Hartford Arts & Jobs Grant Recipients, Phase I
Artists Collective
$61,065 for Jackie McLean International Arts Festival and Jazz Series (Expanded Works)
In partnership with the Jackie McLean Institute and the Hartt Community Division, the Artists Collective will expand the festival to include a multitude of disciplines including dance, film, and visual arts which highlight the African American experience in America from the various genres of jazz and its continuing evolution to the hip-hop of today.
Project Dates: September 2009 - June 2010
Location: Artists Collective
www.artistscollective.org
Asylum Hill Congregational Church
$10,000 for Asylum Hill Concert Series (Expanded Works)
Presentation of community concerts featuring local, national and international talent, designed to be accessible to, and representative of, a diverse cross-section of our community. 2010 series will expand to offer two additional concerts featuring Hartford-based band CONGA BOP and a major choral/orchestra work, employing twenty-six musicians and combining the choirs of AHCC and Immanuel Congregational Church.
Event Dates: February 26 and March 28, 2010
Location: Asylum Hill Congregational Church
www.ahcc.org
Billings Forge Community Works
$54,150 for the Galleries at Billings Forge (New Works)
Artist residency program that converts on site apartment units into artists studios, providing free studio work space to twenty-four artists per year. Related programming will include artist’s talks, panel discussions, open studios, demonstrations and performances.
Project Dates: July 2009 - June 2010
Location: Billings Forge Community Works
www.billingsforgeworks.org
Charter Oak Cultural Center
$100,000 for Youth Arts Institute (Expanded Works)
Expansion of the Youth Arts Institute, which provides free visual, music, dance and performance classes to over 500 children and youth, ages 4 – 18, by adding new classes, hiring over a dozen teaching artists, two After School Program Coordinators, a Youth Program Director and a security offer to aid safety issues in the Charter/Sheldon Oak neighborhood.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Location: Charter Oak Cultural Center, Naylor School, Betances School
www.charteroakcenter.org
Connecticut Choral Artists, Inc.
$17,550 for CONCORA Cabaret Series (New Works)
Newly designed cabaret series will include four performances inspired by and designed to compliment the themes of the running play at TheaterWorks, by choosing music of the play’s time period, incorporating the play’s set, or exploring themes presented in the production. The series is designed to attract new audiences and draw its existing mostly-suburban audience into downtown Hartford.
Project Dates: October 2009 - March 2010
Location: TheaterWorks, City Arts on Pearl
www.concora.org
Connecticut Guitar Society
$14,900 for 2009 Guitar Under the Stars (Expanded Works)
Preservation of the annual Guitar Under the Stars concert at Riverfront Plaza, slated for major cutbacks due to loss of corporate funding. Grant support will ensure presentation of the free musical extravaganza, providing a full day and evening of Latino-inspired music, drawing a multicultural audience to Hartford’s riverfront, second in size to the Fourth of July celebration.
Event Date: September 5, 2009
Location: Riverfront Plaza
www.ctguitar.org
Anne Cubberly
$10,000 for Make That Trashy Puppet Dance! (New Works)
Community arts project inviting Asylum Hill residents and members of Asylum Hill Church to design masks and giant puppets to be showcased at the Sigourney Square Family Festival. Project will encourage community interaction while teaching artistic skill and providing a cultural experience.
Project Dates: August 14-22, 2009
Location: Asylum Hill Congregational Church and Sigourney Square
www.annecubberly.com
Cultural Dance Troupe of the West Indies
$10,000 for Cultural Spectacular (Expanded Works)
Presentation of the rich Caribbean cultural heritage, blending African, French, Spanish, and Indian traditional dance forms with modern and classical ballet movements. Seasoned dancers wear authentic, splendidly designed costumes and are accompanied by dynamic rhythmical sounds of Caribbean percussionists.
Event Date: June 26, 2010
Location: Belding Theater, Bushnell Center for Performing Arts
www.culturaldancetroupe.org
Family Day Enterprises
$10,000 for 24th Annual Keney Park Family Day (Expanded Works)
Celebration of Keney Park and the residents of the Woodland Street neighborhood, presenting R&B, jazz, gospel, and reggae music, along with local performers, arts & craft vendors, and community building activities.
Event Date: August 15, 2009
Location: Keney Park, North Hartford
www.familydayenterprises.com
Adrienne Gale
$75,000 for Hartford Prints! (Youth Employment)
Hartford Public High Schoolstudents will learn about letterpress and screen printing, bookmaking, and design. Students will be taught the necessary skills to execute these techniques with the goal of creating works that promote the City of Hartford and Hartford Public High School. Items produced will be given to organizations and local businesses to sell and promote pride in our City.
Project Dates: July 2009 - June 2010
Location: 56 Arbor Street
Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz
$32,500 for 2009 Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz (Expanded Works)
Presentation of national and international mainstream, cutting-edge, traditional and contemporary jazz performers, aspiring local and regional artists, and truly wonderful young musicians from area schools and noteworthy jazz programs. This world-class jazz festival enlivens the cultural and economic vitality of Hartford.
Event Dates: July 17-19, 2009
Location: Bushnell Park
www.jazzhartford.org
Guakía
$32,500 for Ritmo, Salsa y Latin Jazz (Expanded Works)
A year of Rhythm, Salsa and Latin jazz series enhances current programming to expand the Ray Gonzalez Latin Jazz and Salsa Festival, arts education and heritage workshops, and community performances. The annual festival draws over 6,000 people to Hartford’s riverfront, and the expanded workshops will require ten new teaching positions, providing services that make a positive impact on Latino youth by building their skill sets through arts and culture.
Project Dates: July 2009 - June 2010
Location: Guakía and Riverfront
www.guakia.org
HartBeat Ensemble
$60,000 for Free Theater in the Neighborhoods (Expanded Works)
Expansion of HartBeat’s Plays in the Parks program, performing over thirteen free shows in Hartford’s parks and community venues, while employing Hartford actors, tech directors, set designers, directors, carpenters and stage crew. Plays in the Parks brings original, professional theater to audiences in settings comfortable and familiar to them.
Program Dates: July 11-25, 2009, December 3-27, 2009
Location: Parks and Public Venues throughout Hartford
www.hartbeatensemble.org
Hartford Business Improvement District
$39,000 for Awesomest Arts Thingy Ever (New Works)
Temporary art installations in unoccupied storefront property in downtown Hartford. Project will improve the physical appearance of the buildings and streets and enhance the vibrancy and marketability of the City of Hartford. A curator will be hired to oversee the selection and execution of works by six Hartford artists.
Program Dates: June 2009 - January 2010
Location: Downtown Hartford
www.hartford.com
Hartford Children's Theatre
$65,000 for Carriage House Restoration (Facilities Improvement)
Repairs and maintenance for the 100 year old Carriage House Theatre, including replacement of the gutter system, exterior trim replacement, and purging of storm lines, and other repairs due to water leakage. Interior improvements include carpet replacement, chair, curtain and sound system repairs. Projects will employ Hartford-based carpenters, plumbers, painters, carpet installers, sound technicians, seamstress and a supervisor.
Project Dates: July 1 - October 30, 2009
Location: Hartford Children's Theatre
www.hartfordchildrenstheatre.org
Hartford City Ballet
$30,000 for Integrated Performing Arts Afterschool Programming (Youth Employment)
Creation of eight afterschool programs serving kindergarten through 5th grade students, teaching ballet and performance in Hartford Public Schools. Eight youth will be hired to act as assistant teachers during the 2009-2010 school year.
Project Dates: September 2009 - May 2010
Locations: Hartford Public Schools
www.hartfordcityballet.org
Hartford Public Access Television
$30,000 for Youth-Arts-Work (Youth Employment)
Hands-on, high-quality technical training for youth in videography and television programming production, including scriptwriting, lighting, audio and camera operation. Students will be trained in-studio and in the field. In addition, students will learn job readiness skills by scripting and creating story-boards for short PSA’s.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Locations: HPATV
www.hartfordpublicaccess.org
Institute for Community Research
$35,000 for Folk & Traditional Artists Marketing Cooperative (Expanded Works)
The Cultural Heritage Arts Program will develop a crafts cooperative for folk and traditional artists working in Hartford that do not have access to regular job-related income. Building on previous work, this expanded venture will benefit artists from immigrant and refugee communities in Hartford by stimulating greater artistic production, generating income through marketing their work, improved language proficiency, development of financial literacy and acquainting public audiences with the artists’ unique cultural knowledge.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Locations: Various sites throughout Hartford
www.incommunityresearch.org
Judy Dworin Performance Project, Inc.
$16,380 for Moving Matters! (Expanded Works)
Moving Matters! Is a national model that brings dance theater into the community through collaborative arts projects that explore movement and the arts as tools for learning and personal growth. Funding will support five new teaching artists and allow the project to expand from two sites to seven sites in Hartford.
Project Dates: September 2009 - June 2010
Locations: Various venues throughout Hartford
www.judydworin.org
Our Piece of the Pie
$100,000 for Acting Out (Youth Employment)
In partnership with Hartford Stage, OPP will develop a stage production with over forty at-risk youth, engaging participants in all aspects of play production, such as acting, singing, dancing, directing, scripting, casting, choreography, carpentry, set design, costume design, lighting, sound engineering and back of house services, such as marketing and sales. Youth will acquire artistic, communication and career skills through hands-on experience, while receiving payment for their participation.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2010
Location: Our Piece of the Pie and Hartford Stage
www.opp.org
Riverfront Recapture, Inc.
$100,000 for Riverfront Signage System (Facilities Improvement)
Development of a detailed signage plan for the entire park system to enhance the park and experiences of the hundreds of thousands of people who visit each year to enjoy free arts performances, cultural festivals and recreation opportunities. Wayfinding and informational signage will emphasize the Lincoln Financial Sculpture Walk to the influx of visitors from the Connecticut Science Center and Connecticut Convention Center.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 – October 1, 2009
Location: Hartford Riverfront
www.riverfront.org
Sankofa Kuumba Cultural Arts Consortium, Inc.
$16,250 for Sankofa Journey of Emancipation (New Works)
In collaboration with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, this original work illuminates the history and connections of today’s dance, music, storytelling and celebrations with the traditional dance and drum culture of Africa and the Black Diaspora.
Project Dates: May 2010
Locations: Charter Oak Cultural Center and Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts
www.sankofakuumba.org
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
$100,000 for Rembrandt to Wyeth (New Works)
This series of exciting exhibitions will feature exceptional paintings by some of the world’s leading artists. Funding will increase the amount of masterpieces borrowed from national and international museums and private collections which, in addition to the museum’s illustrious collection, will attract more than 120,000 visitors to downtown Hartford.
Project Dates: July 1, 2009 - May 30, 2010
Location: Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
www.wadsworthatheneum.org