Arts Grants to Central Texas Organizations from National Endowment for the Arts, May, 2016
NEA Arts Grants in Central Texas
May, 2016
(click for full list of NEA arts grants nationwide)
Texas Commission on the Arts
$970,100 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: State & Regional
To support Partnership Agreement activities in the state.
Allison Orr Dance Inc. (aka Forklift Danceworks)
$100,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Design: Our Town
To support Forklift Danceworks' program My Park, My City. Through a multi-year residency, Forklift will select community artists to create collaborative community-based performances and lead town hall meetings and school-based workshops, engaging residents of Austin's Eastern Crescent in a process of reimagining their relationship to neighborhood parks and pools. The project is in partnership with Eastern Crescent neighborhood associations, the City of Austin's Innovation Office, Cultural Arts Division/Economic Development Department, and Austin's African American Cultural Heritage District. The goal is to strengthen citizens' sense of ownership of public space and re-energize the network of residents, municipal employees, and neighborhood organizations that live and work in a part of Austin that has long experienced economic segregation, systemic inequity, and benign neglect.
Allison Orr Dance Inc. (aka Forklift Danceworks)
$10,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support "Play Ball." Forklift Danceworks will partner with Austin's African American Cultural Heritage District, the Huston-Tillotson University baseball team, slam poets, and jazz musicians to mount a free, site-specific performance at the university's Downs Field. Home to Negro league baseball in the 1950s and located in a traditionally African-American neighborhood, Downs Field has hosted many baseball greats, including Satchel Paige, Willie Wells, and Buck O'Neil. This historic field will be celebrated through neighborhood stories, poems, original music, decorations, and dance.
Austin Chamber Music Center (aka ACMC)
$20,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support year-round chamber music instruction. The program will include a two-week summer chamber music workshop, an academic year Saturday Chamber Music Academy, and an in-school coaching program at Austin-
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of April 26, 2016.
area schools. The summer workshop occurs simultaneously with the Austin Chamber Music Festival, and each festival artist will present master classes to participants. In the Saturday Chamber Music Academy and in-school programs, professional teaching artists will provide chamber music coaching, music theory and composition classes, and master classes to elementary, middle, and high school students.
Austin Classical Guitar Society (aka Austin Classical Guitar, ACG)
$45,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support Classical Guitar Education in the Schools. The project is a classical guitar instruction program for students in the Central Texas region and includes professional development for teachers. Classical guitar instructors will provide free lessons to elementary, middle, and high school students in music theory, guitar finger positioning, and performance technique. Through national teacher training workshops, hundreds of music educators in cities around the country will learn the ACG's classical guitar curriculum for use in their own guitar classes. Additional program components will include guest artist performances in the schools, an online youth guitar magazine, and the opportunity for students to audition for the ACG's Classical Guitar Youth Orchestra.
Austin Independent School District (aka AISD)
$100,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support the Creative Learning Initiative (CLI), a collective impact project for Austin Independent School District. Teams from elementary, middle, and high school feeder systems will receive professional development, individual team coaching, and follow-up exchanges for teachers and principals who work to implement and sustain the CLI method and support collective impact data. In its fourth year since implementation, CLI is active in forty-four schools, reaches 800 teachers, and employs 4 trained and specially qualified coaches, all of whom were former teachers. Leaders from AISD, arts organizations, city government, higher education, business and philanthropy have created a ten-year plan to ensure every child benefits from creative learning. The city council included CLI goals in its 30-year comprehensive plan. More than 40 arts organizations agreed to align programming to support the initiative.
Austin Symphony Orchestra Society, Inc. (aka Austin Symphony)
$30,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support Connecting with Music, an interdisciplinary learning initiative for high school students. Focusing on the theme Innovating Music: Exploring Change, the initiative will examine the effect technology has on people's lives. Project plans will include training for teachers and musician teaching artists, in-school workshops by teaching artists, and concerts for high school students. Repertoire may include movements from Beethoven Symphonies, Heitor Villa-Lobos's "Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 2," Alexander Mosolov's "The Iron Foundry," and "Warehouse Medicine" from "The B-Sides: Five Pieces for Orchestra and Electronica" by Mason Bates.
Austin Theatre Alliance (aka Paramount and Stateside Theatres)
$15,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support Literacy to Life and STEM through the Arts, an arts-integrated education program for elementary schools in Austin. Professional teaching artists work with classroom teachers and their students to integrate creative writing, theater, music, dance, and film making into the core language arts and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) curriculum. Near the end of the residency, a group of professional actors- the Story Wranglers-will adapt the students' work into a series of short, energetic skits they perform for the [Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of April 26, 2016] entire school that acknowledges the students in the audience as authors. Students served by the project are predominantly from low-income families that are English-language learners. It is anticipated that students will gain an understanding in several performing art forms while increasing their knowledge and retention of core curriculum subjects.
Ballet East Dance Company (aka Ballet East Dance Theatre)
$10,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the creation and presentation of a multidisciplinary, multimedia art performance. Dancers, visual artists, poets, musicians, and other artists will collaborate to share stories of the Mexican-American experience. "La Loteria," a bingo-like game played for centuries by Spanish-speaking families, will provide inspiration and symbols for the artistic themes.
Conspirare, Inc. (aka Conspirare)
$30,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support a tour of choral concerts and educational activities. The featured program, The Poet Sings: Landays, will include a newly commissioned work by composer Jocelyn Hagen set to "landays," folk poetry of Pashtun women that is meant to be recited or sung aloud, and frequently anonymous. Community engagement activities will include open rehearsals and workshops. The tour sites will include Dallas, Houston, and Brazosport.
Contemporary Austin Museum Inc. (aka The Contemporary Austin)
$35,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Museum
To support the development of the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria. In collaboration with the landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand, the museum will transform the 12-acre sculpture park into a "museum without walls," featuring works by Carol Bove (b. 1971), Anya Gallaccio (b. 1963), Terry Allen (b.1943), Wangechi Mutu (b. 1972), and SUPERFLEX. Public programming for this project will include music performances, outdoor film series, free family programs, and art-making activities to enrich visitors' experiences.
Mexic-Arte (aka Mexic-Arte Museum)
$20,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support the Emerging Artists Exhibition Program Series. Exhibitions will be guest-curated, featuring current work by emerging Texas artists of Latino descent. In addition to presentation in the gallery, artists will also have the opportunity to present their work using a "changarrito," or mobile vending cart which allows for unique public engagement, taking the art out of the museum and into various Austin neighborhoods.
Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance, Inc. (aka Puerto Rican Folkloric Dance & Cultural Center)
$15,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support Plenazos Callejeros, a Living Tradition for All. A series of performances and workshops will present Puerto Rican culture and music. Puerto Rican master artist Tito Matos will lead workshops and performances of "plena," a traditional Puerto Rican music. Another less formal performance will allow for community participation with hands-on instruction in music and dance. The project will conclude with a folkloric performance featuring improvised plena.
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of April 26, 2016.
Telling Project
$15,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the creation and premiere of "Women in Theater," an applied testimonial theater piece. Directed by Jonathan Wei, the work will feature five women who served in uniform and in combat telling their stories of life and the military. The work will illuminate the unacknowledged role that females have played in combat throughout the past two decades, a time when the military considered them "non-combatants." The work seeks to address both military and civilian perceptions concerning women in uniform, as combatants, and as human beings.
Texas Folklife Resources (aka Texas Folklife)
$44,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support the apprenticeships in the Folk & Traditional Arts program and related costs. The apprenticeship program will continue to build on a successful accordion festival and contest. It will comprise an application process, where as many as 15 apprentices will be selected to work with master artists in artistic traditions that will include Cajun/zydeco and polka accordion traditions. The program will conclude with a series of presentations to showcase the masters and their apprentices.
Texas Folklife Resources (aka Texas Folklife)
$40,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Folk & Traditional Arts
To support Stories from Deep in the Heart, a folklore and radio journalism training program. High school students and teachers will receive training to create short, broadcast-quality audio documentaries about the stories, folklore, arts, and cultural traditions of their families and communities. The training will enhance the students' understanding of cultural diversity and increase appreciation for their own culture. Radio broadcasts and a website will make the stories available to the public.
University of Texas at Austin
$45,000 Austin, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support Placeholder, a project comprised of an installation, exhibition, and catalogue. Working in collaboration with artists, physicists, engineers, and designers, Mexico City-based artist Victor Perez-Rul will create a site-specific installation that recycles solar power into kinetic and sonic energy to power an immersive and interactive environment at the university's Visual Arts Center. An exhibition of maquettes (solar-powered pods) that emit sound and light will take place outside of the Mexican American Cultural Center in downtown Austin. A catalogue, available online and in print, will document and interpret the project.
Texas A & M University
$18,000 College Station, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Research
To support a study investigating how interactive art technology is related to social connectedness and well-being among older adults at an assisted living home and at a local art gallery. During the course of several months, participants will learn to use interactive art technology that involves physical computing techniques and everyday materials such as papers and fabrics to create greeting cards for family members. Using pre- and post- assessments, researchers will measure older adults' psychological well-being, their interest in art, and their
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of April 26, 2016.
confidence in using new technology, compared with results from a control group that has been assigned to traditional arts-and-crafts activities.
building community
Centro Cultural Aztlan, Inc. (aka Centro Cultural Aztlan)
$15,000 San Antonio, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support a series of community art projects, such as visual arts exhibitions, community discussions, literary events, and performances. Participating Chicano/Latino groups may include professional artists, community artists, students, and members of the local community. Project activities will expand awareness and appreciation for Chicano/Latino art and culture, as well as preserve cultural heritage while also supporting new art forms.
Contemporary Art for San Antonio (aka Blue Star Contemporary)
$15,000 San Antonio, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Visual Arts
To support an exhibition series and related public programming. Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum will feature solo exhibitions of new work by artists Adriana Corral, Jessica Halonen, and Jennifer Ling Datchuk and collaborative projects with the San Antonio Museum of Art. The museum also will commission a site-specific sculpture by Alyson Shotz that will be installed at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. The project also will include
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval. Information is current as of April 26, 2016.
an exhibition of work selected from Blue Star's open call program. Planned educational and outreach activities for the series may include art-making activities, tours, artist talks, and short films of the artists in their studios, as well as pop-up exhibitions, curatorial workshops, and panel discussions.
National Association of Latino Arts and Culture
$40,000 San Antonio, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support professional development activities for arts administrators. Professional development activities will include the Intercultural Leadership Institute, intended to provide in-depth leadership training for pan-ethnic arts and culture workers nationwide. The institute will allow participants to refine competencies in areas like financial literacy, governance, communications, and management through immersive training, mentoring, field research, and discussions. Additionally, NALAC will plan for a National Leadership Summit to strengthen networks for institute alumni.
SAY Si (aka SAY Sí)
$15,000 San Antonio, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support Dia de los Muertos Projects. Middle and high school students participating in SAY Si's tuition-free multidisciplinary program will create work related to "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) cultural traditions. Led by professional teaching artists and visiting artists, students will create work in disciplines including visual arts, media arts, design, and theater. All student work will be exhibited and performed at the annual Muertitos Fest community event.
Southwest School of Art
$15,000 San Antonio, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Arts Education
To support Kids Initiating Design Solutions. The initiative is a design education project for elementary and middle school students from underserved communities. Students will receive will instruction in urban design, green design, and community development. The program will incorporate hands-on design projects, field trips to architectural sites and offices, and a public exhibition of student work. Teaching teams will include teaching artists, professional architects and engineers, classroom educators and university architecture students.
Temple Symphony Orchestra
$10,000 Temple, TX
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support a performance and community engagement project. The Temple Symphony String Quartet will perform and present educational programs in several local public school districts, as well as area retirement and assisted living facilities. Thematic concert programs will be designed to demonstrate the relationship between music and other art forms, such as dance, visual arts, and folk traditions.