Garden of Eden, Lucas
KCAIC
TOPEKA–The Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission (KCAIC) has announced 25 grant awards totaling $120,811. The grants were awarded by the Commission on Jan. 15 through the Strategic Investment and Arts Integration programs and adjudicated through a peer panel review process. KCAIC programs are designed to promote partnerships, enhance community and economic development, encourage risk and innovation, maximize statewide impact and highlight the role the arts play in all areas of community life. Grantees are selected by the KCAIC through an application and review process.
The Strategic Investment Program (SIP) recognizes the important role individual artists and creative organizations play in building and sustaining cultural and economic vibrancy in Kansas. By funding a variety of professional and organizational development opportunities that impact cultural programming, these grants support initiatives that use the arts to enhance community vitality, revitalize neighborhoods, generate local business, create and preserve job opportunities and impact tourism.
The Arts Integration Program (AIP) grants support the role the arts play in all levels of education, community service and workforce development. This program provides funding for educational institutions, arts organizations and community service non-profits to use the arts to increase student success, foster creative thinking, develop critical job skills and enhance community development.
The final deadline to apply for the Strategic Investment or Arts Integration programs in FY16 is Feb. 19. To learn more about KCAIC programs, please visit KansasCommerce.com/CAICPrograms.
A list of grant awards follows.
Strategic Investment Program
Friends of Garden of Eden, Lucas, $2,438 – Organizational Development
The Friends of Garden of Eden will engage a consultant to conduct a 2-day board development retreat and produce a guiding document that will include an updated mission and vision statement; defined roles of the Garden staff, board members, and advisory committee; and an outline of governing processes and an annual calendar of deadlines.
Post Rock Opportunities Foundation, $5,000 – Organizational Development
Post Rock Opportunities Foundation will much needed enhancements and upgrades to their Kansas Originals website to increase financial and marketing features, including shipping, secure payment services and reporting functions, to local artists and craftsmen.
Theatre Atchison, Atchison, $1,647 – Equipment & Technology
Theatre Atchison will make needed upgrades to serve the organization’s technical needs to increase organizational efficiency and safety, enhance production value, and support additional quality programming including scene shop and paint shop equipment, stock scenery flats and platforms; technical booth computer and a video camera for educational workshops.
The Culture House, Olathe, $3,400 – Equipment & Technology
The Culture House will upgrade their current computer equipment to effectively support students in the enrollment process and other organizational tasks, including donation and grant tracking, off-site ticketing for performances, and improved marketing materials through enhanced graphic design.
Wichita Grand Opera, Wichita, $5000 – Equipment & Technology
WGO will undertake a number of infrastructure upgrades to improve operational effectiveness including the replacement of obsolete computer, communication, accounting, and server systems.
Theatre Lawrence, Lawrence, $5000 – Equipment & Technology
Theatre Lawrence will acquire professional cameras and related technology support systems, including computers and charging carts, for multiple program purposes including youth and adult programs, archival performances and special productions; promotional videos ; actor rehearsals; volunteer training and professional development; and enhanced technical and audio/visual operations.
Leavenworth County Historical Society, Leavenworth, $2,176 – Equipment & Technology
The Leavenworth County Historical Society will purchase equipment necessary to preserve and professionally display oversized prints from the Everhard Glass Plate Negative Collection, a collection of negatives taken by four Leavenworth pioneer photographers during the first century of the towns founding a depicting rare , irreplaceable images of Leavenworth residents and street scenes dating back to the 1860s.
Vernon Filley Art Museum, Pratt, $5,000 – New & Expanded Works
Vernon Filley Art Museum will purchase new exhibit signage, stands, barriers/stanchions, and produce promotion literature in order to properly and safely display and the works of internationally renowned sculptor John DeAndrea and realist painter Ariel DeAndrea. The program will involve the DeAndrea exhibit and an opening community reception with the artists, who will spend several days in Pratt during the exhibit. Promotional materials will be used to expand audiences and enhance the reputation of the community amongst high caliber artists and exhibition equipment will be used to support future programs.
Lucas Arts & Humanities Council, Lucas, $5,000 – New & Expanded Works
The Grassroots Art Center will create a new program entitled, “To Hail and Back.” The project will engage local professional filmmakers to produce a documentary featuring personal, intimate stories from local underserved residents of the catastrophic hail storm that occurred, April 24, 2015 in Lucas through an archival film featuring. The film will screen at a public showing in Lucas featuring in conjunction with a “Hail Therapy Tea Party” featuring the newly donated one-of-a-kind tea pots from visionary, self-taught artist, Jim Matthews of Garden City. The film will be used to create a new category of the next annual Lid-Off Film Festival in Lucas titled “Community Challenge” comprised of locally sourced films featuring Kansas communities.
Chamber Music at the Barn, Maize, $5,000– New & Expanded Works
In honor of its 20th Anniversary, Chamber Music at the Barn will commission a new work for chamber music by Grammy Award winning cellist and native Kansan, Eugene Friesen. This new work, based on Carl Sandburg’s 1918 poem, Prairie, will be produced and presented in two public concerts featuring Trio Globo with Kansas musicians (an instrumental string quartet and female vocal quintet ) with additional performance opportunities in the future in other small venues. In addition, the 2016 performance will be used as an invitational showcase opportunity for larger symphonies to hear the work toward possible future full-scale presentations of the work.
Fisch Bowl, Inc., Wichita, $3,700– New & Expanded Works
Fisch Bowl, Inc. will introduce an annual scholarship and exhibition program, entitled Neighborhood Superstar; an award that recognizes creatives who are actively practicing in underserved communities and celebrates the essential nature of creative work that has germinated independently of the spotlight to not only highlight the accomplishments of deserving artists, but to also create new relationships and opportunities that will encourage the existing arts infrastructure to support similarly obscure, yet meritorious, projects. In its inaugural year, the 2016 Neighborhood Superstar Award will honor the contributions of grassroots Wichita filmmaker RG Miller through a variety of exhibition and opportunities to support the selected artist’s ongoing practice including community film screenings, a formal gallery show of Miller’s props and cinematic ephemera, interactive workshops, and in-person engagement with the artist, thus enabling an interdisciplinary exploration of work that has only barely been introduced to the mainstream. Fisch Bowl believes that showcasing his work, and subsequently the work of other Neighborhood Superstars, will provide underserved communities the opportunity to engage and explore a shared creative language that fosters free-flowing creativity and healthy cross-cultural arts collaboration.
Theatre for Young America, Mission, $5,000– New & Expanded Works
Theatre for Young America will expand their interactive show “The Toughest Kid in the World”, which focuses on anti-bullying and anti-violence, to include a larger group of middle school students through touring on-site performances of the main-stage production at Kansas schools in the Kansas City area. Along with the performance of the show and subsequent Q&A, TYA has developed very successful workshops detailing conflict-resolution and anti-bullying. Actors in the production lead these workshops in small classroom settings with direct interaction with students and teachers. Teachers learn theater techniques that they can then use in the classroom after the TYA program is completed.
Arts Integration Program
Graham County Arts Council, Hill City, $2,000 – Visiting Artists
Graham County Arts Council will bring multi-Instrumentalist Todd Green to Hill City to perform a public concert and evening lecture focused on breaking down the barriers that divide our culture from others by experiencing insight through their music and visit Hill City Elementary School and Hill City Junior/Senior High School to perform on over 30 acoustic string, flute and percussion instruments from all over the world that takes students a tour of many countries and their diverse styles of music through performance and informative explanations of the music and the instruments.
Brown Grand Theatre, Concordia, $1,400 – Visiting Artists
Brown Grand Theatre will bring Kansas Touring Roster artists Opera Kansas to Concordia for a public performance of “On the Road in Alsace: two Offenbach one act comic operas” and to present a master class to choir students at Concordia High School and Cloud County Community College as well as members of local community theatre group The Brown Grand Players.
Marshall County Arts Cooperative, Marysville, $2,500 – Visiting Artists
Marshall County Arts Cooperative will bring accomplished pianist and vocalist Martyn Lucas to Waterville and Frankfort for two public concerts and to conduct local all-day vocal clinics for students in the Valley Heights and Marysville school districts where he will share his vocal techniques and musical strategies culminating in a student performance for the community.
Wichita County Arts Alliance, Leoti, $1,800 – Visiting Artists
Wichita County Arts Alliance will bring The Richard Pena band to Leoti for a public performance and community talk at the Wichita County High School about his experiences featured in many documentaries about the Andes Survivors including: “Stranded” and History Channel’s “I am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash” where he served as an expert on the topic.
Western Plains Arts Association, Colby, $3,600 – Visiting Artists
Western Plains Arts Association will bring Kansas Touring Roster artists The Diamond Wranglers to Oakley for a public performance, a presentation for seniors living at the Logan County Manor, and a student presentation at Oakley High School featuring a discussion and demonstration of their instruments and musical style.
Lied Center of Kansas, Lawrence, $3,000 – Visiting Artists
Lied Center of Kansas will bring the Working Group Theatre to Lawrence for a public performance of “Out of Bounds” followed by a 20-minute Q&A forum, three middle school performances, a post-performance twitter engagement event where students will be encouraged to tweet positive thoughts, experiences, and actions plans inspired by the issues and themes that were presented using the hashtag #OutofBounds, and a school workshop for counselors and students focused on how students and counselors can be empowered to create safe environments in their schools and help reduce and prevent bullying.
Art That Touches Your Heart Foundation, Wichita, $4,650 – Visiting Artists
Art That Touches Your Heart Foundation, in partnership with Wichita State University and USD 259, will bring visual artists including Frank Frasier, Randy Leger, and Lucky Easterwood to Wichita for an exhibition, a charitable youth art show, mentorship, and awards program, and three high school visits, focused on developing and encouraging young African American students in art classes and careers by researching the history and display the cultural journey of the African American race from 1877 to 1977.
Johnson County Community College, Overland Park, $5,000 – Integrated Arts Education
Johnson County Community College will offer the third phase of a multi-phase initiative to train Kansas artists to serve as teaching artists who will provide professional development for educators on arts integration throughout the curriculum. Phase 3 will continue offering arts-integrated curriculum to reinforce learning and strengthen the teaching skills of local teaching artists, but adds a focus on moving the professional development model to schools outside of Johnson County. Running the model outside of Johnson County with local teaching artists trained by JCCC Arts Education ongoing workshops, is a new piece of the existing program using the following criteria to identify future locations: 1) evidence of little or no arts curricula, 2) areas where professional development is limited, and 3) schools with underprivileged students.
Center for Living Education, Matfield Green, $10,000 – Innovative Partnerships
Partners: Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Matfield Station, The Gallery at Pioneer Bluffs, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University Prairie Studies Initiative.
The Center for Living Education and partners will bring artists from across the North American prairie region to Chase County for 2-week residency periods in 2016. The goal of this residency program is to spread awareness of the prairie as an ecosystem worth protecting by inviting artists from diverse communities to contribute their voices to a conversation about place. Resident artists will be provided accommodations for 10 nights and VIP access to the Tallgrass Preserve during their stay. Each artist will give a public presentation — in the form of a talk, demonstration or open studio during their stay. A group exhibition of work from resident artists will take place in Matfield Green, and a summit talk with all participating artists will be held at the Beach Museum in Manhattan, KS. This event will be available to remote locations via live stream.
Kansas City Community College, Kansas City, $7,600 – Innovative Partnerships
Partners: Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department, Country Club Bank, Downtown Shareholders Association
Kansas City Community College will expand the Sheriff’s Arts Program through the guidance of Todd Meier, art professor, and Charlie Leader, theatre professor, and with the support of Kimberley Holm, Program Director of Wyandotte County Sheriff’s Department. College students in the visual and performing arts will offer classes at the Adult Detention Center in drawing, painting, and improvisation. Artwork and improvisational productions created by detainees will be displayed in a number of facilities. An art show date will be scheduled for May on the college campus for the inmates’ families and the general public. Improvisation classes will provide detailed instruction in techniques useful to detainees as they are released and begin seeking employment. This program provides teaching opportunity for students interested in visual and performing arts education, experience with therapeutic effects of visual and performing arts instruction for an institutionalized population, exposure to entrepreneurship through sales of created artwork, and enhances employability skills upon detainees’ release.
Opera Kansas, Wichita, $9,500 – Innovative Partnerships
Partners: Century 21 A.R.T.S Afterschool Program, USD 259, Woodland United Methodist Church, Several additional Wichita area schools and senior living facilities.
Opera Kansas will integrate 10 different one act opera performances and educational lecture programs into several community locations as part of their Operation Education program including new program presentations, new curriculum content, additional schools, and a Senior Living Outreach program. The mission and goal is to integrate opera into facilities that match plot to place and/or content area that either enhance non-music curriculum content area, including history, civics, geography, citizenship, literature, mathematics, science and music or reflect the location in which the opera is set. The program will introduce new audiences to opera both young and old; enhance appreciation and understanding of the art form through Opera 101 lectures, enhance the quality of life and education for participants, and provide intimate performances in the community.
City of Fort Scott, Fort Scott, $7,000 – Innovative Partnerships
Partners: Bourbon County Arts Council, Fort Scott Community College, Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce, Beaux Arts Center, Young Professionals League of Bourbon County, Small Business Development Center of SEK, Bourbon County Schools
The City of Fort Scott and partners will create and produce The 2nd Story Festival of Arts & Ideas, an annual weekend event that brings together creative individuals and encourages the community to engage in the arts and innovative thinking. Following a Thursday evening performance by Branford Marsalis, the event will highlight the arts and innovation through panel discussions, break-out sessions, and workshops and will celebrate Fort Scott as a regional hub for the arts and entrepreneurship. Long-term goals for the event include a renovated downtown building to serve as a year-round center for the arts, an increase of public art throughout the city, an economic boost to the local economy and the perception of Fort Scott as a compelling place to live for creative individuals from the region.
Lawrence Arts Center, Lawrence, $15,000 – Innovative Partnerships
Partners: City of Lawrence’s Solid Waste Management Division, the University of Kansas School of the Arts, Friends of the Kaw
The Lawrence Arts Center and partners will bring artist Aurora Robson, who is known for transforming plastic waste into large and intricate sculptures as well as for her advocacy work in ocean and river cleanup, to Lawrence. Robson will oversee the collaborative expansion of her piece “Withdrawal” by University of Kansas students in a public exhibition space as part of a KU summer course based on Robson’s Project Vortex curriculum “Sculpture + Intercepting the Waste Stream”; conduct a free, hands-on workshop for local artists and art students about using discarded objects and other waste materials provided by the City of Lawrence’s Solid Waste Management Division, and present an updated version of her TED talk “Trash + Love”. In addition, Robson will share her art and artistic process at the 2016 Free State Festival, an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival, which brings the very best in independent film, music, art, and ideas to over 20,000 people in Lawrence each June. Complementary activities include a panel presentation on local recycling practices, including composting, water conservation, and the city’s recycling facilities, led by speakers from Solid Waste Management; a Kaw River cleanup volunteer opportunity led by Friends of the Kaw; and arts education workshops for children and families about using discarded packaging materials as art supplies.