NEWS

NAC ARTSTART '05 winners named

Sixteen Newark groups will share $52,630 in grants from the Newark Arts Council’s ArtStart program which includes funding from the Prudential Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, PSE&G and the City of Newark. Nine of the projects will benefit children directly; others go to community ventures that serve residents of the City’s neighborhoods.

Five projects were awarded $4,000 each. Terse Instance directed by Michelle Mumoli involves Arts High School, Science High School, and Ann Street School. Eight students, aged 12-15, will attend a four-week, 40-hour workshop at a local gallery to learn the importance of alternative media.

Food for Thought directed by Yoland Skeete funds workshops at the Sumei Multidisciplinary Center to deal with challenges faced by artists.

A grant for GlassRoots will support efforts to build unity and identity in a culturally diverse neighborhood. In cooperation with Roseville Association, artists in the community will collaborate to create three glass tile murals.

The project, Building Bridges, provides free cross-cultural programming May through October (2005) in Riverbank Park. Programs will be designed for a wide range of ages and ethnic groups and will include music, arts, dance, puppetry, and movies.

The New Ark Mobile, directed by Marjorie Barnes and Juba Dowdell, uses Hip Hop as a cultural tool to raise the social consciousness of Newark residents. A flatbed truck travels to key locations in all wards to present programs featuring local artists.

Funded for $3700 was Passin’ Thru, six workshops for the Newark Public Schools, directed by Oliver Lake, to introduce jazz improvisation and other musical cultures to middle and high schoolers.

Two projects were funded for $3500. Communities in Schools will give eight Saturday StudioWorks youth arts apprenticeship workshops at City Without Walls in the Fall of 2005. Twenty Newark youth will work with trained artists.

Gwen Moten project director for the Newark Symphony Hall will again conduct a Summer Arts & Music Camp for youngsters age 6-13. This collaboration with the Newark Public Schools, Newark Recreation and Division of Cultural Services provides lessons in dance, music, theatre and visual arts plus supports attending a Broadway Play.

Three projects were awarded $3200 The Lincoln Park Cultural District will organize a month-long series of All Jersey Hip Hop Exhibits, May 13-June 16, 2005 at City Without Walls Gallery.

The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in its Something for Everyone project will provide eight concert/demonstrations to introduce students K - 8 to the four families of orchestral instruments and to music spanning three centuries.

Artist Anker West will receive an individual artist grant to generate large-scale curbside charcoal and ink drawings of landscape views which have become Newark’s Threatened Sites as the city changes. The artist plans to use these drawings to create at least six large oil paintings that will be exhibited in public spaces.

Two Grants for $3,000 Awarded Caribbean Heritage Week 2005, sponsored by the NJ Caribbean American Cultural Organization, is slated for August 6-13. The funds will be used to create flags of all the Caribbean countries and to hang them on the parade route for two weeks prior to the Festival through the Festival week. African Globe’s After School Program in the Arts Is in its 8th year of providing teens with theatrical training from script development to production to summer presentations of two programs.

An Art Start Grant of $2330 will support rehabilitation of inmates at the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center through use of Hip Hop poetry as a vessel to teach non-violence and empowerment. This project, Freedom From Inside Out, is directed by Marjorie Barnes and Jawanza Phoenix.

Two projects given $2000 Tracey Luszez will encourage all 60 sixth graders at Thirteenth Avenue School to use the new darkroom to create photographs of problems in the community. The project, Where I Live, also explores solutions.

Emma Wilcox will coordinate a project at City Without Walls Gallery. A workshop for 10 Newark High School students will bring 20 original, largescale works of photographic art into public view. The panels of ArtStart judges, who met on February 18, were chaired by Sally Yerkovich, Ph.D. a member of the NAC Board.

Panel 1 which judged Performing Arts included Gwen Moten, Interim Executive Director, Newark Symphony Hall; Andy Bernstein, a musician from New Brunswick; and Steve Shiman, Director, Newark School of the Arts.

Panel 2 which judged Literary Arts and Multidisciplinary entrants consisted of Ray Ocasio, Executive Director, La Casa De Don Pedro; Keryl McCord, a Newark theater arts consultant; Celeste Bateman, a Newark media consultant and arts manager; and Karen Lopes-Ector, a Paterson artist and program director.

Panel 3 ­ Visual Arts consisted of Sheila McKoy, Director, NJ Transit Arts Program; Tom Nussbaum a Montclair visual artist, and Hafiz Farid, an area filmmaker who produced A Pillar of Salt: The Angry Woman Syndrome.

Panel 4-Visual Arts had as members: Dr. Sally Yerkovich, President & CEO, NJ Historical Society; Gladys Grauer, a Newark artist; and Donna Drew- Pack, Program Assistant, Essex County Department of Cultural and Historic Affairs.

Joyce Ann Judd was the ArtStart Consultant for NAC. Panelists Moten and Yerkovich are members of the NAC Board.