CULTURAL AFFAIRS COMMISSION AWARDS $154,481

Fifty-six grants supporting arts and cultural activities countywide

with public-private funds

The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission announces the award of fifty-two project grants totaling $127,555 for community arts, cultural, and local history programs, three capital grants totaling $11,926, and one special grant award in the amount of $15,000 supporting creation of a new mosaic mural at Dane County Parks’ Jenni & Kyle Preserve.  In the Commission’s second grant cycle of the year, county dollars combined with funds from the American Girl’s Fund for Children, Endres Manufacturing Company Foundation, The Evjue Foundation, Inc., the charitable arm of The Capital Times, Overture Foundation, and Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation will be matched by over $1.3 million from other sources.  Capital grants awarded to small arts organizations with funds provided to the Commission by the Overture Foundation are matched dollar-for-dollar by the recipients with dollars from other local sources.  Grant recipients follow.

Arts-in-Schools

Opera for the Young, $3,000, presenting The Pirates of Penzance at several dozen venues countywide exposing and engaging young people with opera.

Lincoln Elementary School, $1,200, supporting residencies of award-winning artist and children’s book illustrator, Rafael Lopez, and award-winning children’s book author and university professor, Monica Brown, targeting youth and their families at Lincoln School and South Madison Library.

American Players Theatre, $3,000, in support of Potency of Poetry, an in-school residency program utilizing unique performance skills of APT teaching artists to infuse students with enthusiasm and enhanced appreciation of words, language and storytelling.

Kanopy Dance Theatre, $4,000, supporting performances featuring elements of Japanese theater dance including world premier by Kabuki Master Lonny Joseph Gordon.

Li Chiao-Ping Dance, $3,000, for presentation of Knotcracker, a contemporary, humorous interpretation of classic Nutcracker ballet including spoken word, contemporary dance, original, live recorded music, and showcasing all new choreography by Li Chiao-Ping.

Kate Corby & Dancers, $1,650, for In Whole or in Part, a series of contemporary dance performances, discussions and workshops including local and guest artists.

Local History

Madison Children’s Museum, $3,600, forA Window to Our Past:  December 1939, a recreated window display from former Montgomery Ward’s Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer promotional campaign and related programming. 

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Foundation, $3,500, supportingTalking Spirits XII:  Forest Hill Cemetery Tour, a Civil War living history tour bringing to life stories of veterans and civilians who contributed to the war effort, especially tailored for school groups but also offered to public.

Multidisciplinary Arts/Culture

Wisconsin Youth Company, $3,000, presenting Celebrate Youth! 2011, showcasing positive youth development through arts and performance during a free, family-friendly event including four stages, art exhibit, hands-on activities, organizational and business exhibitors.

Wisconsin Family Ties, $1,000, in support of TeleStories from Around the World, an inclusive educational project involving youth incorporating video, storytelling and live performance.

Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, $1,980, supporting Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, a unique program helping people living with dementia create and perform poetry.

Across the Distance, $1,000, helping present Across the Distance, a multimedia, bilingual (American Sign Language and English) performance featuring a soprano actress and deaf actor.  The play explores challenges associated with human need to communicate with one another under seemingly impossible circumstances.

Independent Living, $1,000, for Cabin Fever Reliever, a winter series of artistic performances combined with interactive activities designed to inspire and stimulate discussion among elderly individuals and other generations.

Bayview Foundation, $2,800, supporting Triangle Partners in Art, bringing a diverse population of children together along with their neighbors with disabilities for shared and independent arts activities culminating in exhibits, performances, and events.

Restoration of the Statue of Liberty Replica Committee, $3,000, for restoration and protection of historic statue to be reinstalled in Madison’s Warner Park.

Wisconsin Tibetan Association, $1,800, for Tibet Festival 2010, presenting myriad elements of Tibetan culture including exhibits, films, special musical and dance presentations by local Tibetan youth.

TAPIT/new works, $1,950, in support of Food Clues, a new play blending comedy, music, and tap dance linking food, health, family and fun that helps elementary school-aged youth see green vegetables as rock stars.

Africasong Communications, $2,880, helping to present 31st Annual State of Wisconsin Tribute Ceremony honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his civil rights legacy including music, dance and oratory.

Music

Special Edition Trio, $1,150, supporting Outreach With a Song, sung by accomplished local vocalists featuring selections from opera and musical theater, especially targeting seniors.

Four Seasons Theatre, $2,960, presenting The Great American Songbook, sharing the story of the first 50 years of American popular music from vaudeville stage or Tin Pan Alley, radio or record player, to Broadway and the silver screen.

Madison Bach Musicians, $2,800, for Orchestral Masterworks by Vivaldi, Bach and Haydn, lecture and concert presented by period instrument chamber orchestra.

Madison Music Collective, $1,900, presenting MCM Autumn Programs including workshop for amateur, especially student, musicians to gain experience in small-group jazz settings involving ensemble clinics with experienced technicians, and Monster Jam concert and screening in which improvising musicians will perform to classic, silent monster movies.

Wisconsin Union Theater, $3,000, supporting Madison World Music Festival 2010, celebrating musical traditions from around the world including four days of free headliner acts by international artists, workshops and in-school performances. 

Fresco Opera Theatre, $1,950, for Ding Dong the Diva’s Dead:  A Night of Opera Death Scenes, offering alternative interpretations of operatic genre.

Madison Symphony Orchestra, $3,000, in support of HeartStrings, bringing live, interactive performances into healthcare and residential facilities serving individuals with special needs, disabilities, and longer-term illnesses.

Madison Opera, $3,000, supporting The Marriage of Figaro Student Matinee, introducing students countywide to operatic form through study guides and mainstage full opera production.

John Duggleby, $800, for Affordable Musical Programs for Seniors & Adults with Disabilities, presenting live music to seniors within residencies and organizations.

Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, $3,000, presenting Evelyn Steenbock Fall Concerts, first public performances of the WYSO season.

Madison Mary Lou Williams Centennial Coordinating Committee, $4,000, for Mary Lou Williams Festival Weekend Concerts, two major public concerts featuring secular and sacred music of late Mary Lou Williams, legendary jazz pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator, on occasion of her centennial year and in memory of her 1976 residency at UW-Madison.

Overture Center for the Arts, $1,500, supporting Overture After Work 2010-11, free, live, happy hour music in Overture Center lobby throughout the year.

Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, $3,000, in support of Masterworks Series, showcasing acclaimed guest artists in concert with local chamber orchestra.

Dimensions in Sound & The Studio Orchestra, $1,500, for Senior Living Establishments Concerts, presenting live classical works of Big Band era to residents at senior living establishments.  

Madison Youth Choirs, $3,000, supporting Architectural Soundscapes, a year-long music education and performance project dedicated to exploring relationship between architecture and choral music identifying connections between architectural form and music composition, history and culture.

Monona Terrace Community Programs, $3,000, presenting Concerts on the Rooftop, offering a series of free, live concerts showcasing a variety of music, accompanied by opportunities to dance, eat great food, and see spectacular views of Madison.

University Theatre, $2,400, for The Yum Yum Room, a new production especially targeting youth about teen-parent relationships.

Broom Street Theater, $1,000, for production of Invisible Boy by local playwright confronting shame and broken trust associated with childhood sexual abuse via a poetic narrative.

Theater Bus, $1,200, supporting scholarship program targeting seniors providing opportunities to see local live performances.

Forward Theater, $4,000, supporting production of In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, by Sarah Ruhl, featuring detailed period sets, costumes, props, lighting and sound design recreating world of the 1800s. 

Encore Studio for the Performing Arts, $2,000, for Found Money, a farcical romp including unexpected riches and extortion acted by persons with disabilities.

Children’s Theater of Madison, $4,000, presenting A Wonderful Life, musical version of the classic film offering a meaningful holiday tale.

PlayTime Productions, $3,000, supporting multiple presentations of Emperor’s New Clothes with youth actorsin over a dozen accessible venues countywide.

Madison Theatre Guild, $700, for Dinner with Friends, a play full of humor, warmth, insight and wisdom examining lives of two married couples deeply connected with one another for many years.  

Visual Arts

VSA Wisconsin, $2,400, supporting programs and exhibitions for artists with disabilities including two visual arts courses, Photo Town! and Open Doors Studio.

Middleton Public Library, $2,000, in support of Community Origami Project, creation of a large-scale colorful origami mural for permanent display in the library by community members led by local artist Ruthanne Bessman.

Center for Photography, $3,000, for PhotoMidwest 2010, a biennial event featuring exhibitions of work by local and Midwestern photographic artists in multiple venues throughout area.

James Watrous Gallery of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, $3,900, supporting Handmade Meaning:  The Value of Craft in Victorian and Contemporary Culture, combining “fancywork” objects from small Wisconsin historical society collections with artworks made by contemporary artists working with similar craft processes and materials.

Chazen Museum of Art, $2,400, presenting exhibition Hidden Treasures:  Illuminated Manuscripts from Midwestern Collections, bringing together fifty objects from regional lending institutions and collections presenting comprehensive depiction of history, manufacture, uses and culture of rarely seen material.

Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, $4,000, for Rob and Christian Clayton:  Inside Out, presenting first major museum exhibition dedicated to the bold, colorful works of two brothers.

Michael Villequette, $1,360, supporting creation of new art piece for permanent display at South Madison Public Library by local cut paper artist, Michael Villequette.

Habitat ReStore, $2,550, for Salvage Art Show and Auction featuring art created out of salvaged, reused, repurposed, renewed and reclaimed things.

Goodman Community Center, $2,460, supporting MEDIAWORKS!, media arts program targeting middle and high school youth including film, photography, graphic design, writing and everything in between.

Stoughton Village Players, $2,111, for energy conservation enhancements for theater.

Mount Horeb Landmarks Foundation, $4,815, for continuing restoration of Historic District #1 Schoolhouse.

Sun Prairie Civic Theatre, $5,000, for rehearsal facility floor repair.

Special

VSA Wisconsin, $15,000, to create mosaic mural at Jenni & Kyle Preserve.

Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission, in partnership with Dane County Parks, is awarding this special grant to VSA Wisconsin, a statewide organization headquartered in Madison, dedicated to expanding the capabilities, confidence and quality of life for children and adults with disabilities by providing programs in dance, drama, creative writing, music and visual art.  A community engagement project led by VSA Wisconsin will result in a colorful mosaic mural based upon the theme of four seasons permanently displayed at the shelter of the Jenni & Kyle Preserve located on the southern edge of Madison near Fitchburg and linked to the Nine Springs E-Way Corridor. 

The Preserve’s focus is upon serving people with disabilities and creating universally accessible opportunities for all visitors to connect with the natural environment.  Design and creation of the new mural align well with these goals. 

VSA Wisconsin plans to conduct two artist residencies led by talented, experienced local teaching artists, Megan Cain and Marcia Yapp, and coordinated by VSA Wisconsin Program Director, Dana Slowiak, at two sites engaging dozens of individuals in production of the artwork.  Students with disabilities at Walbridge School in Madison and adults with disabilities at a local organization will create large-scale mural sections, along with assistance from community volunteers, to be installed prominently and permanently on the Preserve’s shelter wall.  Work on the project will commence this fall, with installation and celebration of the mural on site by next summer.