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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mary Ann Cicala
January 20, 2004 617/349-4385
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The Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) is pleased to announce the
grant recipients for the 2004 Local Cultural Council Grant
Program in Cambridge, MA. With approximately $58,000 to grant
in this funding cycle, CAC awarded 26 grants, representing
almost 30% of the applicants.
Announcing the list, Mayor Michael A. Sullivan, said, "I
am particularly pleased with the level of community involvement
and diversity demonstrated by the 2004 grant recipients. And,
through the City of Cambridge's investment in arts and culture,
every child in the Cambridge Public School will have the opportunity
to benefit from subsidized tickets and many will enjoy classroom
visits from professional artists. " Significant funding
from the City of Cambridge, amounting to $35,000, allowed
CAC to fund local arts programs taking place in every neighborhood
throughout the calendar year despite the ongoing cuts in state
funding to the arts.
Each year, CAC distributes funding from the Massachusetts
Cultural Council (MCC) and the City of Cambridge through a
competitive grant process to support arts initiatives that
have a direct benefit to Cambridge citizens and the cultural
life of the city. "Cultural arts programs are a catalyst
for tourism that, in turn, helps to attract business to Cambridge
and to the state," said Senator Jarrett T. Barrios (D-Cambridge).
"Our artists and creative community are an integral part
of the identity of Massachusetts and I am pleased to see that
so many Cambridge groups and citizens who are doing outstanding
work are benefiting
from State and City funding."
Projects awarded grants 2004 include:
· Cambridge Cares About AIDS/Youth On Fire's year long
arts education group for homeless youth that will lead to
a public mural that expresses a teen's perspective on life
on the streets
· Zeitgeist Gallery's First Thursday at Studio Z-a
salon featuring the work of emerging local artists, and
· The Dance Complex for DanceMonth, a city-wide collaboration
that brings concerts, workshops and "dance distractions"
to every corner of Cambridge during the month of May.
Each of the 2004 Grant recipients has developed an artistic
project with focus on a high level of community interaction.
Jam'Nastics is using CAC funding to support the JAM'N Youth
Hip Hop Access Project - a program that will bring Hip Hop
Dance to Cambridge neighborhoods with limited access to the
arts.
Local elementary school teacher, Sue Kranz received a grant
to bring local artists representing different facets of Latino
music and dance to her classrooms at the Fletcher-Maynard
Academy. "I see a real opportunity to enhance the Spanish
curriculum by deepening connections between FMA students and
parents with the local Latino and African-American artistic
communities," says Kranz regarding this program. "CAC
funding will provide them with direct access to Latino culture
through a myriad of artist visits, demonstrations and workshops."
Underground Railway Theater will enhance a playwriting program
for fourth through eighth grade students in the Cambridge
Public Schools. Through a series of classroom visits, URT
playwrights, actors and directors will meet directly with
students to support their playwriting process. The young playwrights
will then be encouraged to submit their scripts in a CPS-wide
competition in which the winning student will earn a mini-residency
with the Studebaker Theater Director Lesley Bannatyne.
The 2004 Grant Review Panel consisted of Cambridge-based
artists and arts professionals who were nominated by members
of the community based on expertise, professionalism and outstanding
involvement in the Cambridge community. The 2004 Grant Panel
included: Susan Alvey, Alan Brody, Caitlin Corbett, Brenda
Divelbliss, Ken Field, Jaclyn Friedman, Archy LaSalle, Thomas
Oboe Lee, Susan Levene, Robbie McCauley, Jim Peters, Stephanie
Troisi, Janice Tucker Rhoda, and David Zermeno.
Of the $58,000 granted this year, 86% will support unique
artistic projects, and the remaining 14% will support grants
submitted as applications to the PASS Program, which subsidizes
the purchase of tickets for Cambridge youth to attend professional
cultural events in the greater Boston area. The Cambridge
Arts Council will showcase the work of this year's recipients
during the 6th Annual Grant Award Celebration on March 25,
2004 at Durrell Hall in the Central Square YMCA.
Following is a list of grant recipients for 2004:
· Afterworks @ St. Peters (PASS)
50 students will participate in a field trip to the Children's
Museum during the February school vacation.
· Agassiz Neighborhood Council (PASS)
55 youth will attend a performance at the Wheelock Family
Theater during the April school vacation.
· Ellen Brodsky (Education & Access)
Contact Ellen Brodsky at 781/647-1102.
Students, families, teachers and staff from two merged schools,
now the Martin Luther King Open school, will celebrate food
and art as a medium to build community by producing a Cambridge
Kids Cooking cookbook and video.
· Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) (Education &
Access)
Contact Lillian Hsu at 617/349-4389.
CAC's Art At Your Feet will bring Cambridge youth and seniors
to public art, offering them an education about art in public
spaces and the process that makes public art happen through
partnerships with the Cambridge Public Schools, youth centers
and senior centers.
· Cambridge Cares About AIDS/Youth On Fire (Education
& Access)
Contact Julie Barnes at 617/661-3040.
A year-long education group for homeless youth will lead to
a public mural and open studios night for the Cambridge community.
Artwork will be an outlet for youth to express their perspectives
about life on the streets and an opportunity to educate the
Cambridge community at large about the issues facing homeless
youth.
· Cambridge Community Television (CCTV) (Education
& Access)
Contact Ginny Berkowitz at 617/661-6900.
CCTV's Summer Media Institute targets high school students,
and offers a six-week intensive course in all aspects of media
production and presentation. Funds from the CAC grant will
support an Artist-in-Residence to develop the creative capacity
of the students and the quality of the media produced.
· Cambridge Family and Youth Services (PASS)
36 adolescent parents and low-income youth will visit Old
Sturbridge Village during April Vacation Week.
· Cambridge Latino Film Festival (Creating &
Presenting)
Contact Jose Barriga at 617/308-2102.
This seven-day festival presents the latest films produced
by Latinos and the latest films dealing with social issues
of Latino communities in the US and Latin America. Screenings
take place in venues throughout Cambridge.
· Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center (Education
& Access)
Contact Shelley Neill at 617/577-1400.
Cambridge youth will learn the technical aspects of arts and
media programming through the Youth Arts and Media program.
Students also have the opportunity to meet with media representatives,
participate in workshops, and document their on-going work
through journal writing, video, and photography.
· Cambridge Public Schools (PASS)
During the 2003-2004 school year, over 600 K-8 students will
attend live theatre, dance, and music events presented by
professional companies in the greater Boston area. Cambridge
Public Schools received three PASS grants in 2004.
· Chinese Culture Connection (Education &
Access)
Contact Mei Hung at 781/321-6316.
The Chinese Culture Connection will offer workshops at Cambridge
Public Library and Cambridge Senior Center on T'ai Chi, opera,
music, brush painting, calligraphy, paper folding, lantern
making, knots.
· Community Art Center (Education & Access)
Contact Melina O'Grady at 617/868-7100.
The Community Art Center will expand its current photography
program for children and teens and introduce adult evening
classes. Members of the community will be invited to rent
the darkroom facilities.
· Dance Complex (Creating & Presenting)
Contact Rozann Kraus at 617/547-9363.
Through a citywide collaboration between the Mayor's Office
and the dance community, Dance Complex will celebrate the
richness of movement arts in Cambridge during the month of
May with performances in schools, libraries, businesses and
public spaces.
· Jorrit Dijkstra (Creating & Presenting)
Contact Jorrit Dijkstra at 617/497-5814.
Dijkstra's grant will fund the Callithumpian Experimental
Music Series, six monthly concerts that unite contemporary
classical music with improvisation and electronic music played
by local musicians. The aim is to bring experimental music
out of elite institutions into an informal setting and to
an audience not usually exposed to it.
· Friends of Alewife (Education & Access)
Contact Ellen Mass at 617/547-1944.
Teens from Cambridge Ridge and Latin will work with veteran
muralist, David Fichter, to paint and install a mural depicting
the environment of the Alewife Reservation area. The 80 foot
long mural will be installed at the Alewife subway station.
· Jam'Nastics (Education & Access)
Contact Anara Frank at 617/354-5780.
In an effort to increase the quality and level of participation
for Cambridge youth with limited access to the arts, Jam'Nastics
has created the JAM'N Youth Hip Hop Access Program. The program
funds scholarships, props, costumes and uniforms for the Jam'Nastics
Performance Teams.
· Jazz Composers Alliance (Creating & Presenting)
Contact Darrell Katz at 781/899-3130.
The 18-piece orchestra will produce New Ideas in Jazz: The
Big Band, a concert of original music supplemented by lecture-demonstrations
for the general public, and a clinic for musicians of the
MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble.
· King Community School (PASS)
40 youth from the King and Amigos Community Schools will visit
the Museum of Science.
· Susan Kranz (Education & Access)
Contact Sue Kranz at 617/349-6588.
During the Spring 2004 semester, artists representing different
facets of Latino music and dance will support cultural studies
of the Spanish program at Fletcher-Maynard Academy, grades
K-4.
· Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra (Education &
Access)
Contact Leah White at 617/661-7067.
The Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra will bring Back to Classical,
a music education program dedicated to helping music students,
to Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School, providing individual
instruction, chamber music coaching, professional demonstrations,
and opportunities for students to sit with Pro Arte Orchestra
members during rehearsals.
· Prometheus Dance (Education & Access)
Contact Diane Arvanites-Noya or Tommy Neblett at 617/576-5336.
In January, Prometheus dance will present DREAMS: a journey
into the playground of the soul, a collaborative project involving
dancers, choreographers, musicians, videographers and designers.
The first round of performances will take place at the Cambridge
Multicultural Arts Center on January 23rd - February 1st (Friday
& Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 6pm).
· Theater Offensive (Creating & Presenting)
Contact Abe Ryebeck at 617/542-4214.
DAGGER, The Theater Offensive's queer women's multicultural
guerrilla troupe will collaborate with the Theater Offensive's
True Colors: OUT Youth Theater to create and perform a guerilla
street theater piece to be performed in Cambridge during LGBT
(Lesbian, Gay Bisexual and Transgender) Pride season in May
and June 2004.
· Underground Railway Theater (URT) (Education
& Access)
URT will support the existing Page to Stage playwriting program
for grades 4-8 in the Cambridge Public Schools. URT will visit
five participating classrooms to collaborate with teachers,
support students in their playwriting process, review scripts
and offer feedback.
· Zeitgeist Gallery (Creating & Presenting)
As noted by the Boston Phoenix in a review of the first salon,
"…the forever-young art space is introducing its
lates happening, a series of one-night thematic art exhibitions
called Studio Z: First Thursday at Zetgeist." The monthly
salon will feature the work of 3-12 visual artists for one
night only.
The Cambridge Arts Council (CAC) is celebrating 30 years as
the official arts agency for the City of Cambridge. CAC's
mission is to ensure that the arts remain vital for people
living, working and visiting in Cambridge. CAC was recently
recognized with the 2003 Commonwealth Award in the category
of "Community." Chosen by a committee of arts and
business leaders gathered by the Massachusetts Cultural Council,
the Commonwealth Award is given to an organization or individual
that has significantly integrated the arts, humanities or
sciences into a community.
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MEDIA ADVISORY: Additional information about the grant recipients
and the funding process is available from the Cambridge Arts
Council. Please contact Mary Ann Cicala or Jane Beal at 617-349-4380
or mcicala@cambridgema.gov.
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