These innovative performing arts projects won $10K grants to probe life, COVID in Miami
Locally based artists working in music, theater and dance have won $10,000 grants from the Knight Foundation to develop 18 proposals for original works that probe the pandemic experience and life and history in Miami, while exploring novel approaches to the performing arts in a time of social isolation.
The winning 2020 proposals in the Knight New Work initiative, announced Thursday, range from digital pieces meant to be experienced at home to works that would be performed live in an outdoor setting. The projects include Grammy-winning trumpeter Brian Lynch’s “7 for 7 by 7: A Jazz Work Exploring Distance, Interaction And Chance,” which consists of seven digital performances by seven jazz musicians over seven minutes, for a total of 343 new pieces, and a site-specific performance by Carlos Fabian Medina that depicts the true experiences of Miamians during the pandemic “new normal.”
Intriguingly, and closely in tune with many South Floridians’ auto-centric experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, three of the proposals will use the medium of “by car,” either literally or metaphorically, according to the artists’ proposals. They include “Escape 2020,” a drive-through circus by cabaret-theater artist Diana Lozano.
“Combining the socially-distanced excitement of a drive-through safari, with the visually immersive experience of a theme park ride, we set out to create an innovative theatrical journey,” a description of Lozano’s project says.
Other winners include the Juggerknot Theater Company, for a live, immersive dramatic experience in which bus passengers meet neighborhood residents in a series of virtual bus stops in Miami neighborhoods; writer Octavia Yearwood, for a mixtape of music and poetry paired with visuals that detail the experiences of a queer artist; and artist Fereshteh Toosi, for an interactive “virtual seance” that deploys “fossil spirits, ocean garbage and ruthless oil tycoon Henry Flagler” to explore the cultural history of oil.
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If the winning proposals have something in common, it’s innovation in presentation and conception as a way of overcoming and even capitalizing on the obstacles to performers and audiences presented by the ongoing pandemic, said Knight arts program officer Adam Ganuza.
“This program is intended to support people who are actively re-imagining the way we experience and present the performing arts, and how we can connect around the performing arts,” Ganuza said. “COVID-19 has shown that the resilience of the performing arts as a sector depends on the ability of artists and cultural organizations to adapt. The way audiences experience the arts has looked completely different in 2020.”
The grants are an extension of the Miami-based Knight Foundation’s long-running initiatives to increase funding and exposure for local artists and artistic groups. The Knight programs are widely credited with boosting local artistic activity and public participation in the arts.
Also on Thursday, Knight announced its 19 Arts Champions for 2020. The annual program recognizes arts and community leaders who then choose artists and arts organizations to receive $10,000 Knight grants.
This year’s list includes Chana Sheldon, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, and Gean Moreno, curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, both of whom chose the Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator; drama critic Christine Dolen, who chose the South Florida Theatre League; and art fair director and event producer Grela Orihuela, who chose the Lotus House Art and Activities Lab.
Since it was established in 2018, the New Work program, which helps underwrite the creation of original works with an innovative bent. has alternated years with the popular and previously established Knight Arts Challenge, an open-call, “no rules” competition in which artists submit ideas for mostly modest grants.
Each of the New Work winners announced on Thursday will receive $10,000. A few will also receive a second round of funding next year to support production and presentation of their projects. The foundation said it will provide up to $500,000 in New Work grants this year.
This year, as the coronavirus pandemic has battered the finances of arts organizations and individual artists, the New Work grants represent an especially auspicious gift for the winners, Knight’s Ganuza said.
“All of us have had a really tough year, and that’s really more so in arts and culture,” Ganuza said. “That’s across the nation and very much so in Miami-Dade County. We think these relatively small investments are going to really help unleash phenomenal creativity. A great number of the projects are collaborative, and we think that money will have a multiplier effect in the artistic community.”
Here is the full list of 2020 Knight Arts Champions and their selections:
▪ Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, PATH (Preserving, Archiving and Teaching Hip-Hop)
▪ Mark Steinberg and Dennis Edwards, Dance NOW! Miami
▪ Chana Sheldon, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
▪ Stefanie Reed, The Underline
▪ Christine Dolen, South Florida Theatre League
▪ Brandi Reddick, STEAM+ Programming in Miami Beach Public Schools
▪ Gean Moreno, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator
▪ Marie Vickles, Tradisyon Lakou Lakay Inc. and FePouli
▪ Pioneer Winter, Pioneer Winter Collective
▪Jan Mapou, Frantz “Kiki” Wainwright and Marlene Bastien
▪Beth Dunlop, Katherine Fleming (Bridge Initiative)
▪Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, Florida Black Historical Research Project, Inc.
▪Darius Daughtry, Marnino Toussaint and JaShae Hones
▪Juan Valadez, enFamilia, Inc.
▪Melissa “Sukii” Flemming, Teen Up-Ward Bound Inc.
▪Dr. Amrita J. Prakash, O, Miami
▪Grela Orihuela, Lotus House Art and Activities Lab
▪Dennis Scholl, Pérez Art Museum Miami
▪Dr. Julian Kreeger, Friends of Chamber Music Miami
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 12:00 AM.