Good news for New Yorkers: Creative Capital has announced its lucky 2016 grant recipients, and nearly half of them (20) are based in the city. The total 46 projects from 63 artists beat out 2,500 proposals nationwide. Each receives up to $50,000 in cash and a nearly-equivalent amount in support services such as consulting and communications. And that support goes a long way—many Creative Capital artists go on to win other big prizes such as the Macarthur Genius Grants (of which 7 recipients have been CC alumni). For the sake of timeliness, I want to compare winning one of these grants to the Powerball Jackpot. But this is a much more achievable life-changing injection of cash and fame.
Peter Bur, “Cave Exits”
I’m happy to report that Peter Burr and Porpentine received a grant for their collaboration Aria End, which will expand upon the 3-D video cube format of Burr’s Cave Exits, one of our Top 25 Exhibitions of 2015. (Burr and Porpentine also authored the IMG MGMT essay we turned the blog dark for in 2015.) This year, the two will create an immersive video game that combines unstable landscapes and feminist themes. I can only guess what this will look like, and it most likely be awesome. I’m picturing a holodeck with a Riot Grrrl meets Game Boy aesthetic.
Yara Travieso’s “La Medea” (set design by Brookhart Jonquil).
Other highlights include Evan Roth’s endeavor to explore the unseen infrastructure of the internet and Yara Travieso’s La Medea. Travieso’s update of Euripides’ classic will be a live television show, film, and performance that channels a “Latin-disco-pop variety show”. Medea tells the story of a tragic foreign “other” who kills her children. Although ancient, this myth is made uncomfortably timely by the contemporary Right-wing’s racially-charged pontifications about immigrants and “the War on Women”. I’m especially looking forward to seeing sets from Miami-based sculptor Brookhart Jonquil on the stage in Brooklyn.
And impressively, in a country that’s 72.4% “European-American” (thanks Wikipedia), more than half of the artists receiving support this year are people of color. Here’s the full list of recipients:
Literature:
- Jesse Ball, Chicago, IL
- desveladas (Macarena Hernández, Sheila Maldonado, Nelly Rosario), Brooklyn, NY
- LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, New York, NY
- Percival Everett, South Pasadena, CA
- Eileen Myles, New York, NY
- Dao Strom, Portland, OR
Emerging Fields:
- Tanya Aguiñiga, Los Angeles, CA
- Zach Blas, Brooklyn, NY
- Peter Burr and Porpentine, Brooklyn, NY and Oakland, CA
- Melanie Crean, Shaun Leonardo and Sable Elyse Smith, Brooklyn, NY
- desert ArtLAB (April Bojorquez and Matt Garcia), Pueblo, CO
- Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Chicago, IL
- Liz Glynn, Los Angeles, CA
- Heather Hart and Jina Valentine, Brooklyn, NY and Durham, NC
- Marisa Morán Jahn, New York, NY
- KCHUNG, Los Angeles, CA
- Yotam Mann, Brooklyn, NY
- Eva and Franco Mattes, Brooklyn, NY
- Irvin Morazan, Richmond, VA
- Laura Parnes, Brooklyn, NY
- Kenya (Robinson), Gainesville, FL
- Evan Roth, Paris, France
- Chris E. Vargas, Bellingham, WA
Performing Arts:
- Cornell Alston and Kaneza Schaal, New York, NY
- Jeff Becker, New Orleans, LA
- Peter Born and Okwui Okpokwasili, Brooklyn, NY
- Ligia Bouton, Matt Donovan and Lei Liang, San Diego, CA
- Sharon Bridgforth, San Francisco, CA
- Ben Thorp Brown, Brooklyn, NY
- Ann Carlson, Santa Monica, CA
- Mallory Catlett, New York, NY
- Ellen Sebastian Chang and Amara Tabor-Smith, Oakland, CA
- Jim Findlay, Brooklyn, NY
- Robin Frohardt, Brooklyn, NY
- Sean Graney, Chicago, IL
- Brian Harnetty, Columbus, OH
- Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and Carmelita Tropicana, New York, NY
- Joseph Keckler, Brooklyn, NY
- Heather Kravas, Seattle, WA
- Ahamefule J. Oluo, Seattle, WA
- Pegasus Warning (Guillermo E. Brown), Los Angeles, CA
- Graham Reynolds, Austin, TX
- Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (Tei Blow and Sean McElroy), Brooklyn, NY
- James Scruggs, Jersey City, NJ
- Erika Chong Shuch, Berkeley, CA
- Yara Travieso, Brooklyn, NY
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