Region of Waterloo Arts Fund awards 18 grants
Waterloo Region - The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund announces 18 grants for a total of $122,155 in response to proposals submitted by artists and arts organizations from throughout Waterloo region.
The Arts Fund initially received 71 requests, for a total of $485,969. After the first round of evaluations, 30 applicants seeking a total of $176,873 were invited to submit more detailed Stage 2 applications from which the 18 grants were ultimately selected.
Since 2002, when it was established, the Arts Fund has supported more than 500 projects for a total of $2,567,403.
Proposals selected for full or partial funding in the Fall round are:
Jockie (Jocelyn) Loomer, $7,500 for publication of Valley Child – A Memoir in Stories and Folk Art, a book illustrated with original artwork of a rural 1940’s childhood.
YWCA Kitchener-Waterloo, $1,700 for the creation and exhibition of Truth Portraits, a collection of mixed-media self-portraits, accompanied by poetry and statements about identity, by girls aged 11-16 working with local artists.
Monarch Woods, $6,815 for composing and recording on vinyl their second album of original symphonic metal music, which continues the themes of their first album inspired by an original comic book series.
Robert Motum, $4,850 for Kitchener Waterloo: A Guidebook from Memory, a community-sourced collection of personal stories and memories attached to places in the Region, plotted into a guidebook and launched with a walking tour.
Stephen W. Young, $12,000 for At The Crossroads, an original who-done-it play to be performed by local actors at the Waterloo Region Museum for the 100th anniversary of the infamous Berlin, Ontario name-change referendum vote of 1916.
Catherine Mellinger, $4,790 to research and create a series of large collages entitled Deep Salt Water, which builds on word-image interplay and illustrates the prose of writer Marianne Apostolides’ forthcoming book of the same title.
Blue Bird Theatre Collective, $12,000 to produce the première performance of Blue Bird, an original work of intercultural physical theatre based on universal themes communicated through very personal stories.
Waterloo Chamber Players, $7,000 for As a Garden Waits for Rain, a cross-cultural collaborative concert of newly commissioned orchestral music and classical Bengali dance performed by Enakshi Sinha.
Gwyneth Mitchell, $6,000 for Barflies, a fully animated and playful music video based on classical cartoons of the 1920s to complement Richard Garvey’s song of the same title.
Robert Achtemichuk, $2,000 to research and create an original artwork entitled Embers, influenced by and in response to an untitled Alfred Laliberte painting of a bonfire, a work from the permanent collection of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.
Rob Ring, $9,000 for a documentary film, Care for the Child: The Story of the Bridgeport General, based on and preserving the story of local hero Frank Groff, his legacy and impact on his community.
Carol Leigh Wehking, $3,000 for Fresh Stories, a storytelling performance series that features trained storytellers and creates open mic opportunities for local tellers once a month at a Cambridge venue.
Viktoriya Kovac, $12,000 for the research, development and workshop presentation, including original music composition, of a re-imagined performance of King Lear, with Lear himself a large scale puppet manipulated by multiple performers.
Isabella Stefanescu, $8,500 for the creation and production of Compact, a 90-minute one-person drawing performance based on self-portraiture, using live projections, electroacoustic sound and voice, and efficiently compact for travel to small venues local and distant.
Bass Lions, $6,000 for new studio recordings, building on a previous collaborative performance of re-imagined classical compositions in partnership with members of the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony Orchestra.
Laura De Decker, $1,500 for an abstract video animation using computer-generated images based on original purpose-created code and in response to research of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery’s permanent collection.
Ryan Cassidy, $5,500 for a full-length debut recording of original music, fusing traditional elements of jazz with contemporary elements of hip hop/R&B.
Button Factory Arts, $12,000 for Art That Moves You, a public art project displayed inside Grand River Transit buses featuring monthly visual art and poems by local artists.
The objective of the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund is to make art happen in the community through active promotion of arts and culture, and by providing meaningful grants and other support to artists and to arts and culture organizations.
Annually, Regional Council generously allocates 40 cents per capita to the Arts Fund so that the people of Waterloo Region may benefit from the vibrancy of the arts and culture sectors.
Created in 2002, the Arts Fund is a not-for-profit corporation which provides arms-length funding for the performing, visual, media and literary arts and welcomes grant applications in all arts disciplines from individual artists and arts organizations based in the Region of Waterloo (comprising the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo and the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot and Woolwich).
The Arts Fund invites applications in the spring and fall of each year for projects that will occur within the following 12 months. The goal in the longer term is to enhance the ability of an artist or arts organization to make more art happen through future projects.
The Arts Fund is one of the few granting bodies in Canada that awards grants directly to artist-led projects. Often these supported projects are able to attract additional funds through earned revenue, grants from provincial, federal or private sources, sponsorships, private and in-kind donations.
The Board appreciates the contribution of Artist-at-Large Advisers Jax Rula and Paul Campsall who volunteered their time and expertise to assist the Board with the Fall 2015 evaluations.
For more information about initiatives such as peer-to-peer application support, Board-hosted open houses before application deadlines, and Artist-at-Large Advisers, please visit the website: www.artsfund.ca.
The next Arts Fund’s Open House for grant applicants before the Spring 2016 round is on Tuesday, February 9, 2016, 5-7 p.m. at Region of Waterloo Headquarters, 150 Frederick Street, Kitchener. This is an informal drop-in, where board members will be available to share general information about the fund and its mandate.
The next deadline for applications to the Arts Fund is 4 p.m. on Friday, March 4, 2016; full details are available on the website: www.artsfund.ca
For more information, contact Stevie Natolochny at 519-575-4450 snatolochny@regionofwaterloo.ca
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