The Black Iris Project has received grant funding for its initial season from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New Music USA and CUNY Dance Initiative!
The Black Iris Project is the recipient of a Charles E. Culpeper Arts & Culture Grant from The Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Charles E. Culpeper Arts & Culture grants honor the legacy of Charles E. Culpeper by supporting the artists and arts and cultural organizations that make New York City one of the world's most dynamic creative capitals. The Fund is inspired by the conviction that arts and culture promote free expression, foster a deeper understanding of human experience and diverse communities, and provide a fresh lens on persistent problems and emerging challenges. The Fund aims to strengthen the cultural environment of the city by supporting its rich artistic community and the diversity of the city’s population.
In addition to the grant, The Black Iris Project will participate in a 10-day residency at The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund this spring. In July, the Black Iris Project will present a number of new works in a performance at The Pocantico Center.
n February, New Music USA announced its fifth round of project grants awards, totaling $276,770 in funding to support artistic work involving a wide range of new American music. The 53 awarded projects (Including The Black Iris Project) include concerts and recordings as well as dance, theater, opera, and more, all involving contemporary music as an essential element. Awarded projects from all five rounds can be discovered, explored and followed by the public via media-rich project pages.
New Music USA is devoted to fostering the creation, dissemination, and enjoyment of new American music. New Music USA places special emphasis on broadening the public community for the music and musicians whom we serve. Advocacy in the broadest sense is at the heart of all of New Music USA’s work. It is inherent in the work of the online magazine NewMusicBox and radio station Counterstream, in all of New Music USA’s grantmaking activity—which distributes more than one million dollars each year to the field—and in New Music USA’s role as a key voice in the national and international scenes.
The Black Iris Project was awarded the CUNY grant residency for The City College of New York: Center for the Arts. The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), a university-wide residency program heading into its third season, is awarding 23 dance companies/choreographers residencies at 12 CUNY colleges in 2016. CDI, led by New York City’s public university system, is a new model for collaboration. By facilitating residencies for New York City choreographers and dance companies on CUNY campuses, CDI aims to support dance artists, enhance college students’ cultural life and education, and build new audiences for dance at CUNY performing arts centers. CDI supports both established and emerging choreographers, and most of the artists choose to develop new work during their residencies. Held in studios and on stage, these residencies can take the form of early exploratory rehearsals or a refining of a nearly finished work for performance.