WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Greater Washington Creative Communities Initiative (CCI), a project of The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, announced today the inaugural round of grant awards grants totaling $150,000 made through The Creative Communities Fund. The grants will support collaborative projects between nonprofit organizations and artists to create and present new works that engage underserved communities. Projects made possible by these grants represent a broad range of artistic disciplines reflecting the rich and diverse cultural landscape of our region -- from hip-hop to traditional Cambodian music, from street murals to Chinese opera.
"A healthy arts ecosystem requires investing in all levels of the arts community -- from major institutions to small and mid-sized organizations to individual artists. By leveraging investments for artists and artmaking, CCI is cultivating a broad-based arts sector where creativity can flourish on all levels," says Terri Lee Freeman, president of The Community Foundation.
CCI is one of 10 programs across the country that make up the national Creative Communities Initiative, led by Leveraging Investments in Creativity, an intermediary supported by The Ford Foundation. Locally, initial funding for CCI has been provided by The Community Foundation and its donors, The Lodestar Fund, Leveraging Investments in Creativity, The Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation, and The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation.
Established in 1973, The Foundation is dedicated to facilitating individual, family and organizational philanthropy in order to make the Washington metropolitan area a better place to live. The Foundation and its donors are the foremost funders of Washington-area charities, awarding some $91M in grant funds in FY2006.
2006-2007 Creative Communities Fund Grantees (9):
1. Cambodian Buddhist Society & Chum Ngek -- traditional Cambodian
musician -- (Montgomery County) -- $10,000 to support
Akangamaso, a new dramatization of the classical Cambodian story,
Magic Diamond Finger, building on traditional Khmer musical forms
and dance.
2. Dance Place & Reggie Glass -- dancer/choreographer --
(Washington, DC) -- $10,000 to support Raw as Life, a new work
that explores relationships between the sexes and includes
hip-hop dance, spoken word, and video.
3. GALA Hispanic Theatre & Hugo Medrano -- playwright/actor --
(Washington, DC) -- $20,000 to support a dramatic work based on
life stories of Salvadoran immigrants from different generations
and socio-economic backgrounds.
4. Joe's Movement Emporium & Laura Schandelmeier --
dancer/choreographer (Prince George's County) -- $10,000 to
support the creation of Portals, a new work that explores the
five rites of passage.
5. Gateway Community Development Corp. & Valerie Theberge --
visual/public artist (Prince George's County) -- $20,000 to
support the creation of a glass mosaic mural to be installed at
the Brentwood Art Center and visible by 20,000 commuters a day.
6. School for the Arts in Learning & Jane Jerardi --
dancer/choreographer -- (Washington, DC) -- $20,000 to support
Chance, a video-dance series that investigates coincidence in
time and space. The video will be projected onto buildings,
creating "chance" encounters with the public in unexpected
settings.
7. Transformer & Kelly Towles -- visual/public artist --
(Washington, DC) -- $20,000 to support The Grate Project, a
series of murals painted on roll-down security gates. Towles
will hold block parties to engage community residents in painting
each piece.
8. Washington Chu Shan Chinese Opera Institute & Chu Shan Zhu --
Chinese opera/theater (Montgomery County) -- $20,000 to support
the world premiere of Northern Song Washi, a new form of
theatrical art integrating the skills and techniques of modern
opera and musical theater into traditional Chinese performing
arts.
9. Young Playwrights' Theatre & Patrick Crowley --
playwright/multidisciplinary artist (Washington, DC) --
$20,000 to support A Nation of Immigrants. Crowley will engage
immigrants (particularly youth) in the Columbia Heights
neighborhood to share their stories in an effort to unmask the
human face of the national debate on immigration.
The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=3032