Creative Alliance is proud to announce several major 2015 successes – and we’re only halfway through the year!
We recently received a highly competitive grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to expand our traditional Mexican Piñata Apprenticeship & Entrepreneurship program from eight to sixteen Highlandtown residents from Mexico.
NEA Chairman Jane Chu says, “The NEA is committed to advancing learning, fueling creativity, and celebrating the arts in cities and towns across the United States. Funding these new projects like the one at the Creative Alliance represents an investment in both local communities and our nation’s creative vitality.”
Creative Alliance Executive Director Margaret Footner says, “It’s our mission, privilege and joy to actively seek out, learn from, and exhibit the internationally diverse, cultural and artistic tradition bearers in our neighborhood and city.” The NEA’s grant provides tremendous support and national recognition for the work of these remarkable women, artists and teachers.”
We’re also delighted that Creative Alliance resident and exhibiting artists have received prestigious awards and national press attention.
Resident artist Paul Rucker is one of three recipients of the Baker Award. An article about Paul was featured on ArtNet. Former resident artists Zoë Charlton and Magnolia Laurie, and Jim Leach, who has exhibited his work in our Amalie Rothschild Gallery, have earned the prestigious distinction as Finalists of the 10th Annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize to be awarded on July 11th at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Amy Sherald, a semi-finalist for the Sondheim Prize, had a very successful exhibition at the Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia this May. Her work will be on view at moniquemeloche gallery in Chicago June 13th – August 23rd. Former resident artist and beat-boxer Shodekeh Taliaferro traveled to Austria in March as a featured participant in the Salzburg Global Seminar. Current resident artist Christopher Kojzar begins his graduate degree through UMBC’s MFA program this fall in advance of his two-person exhibition with celebrated artist (and his mom!) Oletha DeVane at the Creative Alliance. Resident artist Jeffrey Gangwisch will also begin UMBC’s MFA program, following a robust spring and summer directing plays, including an adaptation of Plato’s “The Symposium” at Terrault Contemporary in Baltimore. Artist John Sims, whose work was included in our recent exhibition, Evidence: Identity Through Fiber Art, was featured in The Wall Street Journal. The exhibition received a rave review in the City Paper, and will be featured in the International Review of African American Art in the near future.
