The grantees will each present their project in a Pecha Kucha* style slide show from 7 – 7:45pm with the opportunity for questions and discussion afterwards.

The reception will be an opportunity to speak with the awarded artists from various cities across Texas and hear more about their innovative ideas.

We welcome past grantees, educators, members of the art community, and partners to come and join this celebration of artistic innovation. We are thrilled to help bring these new and adventurous ideas to our Gulf Coast region!

Please RSVP to tif@diverseworks.org by Tuesday, January 15, 2013.

*Pecha Kucha is a presentation methodology in which a selected number slides are shown for 20 seconds each; the format, which keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, powers multiple-speaker events.

(Houston, TX, November 29, 2012) – The Idea Fund, a re-granting program funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and administered through DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses announces the 2013 grantees.  The following ten Texas-based artists and artist collectives will each receive $4,000 ($3,500 for the awarded project, plus $500 seed money for future work) to create and showcase innovative artistic projects in the coming year:  The Bridge Club – Art and Performance Collaborative (Huntsville); Erin Curtis (Austin); Bill Davenport (Houston); Esteban Delgado (San Antonio); Everything Records / Robert Hodge and Philip Pyle (Houston), Madsen Minax (Houston); Ryan O’Malley, Joe Pena, Dr. Amber Scoon, and Jack Gron (Corpus Christi); Stephanie Saint Sanchez (Houston); Ethel Shipton and Nate Cassie (San Antonio); and Walley Films – Mark Walley and Angela Walley (San Antonio).  Project descriptions are below.

Of the 177 applications submitted to The Idea Fund from across Texas, these ten were selected by Idea Fund Panelists as projects that most exemplify artistic practices which fall outside the traditional frameworks of support, one of the main requirements of the grant.  The 2013 panelists were: Dean Daderko, Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH); Ayanna Jolivet McCloud, Artist / Past Idea Fund Recipient; Christina Rees, Director, Fort Worth Contemporary Arts; and Carol Stakenas, Executive Director, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE).

Panelist Dean Daderko states:
As a relative newcomer to Texas, I was enthused to see the strength and vision the state’s artists brought to The Idea Fund’s call for entry. The selected projects represent a diverse group of localities, and the practices and interests that shape this state’s vibrant cultural landscape. From a celebration of driftwood sculpture on Galveston Island, to a mobile performance trailer making stops statewide, a project that brings colorful abstract paintings to under-utilized storefronts in South Texas, and another that creates spirited sets for public access TV shoots, it was exciting to see so many artists finding inventive ways to engage their communities.

Now in its fifth round, The Idea Fund is the second re-granting initiative of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, following the pilot program, Alternative Exposure, administered by Southern Exposure in San Francisco.  The Idea Fund is structured to provide artists with quick access to substantial financial support for projects that might not otherwise have access to funding.

The Idea Fund 2013 Grantees and Projects:

The Bridge Club – Art and Performance Collaborative: The Trailer: Performance Art Tour (Huntsville):  The Trailer: Performance Art Tour tackles issues of regionalism, identity, and domestic displacement in the American landscape through the presentation of a series of live mobile performances in a vintage camping trailer. The trailer will act as both performance site and living history museum, and will make performance stops in Huntsville and other major metropolises, as well as parks, truck stops, elementary schools, and rural farmers markets. The Bridge Club is a collective of artists Annie Strader, Christine Owen, Emily Bivens, and Julie Wills.

Erin Curtis: Public Access (Austin): Curtis will create an eccentric public access television studio for a multi-week collaborative series of performances between artists, musicians, television, and theater actors. The mock television-set, studio-installation space will include a variety of environments, such as a kitchen/cooking set, gardening/backyard set, and travel stage set, as well as a technical control room. The project poses the question of what public access television might mean in today’s media saturated world.

Bill Davenport:  Driftwood Festival (Houston):  Davenport will work in conjunction with the Galveston Park Board during their early spring driftwood clean up to gather several tractor-trailer loads of winter driftwood and other beach litter. This detritus will then be used as the raw material for workshops and an installation at the Galveston Artist Residency exhibition space.

Esteban Delgado: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue (San Antonio):  Delgado will transform the facades of vacant buildings in small towns in South Texas, including – Alice, Bishop, Falfurrias, Riviera and Robstown – through window installations of bright, colorful compositions and vinyl artwork informed by the history of each structure and the surrounding community.

Everything Records / Robert Hodge and Philip Pyle: The Beauty Box (Houston): The Beauty Box will be an outdoor public installation illuminating a particular time in an average Third Ward home prior to integration. The project will transform an abandoned portion of a building into an installation and gallery space where artist talks, round table discussions, and other public events will be held.

Madsen Minax:  Just Swallow (Houston): Just Swallow is an experimental video documentary project that explores themes of radical sexuality between people of color and white people through the use of images of physical dominance and submission. The project will include a spectrum of alternative sexual practices, a consensual fistfight, and scenes of breath and touch, as well as vignettes that explore consensual power play with various levels of intensity and intimacy.

Ryan O’Malley, Joe Peña, Dr. Amber Scoon, and Jack Gron: The Underground Art Tunnel at Retama Park (Corpus Christi):  The Underground Art Tunnel at Retama Park is a unique 250-foot long pedestrian thoroughfare, built in Corpus Christi in 1929. This project will utilize this eccentric space to produce a series of exhibition, events, and performances in order to provide the local Coastal Bend Region community with an unconventional array of local, regional, and international art, music, and performance.

Stephanie Saint Sanchez: Senorita Cinema (Houston): Senorita Cinema is a two-day, all-female Latina film festival in Houston. The first day consists of a pre-show fair featuring community organizations, artists’ booths, and refreshments, and the second day features workshops, film screenings, and award ceremonies. Senorita Cinema will showcase the rich tapestry of different voices, styles, and ideas unique to the Latina experience.

Ethel Shipton and Nate Cassie: Vacancy Project (San Antonio): Vacancy Projects features a single artistic event occurring in a non-art venue, four times a year in the San Antonio area. Each event is held in a new location, which may include such spaces as an unoccupied apartment, a restaurant, or a beauty salon. The singularity of each event, combined with the project’s multidisciplinary nature, creates a spontaneous energy that ripples through various slices of the larger San Antonio community.

Walley Films – Mark Walley and Angela Walley:  Tia Chuck (San Antonio):  Tia Chuck is an experimental documentary film following the life and work of the late San Antonio artist, photographer, and designer Chuck Ramirez. The project is inspired by the visual and conceptual techniques Ramirez utilized and will employ those techniques to create a compelling, ambitious storyline and narrative about the artist, his life, and work.

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.THEIDEAFUND.ORG

About The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts
The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts was established in 1987.  In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, its mission is the advancement of the visual arts. The Foundation’s objective is to foster innovative artistic expression and the creative process by encouraging and supporting cultural organizations that in turn, directly or indirectly, support artists and their work. The Foundation values the contributions these organizations make to artists and audiences and to society as a whole by supporting, exhibiting and interpreting a broad spectrum of contemporary artistic practice.  www.warholfoundation.org

About Aurora Picture Show
Aurora Picture Show is a non-profit micro-cinema that presents artist-made, non-commercial film and video. Aurora is dedicated to expanding the cinematic experience and promoting the understanding and appreciation of moving image art. Aurora has distinguished itself as a home for vanguard work that falls outside of conventional moviemaking and traditionally has few exhibition outlets. www.aurorapictureshow.org

About Project Row Houses
Project Row Houses is a neighborhood-based nonprofit art and cultural organization in Houston’s Northern Third Ward, one of the city’s oldest African-American communities.  Project Row Houses is founded on the principle that art – and the community it creates – can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city neighborhoods for the mutual good of existing and future residents. Thus, the mission of Project Row Houses is to transform community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture.  www.projectrowhouses.org

About DiverseWorks
DiverseWorks is a non-profit art center in Houston, Texas dedicated to commissioning and presenting new visual, performing, and literary art. DiverseWorks is a place where the creative process is valued and where artists can test new ideas in the public arena. By encouraging the investigation of current artistic, cultural, and social issues, DiverseWorks builds, educates, and sustains audiences for contemporary art.  www.diverseworks.org

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The Idea Fund, a re-granting program administered through Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks ArtSpace and Project Row Houses, and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, announces the 2012 The Idea Fund Grantees.

The following ten Texas-based artists or artist groups will receive $4,000 ($3,500 for the awarded project, plus $500 seed money for future work) to create and showcase projects in the coming year:

Scott Gleeson & Dane Larsen

Carrie Schneider

Michelle Benaim Steiner

Lope Gutierrez Ruiz & Alexander Wright

Aaron Dubrow

Xochi Solis

Jules Buck Jones

Drew Liverman

Scott Eastwood

Margit Raczkowski

Timothy Schmidt & Carlos Rosales-Silva

Alejandro Saenz Jr. (Kingspoint Crew)

Lakes Were Rivers collective

Ariel Evans & Richard Yanas

Nestor Topchy & Robert Rosenberg

Lauren Woods

Christina Sukhgian Houle

Of the more than 170 applications submitted to The Idea Fund from across Texas, these ten were selected by The Idea Fund Panelists as projects that most exemplify artistic practices that fall outside the traditional frameworks of support, one of the main requirements of the grant. This year’s panelists were: Kate Hackman (Co-Director, Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, Mo.), J. Hill (Houston-based artist and former recipient of Idea Fund grant), Noah Simblist (Austin/Dallas-based artist, curator and writer; and associate professor of art at SMU), and Michelle White (curator at The Menil Collection).

The Idea Fund is the second re-granting initiative of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, following the pilot program, Alternative Exposure, administrated by Southern Exposure in San Francisco, CA. The Idea Fund is structured to provide artists with quick access to substantial financial support for projects that might not otherwise have access to funding.

Michelle White: Associate Curator, Menil Collection, Houston
Noah Simblist: artist, writer and curator, Dallas
Kate Hackman: Associate Director of Charlotte Street Foundation, Kansas City, MO
J.Hill: 2008-2009 TIF grantee – Welcome Wagon project, Houston

The Idea Fund is seeking ten Texas-based artist-generated projects to award a $4,000 grant.  Want more information?  Join an upcoming information session in one of the Texas locations (specific dates coming soon!) or check out the online webinar located at www.theideafund.org.

We celebrated the 2011 The Idea Fund grantees at a special public reception and presentation of the grantees’ projects on Wednesday February 2nd, 2011, at Eldorado Ballroom. The Idea Fund is an innovative re-granting program for Texas-based artists, administered through Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks Artspace and Project Row Houses, and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

To RSVP for this event, please contact Tracey Morton (tracey@diverseworks.org or 713.223.8346)

*RSVP is preferred and must be received by Monday, Jan. 24, 2011.

http://culturemap.com/newsdetail/12-10-10-four-diverse-houston-art-projects-awarded-grants-from-the-idea-fund/

The Idea Fund, a re-granting program administered through Aurora Picture Show, DiverseWorks ArtSpace and Project Row Houses, and funded by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, announces the 2011 The Idea Fund Grantees. The following ten Texas-based artists or artist groups will receive $4,000 ($3,500 for the awarded project, plus $500 seed money for future work) to create and showcase projects in the coming year: ArtScouts Houston (Elaine Bradford, Emily Link, Dennis Nance, Jill Pangallo, C.H. JoAnn Park); Boozefox (Drew Liverman, Jules Buck Jones, Michael Phalan, Scott Eastwood); Nathaniel Donnett; David Feil and Amye McCarther; Christine Foerster; GENDER book creators (Boston Bostian, Mel Reiff Hill, Jay Mays); Leila Grothe and Cynthia Mulcahy; Buster Graybill; Andy Rihn; and The Rio Grande Collective (Mattie Matthaei, Eileen Torpey, Bett Williams). Descriptions of the funded projects are listed below.

Nearly 200 applications were submitted to The Idea Fund from across Texas, these ten were selected by The Idea Fund Panelists as projects that most exemplify artistic practices that fall outside the traditional frameworks of support, one of the main requirements of the grant. This year’s panelists were Bill Arning (Director, Contemporary Art Museum Houston), Kate Lorenz (Executive Director, Hyde Park Art Space, Chicago) and Andrea Mellard (Assistant Curator, Austin Museum of Art).

The Idea Fund is the second re-granting initiative of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, following the pilot program, Alternative Exposure, administrated by Southern Exposure in San Francisco, CA. The Idea Fund is structured to provide artists with quick access to substantial financial support for projects that might not otherwise have access to funding.

“I cherished my role as an Idea Fund panelist for many reasons, but one stands out,” said CAMH’s Bill Arning. “As a new Texan, having moved to Houston in 2009, I feared that the work being made here might be more conservative than what I enjoyed in New York and Boston. After seeing so many wonderful proposals of non-traditional artwork, I am happy to say that the artists we funded produce the edgiest art being made anywhere. As a lifelong advocate of avantgardist practices that does my heart and soul good to see.”

2011 The Idea Fund Grantees and their Projects:

ArtScouts Houston (Elaine Bradford, Emily Link, Dennis Nance, C.H. JoAnn Park) – Nohegan East: An art-making weekend retreat with a focus on community. (Houston-Pearland)

Boozefox (Drew Liverman, Jules Buck Jones, Michael Phalan, Scott Eastwood) – Battleship Earth: A large sculpture/watercraft resembling an iceberg, which will be “driven” around Lady Bird Lake over the course of one or more days. (Austin)

Nathaniel Donnett – What’s The New News?: A project that will challenge, respond to, and juxtapose, the way we read the news and how rap and poetry interprets it, the differences in generations when seeking information regarding issues and current events specifically in Houston’s Third Ward. (Houston)

David Feil, Amye McCarther – Andrus Studios Archive: An artist-volunteer run archive of a collection of audio reels from Andrus Studios, an independent, progressive and artist-directed recording studio owned and operated in Houston by Walt Andrus from 1964 to 1971. (Houston)

Christine Foerster – Fish.taco.ponic: A fully functioning aquaponic greenhouse to be built, maintained, narrated and exhibited in collaboration with students and community members of Segundo Barrio, El Paso. (El Paso)

GENDER book creators(Boston Bostian; Mel Reiff Hill; Jay Mays) – the GENDER book(let): A colorful, highly-illustrated resource, short in length and with detailed real-life experiences, the GENDER book serves as a starter manual that presents the beautiful diversity of gender. (Houston)

Leila Grothe, Cynthia Mulcahy – Square Dance: A Community Project: This project proposes art as social practice in the form of an outdoor seasonal community dance at the new Trinity River Audubon Center in Dallas. (Dallas)

Buster Graybill – The Progeny of Tush Hog: This project will document the offspring of Tush Hogs, a hybrid species of Minimalist sculptures and deer feeders discovered near Marfa, TX, as they continually adapt and migrate towards the urban centers of San Antonio and Houston. (Converse, TX)

Andy Rihn – Texas’ Longest Hammer Choir: To make a slow rolling short film of an event consisting of 500 people hitting hammers together across abandoned railroad tracks, filmed from a custom-made railroad cart that houses the soundtrack musicians, propulsionists and film makers. (Austin)

The Rio Grande Collective (Mattie Matthaei, Eileen Torpey, Bett Williams) – The River is the Road Festival: Our project is a street festival and a site specific video art installation in the historic Sacred Heart Chapel currently under restoration by the Texas Historic Commission. (Marfa – Ruidosa, TX).