Connecticut Delegation Announces More Than $1 Million to Support the Arts

Organization Name

Grant Amount

City

Project Description

Architecture Resource Center Inc.

$20,000

New Haven

To support the Design Connections Partnership.

The partnership is a professional development initiative for public school teachers in New Haven on how to integrate art and design-based learning into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) lessons. Professional development will include artist residencies in schools, exhibitions of student art work, family activities, and a national conference presentation. Students will learn the principles of architecture, urban design, industrial design, engineering, and graphic design that they can apply to creative problem-solving. Partners will include Yale University Urban Design Workshop, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and Curriculum Research Evaluation, Incorporated.

Artists Collective, Inc.

$15,000

Hartford

To support the Music in the Atrium Series.

The project will encompass monthly concerts that will showcase emerging and established performers from various musical genres including jazz, gospel, blues, Caribbean, and rhythm-and-blues. Accompanying elements may include tap dancing and spoken-word components such as hip-hop, poetry slams, and open mic presentations. The series will kick off with a free-of-charge community concert and culminate in the Jackie McLean International Arts Festival. The resident Jackie McLean Youth Jazz Orchestra is expected to perform at several of the concerts.

Capitol Region Education Council

$25,000

Hartford

To support Center for Creative Youth.

The program is a pre-professional intensive summer arts residency program for high school students from throughout the nation on the campus of Wesleyan University. Students may choose to study creative writing, dance, filmmaking, instrumental and vocal music, musical theater, photography, theater, and visual arts with professional resident arts instructors and guest artists. They enroll in one morning class in a specific art form and in various afternoon interdisciplinary arts classes, studying alongside students from different majors. All students work in full group sessions, small ensembles, and experience individualized coaching and instruction. Culminating performances and exhibitions are presented for the student body, families, and the public in the Wesleyan University galleries and professional performance spaces.

Connecticut Historical Society

$40,000

Hartford

To support Capturing Connecticut's Artistic Heritage.

The historical society will create a collaborative digital library from the collections of 11 museums. The online library will provide free, online access to oil paintings, watercolors, and artists' prints from a consortium of Connecticut institutions. Thousands of artworks produced by Connecticut artists such as early portraitists Winthrop Chandler, Ralph Earl, and Erastus Salisbury Field; American Impressionists such as J. Alden Weir and Childe Hassam; and women artists such as Sarah Perkins and Mary Way will be featured in the digital library. The project will be widely accessible to teachers, students, researchers, and the public.

Connecticut State Office of the Arts, Dept. of Economic & Community Development

$714,300

Hartford

To support Partnership Agreement activities.

Elm Shakespeare Company

$15,000

New Haven

To support repertory productions with accompanying education and outreach activities.

In tandem with admission-free performances in New Haven's Edgerton Park, the project also will include The Elm Scholars Program, a summer theater experience for New Haven youth to work and study with professional actors and sound and lighting designers and operators.

Hill-Stead Museum

$10,000

Farmington

To support the Sunken Garden Poetry Festival.

As many as five poets are featured every year at events that include readings, music, lectures, and book signings. The museum also offers the Hartford Student Poetry Outreach program, which provides writing and performance workshops for local high school students.

Institute for Community Research, Inc.

$31,000

Hartford

To support the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program.

Master artists from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island will instruct apprentices in various traditional art forms and present the results of their partnerships at public events. Program folklorists in each state will recruit applicants and monitor the teaching process. They also will document the meetings and public presentations of each apprenticeship team. Documentation materials from the apprenticeship program will be housed in the Institute for Community Research's archives.

Institute for Community Research, Inc.

$35,000

Hartford

To support the Cultural Heritage Arts Program (CHAP).

In addition to the ongoing activities of documenting and presenting folk arts, CHAP will build upon an education project that brings folk artists into schools for workshops and residencies. The institute also will develop a new exhibit and programming that highlights CHAP's 25th anniversary, including artist demonstrations, story sessions, performances, and discussions with tradition bearers. The exhibit will feature art works by a wide array of traditional and occupational artists.

Music Haven, Inc.

$20,000

New Haven

To support a tuition-free, year-long, after-school music education program of the Haven String Quartet (HSQ).

Program components will include weekly instrumental music lessons and musicianship classes, monthly workshops where guest artists perform for the public, community performances by HSQ, and one-on-one mentoring for students living in high-poverty neighborhoods. Young musicians from Yale University, University of New Haven, and Hopkins School will teach and mentor alongside HSQ members and acquire experience working in an urban community to increase access to music performance and education. These Practice Mentors will observe their partner student's private lesson and group class and engage the partner student in separate practice sessions to review the skills discussed in the lessons.

Pilobolus, Inc.

$50,000

Washington Depot

To support the International Collaborators Project (ICP).

This long-term core initiative will develop new work and engage diverse audiences through cross-disciplinary collaborations. The company will enlist Venezuelan choreographer Javier de Frutos and British theater director Sam Buntrock to create and perform new works with the company on tour throughout the United States and abroad. Audience engagement activities such as master classes will accompany the performances.

Site Projects Inc.

$25,000

New Haven

To support "Way to Go," a light installation by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville.

The permanent, interactive light installation will be sited along a pedestrian route connecting New Haven's train station to downtown. Educational programming will be developed to introduce students to the artist and her work and facilitate conversations between students and consulting designers and engineers. The students will meet with the general contractor during supervised site-visits during construction. Community outreach efforts will include block parties marking different phases of the project.

TheaterWorks, Inc.

$10,000

Hartford

To support a production of "Third," the last play written by Wendy Wasserstein.

The play tells the story of a tenured female professor on a mission to teach the next generation about equality, whose own assumptions become challenged. The play will be directed by Producing Artistic Director Rob Ruggiero, and will include student actors performing alongside seasoned professionals.

University of Connecticut

$10,000

Storrs

To support the National Puppetry Festival.

Produced in partnership with Puppeteers of America, the festival will include performances, workshops, exhibitions, scholarly presentations, a film series, a training day for educators, and additional community engagement activities. The festival will encourage artistic and technical skill development among puppeteers and allow for collaboration among national partners, regional puppetry guilds, and the local community.

Westport Country Playhouse, Inc

$30,000

Westport

To support a production of "Broken Glass" by Arthur Miller, and a community outreach initiative celebrating Miller's life and work.

The outreach initiative will offer a series of events inspired by the play, exploring Miller's lifelong commitment to telling stories about the underside of the American Dream. The production will be directed by Artistic Director Mark Lamos, a close collaborator with Miller on several projects.