Toronto, October 30, 2002 — The first recipients of the Ontario Arts Council’s (OAC) new Chalmers Program were announced today. Thirty grants in the program’s two categories, Professional Development and Arts Fellowships, were awarded for a total of $568,968. This is the first of the program’s two annual deadlines and OAC expects to award a comparable number of grants after next January’s deadline.
“We are excited by the range and diversity represented by this extraordinary group of arts professionals,” said John Brotman, Executive Director of the Ontario Arts Council. “Over the coming years, we anticipate that a significant artistic legacy will be established as a result of the Chalmers Arts Fellowships and the Chalmers Professional Development Grants.”
The Chalmers Professional Development Grants support projects that include research, mentoring opportunities and training with masters/elders in the field. The new program extends the reach of the former Chalmers Performing Arts Training program to visual artists, filmmakers, dramaturges, actors, designers, etc. Grants for this category are for a maximum of $15,000.
The Chalmers Arts Fellowships are funding an eclectic spectrum of artists who are challenging the boundaries of their disciplines through experimentation and creation of new work. Projects funded include those that will provide emerging, mid-career, and established arts professionals with opportunities to research and develop new work. The maximum amount for an Arts Fellowship is $50,000
Here are a few noteworthy applicants who impressed the Arts Fellowship jury:
Visual artist Spring Hurlbut, internationally recognized for her ability to expand the public’s interpretation of museum collections, will conduct an intensive research period that will inform and support the development of her next work, Orphan Project. Playwright and Director, Soheil Parsa, will research and write his new play, The Passion of Hallaj, over the next year.
Emerging media artist, Benny N. Ramsay, was supported for his plan to develop and create video work based on the classical song cycle genre. Visual Artist, Julie Pringle, will create and develop tapestries from natural and indigenous materials. Internationally renowned Ontario filmmaker John Greyson and composer David Wall will develop and produce Fig Trees, a “video opera” for six rooms and a staircase to premiere at the Oakville Art Gallery in the fall of 2003. Ken Gass is granted a “two-month respite” from his duties as Factory Theatre’s Artistic Director to enable him to complete his most recent work, Gulag America.
THE CHALMERS PROGRAM – JUNE 15, 2002 DEADLINE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT GRANTS
Jurors:
Sheila Butler (Visual Artist – London)
Peter Chin (Multidisciplinary Artist – Toronto)
Paul Lefebvre (Theatre Artist – Ottawa)
Lisa Steele (Visual Artist – Toronto)
Lise Vaugeois (Musician/Educator – Thunder Bay)
Community Arts
Florencia Berinstein, (Community Arts Practitioner - Toronto) will undertake the MA in the Art in Public Space program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia. Grant amount: $14,000.
Dance
Platform 33 (a collective of dancers that includes Julia Aplin, Shannon Cooney and Susan Elliot - Toronto) will study with choreographer, Louise Bédard and Damian Muñoz. Grant amount: $13,000.
Denise Fujiwara, (Choreographer/dancer - Toronto) will study with Kazuo and Yoshito Ohno, two of the founders of the dance art form, Butoh, for three weeks at their studio in Japan. Grant amount: $7,000.
Literature
Warren Heiti, (Poet - Sudbury) will attend Jan Zwicky’s mid-career poetry workshop at Booming Ground Writers’ Community at the University of British Columbia. Grant amount: $1,080.
Music
Rafael Hoekman, (Musician - Toronto) will study with Shauna Ralston in the MA music (cello) program at University of Toronto. Grant amount: $7,500.
Brenda Earle, (Musician - Sarnia) will undertake graduate studies in Jazz performance at the Manhattan School of Music. Grant amount: $14,000.
John Mark Sherlock, (Composer - Toronto) will create a mentored situation, working with Linda Catlin Smith (composer), Sylvain Émard (choreographer), musicians and dancers, to explore the co-creation of a new music work for dance. Grant amount: $12,500.
Debashis Sinha, (Composer/musician - Toronto) will pursue intensive study in traditional and non-traditional drumming techniques with Glen Velez and Pejman Haddadi. Grant amount: $8,000.
Theatre
Nicole Stamp, (Actor - Toronto) will attend the Gaulier theatre workshop in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Grant amount: $3,000.
Jovanni Sy, (Dramaturg/playwright/director - Toronto) will undertake an apprenticeship in dramaturgy at the Factory Theatre, Toronto. Grant amount: $12,500.
Visual Arts
Suzanne Lake, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will take courses in colour printing and digital imaging in photography at Toronto Image Works. Grant amount: $8,500.
Minh Nguyen, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will undertake the MFA program, Department of Art: Practice at University of California at Berkeley. Grant amount: $14,000.
ARTS FELLOWSHIPS
Jurors :
AA Bronson (Visual Artist- – Toronto)
Robert Enright (Editor-at-large, Border Crossings Magazine – Winnipeg)
Tom Hill (Museum Director, Woodland Cultural Centre – Brantford)
Bill James (Choreographer – Peterborough)
Andrée Lacelle (Literature – Ottawa)
Alexina Louie (Composer – Toronto)
Diane Roberts (Director/Dramaturge – Toronto)
Dance
Deepti Gupta, (Choreographer/dancer - Toronto) will create and product an original contemporary video-choreography for three dancers based on Chau entitled Rubies, combining new media and dance. Grant amount: $18,250.
Film & Video
John Greyson, (Filmmaker/media artists - Toronto) and David Wall (Composer - Toronto): will create and product Fig Trees, a video opera for six rooms and a staircase. Grant amount: $50,000.
Benny N. Ramsay, (Media artist/musician - Toronto) will explore the production of new video song cycles based on the classical song cycle genre. Grant amount: $35,308.
Laura Taler, (Filmmaker - Toronto) will research and write a narrative feature film titled The Ratcatcher, including development cost as outlined in the proposal for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $37,000.
Interdisciplinary
Elizabeth Chitty, (Performance artist - Toronto) will create work for Shared Habitat and the Garden Project including an essay on Canadian women performance artists for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $29,500.
Literature
M. NourbeSe Philip, (Poet - Toronto) will undertake the development period for Zong – the historic re-telling of a slave ship and its people. Grant amount: $20,000.
Nathalie Stephens, (Author/Francophone - Guelph) will undertake the historical, ideological and linguistic research for the creation of PARIS MA MORT. Grant amount: $20,600.
Music
R. Murray Schafer, (Composer - Indian River) will be supported for the initial development period of Patria for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $25,000.
Theatre
Claudia Dey, (Playwright - Toronto) will undertake the development of a new play entitled Trout Stanley. Grant amount: $15,000.
Ken Gass, (Playwright/Director - Toronto) will complete his new play, Gulag America. Grant amount: $5,400.
Soheil Parsa, (Playwright/Director - Toronto) will research and write his new play, The Passion of Hallaj, for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $31,730.
Visual Arts
Spring Hurlbut, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will undertake the research and development of an interpretation of Orphan Collections, based on an initiation by the Centre for Museology at the University of Manchester in the UK for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $25,000.
Germaine Koh, (Visual Artist – Toronto) will be able to undertake a period of travel, research and production of new work for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $22,500.
Steve Mann, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will produce his interdisciplinary work, Decontamination, Surveillance & Marketing Martial Law Quarantine in the Anthrax Age. Grant amount: $21,200.
Kelly Mark, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will complete her collection, In & Out, the printing of Auto-Collages and six months of subsistence. Grant amount: $22,100
Ron Martin, (Visual Artist - Toronto) will complete twenty-six diptychs, representing the culmination of a new idea for the Conclusion & Transposition Paintings. Grant amount: $40,000.
Julie Pringle, (Visual Artist - Bancroft) will create and develop tapestries from natural and indigenous materials. Grant amount: $9,000.
Anna Torma, (Visual Artist - Hamilton) will research and produce new techniques and themes for a new body of fibre-art work for a duration of one year. Grant amount: $26,300.
OAC Media Contact: Kirsten Gunter, Manager of Communications
Tel: (416) 969-7403. Toll-free outside of Toronto: 1-800-387-0058, ext. 7403.
E-mail: kgunter@arts.on.ca