4693
Artists: David Rose (filmmaking) and Todd Beers (poetry)
Residents of all ages in the area of Group 14621 Community Association will collaborate with a poet and a filmmaker in workshops that will teach the basics of both art forms. The participating community volunteers will create a film and book, with support provided by the artists. The theme will be a celebration of the diversity and strengths of the neighborhood as it exists now and its potential for the future. The finished artwork will be presented at neighborhood centers, block parties, churches, and on public access television.
3. Hamm House (Sector 4, Southwest Rochester)
Grant: $8,000
Contact: Delores Jackson Radney, 473-7720 x3034 or 436-6453
Artists: Delores Jackson Radney (theater), Dr. David Anderson (storytelling), Shawn Dunwoody (visual art), and bobby johnson (poetry)
Hamm House, in collaboration with the Heritage Project, will produce an installation work of art and a book celebrating the legacy of community leaders Bessie and James Hamm. Neighborhood youth will research their Adams Street neighborhood history through interviews and library resources, design and create an artwork celebrating the Hamm's community service, and write a book that documents neighborhood history.
4. Neighborhood of the Arts (Sector 7, Southeast Rochester)
Grant: $4,500
Contact: Richard Margolis, 473-0070
Artists: Paul Knoblach (furniture design) and Vinnie Massaro (visual art)
To create a concrete sculpture and a bench of wood and metal to be installed at the neighborhood playground on University Avenue. The artists will work with students from School of the Arts. Massaro's concrete sculpture will be about four feet high, probably an animal shape, and will include relief panels (to encourage rubbings) containing images of the history and character of the neighborhood. Both Massaro's creature and Knoblauch's bench will encourage physical contact, participation and involvement.
5. NorthEast Neighborhood Alliance (Sector 10, Northeast Rochester)
Grant: $8,000
Contact: Hank Herrera, 342-3230 or 271-0180
Artists: Carvin Eison (video) and Hank Herrera (writing)
For research and development of a video documentary and preparation of an exhibition on the life of Brother Freddie Thomas, from his early years to his work at Eastman Kodak and the University of Rochester Medical Center. The artists will work with middle school students from Dr. Freddie Thomas Learning Center to assemble an archive, interview community people and prepare preliminary storyboards for the documentary. The project team will develop a portable multimedia exhibit to display items from the archive, a continuous loop rough cut of the interviews, and the storyboards. The exhibit will travel throughout the community, including the five elementary schools in Sector 10, neighborhood settlement houses and churches, and the Family Learning Center.
6. SWAN Collaborative (Sector 4, Southwest Rochester)
Grant: $11,000
Contact: Sally Steinwachs, 436-8201, or Sherry Crumity, 235-8768
Artists: Suzannah Gravino (quilting), Irving Murph (theater), Caril Powell-Price (theater), Terrance Bruce (music), and Sandra Martin (theater)
A collaborative of southwest Rochester neighborhood associations -- SWAN, PLEX, 19th Ward, Neighborhood United, and Changing of the Scenes -- will engage their residents in an intergenerational program using visual art, storytelling and musical theater. A community quilt will be used as a storyboard for a performance capturing Sector 4's history, current events, and vision for the future. The quilt will connect neighborhood stories of community pride and be used as the theme and a backdrop for the production with neighborhood children and adults as the writers, directors, actors, musicians and quilters.
Total Funding $54,500
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