On Tuesday, December 8, 2015, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced the recipients of their latest round of grantmaking. 13 Arizona arts programs are among the recipients. Collectively they were awarded $185,000.
“We could not do this work, reaching some of the most remote communities on the Navajo and Hopi Nations, without the support of the NEA,” said Clare Hoffman, Artistic Director of the Grand Canyon Music Festival, which received a $20,000 Imagine Your Parks grant in support of their Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). “Government funding steps in where corporations and foundations may not have a presence. It is truly of incalculable value to NACAP and benefit to our students.”
This is the 15th grant the NEA has awarded to NACAP since the program’s establishment in 2001. Receiving its first NEA grant is the Tucson-based artist collective Many Mouth One Stomach (MMOS). The $10,000 grant will support the production of the collective’s annual All Souls Procession events and activities.
When asked what this grant means to the organization, MMOS Artistic Director Nadia Hagan responded, “the big one is recognition–having our efforts validated and supported by the NEA puts us in a pool of artistic merit that is national and that’s nice. I think it will gain us some respect and notoriety outside the Southwest and hopefully reflect back on the quality of work artists produce here in the region.”
Of course, the money doesn’t hurt either.
“We like Money. Money is freedom,” said Hagan. “We have worked hard to create myriad revenue streams for [Many Mouths One Stomach] that reflect the varied buy-in from different members of the community–individuals, local artists and businesses, arts organizations…from the state and county and city and now the country. It makes sense for everyone to pitch in to sustain this event that enlivens the quality of life for so many people.”
The Arizona Commission on the Arts congratulates all of this round’s grant recipients and thanks them for their contributions to Arizona’s communities.
Fiscal Year 2016Â Art Works (round I) and Challenge America grants
Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festival (aka Grand Canyon Music Festival)
$20,000 Grand Canyon, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education/Imagine Your Parks
To support the Native American Composer Apprentice Project (NACAP), an Imagine Your Parks project. Students in Navajo, Hopi and Salt River Pima-Maricopa Reservations will study one-on-one with a Native American composer-in-residence such as Raven Chacon, creating original compositions to be recorded and performed by a professional quartet. Students will rehearse directly with professional ensembles such as Catalyst String Quartet; and the ensembles will perform the students’ compositions at venues such as the Navajo Nation and Heard Museums and other community centers, as well as at the Grand Canyon Music Festival. Beginning in 2016, NACAP will expand to offer year-round instruction and enriched opportunities through a partnership with Arizona Opera.
Musical Instrument Museum (aka MIM)
$10,000 Phoenix, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support performances by violinist Rachel Barton, and associated violin master classes intended to serve low-income and minority youth. Youth participants will be selected from Rosie’s House, a partner organization that provides music education and instruments free-of-charge for underserved youth living in Phoenix. Barton will perform at the Musical Instrument Museum and the student participants will also have the opportunity to perform there for the public.
$10,000 Phoenix, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support a presentation of “Annelies,” a choral work based on Anne Frank’s diary, with associated activities. The piece, composed by James Whitbourn and with libretto adapted by Melanie Challenger, will be performed with the Arizona State University Chamber Singers. Underserved and low-income students will be provided with free tickets to the performances and accompanying lectures about Anne Frank by Arizona State University professors.
Scottsdale Cultural Council (aka Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art)
$30,000 Scottsdale, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Local Arts Agencies
To support Canal Convergence Water+Art+Light. The public art project within Arizona’s canal network will feature temporary installations and educational programs. Interactive community outreach will activate a nontraditional urban space through art and cultural engagement. Canal Convergence will feature the work of British artist Bruce Munro, while exhibiting other light-based art in different contexts and settings, including the work of multidisciplinary artist Grimanesa Amoros and multidisciplinary design, architecture, and art collective Aphidoidea.
$10,000 Surprise, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Challenge America
To support Gallery 37, featuring the creation and installation of permanent public art works in the communities served by the West Valley Arts Council. Gallery 37, the council’s signature youth arts employment program, engages students with professional artists to design, create, and install permanent pieces of public art for display in the West Valley. Student participants ages 15 to 18 – including those from low-income and rural communities – are drawn from Phoenix and surrounding communities.
$20,000 Tempe, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support Space In Between Arizona. Artist Margarita Cabrera will collaborate with the Art Museum at Arizona State University, the Desert Botanical Gardens, and young Latinos in detention centers on both sides of the
U.S./Mexico border. Cabrera (b. 1973) will guide community members in the development of a series of soft sculptures in the form of desert plants incorporating a variety of materials including cloth, thread, copper wire, embroidery, styrofoam, and terracotta. The project revolves around themes of art and community, craft, immigration, empowerment, cultural identity, and labor practices relevant to the Arizona region and its local immigrant history. The sculptural productions will be on display at both the ASU Art Museum and Phoenix Botanical Gardens.
Childsplay, Inc. (aka Childsplay)
$10,000 Tempe, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the premiere of “The Smartest Girl in the World” by Miriam Gonzalez. The play recounts a family’s power in the face of serious illness and tackles the layers of complexity surrounding the experiences of working families. The story follows two siblings who are the latchkey children of hardworking immigrant parents. Becoming “the smartest kids in the world” feels like a path to success for the children who see their parents struggling. The son is convinced that winning a local TV quiz show is the first step to “rescuing” his family and changing their fate, but his chronic illness leads to his inability to participate. Post-show activities will engage school-age audiences in discussions about their own experiences and how they relate to the characters in the play.
Borderlands Theater Teatro Fronterizo, Inc. (aka Borderlands Theater)
$10,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works/Imagine Your Parks
To support a series of site-responsive performances celebrating the saguaro cactus, an Imagine Your Parks project. The performances will take place in Saguaro National Park and Tucson. In cooperation with the National Park Service, the New ARTiculations Dance Theatre will present a collection of dance-theater vignettes about saguaros, humans, and the Sonoran Desert. Among related activities, park visitors also may attend public discussions about the cactus or choose one-hour explorations of the actual cactus, documenting their observations afterwards in a park video booth.
Kore Press, Inc. (aka Kore Press)
$15,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature
To support the publication and promotion of works by emerging women authors; an anthology of innovative writing by black women; and a website upgrade to enhance digital publishing capacity. The press will discover emerging writers through its First Book Award and Short Fiction Award. The planned anthology will feature modern and contemporary poetry and prose by black women writers from the U.S., England, Canada, and the Caribbean. The website upgrade will provide an integrated forum for online discussion and a more efficient platform for frequent online publishing.
La Frontera Center Inc (aka La Frontera)
$10,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support the Tucson International Mariachi Conference. Workshops will provide students with educational instruction from renowned mariachi masters and folkloric dancers. Public concerts, including the Espectacular Concert, will feature mariachi musicians and folkloric dancers and provide participating students valuable stage experience. The conference will conclude with an all-day festival featuring two performance stages and vendors serving traditional foods.
Many Mouths One Stomach (aka MMOS)
$10,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the All Souls Procession Weekend and accompanying engagement activities. The participatory procession through downtown Tucson, inspired by the Mexican “Dia de los Muertos” celebrations, will feature performances and installations by artists and members of the public. The procession will be preceded by extensive free workshops in performing and visual arts led by professional artists.
Tucson Symphony Society (aka Tucson Symphony Orchestra)
$20,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support the Young Composers Project (YCP). Elementary through high school students will learn to compose original works for orchestra, culminating in public reading sessions of their work by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra (TSO) and TSO String Quartet. Sessions will include basic theory, ear training, and score reading as students learn about clefs, keys, modes, notation, chords, rhythm, form, ranges, and transposition. Each session also will include a listening component with score study focused on orchestral repertoire. Students will attend monthly rehearsals and meet guest artists and composers whose work is being performed by the TSO. Students will observe the conductor and the orchestra at work and learn how orchestral pieces come together in live performance. At the end of the project, professional ensembles will provide public readings of the student work, providing real-time interactions between students, the orchestra, and the conductor.
Western National Parks Association
$10,000 Tucson, AZ
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts/Imagine Your Parks
To support an exhibit focusing on the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. An Imagine Your Parks project, this traveling exhibit will present the crafts of Native Americans from the Southwestern states, with an emphasis on Navajo traditional arts. The exhibit, featuring crafts, jewelry, and textiles, will highlight the development of artistic design, the symbolism expressed in the work, and the skill of the artists. An online catalogue will be developed in conjunction with the exhibit.
Images (left to right): Tucson International Mariachi Conference Performance during 2015 event (photo courtesy of La Frontera); stiltwalkers and fire dancers performing at the 2010 All Souls Prcoession (photo courtesy of Many Mouths One Stomach); Rudy Ramierz and Osiris Cuen star in Childsplay’s production of The Smartest Girl in the World (photo by Tim Trumble, courtesy of Childsplay).
