Kresge Arts in Baltimore Announces $88,500 in First Year of Grants
(Baltimore, MD, 10/20/09) The Baltimore Community Foundation announced today that Kresge Arts in Baltimore has awarded $88,500 in grants to 12 arts projects in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
These projects engage a wide spectrum of Baltimoreans as well as arts genres, and range in scope from the creation and installation of sculptures in vacant lots in West Baltimore, to helping torture survivors and asylum seekers heal emotionally and psychologically through photography, to a youth-led multimedia initiative to keep students from dropping out. (See below for a complete list of the award recipients and descriptions of their projects.)
The grants, which range from $4,900 to $10,000, will be dispersed immediately and run through October 2010. More than 130 grant requests were received for this pilot program, which encouraged Baltimore residents to use art and culture as a tool to address issues in their communities. The Kresge Foundation, based in Michigan, enlisted the Baltimore Community Foundation to administer Kresge Arts in Baltimore.
"We are delighted Baltimore embraced this opportunity to use arts and culture to engage its community," says Regina R. Smith, arts and culture program officer at the Kresge Foundation. "And we are quite thrilled to be funding such creative, thoughtful projects. We hope this work will encourage civic dialogue and challenge both new and established audiences."
The Kresge Foundation is investing $200,000 over two years in Baltimore, as well as in Detroit and St. Louis, for this pilot program. Additional U.S. cities have been pre-selected for this program and will be announced after the pilot phase. For more information on the Kresge Foundation, please visit http://www.kresge.org. The grant review panel consisted of volunteers representing Baltimore's arts, community development, and philanthropic sectors.
Baltimore Programs Receiving Funding:
Access Art, Inc. - $10,000
For the Youthlight Photography after-school program, which provides youth ages 11-18 in Baltimore's Washington Village/Pigtown and Morrell Park neighborhoods with photography instruction, media literacy education, and leadership development. During the year, students will encourage others to stay in school by creating a related PSA campaign, producing a short documentary, and hosting exhibits of students' photography.
Advocates for Survivors of Torture and Trauma - $6,010
To support the Healing Images program, which helps torture survivors and asylum seekers in the Baltimore area heal emotional and psychological wounds through creative expression with digital photography. Program participants are taught basic photography skills, loaned digital cameras, and have the opportunity to display their work at several exhibits at local galleries.
Center for Urban Families - $4,900
For the Father-Child Art Education Initiative, which will use arts enrichment activities, art instruction, and art creation to foster positive parent behaviors and communication between non-custodial fathers and their children.
Chesapeake Center for Youth Development - $5,000
To improve race relations, bridge the generation gap, and build community cohesion in Brooklyn/Curtis Bay through the Community Listening, Engagement, and Arts Retrospection History Project. Through the project, neighborhood youth will write a play depicting a significant historical event in the history of Brooklyn/Curtis Bay and stage it at a community meeting.
Coldstream Homestead Montebello Community Corporation - $7,800
To promote healthy eating and combat diabetes, obesity, and hypertension in these communities by hosting monthly art workshops for residents to create art that addresses health and nutrition. The art will be featured in a community recipe book focused on cooking low-cost, healthy meals.
Community Law In Action, Inc. - $8,955
To provide arts training and instruction to 30 youth in the juvenile unit of the Baltimore City Detention Center as they create illustrated books that document their lives and stories. The books will be reproduced and distributed to policy makers and the community in the hopes of combating stereotypes and fostering the young people's self-expression.
Julie Lin - $6,010
For the Kitchen Stories project, which helps new immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers adapt to the emotional challenges of a new country by offering art and food themed workshops that not only serve as an introduction to American culture and food, but also facilitate the creative expression of memories and stories of their journeys to America.
Ashley Milburn - $7,500
To connect West Baltimore youth to their communities by offering weekly workshops that focus on oral history, intergenerational dialogue, and community service through artistic expression. The workshops will culminate in the youths' creation and installation in vacant lots of 12 six-foot sculptures of young adults asserting their voice in the community.
Native American After-School Art Project - $7,875
To help Native American youth connect with their culture by supporting a youth-led asset mapping project to document Baltimore's Native American community. As part of the project, young people will receive weekly training in photography, oral history, drawing, painting, sculpture, and gallery installation skills as they prepare to create a gallery exhibit highlighting their work.
New Lens - $8,000
To support a media arts program for 20 youth at Baltimore's Lake Clifton High School campus. Youth in the program will learn media and production skills as they create a twice monthly television show focused on raising awareness of urban environmental issues.
Leslie Schwing - $8,450
To foster cross-cultural interaction and promote neighborhood unity in Baltimore's Washington Hill community by using a structured art game organized around the theme, "What does it mean to live at a cultural crossroads?"
Unchained Talent - $8,000
To provide training in theater, music, and dance to students at the Lake Clifton High School campus as they write and perform an original production that explores community issues selected by the students.
KRESGE ARTS IN BALTIMORE PARTNERS
Kresge Foundation - The Kresge Foundation of Troy, Michigan, is a $2.8 billion private, national foundation that supports communities by building the capacity of nonprofit organizations in six fields: health, the environment, arts and culture, education, human services and community development. In partnership with grantees, Kresge seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expression, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for dealing with global climate change. In 2008, the foundation approved 342 grants totaling $181 million. In Baltimore, the Kresge Foundation has supported organizations including Baltimore Medical System, the Center for Urban Families, and Joseph Richey House. Visit www.kresge.org for more information.
Baltimore Community Foundation - The Baltimore Community Foundation distributed $28 million in 2008 to hundreds of nonprofit organizations in the Baltimore region and beyond. With assets of $143 million, BCF comprises more than 600 different charitable funds. BCF invites donors to Invest in Baltimore through its civic agenda, which combines economic development with poverty reduction by making strategic investments in the areas of human services, youth, education, transportation, neighborhoods, diversity, environment, arts and culture, and promoting Baltimore. More information about Invest in Baltimore as well as support for individual donors' philanthropy and more can be found at www.bcf.org.
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