NEWS
Moe Brooker (1940-2022). With sadness, we mark the recent passing of artist, educator, mentor and awesome human, Moe Brooker. To hear Moe’s voice and words, please click over and listen to Wit Lopez’s 2019 interview with him, where he talks about capturing Black joy in his abstract paintings.
United States Artists announced its new President and CEO, Judilee Reed. “Reed comes to United States Artists from Philadelphia’s William Penn Foundation, where she was Program Director of Creative Communities…Over the years, she’s been an active proponent of direct funding to artists, while developing networks of supplemental support, ranging from health care to financial planning. Through her work in Philadelphia, she’s developed strategies for creative placemaking with an eye to racial equity, which she’ll scale up to serve USA’s national mission.”
Black Quantum Futurism receives Creative Capital award. “Creative Capital today named 50 new Creative Capital Awards for 2022. The grants will fund the creation of innovative new artists’ projects by 59 individual artists working in the performing arts, visual arts, film, technology, literature, and socially engaged and multidisciplinary practices. Each project will receive varying amounts up to $50,000 in direct funding, supplemented by career development and networking services to foster thriving artistic careers totaling up to $2.5 million in artist support…Black Quantum Futurism (Rasheedah Phillips, Camae Ayewa), received the award for “Time Zone Protocols: Confederate States,” Multimedia, Sound Art…which highlights how Black people re-envision, rewrite, resist, and dismantle material realities of clock time.”
Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings, is on view at the Brandywine River Museum of art, Feb. 6 – April 10, 2022.
Brandywine River Museum says “Highlighting the full range of this iconic American artist’s work made over 70 years, the exhibition features a spectacular selection of his paintings, watercolors and prints.” Created on the occasion of Thiebaud’s 101th birthday, “the exhibition now also serves as a fitting tribute to his remarkable career” following the artist’s recent death on December 25, 2021.
Floaties come to the Schuylkill
Two organizations have received funding from multiple organizations to create floating education labs on the Schuylkill River. We can’t wait to sample each of these floating labs, and think that two floaties are definitely better than one.
More on the Mural Arts FloatLab at Bartram’s Garden, here.
More on the Water Works Floating Water Workshop here.
OPPORTUNITIES
The Bread & Roses Community Fund is hiring a Program Coordinator! The program coordinator supports Bread and Roses Community Funds’ community-led grantmaking processes and grantee capacity building practices. The program coordinator shares grantmaking coordination responsibilities for Bread & Roses Community Fund’s grants, including core funds, yearly special issue funds, a scholarship, and donor-advised funds with the programs associate.
Deadline to apply: Friday, February 4th, 2022 (via CultureWorks)
Applications are now open for the Philadelphia Media Founders Exchange, a new accelerator program from the Lenfest Institute, designed in partnership with community members, to support the region’s BIPOC media entrepreneurs through training, one-on-one coaching, and grantmaking.
Deadline to apply: Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 (via CultureWorks)
ZOOM
Whitney Museum Short Course on Contemporary Art – Subjecthood in Painting Today
Tuesdays, January 18–February 1, 6 pm FREE
REGISTER: Whitney Webinar Registration site
“This three-part course led by Ayanna Dozier looks at the work of contemporary painters of color who utilize the figure to explore the conceptual. Held in conjunction with the exhibition Jennifer Packer: The Eye Is Not Satisfied With Seeing, it offers participants an in-depth view into the fragmented and lush experimental paintings on view in the exhibition.
Considering both the historical Romanticism movement and the post-punk music style of “New Romanticism,” we will examine the ways in which a new generation is turning away from the rational self and towards the interpersonal, the subconscious, and the dreary. Building on the works of artists like Jennifer Packer, Amy Sherald, Salman Toor, and Jordan Casteel, the course will examine how artists understand angst amid sociopolitical collapse and complacency to oppressive systems.
An open Q&A and discussion follows each session. Registrants can access on-demand course recordings for the duration of the course.
Ayanna Dozier is an artist, lecturer, curator, and scholar. She recently completed her Ph.D. in art history and communication studies at McGill University. She is the author of the 33 ⅓ book on Janet Jackson’s The Velvet Rope. She is currently a Joan Tisch Teaching Fellow at the Whitney and a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University.
