14 artists win opportunity grants
Fourteen artists will develop their potential with an opportunity grant from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.
The council, which awards Artist Opportunity Grants three times a year, announced a round of 14 grants on June 21. The grants, totaling $15,015 for professional development, are reviewed by a panel of local arts professionals.
Ten artists received grants ranging from $565 to $1,550 for technical needs, travel, lodging and presentations associated with improving their artistic practices.
The purpose of the grants is to remove financial barriers so artists can advance their careers. Here are the recipients:
• Ashley Cecil Paulisick: $1,550 for travel expenses and child care during LABVERDE, an art immersion program in the Amazon rain forest.
• Atticus Adams: $1,250 to document his Artist of the Year exhibit at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts in Shadyside.
• David English: $1,000 to study with master puppeteer Matt Scott.
• S. Brook Corfman: $800 to assist with travel to a Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency.
• Sheila McKenna: $1,450 for travel to the 2018 MaMa Umbria International Playwright Retreat in Umbria, Italy.
• Allegra Battle: $1,150 to assist with travel to Haiti to research the impact of the African diaspora on art and culture.
• Ann Rosenthal: $1,000 to assist with travel to an artist residency in the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest near the Blue River in Eugene, Ore.
• Ann Schmalstieg: $1,000 for framing and shipping of paintings for a solo exhibit at the Basilica of the National Shrine for the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
• Ben Schonberger: $1,200 to assist with framing of photographs for a solo exhibit at Filter Space in Chicago.
• Jaclyn Harris: $900 to assist with expenses for a workshop on ceramic wood firing and cooling at the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tenn.
• Mora Harris: $700 to attend the Sewanee Writers Conference, Tennessee.
• Nick Childers: $1,450 to participate in the Summer Lab Documentary Film Workshop at UnionDocs, Brooklyn, N.Y.
• Rachel Brickner: $565 to assist with her artist residency at Ragdale, Lake Forest, Ill.
• Shoshona Klein: $1,000 to participate in the Bang on the Can Music Festival at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.
The next deadline for Artist Opportunity Grants is Oct. 15, 2018 at 11:59 p.m. Artists who are 18 years or older, not enrolled in an art degree program and live in one of these 13 counties may apply: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Mercer, Lawrence, Somerset, Venango, Washington and Westmoreland.
For more information on grant eligibility, guidelines, and an application, go to: http://www.pittsburghartscouncil. grants/artist-opportunity.