R.I. State Council on Arts grants $828K to 138 entities

PROVIDENCE – Artists, related groups and schools across the state will share $828,300 in grants, Gov. Daniel J. McKee and the R.I. State Council on Arts announced on Wednesday.

The grants to 138 arts entities were supported by the General Assembly and federally funded through the National Endowment for the Arts.

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“We are so fortunate to have a strong and vibrant arts and cultural economy, generating nearly 17,000 jobs accounting for 3.2% of the state’s economy. … The grants support opportunities for us to come together to celebrate, learn and connect,” said Lynne McCormack, executive director of RISCA. “The state’s arts community is still working to recover from the pandemic. And, while this is challenging, it is inspiring to see how our artists and organizations are partnering to share their innovative thinking, creativity and problem-solving skills with other sectors.”

Organizations receiving RISCA grants include:

• Capeverdean American Community Development, $9,000 to host four eight-week youth art classes in Pawtucket. Sessions will include classes in mural painting clothes as art classes.
• Farm Fresh Rhode Island, in partnership with PVD World Music, $2,000 to host an outdoor four-concert series at the Armory Park Farmers Market, Providence.
• Hattie Ide Chaffee Home, Riverside, $6,000 to offer Intergenerational Arts Programs. Residents, staff and Brown University medical students will participate in weekly movement, drama and enrichment to increase positive social interactions, improved mood, strength and mobility
• Levitt AMP Woonsocket Music Series, hosted by NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley, $3,000 to help provide free, live music in underutilized Woonsocket-based public spaces.
• LitArts RI, formerly What Cheer Writers Club, $9,000 to help offer a program series on narrative arts in healthcare for patients and caregivers.
• Looking Upwards, $3,000 to help provide inclusive, accessible opportunities to create and exhibit collaboratively woven tapestries.
• R.I. Veterans Anthology Project, West Warwick, $3,000 to host writing modules and workshops with five to 10 Veterans to assist in honing creative writing skills. Participants will write and polish fiction or poetry, after which the staff at West Warwick Public Library Press will purchase and publish.
• Sargent Center and artist Barbara Owen $3,600 to help oversee Engaging Art through Flowers in Warwick. Students 3- to 22-years-old will work in different media and art projects to create an exhibit of flowers.

Individual artists receiving RISCA grants include:

• Gregory Ayriyan, Johnston, $3,000 for music lessons for individuals who have autism, dyslexia or other special education needs.
• Marina Ekelova, East Greenwich, $3,000 for a Russian cultural art workshop series covering the following: painting nesting dolls using traditional techniques; designing and learning the history of Faberge eggs; and sewing and creating a doll.
• Naffisatou Koulibaly, Providence, $3,000 to facilitate and organize The Providence Poetry Slam: Summer Series. Classes will alternate between writing and performing. The students will be people new to performance poetry.
• Ricky Katowicz, North Providence, $2,500 to host of a program for children and families. Held monthly, it will be equal parts spectacle and classroom. Audience participation is encouraged, and each show features special guests, recurring characters, puppets, stories, dance parties and an investigation of our human experience.
• Cathren Housley, East Providence, $2,500 to facilitate the workshop series called Showtime where participants will create a story and bring it to life on stage – merging literacy and art into a creative performance.
• Rochelle Leach, aka Rochelle Bonamie, Providence, $1,200 to create an EP exploring the defining moments of Leach’s life through the lens of art, gender, identity, society and culture.
• Marius Keo Marjolin, Providence, $600 to create three life-size sculptural figures based on characters from Cambodian folklore. The project is inspired by traditional Khmer paper puppetry and masked theatre.
• Actor, film director, artist Nick Mendillo, Warren, $1,500 lead a four-week intensive Summer Film Camp for Bristol/Warren high school students. The course work will include scriptwriting, directing, acting and film production.
• Jordan Seaberry, Providence, $3,000 to create an exhibition at the Newport Art Museum bringing together the stories, experiences, wisdom and fears of hospice patients at end of life.
• Richard Whitten, Cranston, $3,000 to make a series of 12 paintings that will act as pages from a fictional illuminated manuscript of scientific instruments in Florence’s Museo Galileo. Each page will feature either an instrument from the museum or one of his inventions.
• Ellen Zahniser, Providence, $3,000 to write, develop and perform in a workshop showing of an interdisciplinary, theatrical retelling of the myth of Orpheus.