$10,000 Grant for Kimberly Drew
Unrestricted Grant: December 2016
Ms. Drew is an arts advocate par excellence harnessing social media to uproot and re-fertilize our assumptions of the HOW, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE of seeing.
Her talent for and commitment to spotlighting artists deserving greater recognition with an emphasis on social justice creates a synergistic medley.
Find her work at:
Visit: museummammy.club
Visit: blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com
Twitter: @museummammy and @blackartinc
Instagram: @museummammy
Rhizome $10,000 Prix Net Art
Multi-Year Grant: December 2016
With over 170 nominations in their third year and an esteemed jury of Lauren Cornell, Aria Dean, Zhang Ga and Christian Paul, Rhizome and the Prix Net Art award continue to enlarge the audience for web-based art.
The Prix Net Art celebrates the current moment of net art and its future, and was created to acknowledge the shifting relationship between art and the web.
More Information:
Visit: Prix Net Art
Visit: Rhizome
View: RDBF 2015 Rhizome Grant
View: RDBF 2014 Rhizome Grant
$11,000 Grant for Microscope Gallery / Whitney Museum
Grant: October 2016
For Dreamland Expanded Cinema Program. As part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905 – 2016.”
Dreamlands: Expanded is a series of expanded cinema events organized in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of the exhibition “Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016”. The ten event, two-and-a-half month long series complements and extends the scope of the exhibit, from the installation works on the museum’s fifth-floor and the film screening program in its third-floor theater, across the East River to include historical and contemporary performance works that collectively propose alternative ways to perceive, conceive, and consider the image in motion.
View: Dreamlands Expanded poster
Visit: Whitney Museum / Dreamlands
Visit: Microscope Gallery
Gift to the Museum of Modern Art
for What the Heart Wants, a video by Cécile B. Evans
Gift: October 2016
Cécile B. Evans’ What the Heart Wants, 2016, HD video with sound, 41 minutes, edition 1 of 5 + 2AP
What the Heart Wants is a video about the future of what makes something human and the underlying systems that construct new ideas of what it means to be a ‘person.’ Its protagonist is an omnipotent system, which has defined this evolution: she has achieved the goal of personhood herself, using unlimited data collection and storage capacities to become an individual. The video’s starting point is what her ‘heart’ wants, based on the aspirations of real, existing systems and corporations. It unravels through a cast of characters affected by the system’s pervasive successes and failures: they disrupt the narrative within the world that her ‘good intentions’ have created.
This project received a production grant from our foundation in April of 2016 and debuted at this year’s Berlin Biennale. It is nominated for the 2016 Jarman Award for Moving Image Art.
Visit:
Cécile B. Evans website
Jarmon Award (as reported in The Guardian)
Robert D. Bielecki Foundation production grant for What the Heart Wants
$15,000 Grant for John Luther Adams
Grant: October 2016
“This is not just another recording [Canticles of the Holy Wind]. It’s one of my most important works.”
We honor John Luther Adams and award him $15,000 in support of the recording of Canticles of the Holy Wind by The Crossing.
Composed in 2013, Canticles of the Holy Wind is a multi-movement, concert-length work of breadth and depth co-commissioned by The Crossing and the Latvian choir Kamer.
The Crossing arranged to record Canticles of the Holy Wind in the landmark St. Peter’s Church in the Great Valley (Malvern, PA)
John Luther Adams is a composer whose life and work are deeply rooted in the natural world. He was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his symphonic work Become Ocean (performed by the Seattle Symphony and released on Cantaloupe Music), which also received a 2105 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Inuksuit, his outdoor work for up to 99 percussionists, is regularly performed all over the world.
“Without the slightest risk of being rhetorical, allow me to say that without you this project would not be happening.”—JLA
Visit:
John Luther Adams website
Canticles of the Holy Wind page
The Crossing
$10,000 Unrestricted Grant for Guitarist Mary Halvorson
Grant: June 2016
In honor of her achievements as a guitarist, improvisor and composer blurring musical borders while amplifying what it means to play the guitar in the 21st century, we award Mary Halvorson an unrestricted grant of $10,000.
“Thank you so much for awarding me this grant today. I am honored, and I am confident that this funding will go a long way to help me pursue upcoming projects this year (concerts, recordings, composing). Many thanks for all that you do!” —Mary Halvorson
Visit: Mary Halvorson website
$10,000 Grant for Studio Museum in Harlem
Grant: June 2016
It is a privilege to award the Studio Museum in Harlem general operating support for their 2016/17 season.
We commend the Studio Museum’s commitment to artistic excellence and community-based practice.
“Thank you!!! I am deeply gratified by your support. I appreciate your recognition of the work we are doing to present and preserve the work of artists of African descent here at the museum.” —Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator
Visit: Studio Museum in Harlem
$10,000 Ticket Sales Matching Grant for Edgefest’s 20th Anniversary
Matching Grant: June 2016
We are honored to provide a matching grant on ticket sales for Edgefest 20 including a double match for every new attendee up to $10,000.
Edgefest 20: 20 Years at the Edge (October 26–29 in Ann Arbor, MI) will celebrate the iconic and avant-garde artistry of the past 20 years, while looking ahead to the future of the festival and jazz at the edge itself! On the occasion of the festival’s 20th anniversary, Dave Lynch, founder of Edgefest and the Artistic Director for its first 10 years, joins Kerrytown Concert Hall in Ann Arbor, MI in the planning of this banner year. Drawing from the artist rosters of former Edgefests, 2016 will feature distinguished groundbreaking composer-performers with their ensembles and collaborators, illuminating their various innovative roles in the avant/jazz world of today. In the tradition of Edgefest, the roster will also include renowned performers and ensembles from our home community of Southeast Michigan and other new-to-the-festival faces from the front lines of the avant-garde jazz scene.
We will definitely be strongly promoting this matching grant through our website, social media, and additional advertising. We are going to use this as leverage to encourage as many new attendees as possible!
Thank you for supporting this music, Edgefest, and the artists!
—Allison Halerz
Executive Director, Kerrytown Concert House
$6,000 Grant for Bang on a Can
Grant: June 2016
We are pleased to award Bang on a Can general operating support for their 2016/17 season.
Next year, it will be three decades since the very first Bang on a Can Marathon at Exit Art. The world for new music has changed dramatically, much to everyone’s delight, with new festivals and ensembles and brilliant new works sprouting all around the world. Bang on a Can All-Stars have become the premier agents of challenging new music. They’ve commissioned 200 new pieces, “graduated” 500 alums of their Summer Festival at MASS MoCA, dropped 120 albums, and presented almost 100 Bang on a Can Marathons worldwide.
$1,200 Underwriting Support for John Butcher / Okkyung Lee Duo & Yoshi Wada / Nate Wooley Duo, Blank Forms Concert
Underwriting Support: June 2016
We are proud to support an evening of music (June 26) by the free-improv duos of Okkyung Lee on cello with John Butcher on saxophone, and Nate Wooley on trumpet with Yoshi Wada on bagpipes. Hosted by SIGNAL in celebration of the closing of Jodan Kasey’s Free Time. June 26th at 8pm.
Visit: Blank Forms event page
$20,000 for the Museum of Modern Art’s Media and Performance Art Committee
Donation (dues): May 2016
Robert Bielecki serves on the Committee under the impressive leadership of Chief Curator Stuart Comer and his talented staff.
RDBF is instinctually and experientially wary of using resources for large cultural institutions due to the adverse impact that (often) exclusionary, hyper-wealth has on the health of the cultural managed commons.
Addressing and improving issues of transparency, accountability, and inclusivity may be possible with more outside participation.
Stay tuned.
$10,000 Grant for Amiel Courtin-Wilson
Executive Producer Grant: April 2016
The Silent Eye is the World Premiere of a new feature length performance film by Amiel Courtin-Wilson featuring Min Tanaka and Cecil Taylor. Shot in Cecil Taylor’s home over three days in January 2016, the film is a highly intimate, impressionistic portrait of the unspoken rapport between two masters of their form.
Filmmaker Amiel Courtin-Wilson’s The Silent Eye is a marvel of time expanded and contracted. He captures a journey between old friends filled with prescient reminiscence — a meditation in sound and movement between two masters catching up, rewinding, and spinning forward the way ocean currents undulate when kissed by the wind.
“It is a humbling and deeply inspiring experience to be supported to create such a singular and specific film.” —Amiel Courtin-Wilson
The Silent Eye debuts at Open Plan: Cecil Taylor at the Whitney Museum from April 15–24, 2016.
€5,000 Grant for Cécile B. Evans
Artist Grant: April 2016
What the Heart Wants is a video installation about the future of what makes something human and the underlying systems that construct new ideas of what it means to be a ‘person’. Its protagonist is an omnipotent system, which has defined this evolution: she has achieved the goal of personhood herself, using unlimited data collection and storage capacities to become an individual. The video’s starting point is what her ‘heart’ wants, based on the aspirations of real, existing systems and corporations. It unravels through a cast of characters affected by the system’s pervasive successes and failures: they disrupt the narrative within the world that her ‘good intentions’ have created.
What the Heart Wants debuts at the 2016 Berlin Biennale
“Thanks so much for your (continued) support! What the Heart Wants is a project that means a lot to me and I’m so pleased to have you and the foundation involved.” — Cécile B. Evans
Visit: Cécile B. Evans website
$10,000 Grant for Pauline Oliveros
Executive Producer Grant: February 2016
In recognition of a life devoted to the highest levels of experimentation, creativity, community, and scholarship, we are honored to present Pauline Oliveros with a grant of $10,000 towards the completion of “Deep Listening — The Story of Pauline Oliveros.”
Ms. Oliveros’ artistry has and will continue to influence generations of listeners and we are humbled to act as Executive Producer of this critical documentary.
Working with the esteemed filmmaker Daniel Weintraub, this production will chronicle decades of incomparable innovation and achievement as well as vastly expand the audience for her Deep Listening processes. Incredibly, there is no comprehensive film dedicated to the long arc of Ms. Oliveros’ career.
As a foundation dedicated to a healthier managed commons and devoted to the ideal of reciprocity, we encourage you to support the making of “Deep Listening – The Story of Pauline Oliveros.”
Visit: Deep Listening
Photo: Peter Gannushkin / DowntownMusic.net
$3,000 Grant for Saxophonist
Ingrid Laubrock
Grant: February 2016
In admiration of Ingrid Laubrock’s fearless pursuits as a composer and improviser, we are pleased to provide a grant of $3,000 towards her Fall 2016 Intakt Records release.
In May of 2016, Ms. Laubrock enters the studio to record her new sextet with Craig Taborn (piano), Tyshawn Sorey (drums, piano, trombone), Miya Masaoka (koto), Dan Peck (tuba), Sam Pluta (live processing).
Ms. Laubrock’s impressive discography illuminates the liminal terrain between written material and in-the-moment spontaneity.
Visit: Ingrid Laubrock
Visit: Intakt Records
Photo: Peter Gannushkin / DowntownMusic.net