Grants in Your Stockings
Nine Austin arts organizations got something nice in their stockings last week: funding for their art. The money came in the form of federal grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. In announcing the awards, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Travis) said he is “grateful to live in a nation and a community that views artistic freedom and expression as essential. From dance to theatre to folk art, it is especially heartening to see that so many of our established and emerging arts organizations will gain much-needed support.” Amen, Brother Lloyd. The fortunate grantees are:
Texas Folklife Resources, which received $70,000 to fund 15 weeklong artistic residencies in Texas towns with populations under 10,000 through TFR’s Community Residency Program;
Austin Film Society, which received $25,000 to support the presentation of underrepresented works of cinema and $20,000 to support post-production costs for Let it Roll, a documentary film by Susanne Mason recounting the inmate-led revolt against prison conditions in Texas during the 1960s and 1970s;
Center for Women & Their Work, which received $25,000 to support a series of solo exhibitions for young and emerging women artists of Texas;
Dance Umbrella, which received $20,000 to support presentation of five dance events featuring weeklong residencies, master classes, meet-the-artist events, lecture demonstrations, and dance workshops in local middle and high schools, in celebration of Dance Umbrella’s 25th anniversary;
Writers’ League of Texas, which received $20,000 to support the Austin Eye+Ear Performance Series for bringing contemporary new music and performance art to Austin-area audiences;
Junebug Productions, which received $10,000 to support the completion, premiere, and tour of Like Poison Ivy, a multimedia play to be performed in New Orleans and five additional cities;
Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance, which received $10,000 to support plena music, song and dance workshops led by NEA National Heritage Fellow Juan Gutierrez, and Los Pleneros de la 21;
Serie Project, which received $8,500 to support a serigraph printmaking residency program for artists at all stages in their careers. The apprentices will be trained in printmaking, marketing, promotion, and arts administration; and
Rude Mechanicals, which received $5,000 to support the workshop development and production of How Late It Was How Late, an adaptation of a novel by James Kelman by playwright Kirk Lynn and director Sarah Richardson.
By the way, the NEA, which appears to have weathered the worst of its attacks from the Congressional Grinches that wanted to end its culture-supporting ways, is one step closer to having a new chair from the Lone Star State. On December 20, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to confirm Michael P. Hammond, currently dean of the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. In response to the confirmation, Hammond said, “As Americans, we are all heirs to an incredibly rich and diverse artistic and cultural heritage. It is essential, particularly at this difficult period in our history, to draw support and inspiration from that heritage and to encourage and support the finest work of our own time.”
Arts Center Stage Change
Just before the holidays, Arts Center Stage Board of Trustees Chairman Ben Bentzin announced his resignation from that organization. The director of Dell Computer’s Americas Online Division, who has been spearheading the drive to transform Palmer Auditorium into the Long Center for the Performing Arts for the past four years, made the move in order to run for the state Senate seat of Gonzalo Barrientos. Vice-Chairman Rusty Tally, who also chairs the organization’s Curtain Up! capital campaign, will assume the chairmanship. A new slate of officers will be chosen at the board’s March meeting. For more information, call 482-0800.
This article appears in December 28 • 2001.