Arts Grants 2003

Pacific News Service

2003-12-17T17:26:20Z

(San Francisco, CA) www.pacificnews.org	Total Award: $50,000 over 1 year
The Beat Within - Disconnected Youth Become Connectors

]]> To support The Beat Within - Disconnected Youth Become Connectors, a program designed to strengthen the literacy/communication skills of incarcerated youth and ex-detainees in San Francisco and other cities. The Pacific News Service (PNS) is a 33-year-old nonprofit that began as an alternative news service for mainstream newspapers. Its mission is to create more inclusive communications not only through the content it produces, but also through developing and strengthening youth media and ethnic media outlets that reflect and serve some of the most disconnected segments of our society. PNS's writing workshops with incarcerated youth were first implemented in 1996. Today most of the youth communications staff are ex-detainees and former interns. The Beat Within is currently offering 48 weekly writing workshops that serve more than 6,000 juvenile hall detainees per year in Northern California, Virginia and Phoenix. In 2002-2003 NCF supported PNS's efforts to expand into communities where graduates now reside. In 2003-2004 PNS will strengthen its model for enhancing literacy/communication skills; nurture a network of similar initiatives; formalize its aftercare program for ex-detainees and enhance the opportunities for former detainees by publicizing and broadly distributing their work. PNS has the means and skills to engage in a multi-state organizing effort that involves partnerships with cultural institutions with similar missions.

Media Education Foundation

2003-12-17T17:22:11Z

(Northampton, MA) www.mediareform.net	Total Award: $50,000 over 1 year
Free Press National Conference on Media Reform	Program Contribution Arts and Culture Program, $10,000 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice, $40,000

]]> Presidential Authority Grant To support the Free Press National Conference on Media Reform. The conference is a groundbreaking forum to democratize the debate over media policymaking. A broad range of media reform activists will join legislators, staff of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), activists and leaders to develop strategies for addressing proposed changes in FCC regulations. Interested activists include groups that are working for civil rights, women's rights, rural renewal, the environments, labor, and community development. In the arts community, musicians, owners of independent recording companies and radio stations playing alternative music are concerned with their growing marginalization as a result of the corporate take-over of local stations and limited accessibility for emerging artists. The purpose of the conference is to mobilize new constituencies; strengthen coalitions; develop unified action plans for immediate and long-term reforms; and to generate policies and strategies that will improve the media system. The scope of this effort will be broad based. There will be opportunities to teach grassroots activists basic strategies for advancing media reform in their home communities. Conference organizers will also work to build international allies on cross-border issues.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective II, Strategy 1
Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice: Objectives I & II

Working Today, Inc.

2003-12-17T17:17:54Z

(Brooklyn, NY) www.workingtoday.org	Total Award: $100,000 over 2 years
Arts Outreach	Program Contribution Arts and Culture Program, $50,000 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice, $50,000

]]> To support "Arts Outreach," a project that will target artists so that they begin to identify themselves as part of the independent workforce, a growing group of workers that deserve basic benefits and protections. Working Today will engage in a two-part strategy that includes 1) mobilizing artists to call for changes in the policies and regulations that affect them and 2) offering affordable insurance products for the arts community. Working Today was established in 1995 as an advocacy organization for independent workers who comprise one third of the nation's workforce. This nation's social policies assume that workers will receive benefits from their employers and the neediest will receive benefits from the state. These policies do not address the fact that over 30 million individuals work independently. Given their large number, independent workers need to become a constituency to call for basic benefits and protections. Artists are part of this constituency because most artists are self-employed and like other independent workers, they need to be part of a support structure. A recent study revealed that almost one third of artists working in New York City do not have health insurance. Working Today will begin the process of educating this constituency by organizing a subway awareness campaign, administering on-line surveys assessing artists' health needs, publishing articles in arts journals, publishing a monthly electronic newsletter, creating public service announcements for radio stations and collaborating with existing arts groups to coordinate their efforts.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective II, Strategy 1
Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice: Objectives I & II

Wing Luke Memorial Foundation, Inc.

2003-12-17T17:17:17Z

(Seattle, WA) www.wingluke.org	Total Award: $40,000 over 1 year
A Convening: Re-envisioning Museums and their Communities Peer Learning and Program Documentation

]]> Presidential Authority Grant To convene teams of museum professionals and community partners from each of ten museums participating in Re-envisioning Museums and Their Communities (Re-envisioning), an initiative of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. The purpose of the convening will be to share strategies, challenges and successes; identify practices and protocols that can inform the larger field and to develop a plan for the broad dissemination of lessons learned. Communities throughout the nation are experiencing changing ethnic demographics, population shifts, influxes of new immigrant groups and altered social, political and fiscal realities. Museums are addressing these and other catalysts for change with creativity and resourcefulness. Re-envisioning is a multi-year initiative of the Nathan Cummings Foundation that supports and documents the redefinition of the roles that museums play in communities in the twenty-first century. The goals of this conference are; to create opportunities for peer learning among the groups that have participated in this initiative; to enable museum professionals and community partners to share and critique strategies for community engagement, identify challenges and highlight successes; to enable the foundation to identify practices and protocols that can inform the larger field; and to develop a plan for the broad dissemination of effective strategies and lessons learned.

WGBH Educational Foundation

2003-12-17T17:16:31Z

(Boston, MA) www.wgbh.org	Total Award: $300,000 over 1 year
Frontline 2004 � Corporate Accountability	Program Contribution Arts and Culture Program, $50,000 Environment Program, $60,000 Health Program, $35,000 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice, $145,000 Jewish Life and Values/Contemplative Practice, $10,000

]]> To support Frontline 2004 - Corporate Accountability, to research and produce at least three in-depth documentaries that address important issues related to corporate and government accountability as well as conducting research for three additional investigative documentaries in the areas of health, environment and religion. Frontline is uniquely positioned to tackle difficult subjects and present balanced representations of the issues. In 2002-2003 NCF supported a Frontline program that investigated one of America's most dangerous industries by profiling two companies; one in which flagrant environmental and safety violations have resulted in serious harm to workers and the environment, as well as a corporation that was acting more responsibly. The broadcast was complemented by a web site, a multi-part series in The New York Times, extensive "tune-in" ads in the newspaper, and a national promotion campaign in the week before the show aired.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective II, Strategy 2 Environment Program: Objective I, Strategies 1 & 2 Health Program: Objective I, Strategy 1 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice: Objectives I & II Jewish Life and Values/Contemplative Practice: Goal I, Objective 4

Talking Eyes Media Inc.

2003-12-17T17:15:46Z

(San Francisco, CA) www.talkingeyesmedia.org	Total Award: $62,000 over 18 months
"Denied:The Crisis of America's Uninsured Exhibition"	Program Contribution Arts and Culture Program, $26,000 Health Program, $21,000 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice, $15,000

]]> To support the "Denied: The Crisis of America's Uninsured Exhibition," that will travel to 12 venues over eighteen months. Last year, the Foundation supported a book of the same title which examined the impact of having 41 million American's go without health coverage. The publication and exhibition have been created to shed light on this crisis in a format that can have an impact on audiences throughout the nation. The exhibition will serve as a focal point where health care advocates can convene people to discuss the issues. The outreach strategies will include the following activities: conducting outreach to health care providers who will host the exhibition; partnering with organizations to build a tour schedule; developing an educational campaign; sharing resources; hosting "speak outs" for uninsured people; developing press packages, developing OpEd pieces; and Talking Eyes Media staff will participate in public programs at local venues. The ultimate goal of "Denied" is to mobilize people so that they can claim the right to basic health care in America.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective I, Strategy 1 Health Program: Objective I, Strategy 1 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice: Objectives I & II

The Scribe Video Center Inc.

2003-12-17T17:15:03Z

(Philadelphia, PA) www.libertynet.org	Total Award: $69,540 over 1 year
Community Visions, The Documentary History Project for Youth and Precious Places

]]> To support Community Visions, The Documentary History Project for Youth and Precious Places, three media program initiatives that address issues of social and economic justice in the Philadelphia tri-state area. Scribe Video Center was founded in 1982 to explore, develop and advance the use of film, video, audio and interactive digital technologies as artistic media and as tools for progressive social change. Scribe provides workshops for artists, community organizations and novice media makers; collaborates with community-based organization that want to use media to document issues; screens new works and offers services to independent media makers. During 2002-2003, NCF supported Community Vision and The Documentary History Project for Youth. Notable projects include collaborations with the Lawnside Historical Society, Eco Tech Learning Community, Threshold, a volunteer prison mentoring project and El Comite de Apoya Los Trabajadores Agricolas, a farm workers group. In 2003-2004 Scribe will select and create media with four new Community Visions productions partners; work with youth to produce videos that document local history; and implement a new initiative that results in media about public spaces, buildings, street corners, parks and neighborhoods that hold community memories.

Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation

2003-12-17T17:14:18Z

(New York, NY) www.rushphilanthropic.org	Total Award: $22,000 over 3 months b>
Confrontation or Commentary: the Role of Political Art in Society

]]> Presidential Authority Grant To support "Confrontation or Commentary: the Role of Political Art in Society:" an exhibition which will be held at the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation was founded by an African American family committed to exposing underserved urban youth to the arts and helping foster the careers of emerging artists. This exhibition will address a range of issues including police brutality, the impact of incarceration on young adults, spiritual transformation, government intervention and feminism from the perspective of a black woman. The works in the exhibition will include installations, sculpture, photography with text as well as mixed media works. The exhibition is being curated by Danny Simmons, Director of the Rush Gallery in New York City and the Corridor Gallery in Brooklyn.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective I, Strategy 1

Please Touch Museum

2003-12-17T17:13:40Z

(Philadelphia, PA) www.pleasetouchmuseum.org	Total Award: $75,000 over 1 year
Multicultural Initiative and the Parent Empowerment Program

]]> To support the Multicultural Initiative, an effort that will help non-traditional families make use of the rich resources that museums offer and the Parent Empowerment Program which will help parents whose families are at-risk improve their self-awareness and parenting skills. The Please Touch Museum received support for re-envisioning its museum audiences. In 2002-2003, the museum staff focused on strengthening relationships with the Latino community. The museum also implemented and revised its Parent Empowerment Program (PEP). Parents and families have been actively involved in identifying the content, structure and skills sets that are imparted in workshops. Museum staff have been retrained when they acknowledged that they lacked the necessary skills to provide meaningful experiences to new constituencies and new staff members were hired to augment the skills of existing staff. In 2003-2004, the Please Touch Museum will develop a strategy for working with Philadelphia's Asian/Pacific American communities; continue its work with low income and at-risk parents and sustain and enhance its work with the Latino community.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective I, Strategy 1

Pangea World Theater

2003-12-17T17:12:59Z

(Minneapolis, MN) www.pangeaworldtheater.org	Total Award: $75,000 over 1 year
Bridges

]]> To support Bridges, a series that uses art to respond to issues of race, culture and artistic expression. Bridges will be a series of performances events, panels and workshops designed to create passageways across art forms, cultures, aesthetics, classes, borders and traditions leading to a freedom of expression. Pangea World Theater was founded with a vision of bringing people from different backgrounds and traditions together through theater. Since its inception, Pangea has committed itself to international works, styles and traditions that illuminate the human condition, end divisiveness and celebrate differences. All of the theater's works employ a cross-ethnic vision of tolerance and human rights through excellence in the arts. This program will be designed and produced by artists from immigrant and minority communities across the Midwest who use art as a means of gaining voice in arenas where there is limited or no access for their work. Community dialogue will form a critical factor of Bridgesand these dialogues will be conducted in collaboration with the Minnesota Advocates of Human Rights, Amnesty International and the Center for Victims of Torture.

New York University

2003-12-17T17:12:20Z

(New York, NY) www.itp.nyu.edu	Total Award: $100,000 over 1 year
Art and Social Justice

]]> To support Art and Social Justice, an effort that includes the establishment of an ongoing role for community arts in the Tisch School and the development of local and national university/community arts networks so that knowledge can be shared among practitioners and theorists. The Tisch School of the Arts (TSOA) at New York University is one of the nation's leading centers of study in theater, theater design and lighting, drama, film, dance, cinema arts, dramatic writing, performance studies, photography, imaging, art and public policy and recorded music. In 1999 TSOA institutionalized its community based programming by creating a Department and a Center for Art and Public Policy and an Office of Community Connections. TSAO also uses its Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) to encourage students to create new forms of communication. ITP's goal is to train a new kind of professional, whose understanding of technology is informed by a strong sense of aesthetics and ethics. TSOA is seeking to place students in community arts internships; document its Youth and War Project, expand its website to include new resources; and gather materials for a new curriculum.

Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum

2003-12-17T17:11:43Z

(Chicago, IL) www.mfacmchicago.org	Total Award: $75,000 over 1 year
Community-based Artist Residency Program

]]> To support the Community-based Artist Residency Program, an initiative that pairs established artists with local artists to create meaningful participatory experiences for multi-generational audiences. The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum was founded fifteen years ago by educators and community activists to educate and empower the local community. During 2002-2003 community residents of all ages were surveyed by museum staff about their social and civic concerns. Community members then chose artists whose visions matched their own. They participated in town-meetings which were directed by teams of artists and created works together that explored and illustrated their issues of concern. In 2003-2004 the museum will refine its community-building process by creating a public gallery on site; select a new group of artists whose approaches appeal to a broad segment of the populace; expand opportunities for participation; and expand its communications and marketing strategies. The Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum received support from the Art and Culture Program's Re-envisioning Museums initiative. Representatives from those museums convened in Seattle in September of 2003. A publication documenting best practices is being developed for 2004-2005.

Leveraging Investments in Creativity

2003-12-17T17:08:55Z

(Brooklyn, NY)	Total Award: $100,000 over 2 years
National Artists' Insurance Initiative	Program Contribution Arts and Culture Program, $50,000 Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice, $50,000

]]> To support the National Artists' Insurance Initiative which will increase artists' access to health, life, retirement and business insurance and expand artists' engagement with healthcare policy reform efforts. Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) is a new organization that was created in response to a three-year research project undertaken by the Urban Institute to document and analyze existing programs of support for artists; and to propose ways to enhance the structures that facilitate artists' work and their contributions to American life. LINC will convene field leaders to share information and build a national network of innovators; generate and disseminate useful information on successful models of increasing artists' access to insurance; and encourage artists' participation in state and national alliances for health care reform. Products will include reports from the convenings of field leaders, a summary of available information and research regarding artists and insurance, a database of successful innovations and a plan of action to mobilize artists on insurance related policy issues.

This grant also satisfies:

Arts and Culture Program: Objective II, Strategy 1
Interprogram Initiatives for Social and Economic Justice: Objectives I & II

Los Angeles Poverty Department

2003-12-17T17:08:22Z

(Los Angeles, CA)	Total Award: $45,000 over 1 year
AGENTS & ASSETS: A National Residency Performance Project

]]> To support AGENTS & ASSETS: A National Residency Performance Project which seeks to give voice to the people whose communities have been most devastated by drugs and counterproductive drug policies. The Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) was founded seventeen years ago in acknowledgement of the inherently social process of theater. The organization has historically used theater with other means of public education, organizing, partnering and activism to call attention to the plight of the poor. With Agents and Assets, LAPD has initiated a national theater project that puts day to day experiences in a larger social and political context while exposing the root causes and policies that help perpetuate poverty. LAPD has toured Agents and Assets and does workshops with local theater and social justice organizations that also stimulate awareness and organizing around policies affecting drug offenders. This project builds networks of project participants and organizers in different parts of the country who are concerned about the impact of drug policies on communities. In 2002, LAPD conducted a residency and production in Detroit. In 2003-2004, LAPD will begin identifying partners and conduct a residency and production in Cleveland, Ohio. LAPD will also return to Detroit and South Central Los Angeles to build on work undertaken in 2002-2003.

Kings Majestic Corporation

2003-12-17T17:07:41Z

(Brooklyn, NY) www.651arts.org	Total Award: $50,000 over 1 year
Inclusive Relationships: Developing Community Together/Phase II

]]> To support Inclusive Relationships: Developing Community Together/Phase II, an effort to publish findings concerning inclusive cultural development planning processes nation-wide and to create a plan for the organization's community. The Kings Majestic Corporation (also known as 651 Arts) develops, produces and presents arts and cultural programming grounded in the African Diaspora. Inclusive Relationships: Developing Community Together was conceived to challenge insensitive urban and economic development initiatives that inadvertently displace individuals, cultural groups and businesses that have not been included in cultural district planning processes. Successful projects have been implemented in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Tucson and Pittsburgh. During year one, 651 hired a consultant to engage in a planning process with local cultural and community groups; hosted town meetings that included a variety of stakeholders; created alliances with community development groups in other cities that engaged in inclusive processes and created a cultural plan. In 2003-2004, 651's second phase of work will include the following: negotiating a plan that is built on community consensus; creating alliances with individuals and groups that were not engaged in the previous year's work; building upon research on inclusive processes for community development initiatives; and creating an Institutional Guide for Participating in Community Development.