FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Patricia McCrystal
RedLine Contemporary Art Center
Email: pmccrystal@redlineart.org

ARTS IN SOCIETY GRANTEES ANNOUNCED

2021/2022 Grant Cycle

Denver, CO (January 14, 2022) – Grantees have been announced for the 2021 Arts in Society grant program! After reviewing over 220 applications, this year’s panel has selected 22 Colorado artists and organizations to receive a total of $450,000 in funding in 2021.

The Arts in Society grant program supports the integration of arts and culture into multiple disciplines critical to the health and well-being of Coloradans. The program funds collaborations across Colorado that bring together artists with professionals from a wide variety of non-arts sectors to positively impact social justice and community welfare through community-based initiatives.

Over the last 5 years, the Arts In Society grant program has provided over $2.9M in support to projects that engage arts organizations and artists as partners in illuminating and finding solutions to a wide array of civic and social challenges faced by Colorado communities.

As of December 2021, a total $450,000 has been disbursed to grantees across Colorado with project grants ranging from $7,500 – $30,000. In addition to project funding, grantees engage in grantee cohort learning communities, professional development and statewide networking opportunities.

In response to the COVID-19 public health crises, Arts in Society will continue to support grantees by providing flexible project timelines, peer-to-peer and peer-to-funder support, alongside additional pandemic-specific resources as they adapt their work to this evolving situation. Project timelines range between 1 to 2 years and will take place between December 2021- December 2023.

Arts in Society is administered by RedLine Contemporary Art Center and is funded by a collaborative of private and public foundations and government partners.

For the 2021/2022 grant cycle,  the funder collaborative includes: the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries, The Colorado Health Foundation, and Denver Arts & Venues. To learn more about the history of this program, previously funded projects and partners, please visit www.artsinsociety.org.

FOR THE MEDIA: All 22 Colorado artists and organizations have compelling and unique stories to tell for your viewers and readers. We can help set up interviews. If you’d like to cover this year’s Arts in Society 2021 projects, contact Patricia McCrystal: pmccrystal@redlineart.org.

Meet the 2021 Cohort of Arts in Society Grant Recipients

Vocal Coalition
Black Music Matters: The Glorious Return
Denver, Colorado

VOCO Youth Choir's 4th annual Black Music Matters concert will pair youth from across the Denver Metro Area with local Black artists to tell the story of the Black experience from Africa to Colorado through music.

History Colorado - Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center
Buffalo Soldier Interpretation at Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center
Fort Garland, Colorado

The Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center will host an artist residency for Chip Thomas, aka jetsonorama, to research, along with other artists and community partners the history, impact, and legacy of the Buffalo Soldiers.

Access Gallery
Combatting Social Isolation and Creating Economic Opportunity for People with Disabilities through Facilitated Painting
Denver, Colorado

Combatting Social Isolation, Disrupting Negative Stereotypes, and Creating Economic Opportunity for People with significant disabilities.

Creative Nations Center and Collective
Creative Nations Indigenous Art Market and Art Collecting Outreach in Colorado 2022
Boulder, Colorado

In 2022, the Creative Nations Collective will reach out to the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute reservations to announce a call for art and make a summer road trip to meet the artists and collect their art for display and sale at the second annual Creative Nations Indigenous Peoples Day Arts Market & Festival at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder in October.

Chicano/a Murals of Colorado Project
Digitizing and Cultivating Colorado’s Chicano/a/x Murals
Denver, Colorado

Digitizing and Cultivating Colorado’s Chicano/a/x Murals project will develop Chicano/a Mural of Colorado Project's capacity as an education resource by supporting the teaching of local BIPOC histories, contemporary social issues confronting communities of color, and situating familial and personal lived experiences into both national and international historical narratives.

Su Teatro
Drama vs. Trauma
Denver, Colorado

Drama vs. Trauma examines generational trauma through the lens of Su Teatro productions and offers storytelling and community based mental health resources as a means to healing.

Youth Employment Academy: Arts Street@YEA
Edible Artscapes Youth Initiative
Denver, Colorado

Arts Street@YEA will work with Denver youth and artists to learn the principles of permaculture design and create a regenerative urban farming installation with integrated artistic elements in an under-resourced neighborhood.

Mt. Rose Health Center Palliative Care and Hospice
El Arte de Nuestros Abuelos (The Art of Our Grandparents)
Huerfano County, Colorado

El Arte de Nuestros Abuelos will honor and highlight the many gifts of the elders in Huerfano County, realizing that beyond the traditional definition of art, the art of living may include such things as tamale or jelly making!

FARM-TO-SPACESHIP
FARM-TO-SPACESHIP x SAN LUIS EXPERIENCE ACCELERATOR
San Luis, Colorado

Embedding artist-driven experiences in local businesses to produce unique offerings that are both exciting to customers and good for the community.

University of Colorado Colorado Springs - Galleries of Contemporary Art
Gregg Deal Exhibitions & Public Event
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Gregg Deal, contemporary Indigenous artist/activist and member of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, will realize an artistic residency with UCCS Galleries of Contemporary Art (GOCA) August through November 2022, with plans for a major public sculpture and a solo exhibition at the Ent Center for the Arts, as well as an artistic performance and concert public events at the site of his monumental mural in downtown Colorado Springs.

New Cottage Arts
Refuge Arts: group music and art experiences for immigrant and refugee women and girls
Denver, Colorado

Through yearlong, weekly group music and art experiences including choir, percussion ensemble and mural design, Refuge Arts provides safe and creative spaces for immigrant and refugee women and girls to maintain community and social bonding, culminating in a final interactive musical and visual art presentation.

Northwest Colorado Health
Rural Youth Resiliency Through Music
Craig, Hayden, and Oak Creek, Colorado

As a crosscutting initiative between music and community health, this project seeks to disrupt the marginalization of underserved populations through trusted spaces and creative expression, while building resiliency skills via bi-lingual youth resiliency music groups for youth aged 6-21 in rural Northwest Colorado.

Sound Affects
Sound Affects
Fort Collins, Greeley, Loveland, Longmont, Boulder, Denver, Colorado

Sound Affects music programming is an evolving platform that connects professional musicians with individuals living in senior care facilities. Through live performance, one-on-one residencies, and advocacy, Sound Affects serves isolated populations who cannot access the benefits of music in the ways that they wish.

Japanese Arts Network
Stories of Solidarity: The JA Experience in Five Points
Denver, Colorado

Stories of Solidarity: The JA Experience in Five Points is a collaborative multi-disciplinary audio/visual/public art storytelling and neighborhood mapping project which shares the narratives about the Japanese diaspora and other communities of color in Denver's historic Five Points neighborhood.  Stories of Solidarity will explore a history of shared oppression and encourage the interrogation of internal biases while also lifting up stories of resilience, growth, and evolution.

El Sistema Colorado
The Artists Mentorship Project
Denver, Colorado

El Sistema Colorado harnesses the joy of music and ignites the potential in our future leaders through an immersive youth music education program that transcends socioeconomic barriers.

Helanius J. Wilkins
The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging
Pueblo, Colorado

Helanius J. Wilkins’ work, The Conversation Series: Stitching the Geopolitical Quilt to Re-Body Belonging, is an ongoing and always shifting dance-quilt, confronting and celebrating heritage, resiliency, justice, and hope. This multi-outcome work includes multimedia performances and facilitated discourse with community members to inform the performances.

Tri-Town Arts
Tri-Town Arts: Uniting Rural Youth and Building Community Through Art in Lincoln County
Genoa, Hugo and Limon, Colorado

Three arts-based organizations in the Lincoln County communities of Genoa (World’s Wonder View Tower/Historic Sentinel Building), Hugo (The Garage) and Limon (The Old Schoolhouse) will unite to develop and launch an effort to unite rural youth and build community through art, ultimately establishing a placemaking and storytelling project that will knit together communities and lives in rural Lincoln County.

The Red Road Project
Urban Indians: an accurate representation of American Indians living in Colorado
Denver and Statewide, Colorado

The Red Road Project objective is to redirect the narrative of 21st century Native America through visual storytelling.

Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center
Veteran Art Exhibition: Bringing Awareness to Veterans’ Behavioral Health
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Mt. Carmel provides a safety net of employment, behavioral health, and case management resources to support military and veteran families on their journey toward healthy civilian lives, and we will employ a Veteran Art Exhibition featuring art created by Mt. Carmel's art therapy clients to bring awareness to veterans' behavioral health issues.

Age-Friendly Huerfano/Las Animas
WOVE, A Fiber Happening
Walsenburg, Colorado

WOVE, A Fiber Happening, serves as a catalyst for creating Age-Friendly Communities in Rural Southern Colorado.

Colorado TINTS (Theater in Non-Traditional Spaces)
Write In to Act Out (WI2AO) with The Community Equity Coalition
Salida, Colorado

"Write in to Act Out with Community Equity Coalition" is a 10-month project facilitated by Colorado TINTS (theater in non-traditional spaces) that uses creative arts to address issues of social justice and inequality in rural Colorado.

Elsewhere Studios
Youth-led Murals Celebrating Diversity
Delta County, Colorado

Bringing organizations that collectively focus on art, youth, health, and social justice, Elsewhere Studios will be organizing youth-led murals around Delta county that celebrate diversity in the community.

About Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

Bonfils-Stanton Foundation strategically provides grants and fellowships to advance the arts and inspire creative leadership in Denver. Our foundation is richly steeped in Denver’s cultural history, but we are also a contemporary leader in fueling innovation and exploration in our creative economy. Each year we give more than $3 million to arts organizations and nonprofit leaders, because we believe these entities and individuals are critical to building and sustaining a vibrant community. 

About Colorado Creative Industries

Colorado’s Creative Industries Division, Colorado’s state arts agency, is a division of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade. Established to capitalize on the immense potential for our creative sector to enhance economic growth in Colorado, the mission of Colorado Creative Industries is to promote, support and expand the creative industries to drive Colorado’s economy, grow jobs and enhance our quality of life.  www.coloradocreativeindustries.org

About Denver Arts & Venues

Arts & Venues is the City and County of Denver agency responsible for operating some of the region’s most renowned facilities, including Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, the Denver Performing Arts Complex, Colorado Convention Center, Denver Coliseum and McNichols Civic Center Building. Arts & Venues also oversees the Denver Public Art Program, Create Denver, SCFD Tier III granting process, Arts Education Fund and other entertainment and cultural events such as the Five Points Jazz Festival, Urban Arts Fund, P.S. You Are Here and implementation of IMAGINE 2020: Denver’s Cultural Plan. Denver Arts & Venues is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion in all our programs, initiatives and decision-making processes.http://www.artsandvenuesdenver.com

About The Colorado Health Foundation

The Colorado Health Foundation is bringing health in reach for all Coloradans by engaging closely with communities across the state through investing, policy advocacy, learning and capacity building. For more information, please visit www.coloradohealth.org.

About the Hemera Foundation

Hemera, the Greek goddess of day, seeks to shine a light on issues that have been forgotten, stories that must be told, or people seeking help or refuge. Hemera’s work starts with the belief that in an interconnected world, a spiritual practice creates the space for self-awareness that promotes personal well-being and a compassionate connection with self, family, community, and nature.

Hemera’s grantmaking focuses on the promotion of contemplative practices that enhance self-awareness and promote compassionate, empathetic, and supportive relationships.  We further emphasize programs that focus on the healthy development of children and adolescents.

About RedLine Contemporary Art Center

RedLine is a nonprofit contemporary art center that fosters education and engagement between artists and communities to create positive social change. Located in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, RedLine combines an exhibition space and artist residency program with project-based engagement in the arts. RedLine responds to the needs of the community by engaging resident artists in programs that offer arts education for under-resourced youth, a community network for artists experiencing homelessness, and relevant public programming for members of the surrounding neighborhoods. www.redlineart.org

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