Recipients of Rocket Grants for 2010-2011 Announced, Ceremony Held 6/15

An Awards Ceremony for 2010-11 recipients of Rocket Grants is set for Tuesday, June 15, 6-7pm at Loose Park Garden Center Rose Room, at which brief presentations about awarded projects will be made. Rocket Grants are a brand new funding opportunity available to artists who live within an 80-mile radius of downtown Kansas City, which includes artists in Lawrence, KS. Grants are of up to $4000 each. A total of 12 projects have been awarded.

Rocket Grants are specifically intended to encourage work that is inventive and "under the radar", and that engages or benefits an audience somewhere other than in a museum or art gallery. The long-term goal of the program is to not only encourage emerging and non-traditional art practices in the Kansas City region, but also to contribute to a thriving artists' community. Selections were therefore evaluated not only on the artistic merits of the proposed projects, but also on their capacity to stimulate further growth in a diverse and supportive art ecology.

The winning proposals include sculptural interventions and happenings, public events and programming, an artist-run space, literary production, dance, video and performance. Topics are equally wide-ranging, covering such diverse subjects as honeybee ecology, alternative educational programs for kids, one-on-one dance performance, a suburban front-yard interpretive exhibit and a street vending cart that generates micro grants for other artists by selling S'mores. See below for the complete list of selected artists and project summaries.

Rocket Grants are supported by a $40,000 regional regranting award from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and Kansas City is the third area in the country that has been selected to develop this kind of programming. One goal of the overall program is to stimulate and sustain innovative artistic practices in active communities across the United States. More information about the regional regranting awards from the Andy Warhol Foundation can be found at: http://www.warholfoundation.org/grant/regranting.html#/2010

The local partners who are coordinating the Rocket Grants program are the Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, and the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence.

Both individual artists and groups of artists can apply for project-based Rocket Grants, but non-profit organizations are not eligible for this program. The granted projects will actually involve 28 artists living in both Lawrence KS and Kansas City, with group sizes ranging from 1 to 7 members. Three out of the twelve projects selected are based in Lawrence, KS, and the rest are based in and around Kansas City KS and MO.

The selection panel was composed of three out-of-town and two local members.These included: Mel Ziegler, artist, and educator at Vanderbilt University, TN (http://melziegler.com)
Adriane Herman, artist, and educator at Maine College of Art, ME (http://slopart.com/),Hesse McGraw, artist, and curator at the Bemis Center in Omaha, NE (http://www.hessemcgraw.com)
So Yeon Park, artist, and educator at University of Kansas in Lawrence (http://soyeonpark.com/), and Patrick Alexander, artist, curator and DJ in Kansas City (http://patrickalexanderart.com).

All three of the visiting panelists previously lived and worked in Kansas City. All five members have a particularly strong connection to the kind of work being promoted by the brand new Rocket Grants program, through their involvement with art projects that stretch the boundaries of process, audience and venue.

Rocket Grant Recipients:
A. Bitterman: "Point of Interest" involves the installation of a 10-foot interpretive exhibit, resembling a national parks information booth, along the sidewalk in front of the artist's home in Brookside, and the creation of a short hiking trail in the front yard.

Lisa Cordes: "Prop 8 On Trial" is a multi-media performance examining the 2010 trial, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, challenging the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 that banned same-sex marriage.

Kurt Flecksing: "The S'mores Grant Project" is a micro-grant opportunity available to artists working in the public realm. Funds are raised by selling s'mores from a street vending cart.

Patrick Giroux, Jonathan Holley and Emily Lawton: "Johnny America" is a small literary ‘zine with a strong handmade visual and design aesthetic.

Jane Gotch, Ke-Sook Lee, Miles Neidinger, Paul Rudy, Mark Southerland, Mica Thomas, Jason Dixon: "WE!" is a collaborative, multi-media dance performance that strips away the safety net of the proscenium theater and sandwiches both dancer and viewer into a close-proximity, private performance space.

Audrey Lauber, Brooke Hunt, Tomomi Suenaga: Through the "Endless Boundless" program, children will be immersed in interactive, interdisciplinary art workshops culminating in a community presentation of their collaborative efforts.

Seth Johnson, Ashley Miller: "The Center for the Advancement of Transmodern Awareness" is a multi-use space dedicated to promoting the evolution of culture by creating of new systems of social exchange.

Jarrett Mellenbruch: "Deep Ecology 1" is a functional beehive sculpture that invites contemplation on humankind's role in the earth's ecosystem.

Lee Piechocki, Aaron Storck, Jeffrey Isom: Creation of a publication ("ASP/ SPA/PAS") designed to engage members of the art, philosophy, and scientific communities in critical dialog.

May Tveit: "Product Placement" is a series of site-specific, sculptural, public art interventions / happenings.

Jaimie Warren, Cody Critcheloe, Peggy Noland: The artists will create a new video project involving collectives and artists in the Kansas City area collaborating extensively with national artists who will be flown in for the project.

Leralee Whittle, Paul Sprawl: "WorkArtOut" identifies the institutionalized body in a performance installation, featuring video of Whittle making art in gyms across America.

Program coordinator, Julia Cole, gave a series of ten outreach sessions at a variety of locations in Kansas City and Lawrence, to get the word out about the grants and to help artists make strong applications. A total of 83 project proposals were submitted for this first round of funding. There will be another round of funding guaranteed for next year, with applications due next April, and then the Rocket Grants program will reapply to the Warhol Foundation for another two-year cycle of support.

David Hughes, Director and Founder of the Charlotte Street Foundation said: "The Rocket Grant program is an important new opportunity for our region's artists - adding support for new and emerging practices and projects. We are thrilled to be working with the Spencer Museum as the third site in the country for this nationally-leading regranting program of the Warhol Foundation."

Saralyn Reece Hardy, Director of the Spencer Museum at KU said: "Rocket Grants encourage collaborations between artists and unexpected partners. This investment in new work by artists of our region challenges the traditional boundaries of museums, artist spaces and galleries as venues and sponsors. Art can be anywhere-and should be."

The selected artists will receive the funds to begin their proposals at the award ceremony on June 15, 6 PM, at the Rose Room in the Garden Center in Loose Park, 5200 Pennsylvania Ave. (off Wornall), Kansas City, MO 64112. Awarded projects will be completed before June of 2011.

The Charlotte Street Foundation is an organization dedicated to making Kansas City a place where artists and art thrive. A non?profit organization, Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) supports and recognizes outstanding artists in Kansas City; presents, promotes, enhances, and encourages the visual and performing arts; and fosters economic development in the urban core of Kansas City, Mo. On all levels, CSF places artists at the center of its mission and has built an infrastructure that depends on and reflects their involvement. As a result, CSF continually evolves in response to artist input and in relation to the city's larger cultural ecosystem. For more information, visit www.charlottestreet.org.

The Spencer Museum of Art explores the capacity of art to spark curiosity, inspire creativity, and create connections among people. The Museum, located on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence, houses an internationally known collection that is deep and diverse, currently numbering nearly 36,000 artworks and artifacts in all media. The collection spans the history of European and American art from ancient to contemporary, and includes broad and significant holdings of East Asian art. Areas of special strength include medieval art; European and American paintings, sculpture and prints; photography; Japanese Edo-period painting and prints; 20th-century Chinese painting; and KU's Ethnographic Collection, which includes about 10,000 Native American, African, Latin American and Australian works. www.spencerart.ku.edu