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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2011
Contact: Gregory Liakos,
Communications Director 617-727-3668 x343
State Fellowships Honor Exceptional Artists
MCC Announces Grants in Music Composition, Playwriting, and Sculpture/Installation
(Boston, MA) - The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC)
has recognized 29 Massachusetts
artists for creating work of exceptional quality in the disciplines
of music composition, playwriting, and sculpture/installation.
The MCC's Artist Fellowship Program has awarded $7,500 unrestricted
grants to 15 artists, and distinguished 14 others as finalists
with $500 grants.
MCC's Artist Fellowships
recognize the unique contribution made by artists to the cultural
vitality of the Commonwealth. The fellowships provide direct assistance
to Massachusetts artists to recognize excellence and creative
ability, and to support further development of their talents.
MCC chronicles the impact of these awards in the Fellows
Notes section of its blog, ArtSake.
Over the years, many artists of national
and international prominence have won MCC fellowships.
"We are proud to honor these exceptional artists," said MCC Executive Director Anita Walker. "This program is judged anonymously based on the artistic excellence of creative work, so it's truly a celebration of new art and the ongoing creative process. These awards send the message that Massachusetts, as a Commonwealth, greatly values the contribution of these remarkable artists to our shared cultural heritage."
Music Composition awardees include Shirish Korde
of Cambridge, one of the state's preeminent composers and Evan Ziporyn
of Lexington, a past recipient of the prestigious United States
Artists Fellowship. Both composers were honored for work that fuses
Western composition with Eastern musical traditions. Korde's chamber
opera, Phoolan Devi: The Bandit Queen, explores the controversial,
real-life Indian figure Phoolan Devi. Ziporyn's opera, A House
in Bali, with its mix of Western and Balinese sounds, recently
premiered at the Cutler Majestic in Boston and BAM in New York.
The grants panelists were composer/performer Lisa Bielawa, composer
Ralf Yusuf Gawlick, and jazz composer Eric Hofbauer. Both Gawlick
and Hofbauer are past fellows in this program.
Playwriting awardees include Rosanna Alfaro of
Cambridge, who has been creating intriguing, culturally probing
theatre for over 25 years; and Christian McEwen of Northampton,
whose play Legal Tender is based on personal interviews
about money with women aged 6 to 93. The category also accepts screenplays,
and Caitlin McCarthy of Worcester has received a finalist award
for her screenplay about DES, the world's first drug disaster. The
panel was composed of dramatic writers David Adjmi and Lydia Diamond
and New Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Kate Warner.
Sculpture/Installation awardees include Matthew
Mazzotta of Boston, whose participatory art includes Park Spark,
a lamp in a Cambridge park powered by a methane digester (the project
has been covered by NPR
and BBC
radio). Also honored is Elizabeth Alexander of Gloucester, whose
art reimagines patterns and designs in surprising new contexts.
The panel was composed of Montserrat College of Art Gallery Director
Leonie Bradbury and artists Christopher Frost and Niho Kozuru. Both
Frost and Kozuru are past fellows in this program.
This is the first series of individual artists receiving direct
funding from the MCC in 2011. In late May, MCC will announce awards
in the disciplines of crafts, film and video, and photography.
Learn more about the program,
and about all artists selected since 2003 on our Gallery@MCC.
The MCC Artist Fellowship Program awards grants in specific artistic disciplines on a biennial cycle. Applications are accepted from artists who live and work in Massachusetts. Next year, fellowships will be awarded in drawing, painting, traditional arts, choreography, fiction/creative nonfiction, and poetry. Artist awards are based on recommendations by independent panels of experts who practice in the disciplines they review.
About the Massachusetts Cultural Council
The Massachusetts Cultural Council promotes excellence, access, education and diversity in the arts, humanities and interpretive sciences, in order to improve the quality of life for all Massachusetts residents and contribute to the economic vitality of our communities.
MCC is a state agency committed to building a central place for arts and culture in the everyday lives of communities across the Commonwealth. It pursues this mission through a combination of grants, services and advocacy for cultural organizations, schools, communities and artists. MCC receives an annual appropriation from the state Legislature and funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and other sources.
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