2015 Pew Grants Announced for Local Artists and Organizations

Cai Gui-Quiang’s “Dream.” Photo by Tatsumi Masatoshi.

Over 50 Philadelphia area cultural organizations and artists received grants from The Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage, marking the Center’s 10th year of grant making. Recipients from theater, visual arts, opera, music, dance, and other mediums received more than $9.6 million dollars in grants.

“Our 2015 grantees exemplify the diverse and dynamic cultural life of our region,” says Paula Marincola, the Center’s executive director. “As we reflect on the past 10 years of grant making in this vibrant community, we also look forward to the extraordinary cultural experiences this talented and ambitious group of artists and organizations will bring to Greater Philadelphia’s audiences.”

A full list of recipients can be found here, but the Center highlighted the following artists in their formal announcement:

• “Merián Soto, whose 40-year career investigating the living body through dance and performance spans from New York’s Latino dance movement of the 1980s and 90s to current-day Philadelphia’s theaters, museums, and public parks.”
• “Chris Madak, a prolific musician and composer who bridges post-industrial drone and contemporary experimental electronic music.”
• “Rea Tajiri, a filmmaker whose work straddles the boundary between documentary and art film, and employs an innovative, personal approach to storytelling.”
• “James Ijames, a playwright whose works investigate class, race, and gender, and challenge the conventions of realism and received collective truth.”
• “A residency for acclaimed French choreographer Boris Charmatz, hosted by Drexel University’s Westphal College, to work with Philadelphia dancers and to present Levée des Conflits.”
• “The Association for Public Art’s pedicycle-inspired sculptures by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, to be set in motion on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.”
• “Opera Philadelphia’s chamber opera, based on the film Breaking the Waves, by composer-in-residence Missy Mazzoli.”
• “Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust’s re-examination of the stories, themes, and Quaker history surrounding the Arch Street Meeting House.”
• “Kimmel Center’s Holding It Down: The Veterans’ Dreams Project, from MacArthur Fellow and jazz pianist Vijay Iyer, illuminating the stories of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.”

Other organizations that received Advancement Grants include Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. For more information on the grants, visit the Pew Center’s webpage.