The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA) is thrilled to announce the eight artists selected for 2017 Rubys Artist Project Grants in media arts and performing arts. This grantee cohort represents innovative artistic practices across the fields of dance, video, projection, documentary film, and sound-based theater. The Rubys Artist Project Grants were conceived in 2013 and initiated with start-up funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. In 2017, the Rubys is pleased to have additional support from the Aegon Transamerica Foundation.
The 2017 Rubys grantees in Media Arts and Performing Arts are:
Phaan Howng, Baltimore: to support No Man’s Land: Call to Arms, a video piece that uses a choreographed drumline and colorguard, camouflaged into a painted environment to symbolically represent Nature readying itself against mankind’s ecological destruction.
Donna Jacobs, Ellicott City: to support UnShamed, a work of choreography that looks at domestic violence and the secrecy that surrounds it.
Tavia La Follette, Baltimore: to support Ancient Instincts, a performance that will use soundscape to evoke instinctual responses to an individualized experience that investigates ecology, perception, and the psychology of sound.
Elissa Blount Moorhead, Baltimore: to support research for and development of As of A Now, a film projection to be located on currently vacant buildings that imagine and evoke the stories of their varied occupants’ past, present, and future.
Alexis Renee, Baltimore: to support Sweet Tea and Stardust, a multidisciplinary dance piece from the Masala Soul Project, a dance and theater project that centers the stories and imaginations of communities of color across multiple diasporas. The work will weave together sound, spoken word, text, film and dance to present and perform Black and Brown collective magic and joy as resistance.
Katie Shlon, Baltimore: to support the production and exhibition of a sculptural sound installation which investigates how we experience sound visually and spatially, as part of work with an international arts collective.
Lendl Tellington, Baltimore: to support ...that's why He made momma, a feature length documentary following four generations of a black family as they piece together a legacy after America’s Great Recession.
TT The Artist, Baltimore: to support Dark City: Beneath the Beat, an experimental, musical, documentary film that reimagines the narrative of Baltimore City through the break beats of Baltimore club music and dance.
"I am continually amazed by the energy and originality within Baltimore's creative community. The Deutsch Foundation is thrilled to support the Rubys and delighted with the exceptional projects selected for funding in this round," says Robert W. Deutsch Foundation president Jane Brown.
"The Rubys make it possible for artists in the Baltimore region to launch projects, take risks, and bring work to fruition,” says Jeannie Howe, executive director of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. “GBCA is grateful to its talented and thoughtful jurors and to the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation for their vision and support of this program.”
The 2017 Rubys jury panels for media arts and performing arts were comprised of the following esteemed professionals:
- Giovanna Chesler, filmmaker, director of film and video studies, George Mason University
- Shawn Rene Graham, writer, dramaturg, deputy director of programs and services, The Field
- Michelle Hoffmann, director of education and community engagement, Washington Performing Arts
- Lauren Kelley, animator, artist, assistant director of curatorial programs, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling
- Ouida Maedel, grants manager, Woolly Mammoth Theatre
- Shawn Peters, cinematographer
- Matt Porterfield, filmmaker, faculty in film and media studies, Johns Hopkins University
- David Smooke, composer, faculty in music theory, Peabody Institute
The Rubys Artist Project Grants were conceived and initiated with start-up funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation and are a program of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance. The Rubys is also supported with a grant from the Aegon Transamerica Foundation.
The Rubys Artist Project Grant program was established in 2013 to support the region’s gems - the local creative community of performing, visual, media and literary artists. Created with the vision and initial funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, the Rubys provide meaningful project support directly to artists. The Rubys were inspired in part by Ruby Lerner, the visionary founder of Creative Capital in New York City. http://baltimoreculture.org/rubys
The Robert W. Deutsch Foundation invests in innovative people, programs and ideas that promote arts and culture, economic and community development, and social justice, with a primary focus on the City of Baltimore. www.rwdfoundation.org/
The Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance (GBCA) nurtures and promotes a vibrant, diverse, and sustainable arts and cultural community essential to the region’s quality of life. GBCA aims to promote the region’s creative sector and significantly increase artists’ and organizations’ capacity to do great work. http://baltimoreculture.org/
Through a combination of financial grants and the volunteer commitment of our employees, the Aegon Transamerica Foundation supports non-profit organizations focused on the education, health and well-being of the communities where we live and work. https://www.transamerica.com/
You may download the press release here.
