$55,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support the provision of video and audio preservation services. Through the Preservation Access Program, the Bay Area Video Coalition will work with media artists and cultural organizations to ensure that artistically significant works are preserved and made accessible to the public for live and online exhibitions. Approximately
700 hours of audiovisual material as well as media in early digital formats are expected to be preserved. Recent clients include the Trisha Brown Dance Company,
Chicago Film Archives, The Poetry Center of San Francisco State University, and Public Square Films.
Bayview Hunters Point Center for Arts & Technology (aka BAYCAT)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Arts Education
To support the BAYCAT Youth Powered Media Program. Students will develop skills such as artistic expression, critical thinking, and effective communication, while receiving comprehensive instruction in digital media arts technology. As youth media producers, students will collaborate to create programming for the award-winning, youth-created TV show, Zoom In.
California Lawyers for the Arts, Inc.
$35,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Local Arts Agencies
To support artist residencies in county jails. The organization will provide technical assistance, recruitment and training of artists, and program outreach to local law enforcement. It will work with local arts agencies in several California communities to enable the inclusion of arts programming as a rehabilitative tool in county jails.
Canyon Cinema Foundation (a.k.a. Canyon Cinema)
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support an exhibition and touring program celebrating the 50th anniversary of film distributor Canyon Cinema. Dedicated to independent and experimental media art, works from the Canyon Cinema collection, many in 16mm format, will be selected for restoration, digitization, and exhibition. Visiting filmmakers and staff will participate in discussions accompanying the screenings, featuring work by artists such as Chick Strand, Robert Nelson, Leann Bartok, and David Lebrun. The exhibition also will tour to venues across the country in cities such as Chicago, Illinois; Louisville, Kentucky; and Rochester, New York.
Center for Asian American Media (a.k.a. CAAM)
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support the CAAMFest, a media arts festival showcasing the work of Asian and Asian-American artists. Held in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, CAAMFest showcases documentary, narrative, animated and experimental works in film and video, as well as live events, multi-media performances, and expanded ventures into the music and culinary arts worlds. Festival attendees will have the opportunity to participate in activities and curated experiences that provide a deeper context of Asian-American filmmaking and gain a greater understanding of the diversity and richness of contemporary Asian-American cultural voices through educational panels and discussions. Additional festival programming may include free screenings of curated films from Muslim Youth Voices, a three-year national initiative of the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM); and Memories to Light: Asian American Home Movies, featuring a collection of films from California’s Central Valley rural farming
communities.
Center for New Music San Francisco, Inc. (a.k.a. Center for New Music)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Challenge America
To support Soundvoice, a series of music workshops. The workshop participants will include residents of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, Sixth Street Corridor, and Mid-Market neighborhoods struggling with homelessness and poverty. Professional musicians will provide music education and creation opportunities focused on the field of new music; the project will culminate with a public performance.
Center for the Art of Translation
$35,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Literature
To support the publication and promotion of print and electronic versions of the journal “Two Lines,” as well as books in translation. Dedicated to building an audience for world writing, the journal often features writers who are well known in their own languages but unknown in English. Books, published through Two Line Press, will highlight the ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity of international literature.
Corporation of the Fine Arts Museums (a.k.a. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)
$60,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Museum
To support “Stuart Davis: In Full Swing,” and related educational and public programming. Co-organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art and the National Gallery of Art, the traveling exhibition pays tribute to Stuart Davis (1892-1964), one of the most important innovators in the evolution of American modernism and abstraction. With approximately 75 works on display, ranging from his early paintings of commercial products from the 1920s, to the canvas that was on his easel at the time of his death, the exhibition highlights Davis’s unique ability to assimilate pop culture influences — the aesthetics of advertising and the rhythms of jazz — with the lessons of Cubism. The de Young will be the only exhibition venue west of the Mississippi. Comprehensive public programming at the de Young is planned to complement the exhibition, including a month-long residency for a local artist.
CounterPulse
$20,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the Artist Residency and Commissioning (ARC) Program. The program identifies local emerging and mid-career choreographers whose work is ready to be appreciated by a larger audience and provides space and support for those artists to create new works. The ARC Program supports as many as three, five-month residencies during which artists will create and perform new works. ARC provides three annual residency tracks for dance and performing artists: Edge, focusing on disruptive contemporary work; Performing Diaspora, focusing on culturally specific work on the edge of tradition; and Combustible, focusing on innovative and technologically engaged work. Activities include work-in-progress showings where residents and the public provide feedback on the work, as well as a mentor for each resident artist. After the residency period, ARC may offer services such as fiscal sponsorship, and technical and administrative support.
Crowded Fire Theater Company (a.k.a. Crowded Fire)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Theater & Musical Theater
To support the development and premiere of “A Tale of Autumn” by Christopher Chen. A modern-day fable explores themes of political power, notions of cultural hierarchy, and the power of corporate personhood in present day capitalism. Chen unveils the psychology of a one-time altruistic corporation whose seemingly benign tactics destroy a people over time. A Machiavellian and intricate power network of characters aspire for leadership and an insurgent populace is devastated by the collateral damage of the “corporate game.” The commissioned work is inspired by Shakespeare’s Richard III and Macbeth and popular “quest-for-power” TV shows.
Dancers’ Group (a.k.a. Dancers’ Group)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support “In Dance,” a free print and online monthly publication that promotes dance artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. The publication includes a comprehensive performance calendar, summer workshop guide, articles, previews of dance companies, feature articles, personal perspectives on dance, and special interviews and features. Articles give readers an in-depth, behind-the-scenes look at the work being created by the region’s artists and by those in other parts of the country as well.
Exploratorium
$100,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Creativity Connects
To support Artistic Practice towards Urban Resilience (APUR), in partnership with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. APUR will immerse artists in a multi-scale investigation of transportation systems, community, and governance related to the impacts of climate change in the San Francisco Bay Area. In conjunction with the Resilience of Infrastructure as Seas Rise (RISeR) project-a consortium of academic institutions, research labs, nonprofits, and government entities-APUR will explore how artists approach the problem of sea level rise and its impact on city infrastructure, as well as how artistic conceptualization of climate data can inform, inspire, and empower communities at risk. The project will include a colloquium connecting professional artists directly with scientists to investigate how artistic approaches can further community engagement and learning. Through a collaborative residency, selected artists will develop prototypes of platforms and data presentations to support a public education and resiliency campaign.
Eyes and Ears Foundation (a.k.a. San Francisco International Arts Festival)
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the San Francisco International Arts Festival and related activities. The nearly 3-week festival will feature about 180 performances by artists from the Bay Area and approximately 14 different countries. Most artists will engage in one- or two-week residencies that typically includes three or four performances a week, and at least one educational or outreach activity. All artists will be asked to present a master class or lecture that the general public can attend at no cost.
Flyaway Productions
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the creation and presentation of “The Credibility Project.” The site-specific performance will bring awareness through aerial dance and dialogue to a serious sociopolitical issue: a lack of credibility for women. Proposed collaborators include photojournalist Lynn Johnson and hip-hop composer MADLINES. Free performances will premiere in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood on a wall owned by the University of California’s Hastings Law School. This will be Flyaway’s fourth community responsive project in the Tenderloin since 2012.
Frameline (a.k.a. San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support the presentation and expansion of Frameline Encore, a year-round film exhibition program. Feature-length and short films representing the LGBTQ community will be screened at each venue, followed by discussions with filmmakers, artists, critics, authors, educators, and community activists. In 2017, Frameline will continue its expansion to include Santa Clara, San Jose, and surrounding areas in the South Bay. All screenings are free and open to the public. Previous program screenings include Margarita with a Straw by Shonali Bose and “Back on Board: Greg Louganis” by Cheryl Furjanic.
Golden Thread Productions
$15,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Theater & Musical Theater
To support the ReOrient Theatre Festival and Forum. The project will include a festival of short plays and a forum of panel discussions about theater and the Middle East. The festival will serve as a springboard for the careers of emerging Middle Eastern-American playwrights and will introduce audiences to significant dramatic
works from the Middle East by authors rarely produced in the United States. Through the project, Golden Thread will create engagement opportunities for artists, academics, and both national and international audiences.
Idris Ackamoor & Cultural Odyssey (a.k.a. Cultural Odyssey)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Theater & Musical Theater
To support the tour of Fully Awake, Facing Seventy: Heaven Betta Be a Honky-Tonk! A cabaret with live music celebrates Cultural Odyssey Co-Artistic Director Rhodessa Jones’ new status as a senior citizen and her career as a professional artist and community activist. It is written and performed by Jones with musical direction and performance by Co-Artistic Director Idris Ackamoor with a trio of musicians. The issues and experiences of the aging process for women are addressed through her writing and performance. The duo will celebrate their 40th anniversary as a performance ensemble and will tour the full-length autobiographical work nationally.
Kitchen Sisters Productions (a.k.a. The Kitchen Sisters)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support distribution of the podcast Fugitive Waves. Incorporating a documentary archive of interviews, music, field recordings, and audio by producers Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, the program is devoted to telling little-known stories of culture, ritual, and tradition. Archival works will be digitized, prepared for distribution,
and made available for public access through the podcast and additional digital platforms. Featured episodes will cover topics such as a profile of Brazilian author Jorge Amado, the effects of World War II internment on Japanese American cooking, and the legacy of inventor Preston Tucker and his “Car of Tomorrow.”
Kronos Performing Arts Association (a.k.a. Kronos Quartet)
$45,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Music
To support a tour of a new work by composer Jonathan Berger and librettist Harriet Scott Chessman performed by the Kronos Quartet. The work, titled “My Lai” will mark the 50th anniversary of the My Lai Massacre in South Vietnam. The performances will feature tenor Rinde Eckert and Vietnamese musician Van-Anh Vanessa Vo. In addition to traditional instruments such as the dan Bau, a one-stringed zither, and a bamboo xylophone called the dan T’rung, Vo also will perform on a set of percussion instruments made from spent shell casings. Likely venues may include the Center for the Art of Performance at the University of California Los Angeles; Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire; and Texas Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Austin. Educational activities will include panel discussions, artist talks, and question-and-answer sessions.
Magic Theatre, Inc. (a.k.a. Magic Theatre)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Theater & Musical Theater
To support the premiere of “Grandeur” by Han Ong. The play is inspired by the life of Gil Scott-Heron, frequently referred to as the “father” of hip-hop by the new generation of rappers. In 2010, a year before his death, ScottHeron was profiled in The New Yorker magazine. He emerged from the article as an enigmatic subject, both
astute and tragic, having succumbed to an addiction to crack cocaine in the 1990s. Ong portrays a young reporter who ruminates on his idol Scott-Heron, his pattern of self-destruction, Black masculinity, and the cultural legacy of Scott-Heron’s life and music.
Mixed Bag Productions (a.k.a. Sara Shelton Mann)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the creation and presentation of a new evening-length piece, The Invitation, by Artistic Director Sara Shelton Mann. Made up of two intertwined duets, Mann will return to some earlier choreographic techniques to create the movement for this work-that of phrasing and complicated rhythms-placed within new research of how she may speak to the fast-paced information that surrounds us every day. The basic premise of the piece is simple: dancing for the joy of it; dancing as the meaning in itself and the touch it explores. “The Invitation” will premiere at Joe Goode Annex in the Mission Neighborhood of San Francisco.
ODC (a.k.a. ODC/Dance)
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the creation and presentation of new dance works. Co-Artistic Director KT Nelson will choreograph the first phase of a new work, titled, Reimagining Heritage. Founder and Artistic Director Brenda Way will create a new chamber work with music drawn from the David Lang catalogue. ODC will work with presenters and local organizations to develop outreach activities to increase engagement, such as lecture-demonstrations and balcony talks. These new works will premiere in ODC’s annual Dance Downtown season at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
ODC Theater
$30,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support presentation of dance works by local, national, and international artists. ODC Theater will expand the Walking Distance Dance Festival-SF to feature an increased number of performances in a fringe-format. Additional performance highlights will include the world premiere of Monique Jenkinson’s Delicate Material, which questions how society views gender and misogyny, and free site-specific performances by Joanna Haigood/Zaccho Dance Theater in partnership with the African American Performing Arts Coaltion and the Joe Goode Annex. ODC Theater will take these dance experiences beyond performance by offering master classes, pre- and post-performance talks, and a performance docent program that will offer free tickets to local artists
and academics who are willing to engage in one-on-one conversations with audience members.
Other Minds
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Music
To support a performance project celebrating the life and music of American composer Lou Harrison. Titled “Just 100: Homage to Lou Harrison,” the project activities will include performances, panel discussions, and exhibitions. Participating in the centenary celebration may be artists such as Dennis Russell Davies, Bruckner Orchestra, pianist Maki Namekawa, violinist Yumi Hwang-Williams, percussion ensemble William Winant Ensemble, harpist Meredith Clark, cellist Emil Miland, and the Mission Dolores, Voci, and Resound choruses. Panelists may include musicians and scholars such as Robert Hughes, Bill Alves, Leta Miller, Paul Dresher, Giacomo Fiore, John Kennedy, John Luther Adams, Peter Garland, and Jody Diamond. Events will be presented in San Francisco and Santa Cruz.
Parallele Ensemble Corporation (a.k.a. Opera Parallele)
$22,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Opera
To support a new production of “Les Enfants Terribles” by composer and NEA Opera Honoree Philip Glass at Opera Parallele. Based on novel of the same name by Jean Cocteau (1929), this tragic story follows siblings Paul and Elisabeth through what began as a childhood game and ends in death and destruction. The third installment
of the composer’s trilogy of works based on Cocteau, with this work Glass invented a hybrid dance-opera form in which the dance element is not secondary or decorative, but rather contributes to the narrative flow and soundscape of the opera. The creative team may include director Brian Staufenbiel, conductor Nicole Paiement, media
designer David Murakami, and choreographer Amy Seiwert. Performances will take place at the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall in San Francisco in the spring of 2017.
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (a.k.a. Philharmonia)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Opera
To support performances of “Le Temple de la Gloire” by composer John-Philippe Rameau with a libretto by Voltaire. Premiered as a five-act opera-ballet at Versailles to celebrate the French victory of the Battle of Fontenoy, the work was subsequently revised to a three-act opera. The performances-of the original version that has not been performed since the premiere in 1745-will mark the company’s first fully staged opera and will include a full orchestra, chorale, six principal singers, and eight baroque dancers. Organizational partners Cal Performances and Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles (Versailles, France) will help develop a series of lectures and excerpted performances for University of California at Berkeley students. In addition, talks with the costume designers, set designers, and musicologists from UC Berkeley and Stanford will be hosted by reporters and hosts from the NPR affiliate in San Francisco as well as KDFC. As many as three performances will occur at the Zellerbach Hall on the UC Berkeley campus in the spring of 2017.
Playwrights Foundation, Inc. (a.k.a. Playwrights Foundation)
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Theater & Musical Theater
To support the Bay Area Playwrights Festival. The festival will include an artistic retreat, studio development of new plays, and publicly staged showings of full-length plays. Festival plays for staged readings will be selected through a competitive submission process. The festival also will present a workshop production of a play in
development at a partner theater. Other festival activities will include a young theater-makers event, mentorship for emerging scenic designers, and an industry weekend during which national new play producers will be invited to San Francisco to see the plays.
Robert Moses Kin
$10,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the creation and presentation of Trap Doors/Painted Corners/Trick Bags, a new work by Artistic Director Robert Moses. The piece will explore the parallel paths taken from childhood to adulthood, based on race and possibility, and will look at the displacement, disconnection, and lifetime of personal disparity that results from these separate paths. To develop the work, Moses will reach out to organizations such as the National Black Police Association, San Francisco Police Activities League, and Youth Speaks. Trap Doors/Painted Corners/Trick Bags will be a triptych and premiere in three parts: onstage at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts;
outside at the famous Powell Street cable car turn-around; and in the historically African-American and now
changing Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco.
Root Division
$20,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Visual Arts
To support the Second Saturday Exhibition Series. The project is a collection of visual arts events and presentations of work by Bay Area artists. Local artists will present works that explore contemporary ideas and current social concerns in a variety of media including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, video, film, new media, and performance work. The series will include more than 350 artists, and will engage the public through open gallery hours, artist panels, and related public programming.
San Francisco Art and Film Program (a.k.a. SF Art & Film)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Arts Education
To support the Teen Film Workshop. The media arts education project will prepare students for film school and
train them for careers in the film industry. Students will participate in lectures and film viewings, which will
provide them with a foundation in theory; they then will apply what they have learned as they design and
produce individual films and a group film. The program will culminate in the presentation of student work at the San Francisco Art Institute.
San Francisco Cinematheque
$15,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support Crossroads 2017, a festival dedicated to experimental media arts. Held in the spring, the festival presents avant-garde and experimental works, including film, video, live cinema performance, and media art installation. Crossroads generally showcases new work made within the last two years, highlighting contemporary artistic and curatorial trends within the avant-garde and experimental landscape. Previous
festivals have included works from the United States, Palestine, Germany, and Sweden, and such artists as Basma Alsharif, Craig Baldwin, Grouper, Jodie Mack, Jeremy Moss, Margaret Rorison, and Ben Russell.
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (a.k.a. SFCMP)
$15,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Music
To support a performance project celebrating the legacy of American composer Lou Harrison. The project, titled “A Lou Harrison Centennial Celebration,” will comprise tributes to Harrison, composer talks, and concerts featuring the works of Harrison. Programming will include the participation of composers Jimmy Lopez and Natacha Diels. Activities will take place at Z Space in San Francisco.
San Francisco Film Society (a.k.a. SFFS)
$20,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support the 60th San Francisco International Film Festival, and other curated film series. Held in the spring, the festival includes films from around the world, accompanied by live performances and educational programs. Throughout the year, additional presentations will include contemporary works from Hong Kong, a food and film series in partnership with the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, and the Screenings in Schools program, in which students view films and engage with artists in person or over Skype.
San Francisco Jazz Organization (a.k.a. SFJAZZ)
$40,000 San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Music
To support the SFJAZZ Collective’s commissioning, development, and performance of new original works by octet members and arrangements of music by Miles Davis. During its 2017 national tour, the ensemble will perform and engage in outreach events including master classes for young musicians. Confirmed tour stops include the Ferst Center for the Arts in Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago Symphony Center in Chicago, Illinois; Ferring Jazz Bistro, in St. Louis, Missouri; Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York, New York; Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Brooks Center for the Arts at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina.
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (a.k.a. Jewish Film Institute)
$15,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Media Arts
To support the 37th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and related activities. Held in the summer, the festival hosts film screenings, live music, and panel discussions in celebration of Jewish culture and tradition. Curatorial collaboration with media art organizations such as Frameline and the Center for Asian American Media will provide audiences with thematic programs that explore the ethnic, racial, and religious diversity of the Jewish experience. Recent films screened at the festival include Regarding Susan Sontag by Nancy Kates, Dough by John Goldschmidt, Autism in Love by Matt Fuller, and Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict by Lisa Vreeland.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (a.k.a. SFMOMA)
$30,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Museum
To support the “Matisse/Diebenkorn” exhibition and related programming. Co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art, the exhibition will feature approximately 60 drawings and paintings by Henri Matisse (1869-1954) and approximately 60 works by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-93), creatively juxtaposing and pairing the artists’ works to articulate the influence of Matisse on Diebenkorn. Free school tours, educational outreach activities, exhibition mobile guides, and other programs will enhance the experience for thousands of audience members.
San Francisco Opera Association (a.k.a. San Francisco Opera)
$90,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Opera
To support the world premiere of Girls of the Golden West by composer and NEA Opera Honoree John Adams and librettist Peter Sellars. The opera interweaves the true stories of three women during the Gold Rush whose lives intersect in a small mining community of the Sierra Mountains in 1850. The creative team may include set designer Adrianne Lobel, costume designer Rita Ryack, and lighting designer James F. Ingalls. The cast may include sopranos Julia Bullock and Jung Lee, mezzo-soprano J’nai Bridges, tenor Paul Appleby, and baritones Davone Tines and Elliot Madore. Outreach activities will be planned in partnership with the California Historical Society and UC Berkeley Library Archival Department; Stanford University’s Women’s Club will provide context for the role of women in the Gold Rush; and the Mechanics Institute Library will lead a discussion about the process of mining in the 1850s. A co-production with Dallas Opera, Dutch National Opera (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and Teatro La Fenice (Venezia, Italy), as many as seven performances will be presented in the fall of 2017 at the War Memorial Opera House.
San Francisco Symphony (a.k.a. SFS)
$85,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Music
To support a performance project celebrating the 70th birthday of composer John Adams. Under the direction of Artistic Director Michael Tilson Thomas, the project will feature the performances of recent works by Adams including the oratorio “The Gospel According to the Other Mary,” which will be performed with conductor Joana Carneiro, music director of the Berkeley Symphony, guest artists Kelley O’Connor, Tamara Mumford, Jay Hunter Morris, and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus; and “Scheherezade.2” with guest artist, violinist Leila Josefowicz, for whom the concerto-like work was originally written. The compositions will be the center of lectures and community events that focus both on the roles of women in traditional narratives and how such themes fit into the composer’s socially and politically engaged body of work. The concerts will be presented at Davies Symphony Hall.
San Francisco Symphony (a.k.a. SFS) (On behalf of San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra)
$20,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Arts Education
To support the Artist Development Program of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra. Professional musicians provide in-depth engagement with orchestral music to students free-of-charge, as a complement to the Youth Orchestra’s weekly rehearsals and concert series. Program components include intensive coaching, collaboration with guest artists, apprenticeships, mentoring, and training in chamber music and audition techniques. All program activity serves all Youth Orchestra students, and students are able to experience live music at a professional level by attending San Francisco Symphony concerts throughout the year.
Southern Exposure
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Visual Arts
To support the commissioning of new work by emerging artists for gallery exhibitions and public art projects. This year-long project will include group exhibitions, public art projects, and additional events and performances highlighting the contemporary art practice of emerging Bay Area artists and art writers. Participants, selected by a rotating curatorial committee, will receive conceptual, logistical, and administrative support, a stipend, and a materials budget to develop their work.
Stein, Melissa
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Creative Writing Fellowship
Stern Grove Festival Association (a.k.a. Stern Grove Festival)
$40,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the Stern Grove Festival. The festival will feature free outdoor performances by artists including the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Ballet, as well as world music, pop, and jazz artists. Local artists from various disciplines will be commissioned to create and perform site-specific works. Engagement activities will include hands-on workshops and camps for youth, as well as pre-show arts activities and discussions.
Women’s Audio Mission (a.k.a. WAM)
$25,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Arts Education
To support the expansion of Girls on the Mic: Digital Media Training for Girls. The project is a media arts education program for girls from underserved communities in the Bay Area. Project activities are designed to cultivate the next generation of women media arts and technology experts. Participants will create their own websites, podcasts, music projects, and other media arts projects that mirror professional activities such as creative coding. Students will showcase their work online and share via mobile devices with friends and family.
World Arts West (a.k.a. San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival)
$50,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Dance
To support the 39th annual San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival. The festival will present more than 30 world dance companies based in Northern California and provide underserved artists with the opportunity to perform in a professional setting. An adjudication panel comprising teachers, performers, and ethnologists will select dance artists and companies whose work is rooted in a cultural tradition. Artistic Directors Carlos Carvajal and CK Ladzekpo will attend rehearsals and offer input and guidance, while also creating innovative transitions between dance pieces.
Yerba Buena Arts & Events (a.k.a. Yerba Buena Gardens Festival)
$35,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support artist fees and staff travel associated with the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival. The free outdoor series will include the creation and presentation of new works by artists in circus arts, world music, dance, theater, and Latin jazz, among others. In addition to performances, lectures and demonstrations by festival artists will be offered in collaboration with community partners.
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (a.k.a. YBCA)
$90,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Creativity Connects
To support Citizenship 2.0, in partnership with Neighborland, an online civic communications platform. The collaboration will focus on integrating the arts and technology to spur community participation and civic action leading to positive change in San Francisco and the Bay Area. A cohort of YBCA fellows, as many as 90 diverse thought leaders, will participate in a paid collective research opportunity investigating current social questions. Guided by YBCA and Neighborland, the fellows will hold quarterly cohort meetings, create project web pages on
Neighborland.com, and establish a platform for ongoing online dialogue with the Bay Area community. Teams of fellows will develop community-driven art installations for public spaces, addressing particular social questions. They will curate vibrant community festivals, filling YBCA’s indoor and outdoor spaces with the creative multidisciplinary projects presenting themes of Freedom, Equity, and Citizenship that will result from this process. Together, YBCA, Neighborland, and the YBCA fellows will use art and creativity to drive new possibilities in the public imagination, as well as find specific, creative, community-driven solutions to specific community problems.
ZYZZYVA, Inc. (a.k.a. ZYZZYVA)
$10,000 / San Francisco, CA
Art Works – Literature
To support the publication and promotion of the journal. Reflecting a West Coast literary perspective, “ZYZZYVA” publishes fiction, poetry, and nonfiction by both emerging and established writers.
City of San Jose, California (a.k.a. City of San Jose, Office of Cultural Affairs)
$50,000 / San Jose, CA
Art Works – Local Arts Agencies
To support the Neighborhood Gateway Galleries. The project is a citywide public art initiative that will transform highway underpasses into public art installations. Local artists and artist teams, selected through a competitive open call, will lead a series of public workshops and invite neighborhood residents to participate in the design process and creation of artworks. Final underpass designs will feature a unified, curated design that may incorporate the work of both the residents and the selected artists. The resulting public artworks will capture and enhance each neighborhood’s unique identity, foster increased pedestrian and cycling traffic, and develop connectivity among venues such as schools, community centers, businesses, and cultural attractions in ethnically diverse neighborhoods.
Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra
$40,000 / San Jose, CA
Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts
To support the International Aimusic Festival. Firebird Youth Chinese Orchestra members, regional music groups, and master artists from China will present concerts, lectures, and master classes that will foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of Chinese opera. The youth orchestra will receive special musical instruction from Firebird faculty to prepare for the concerts, which will be presented without electronic amplification, allowing the audience to hear the music as it was originally intended to be heard.
Opera San Jose, Inc. (a.k.a. Opera San Jose)
$20,000 / San Jose, CA
Art Works – Opera
To support performances of Silent Night by composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell. Winner of a 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music, the opera is based on Christian Carion’s screenplay for the film Joyeux Noel, and tells the story of enemy soldiers who spontaneously declared a temporary cease-fire on Christmas Eve 1914 to celebrate the holiday together and bury their dead. The work captures the dichotomy of love and war, and expresses the humanity of the characters and the comforts that friendship and music bring amidst the bloodiest and most inexplicable of human experiences. The creative team may include director Michael Shell, set designer Steven Kemp, costume designer Melissa Torchia, and lighting designer Pamila Gray. Conductor Joseph Marcheso will lead a cast of principal artists that may include tenors Kirk Dougherty and John Lindsay, and soprano Julie Adams. As many as eight performances will take place at the California Theatre in early 2017.
San Jose Multicultural Artists Guild Inc. (a.k.a. SJMAG)
$10,000 / San Jose, CA
Challenge America
To support the performance of Rain Pryor’s Fried Chicken and Latkes, and related activities. The play will be presented as a one-night performance, and will include a post-show conversation with Pryor. The project will serve African-Americans, Latinos, low-income families, and the Jewish community by offering a program that reflects the lives and experiences of this diverse community. High school students will attend the performance at no cost and have the opportunity to stay for an after-performance discussion on the themes of race relations and biracial heritage.
Taiko Community Alliance
$10,000 / San Jose, CA
Art Works – Folk & Traditional Arts
To support the North American Taiko Conference. The conference will bring together performers, teachers, and enthusiasts of taiko drumming for workshops, discussion groups, demonstrations, jam sessions, and performances of taiko drumming. NEA National Heritage Fellows Roy and PJ Hirabayashi are scheduled to participate in discussion panels and performances.
Bernard Osher Marin Jewish Community Center (aka Osher Marin JCC)
$10,000 / San Rafael, CA
Art Works – Music
To support the Kanbar Music Series and the Summer Nights Festival. The year-long series will encompass more than 15 indoor and outdoor concerts at the Bernard Osher Marin Jewish Community Center featuring classical and chamber music, jazz, folk, and world music artists. Ancillary activities may include dance lessons, art activities for youth, audience discussions, or ice cream socials to encourage active community engagement. The outdoors Summer Nights Festival will be curated to include a wide variety of musical styles to attract families with young children as well as seniors and other underserved audiences. Free and discounted tickets will be made available to underserved audiences. Performers may include Chanticleer, the Kronos Quartet, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, and the Mill Valley Philharmonic.
Kuumbwa Jazz Society (aka Kuumbwa Jazz)
$15,000 / Santa Cruz, CA
Art Works – Music
To support a concert series. As many as three performances will take place at the organization’s own venue. The proposed artists include NEA Jazz Master Dave Holland, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and John Scofield. Ancillary activities may include an artist conversation moderated by jazz journalist Andrew Gilbert.
Museum of Art & History at the McPherson Center (a.k.a. Santa Cruz MAH)
$40,000 / Santa Cruz, CA
Art Works – Creativity Connects
To support Lost Childhoods, a museum exhibition about foster youth in California, in partnership with the California Youth Connection (CYC). CYC, the Museum of Art & History (MAH), and artist Ray Bussolari will develop and present an exhibition featuring new and existing artwork co-created by artists, foster youth, and advocates. A group of former foster youth at CYC invented the Foster Youth Museum by collecting objects, such as photographs, from former foster youth. Lost Childhoods will advance the Foster Youth Museum, professionalizing its design and extending its reach. This project is rooted in the MAH’s design and community engagement expertise, CYC’s content expertise, and the heroic, often tragic stories of foster youth. The new partnerships will become a model for creating engaging exhibitions on community issues, giving artists greater ability to pursue socially engaged work. In addition, foster youth will have a platform from which to tell their stories.
