Past
Grantees

Rini Keagy, Minnesota, received $20,000 to support Ordinal (SW/NE), a single-channel experimental film. Valley fever, an airborne disease endemic to the southwestern United States, is the intersection of dust, wind and plague. Conjuring ancient mythology and literature, and using micro-biological and geo-physical simulations, Ordinal (SW/NE) explores this valley fever and the environmental forces affecting humans and the earth.

Gabriella Kessler, New York City, received $30,000 in support of Prison Show, a documentary about a small local Texas radio station with a call in show for prisoners and their families that unveils the tentacular reach of the US penal system, whose grip goes far beyond prisons, and from which it is impossible to escape.

The Kitchen received $52,000 ($26,000 per year for two years) to support the Emerging Artists Commissions Program for emerging New York City-based artists.

Rachel Knoll, Minnesota, received $10,000 to support 60.77° N, 148.68° W, a documentary telling the story of how the community of 222 people living inside a one building city in Alaska interact on a micro scale while disconnected from the rest of the physical world and how they recently have been able to interact globally through digital interfaces during a technological era.

New York Live Arts, as fiscal sponsor for Joanna Kotze, received  $24,000 ($12,000 per year for two years) to support the development and production of I Love Panorama.

Jennifer Kramer, Minnesota, received $4,360 to travel to Juárez, Mexico to observe and investigate the life and work of Alma Gonzales, founder of a renowned music school for impoverished children, as the foundation for a new narrative screenplay of her life.

Lanesboro Arts Center received $36,000 ($18,000 per year for two years) to support the 2017 and 2018 Lanesboro Emerging Artist Residency Program for artists based in New York City or Minnesota.

The Lark Theater Company, New York City, received $66,000 over three years in support of the Jerome New York Fellowship and services for emerging playwright 2016-19.

The Laundromat Project, New York City, received $34,500 over two years in support of the Create Change Artist Residencies and Commissions program in 2017 and 2018.

The Loft Literary Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $122,000 over two years in support of the Mentor Series for Emerging Minnesota Writers in 2017-18 and 18-19.

The Loft Literary Center received $124,000 ($62,000 per year for two years) to support the Minnesota Emerging Writers' Grant in 2016-17 and 2017-18, providing financial support and professional assistance for writers to pursue their artistic work and advance their careers.

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council received $56,000 ($28,000 per year for two years) to support the Workspace Program for emerging New York City artists in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Ma-Yi Theater Company, New York City, $44,000 over two years to support the Writers' Lab in 2016-17 and 2018-19.

Shai Maestro, New York City, received $20,000 to compose and record a new album as a bandleader, expanding his current artistic practice beyond his trio work to include solo piano repertoire and a collaboration between his trio and several vocalists: Master Flamenco singer Rafael de Utrera, Theo Bleckmann, and three members of the Philip Kutev Bulgarian choir: Neli Andreeva, Kalinka Andreeva, and Tanya Parvanova.

Elliot Malcolm and Joe Davis, Minnesota, received $7,970 to support Loud North: A Twin Cities Spoken Word Exploration (working title), a 24-minute documentary. Through personal testimony and performance footage from the Twin Cities' diverse artist community, these filmmakers will tell the story of the spoken word scene, and explore its unique contributions to the contemporary form.

Sally Wen Mao, New York City, received $5,000 to travel to six different locations in China for immersion into arts communities and to conduct preliminary research for a potential new book project about the lives of contemporary Chinese artists and writers.

Performance Zone/The Field, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for Christina Masciotti, Queens, New York, received $10,000 to support the development and production of Raw Bacon From Poland in 2017. 

Performance Zone/The Field, New York City, as fiscal sponsor for Juliana May, Queens, New York, received $10,000 in support of the development and production of development and production of Shoplifter at the mill in 2018.

ASH MAYFAIR (PHUONG ANH NGUYEN) was awarded $25,000 in support of the narrative project The Third Wife. In 19th century rural Vietnam, 14 year-old May is given away in an arranged marriage and becomes the third wife to her older husband, a man brought up to believe that power is about control. In this tale of lost love and hidden desire inspired by a true story, we see through the eyes of a girl forced to grow too quickly into a woman.

Media Impact Funders received $1,000 to support membership for the Foundation.