Berkshire Taconic Awards $150K to Artists, Arts Organizations
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has awarded more than $150,000 to 12 artists and10 arts organizations through its Artist’s Resource Trust (A.R.T.). Three grants were awarded to Berkshire County organizations and an individual artist.A.R.T. annually awards grants to mid-career New England visual artists and to nonprofit organizations wishing to commission or purchase work by mid-career artists living in New England. Since its inception in 1997, A.R.T has given out $1.8 million to support art in New England.
Berkshire County organizations that received grants from the A.R.T fund in 2009 are:
- Community Access to the Arts, Great Barrington, for an installation of Susan Hardcastle and Janice Shields’ "Sticks and Stones." The installation will serve both as a stage set for the annual gala performance on May 1 and 2 and as an exhibit at the Ferrin Gallery, Pittsfield in May.
- City of Pittsfield Office of Cultural Development, Pittsfield, MA: for the exhibition of five works by New England artists in the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts. Pieces incorporate natural and recycled elements, use of illumination, interactive performance-based elements, functionality, and more.
- Additionally, John Stritch, an artist from Hinsdale, MA, received a grant. Stritch is a painter and sculptor whose work has been exhibited widely in local galleries, museums and colleges.
In 2009, A.R.T. also awarded grants to the following museums and art centers throughout New England:
- Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vt., for a residency for Kristen Reynolds.
- MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, to purchase, ship and frame prints and photographs from three New England based artists for the MIT Student Loan Art Program.
- DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, for the exhibition Scapes by Halsey Burgund. This will be a site specific, interactive art work using open source technology to combine musical scores and viewers’ verbal reactions into a continually evolving real-time recording.
- Real Art Ways, Hartford, Conn., for the commission and exhibition of new work by Olu Oguibe. The new work will stem from research the artist has done about New England stone walls and highlighting the aesthetic qualities of everyday objects.
- Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, for the commission of "Sugar," a new site-specific installation by Maria Magdelena Campos-Pons. This work addressed the Afro-Cuban diaspora and the artist’s identity as a woman of Yoruba ancestry.
- Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, for the commission and exhibition of a major new installation by the Massachusetts artist, Gina Siepel in November 2010. The multipart piece will feature a fully functional handmade riverboat and will include video documentation of the artist’s use of the boat.
- Boston Day & Evening Academy, Roxbury, for the purchase of a piece of sculpture by Nora Valdez which is part of the installation "Walking with Memories" designed and executed by students of this public charter school. The installation explores the life of the individual and relationships within society and nature.
- Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, for support exhibitions of New England artists.
Twelve individual artists, selected from 100 applicants, received grants. The grantees are:
- Dana Salvo, Gloucester
- Tiaga Ermansons, Northampton
- Isabel Riley, Somerville
- Amy Jenkins, Peterborough, N.H.
- Christopher Armstrong, Gloucester
- Liza Bingham, Waltham
- Dido Thayer, Malden
- Duncan Johnson, Hartford, Vt.
- Carol O’Malia, Westwood,
- Angelo Arnold, Montpelier, Vt.
- Deborah Davidson, Somerville
- Jieun Shin, Amherst
Application guidelines for individuals and organizations for the Artists Resource Trust fund are available online at www.berkshiretaconic.org or by calling Berkshire Taconic at 413-528-8039. The next deadline for applications is August 1, 2010, at 5 p.m.
