WASHINGTON – Congressman Ted Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) announced that twelve arts organizations from Los Angeles and Santa Monica received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts totaling $280,000. The grants will be used to fund a variety of arts exhibitions, performances and broadcasts that benefit the community.
Awardees include:
Museum Associates – To support an exhibition, “The Triumph of Painting in Eighteenth-Century Mexico” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Designed to highlight this vibrant, but under-examined period, the exhibition will include more than 120 works that reveal stylistic developments and the invention of compelling new iconographies-both religious and secular-reflected in 18th-century Mexican painting. The exhibition will be framed by themes such as power of portraiture, style of great masters, power of the landscape, master storytelling, and the allegorical word. A professional development program will be developed for K-12 teachers to incorporate exhibition content within the classroom. LACMA will provide bus transportation to the museum for students, teachers, and church members located in Hispanic neighborhoods, and will develop bilingual materials for the classroom, guided tours, and art workshops. Given the extensive restoration undertaken for the exhibition, a bi-national conservation symposium is planned with leading Mexican institution
Geffen Playhouse, Inc. – To support the premiere of “Big Sky” by Alexandra Gersten-Vassilaros. The cautionary comedy addresses the fragility of the American Dream. It follows an affluent East Coast family on a business trip to Colorado where each family member reveals a life-changing secret that challenges their self-identity, values, and sense of truth. The revelation that most threatens their foundation is the father’s admission that they are on the brink of bankruptcy. General audiences will explore the play’s themes through learning activities, including artist talkbacks and a special series where they can engage with the artists and other theatergoers. The production will include a sign language interpreted performance and discounted last-minute rush tickets. The project will engage veterans and college students through ticket programs and outreach. The 2002 Tony Award and Outer Critic’s Circle Award-winning director John Rando may direct.
Skirball Cultural Center – To support a Family Puppet Festival. The festival will feature interactive performances, roaming marionettes, giant puppets, live music, and puppet-making workshops. The event convenes regional puppeteers to present puppetry from diverse cultural traditions and artistic styles, reflecting the region’s many heritages while educating audiences, sharing stories across generations, fostering community, and promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Academy Foundation – To support planning and development of a web portal for the Cabinet of Wonders gallery at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Objects drawn from the museum’s collection will be displayed in the gallery to showcase the history of film, accompanied by a web portal allowing users to select objects from the collection and view associated film clips, artist interviews, and texts online. Historical works to be featured include materials such as an annotated script from “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), a Wonka Bar from the set of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1975), and a 1975 Steadicam camera.
Dance Camera West – To support the Dance Media Film Festival. During the festival, Dance Camera West will present contemporary, classic, and alternative dance films, as well as experimental shorts, documentaries, panel discussions, installations, special presentations, and workshops by international artists. Screenings, panels, and filmmaker discussions will be presented at iconic venues in Los Angeles. For the shorts program, the project will include choreography made for the camera. In partnership with the Guadalajara International Film Festival and West Hollywood’s Outfest, Dance Camera West also will present the seventh annual Dance-Along, where audiences learn dance steps before the films. The film festival will be a “walking festival,” where live dance performance and films are programmed to allow dance audiences to attend many of the events by walking to the next location that is across the street or in the park.
A Window Between Worlds – To support The Art Transforms Trauma conference. By collaborating with human service agency leaders, artists will address the effects of trauma and violence. Keynote speakers, panels, and discussions will address how agencies and individuals working in fields such as veteran’s services, domestic violence, and gang prevention can use the arts in their work. The conference also will develop methods to evaluate the effect of arts on healing.
L.A. Theatre Works – To support the L.A. Theatre Works Live Series and tour. The live audio theater performance series will feature renowned actors performing classic and contemporary plays with scripts-in-hand, at microphones in front of audiences. Performances will be recorded and post-produced into master recordings for preservation and dissemination. Plays in the series may include “Constellations” by Nick Payne? “Significant Other” by Joshua Harmon? “Take Me Out” by Richard Greenberg? “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town.” The project will include a national tour of “Judgment at Nuremberg” performed in civic and university venues nationwide with additional educational performances for high-school students, master classes for university students, post-performance talkbacks and panel discussions with directors, actors, scholars, and subject experts.
PEN Center USA West – To support PEN in the Community and a mentorship program for emerging writers. PEN in the Community will pair professional writers with classroom teachers and community center personnel to offer creative writing instruction in public schools, as well as in a continuation school for pregnant teenage girls and in an LGBT senior center. Through its emerging writers program, PEN Center USA West will pair promising emerging writers with mentors, and provide them with opportunities for exposure and professional development during an eight-month period.
L.A. Theater Works – To support production and distribution activities. L.A. Theatre Works records contemporary and classiH68c stage plays for radio broadcasts, podcasts, and audio CD distribution. Throughout the year, L.A. Theatre Works will produce and broadcast a weekly radio series, produce and distribute new and existing works through its audio publishing program, and distribute titles from its collection to public schools and underserved libraries throughout the United States. This year, “Earnest Live HD,” a production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” also will be made available for free, online streaming distribution to schools across the country
City of Santa Monica, California – To support the world premiere of “Galileo,” a new work by The Industry, a contemporary opera company, with related activities. The staging of “Galileo” will be the single focus of Santa Monica’s Glow, a dusk-to-dawn experiential public art event. To accompany the premiere, the Santa Monica Cultural Affairs Division will work with the local school district, the Santa Monica Public Library, and the Santa Monica Conservancy to present community-wide programs that will explore the theme of scientific innovation contained in “Galileo.”.
Somerset Foundation, Inc. – To support the Hear Now Music Festival. The programming will be curated by Artistic Director Hugh Levick and will feature contemporary chamber music works by Los Angeles-area composers. Festival performances will be held in several venues in the City of Los Angeles.
California Dance Institute – To support in-school and after-school dance education for elementary students in the Los Angeles area. Using the teaching methodology developed and refined by Jacques d’Amboise and the National Dance Institute, dance teachers will give children an understanding of the fundamentals of movement, rhythm and music in structured, energetic dance classes with live musical accompaniment. Students will participate in an all-school final performance for the student body, friends, and family.
