2019 Recipients

Brandon Herman – Sound Waves Live Series
Sound Waves Live will be a concert series at Search Party Studio featuring musicians from Staten Island and beyond with a focus on female and LGBTQ+ individuals as they are often less visible and underrepresented in music scenes. The series will also feature shows for teen musicians to provide youth with the experience of performing at a professional venue. The concerts will also be live-streamed and made available on YouTube which will help musicians expand their reach and build an online audience.

Calvin Bagby – Ceen
Ceen is a hip-hop EP detailing the lives of people in marginalized communities and their experiences. Through creating this project, Bagby hopes to not only connect to an audience who can relate to stories of trial and triumph but to also inform those who may not be as familiar with the everyday life of the people in these communities. Everyone’s story matters, though many aren’t told. This album strives to tell those stories.

Cancer Tamer Foundation – Breast Cancer Diaries
Breast Cancer Diaries is a dramatic comedy about the fears, hopes, and actual experiences women have faced, both comical and traumatic, after being diagnosed with breast cancer. The play will touch upon some of the nuances, personal struggles, cultural biases and societal discrimination woman face which ironically come to full-light when faced with this life-threatening disease. Through a compilation of true accounts and a little artistic laughter, Breast Cancer Diaries will address cultural bias, societal norms and women’s issues. The primary performers were themselves diagnosed with breast cancer bringing a unique realism to this play. Breast Cancer Diaries reminds us that it isn’t merely the women diagnosed that are affected or changed by this disease; everyone in our community, regardless of culture, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, financial status or age are as well.

Cathy-Ann Borges & Jane Saunders – “She Thinks Who She Is” the musical
She Thinks Who She Is, is a musical created by Cathy-Ann Borges and Jane Saunders. The musical, which can be described as “Jersey Boys meets Working Girl,” will be a celebration of diversity and generational interaction between Staten Island women. Elements of humor and idiosyncratic local behavior color this romp through a music teacher’s quest to find romance while keeping her dreams of stardom alive.

Deborah Woodbridge – Arrowhead
Woodbridge will create a sculpture piece that will be placed in Conference House Park that will act as a reminder to the viewer of the Lenape, the original inhabitants of Staten Island. The artist hopes to create dialogue about the Lenape and promote an appreciation of their legacy.

Hemlock Theatre Company – Hemlock Theatre Company 2019 Season
Hemlock Theatre Company will present 3 dynamic shows: Tuck Everlasting – This new musical based on Natalie Babbitt’s novel confronts themes of immortality, time, and death. One performance will be designated for NYC DOE schools. Company – Stephen Sondheim’s musical was one of the first to deal with adult themes. This piece follows Bobby, who in turning 35 must confront his inability to commit. It is a mature look at life, love and relationships. Blood Brothers – Willy Russel’s musical is a take on nature vs. nurture. It follows the story of fraternal twins, who separated at birth live entirely different lives which intersect to tragic ends. Examines themes of classism, privilege, and the desperation of poverty. Additionally, they will present their 4th Annual Broadway Trivia Night at Killmeyers in February 2019. This evening serves as an opportunity for the community to gather, network, and foster future relationships while challenging their Broadway knowledge.

Historic Port Richmond Preservation Association – Staten Island’s Crazy Untold History
A weekend-long interactive/multimedia event to show & tell how the congregants of the Dutch Reformed church, located in to Port Richmond, left a largely unacknowledged legacy we all live with every day: from the very existence of our nation to the name of the street the church is found on.

Jane Saunders – An Agitated Earth
An Agitated Earth is an immersive sound sonification art installation created by composer Jane Saunders that will use audio to perceptualize earthquake activity data that has resulted from Hydraulic fracturing (Fracking). The concept is for individuals to be able to sit inside a model of the planet Earth and perceive the adverse impacts by the pressurized liquid that is used to fracture rock for purposes of obtaining natural gas. Auditory simulations of earthquake tremors triggered by shale gas drilling will be the focus of the piece, with the participant sitting in the Earth’s “womb” to contemplate the auditory simulations. The intent of this project is to allow the individual a mindful experience; to internalize the potential environmental impacts for triggering earthquakes, contamination of drinking water sources and other health hazards that could arise when the immediate economic and national security concerns for obtaining natural gas come at the immeasurable expense of the sustainability and longevity of Planet Earth.

Jasmine Freeman – Shut, Closed, Cornered
Shut, Closed, Cornered is a short film following a young girl dealing with her toxic home life while trying to hold on to some normalcy as a teenager. The film sparks conversation about mental health and substance abuse. For many, mental healthcare isn’t accessible or even talked about (especially for people of color) this film hopes to touch on the importance of mental healthcare.

Jenno Snyder – The No Album: Explorations in Queer Identity
Jenno Snyder is a queer experimental composer who will create, record, and release an album of experimental music called The No Album that explores their personal experience as a queer person living on Staten Island. There will also be a concert that will have two opening acts featuring queer performers and musicians, followed by a performance of the album, as well as video art and projections. This project will focus on expanding the reach of queer voices in the Staten Island music community.

Jennifer Gallo – Domestic Selfcare Skillshare
The Selfcare Skillshare Workshop Series is a New Media project that will create digital art based on live workshops held at Makerspace NYC. As a public health professional, Gallo has seen that there are not enough health education initiatives that capture the attention of the public. Many health education efforts are well-intentioned, but are not engaging or entertaining enough for people to be interested and retain the information. This project is an attempt at filling this gap in the area of self-care. The series will focus on self-care skills, particularly those which are practiced in the domestic realm and have a DIY approach. Topics such as but not limited to: creating sacred spaces in the home, reproductive and sexual health, cooking healthy and easy meals, crafting/creating art, etc. The workshops will be recorded and shared online.

Jeremy Nieves – Green Borough Mural
Nieves will create a mural depicting native Staten Island animals, incorporating images of the trails of the Staten Island Greenbelt. Staten Island has been touted in the past as New York’s Greenest Borough with many acres of federal, state and city parkland. This asset is often an oversight when Staten Island is being discussed on a national and even local scale. The artist hopes to use the Green Borough mural to highlight natural green space and the Greenbelt, a local treasure.

Julia Simoniello – A Slowly Decaying Memory is a Time Machine
Simoniello will create a series of drawings and paintings that will document their experience as a queer, femme, artist living in a changing suburban landscape. Topics touched upon will be sexuality, femininity, death, loss, and life on Staten Island through an exploration of portraiture. The work will be presented at the Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art at Snug Harbor.

Julia Simoniello – Nothing New Thrift Shop First Friday Open Mic
Funding will help expand and support First Friday Open Mic at Nothing New Thrift Shop. This monthly gathering brings local creative people together to share their art in a supportive and diverse environment and has become a mainstay of the South Shore artist community.

Juliane Forsyth – Our Brotherhood
Forsyth will present a photo documentary series on the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), investigating personal perseverance, unconditional sacrifice, and the life behind the red roll-down fire house doors. This project is meant to highlight not only a brotherhood of firefighters but invites the community to see first-hand the bravery of the FDNY and the real life personalities that are ready to sacrifice everything for our community’s safety.

Justine Lordo – I Am Woman
I Am Woman is a multi-faceted art show combining visual and performance art. It is an exploration of the feminine; the physical makeup and experiences that only a woman can endure. Themes range from sexual intercourse, menstrual cycles including painful periods, body acceptance, pregnancy, abortion and medical procedures. The work included in the show will touch on these topics and will be displayed as paintings, sculptures and one live performance piece. I Am Woman is a dedication to the feminine and an exploration of the feminine through self-exploration.

Kelly Gilmore – Dance Through the Decades
The primary goal of this dance project is to provide dance coaching and dance instruction through ongoing weekly classes to students with autism at the Eden II School. Funding will provide additional group and individual dance instruction and will allow for a music and dance recital for the participants. Along with dance the recital will also include instrumental and vocal music performance demonstrations.

Kelly Gilmore – Dance for Life 2019
The Dance for Life 2019 program will expose and involve its participants with the creative art form of ballroom and Latin dancing. The program will provide dance workshop sessions. The program will immerse its participants in a world of ballroom dance. It will be comprised of live dance demonstrations, presentations and discussions on social aspects and history of dance, dance instruction and practice. Participants will develop an understanding of ballroom dancing and its social and cultural significance. This dance program is geared for seniors and seniors with dementia, Alzheimer’s and other challenges.

Ken Graham – Women / Music and Art
Women / Music and Art is an event that will take place in March 2019 that will feature four Staten Island women and their original music along with showcasing original art works created by female visual artists. The event will also feature an artist market. March is women’s month and the event is meant to celebrate women, their accomplishments, and what they contribute to the world.

Keri Sheheen – Flipbook Boxes
Sheheen will create three 12” x 12” mechanical flipbook boxes by combining woodworking, printmaking, illustration, and photography techniques. The viewer will be invited to interact with a small crank on the side of each box that will propel hand printed flip book pages and display a short looped animation inside. Historically, animation toys studied movement and were filled with amusing, silly cartoons. Some imagery was even used to frighten viewers and to reinforce the spiritualism movement of the late nineteenth century due to audiences’ lack of understanding of projection and optical illusions. This project will be paying homage to its history while the artist will create their own subjects including animals, nautical themes, and spooky, yet whimsical characters.

Kevin Mahoney – The Animism of Public Art
Mahoney and his team will use Augmented Reality, a new element of media and user interactivity, to embed digital technology onto a public art mural. Participants will be able to view specially prepared artwork in an Augmented Reality application on their smart device. The application will provide information, audio/video pieces, and activism opportunities as it is projected upon the mural inside the application made available for download at the mural location. The mural is part of a series focusing on awareness of endangered species, both locally and globally.

Kevyn Fairchild – New York: The First Ten Years
Fairchild will produce a solo exhibit of their photography from their first ten years living in New York. The exhibit will feature prints using historic photographic processes like platinum/palladium and salt prints. The idea is to produce images of a modern city through the lens of some of the oldest photographic processes. The work is inspired by the pictorialists, a group of photographers who were driven by the potential of photography as an expressive art, not just a direct representation of reality. The artist will also hold an artist talk describing the creative process as well as an educational seminar on the history of photographic processes.

Kyoko Heshiimu – Mother’s Tongue: A Perspective of Mothers
Heshiimu will produce an exhibition of collage work addressing the role of mother’s after they deal with the aftermath of civil injustices such as police killings, violence, and mass incarceration. The work is meant to speak to the struggles and exhaustion that mothers endure through identifying the bodies of their children lost to violence, advocating against violence in the aftermath, and raising children alone after their partners are imprisoned. The artist hopes to highlight not only the tragedy but also the sheer bravery of women who are often left alone to take care of their families in the aftermath of violence/incarceration.

Lance Reha – Last Call
Last Call, a feature film about four strangers who take refuge in the basement of a bar during an apocalyptic catastrophe. Cut off from any communication, they try to figure out what is happening in the world around them and how to survive it. As a mysterious presence is trying to break down the door, the four must work together to form an escape plan before they perish. There will be a screening and Q&A with the Director, writer and producers about how the film was made and what it entails to produce an independent film.

Lennice Robin Lampman – Poetry Writing Workshop for Pride Center Youth
Poet and educator Robin Lampman will conduct five poetry workshops for the youth participants at the Pride Center of Staten Island. The workshops will culminate in a spoken word presentation of student poetry. The purpose of the program for the Pride Center teens is three fold. It is first to give students an introduction to the rich heritage of LGBT poetry across the world and through the centuries. Second, it is to teach students to use different styles of poetry to express themselves. Students will explore different forms of poetry including sonnets, haiku, narrative, and free verse as well as studying the poetry of Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes, May Sarton, Elizabeth Bishop, and Garcia Lorca and will compose their own poetry in response. Third, the program is meant to help students take pride in themselves and to honor one another through expression of spoken word.

Maggie Buford – SI Ephemera Project
This project is in collaboration between artist Maggie Buford, Makerspace NYC, and NYSAI Press. The project will include monthly zine workshops for local artists, writers, poets, and budding creatives. Workshops will be facilitated by rotating local Staten Island artists to help attendees learn about creating their first zines, designing layouts, and more. The workshops will have a presentation portion and time for attendees to create. The project will also include publishing two anthology zines – handmade magazines or books. Prompts will be provided to workshop attendees so they can contribute. These zines will be compiled and then published to be sold at the first ever Ephemera Fest – a day of zines, comics, readings, small press, and more where locals can buy, sell, and trade ephemera.

Magie Serpica – Concrete Jungle
Serpica will create a mural focusing on an endangered species, Myotis Septentrionalis, better known as the Northern Long Eared Bat. The mural will be incorporated into a group mural project, Concrete Jungle, taking place in Artist Alley located on Castleton Avenue. Serpica will work with the Staten Island Zoo and neighboring schools to provide on-site STEM based educational trips to view the murals.

Magie Serpica – Valley of the Dolltits by Dolltits
Valley Of The Dolltits is a modern day exploration of the experience of women through song. In the wake of the #METOO movement and the pervasive misogynistic backlash it has created, the female musical duo, Dolltits, (Magie Serpica, Therina Bella) will compose and produce a 5 song EP. Song topics will include sexual assault, domestic violence, street harassment, pay inequality, body shame, objectification, subjugation and gender identity.

Mark Anthony White – To Whom It May Concern
Singer/Songwriter Mark Anthony White’s original musical To Whom It May Concern is a compilation of 10 years’ worth of music that tells the story of the adversities of a boy raised in NYC – we don’t get to decide how and where our story begins, but we do have the power to change the course in which it’s going.

Mary Lombardi – Growing Up (Mostly) Italian
Lombardi will create an exhibition of work inspired by her youth, growing up with an Italian father and a mother who was Irish, German, and French. The show will be influenced by past memories, how they were perceived then and how the artist perceives them now.

Michael Shanley – Terra Marine to Hurricane Sandy: South Shore Beachscapes
This project aims to weave a narrative between the natural environment and human development on the southeast coast of Staten Island. It hopes to make meaningful connections between the rich natural history and subsequent development and use by humans over the past century. The project will include sculptural pieces and a display of artifacts that epitomize the constant flux that exists between nature, humans, and the ever changing post Sandy beachscape. Through the consolidation and use of driftwood, glass, refuse, shells and maritime salvage obtained in situ, the artists will integrate the sculptural pieces and architectural ephemera with a number of artifacts and photographs collected from the vicinity of Huguenot and Annadale beach; specifically items related to the former Terra Marine Inn and Spanish camp. These two historic sites are of interest since the last vestiges of these once famous and lively sites are quickly disappearing as nature and human development feverishly encroach upon them.

Michele Ajello – Folk Arts: Celebrating Community
Folk Arts: Celebrating Community is a 7-week program that will use traditional Mexican art-making as a catalyst, bringing people and South Shore neighborhoods together. Participants will make artistic creations using the traditional Mexican folk art techniques of Paper Mache, Metal Tooling and Papel Picado. The workshops will culminate with a community exhibition and celebration at Conference House Park.

Morgan Cousins – Black Men of the North Shore: A Five-part Love Story
Cousins will create a photography project using portraiture and narratives of Black men of the North Shore. The history of the Black male image is entrenched in fear. Cousins hopes to shift that narrative through portraits and text that explore Black men and love (romantic, familial, community, self, and the divine). The work will be on view in public and private spaces and will include community talks around themes that counter the malevolent tone that has been projected onto Black men.

Nataki Hewling – HerShot!
HerShot! will be a series of photography/spoken word confidence building workshops provided to girls ages 8-14 years old focusing on community involvement, social justice, arts & culture, and personal stories during Women’s History Month. The project hopes to shed light on issues we face in our communities, celebrate the rich cultures in our communities, and highlight the importance of storytelling. The completed work will be unique because it will show Staten Island from HER point of view, it will be HER shot to share HER story, and while this will do so much for HER confidence and HER growth, it will enrich the community that SHE is a part of.

Not From Concentrate – Empty Locker
This project is a concept record with a comic book as a visual component to the music. The record’s content centers around a singular event: a school shooting. The band Not From Concentrate will compose the lyrics and music for the record. The main songwriter for the band is a DOE public school teacher. The lyrics will be a commentary on the effects school shootings have on those in a school community. The comic book will be created by visual artist Samantha Babcock. The lyrics from the album will be used for descriptions and dialogue within the comic.

Patti Kelly – Endangered
Kelly will create a glass mosaic piece that will touch on the topics of the environment and women’s issues. Along with the creation of the piece Kelly will also train two other artists in glass cutting and assembly as they help in the creation of the work. Kelly will host an exhibition of work entitled Endangered, that hopes to bring awareness to issues that will affect our future, like a woman’s right over her own body and the loss of honeybees and butterflies which affects our food supply.

Rodrigo Salgado – Guelaguetza SI 2019
The word Guelaguetza comes from the Zapoteco, which means to contribute and it is a festival celebrating the indigenous community of Oaxaca, Mexico. The Guelaguetza is meant to preserve folk traditions for future generations and to educate the community at-large about Oaxacan traditions. The festival will include dance, art, music, gastronomy, traditional clothing, and kids activities.

Shawn McArthur – Home and Worlds Beyond Comic Book Issue 1
Home And Worlds Beyond is the first comic book in a series about a gifted young woman named Leenah from Staten Island who discovers a place between space and time called “the Vast.” It’s a bridge to the multiverse where many beings from different regions of the cosmos reside in unison, similar to New York City. Leenah finds out that her older brother that was deemed lost for almost a decade was last seen there. Now, she and a handful of the Vast’s finest guardians known as the “Vast Regulators,” embark on an adventure to defend the Vast from dark forces unknown. The comic book will be printed and distributed to local comic book shops.

Shoneyin – Shonation: EP & Live Performance
Staten Island hip-hop and trap artist, Shoneyin, will demonstrate his range, growth, and evolution on the Shonation – EP and live performance, serving as a beacon to others experiencing the traumas he has traversed. While his past work glorifies the material wealth and comforts he aspires to hold as his own version of the American dream, this next project looks to expand on topics like his father’s arrest and deportation, his cousin’s murder at the hands of gang violence, and looking for approval from misguided mentors in the streets of Mariners Harbor.

Staten Island Urban Center – Youth Need Everything Under the Sun Art Exhibit
The Youth Need Everything Under the Sun Art Exhibit: Rays of Hope for Social Justice is a 3-day culmination event of a youth leadership-through-the arts project of social justice workshops examining climate justice, women’s rights, racism, LGBTQ rights, and immigration through the eyes of young women and transgender teens. Organized and curated by Kelly Vilar, youth will translate their feelings, opinions and hopes for these issues using an interdisciplinary arts approach guided by teaching artists.

Stella Fiore – Staten Island Writers Showcase with Cut & Paste Radio Show
Fiore, who hosts the show Cut & Paste on Maker Park Radio, will produce an event at the Stapleton Library showcasing writers living on or from Staten Island. The event will include a panel discussion featuring 3-5 past Cut & Paste guests discussing the literary scene. The work of these and other local writers will be shared alongside curated video clips from Cut & Paste interviews. This will be followed by a Q&A and book signing. The event will also be streamed live on Maker Park Radio.

The Women’s Playwright Collective – Not Forgotten Play Festival
The Women’s Playwright Collective (WPC) will produce the Not Forgotten Play Festival – a festival of one-act plays written by its members. The mission of the WPC is to feature new work by local women playwrights, to present women and women-identifying characters as protagonists and not props, and to showcase a women-driven production team. The WPC is currently comprised of seven Staten Island artists many of whom wear multiple hats in the theater industry and other creative fields. The festival will include seven short plays written, directed, and produced by the members of the WPC. The plays will run over the course of one weekend at Snug Harbor Cultural Center.

United States Sierra Leonean Association – Immigrant Cultural Connection
The United States Sierra Leonean Association (USSLA) will produce an event focused on celebrating Sierra Leonean art & culture in Park Hill. The event will feature food, clothing/masks, performing arts, and storytelling – these elements will be used to teach the community about different folk traditions in Sierra Leonean culture.

Alyssa Rapp & Raul Barquet – Old Timers, New Starts
This collaborative photography project by Alyssa Rapp and Raul Barquet will highlight businesses owned by newcomers to the country. This second edition of the project hopes to show the changing face of Staten Island as a multicultural community and also to deepen the support network for old and new locals alike. The project asserts that even though globalization and digital technology threaten the importance of location and of skilled labor, the human element of excellent customer service and true craftsmanship can never be mass produced. The artists will invite the Old Timers (participants from the first edition) to mentor the younger immigrant owned businesses on the island as both parties share an acute awareness for the need for community. The project hopes to re-claim visibility for the “little guys” and to showcase the beauty of their service.

Summer Minerva – Appartenenza: The Death of Anthony
Minerva will create an episodic web series based around expanding the themes of the previously funded short film Appartenenza: The Death of Anthony. The web series format will be used to create community conversation and dialogue around the concepts that arise in the series. The project covers many aspects of Minerva’s life, family, and the research they’ve done on the 3rd gender group in southern Italy, whose sanctity in the spiritual folk traditions go back thousands of years.

Brandon Perdomo – MVMT: In Light of Shadow
Perdomo will create a photobook showcasing photographs from his previously funded MVMT series. The book will also include poetry by Sudanese refugee, Modic Bari, alongside images made in collaboration with dancers/movement-based artists from around the world as a testament to our social intercultural fabric. This literary complementation will be based on human rights, body-autonomy, gender equality and integrity of shared humanity.

Cody Prez – Divers-City (a cultural tribute)
Prez will work with students from Concord High School to transform a large wall into a thought provoking, cultural art piece, and enhance the aesthetic of the school yard and neighborhood. The project will pay homage to the cultural melting pot that is New York City. With all the division surrounding the negative hatefulness we are seeing across the country, including here on Staten Island regarding immigration this project hopes to open minds and hearts toward empathy, respect and an understanding of multiculturalism.

Creation Dance Collective – Creation Dance Collective 2019 Season
Creation Dance Collective will provide community workshops in various dance styles hosted by guest artists. Additionally they will host public meetings where the group can incubate new dance performance workshops, provide creative movement sessions, and offer technical training opportunities for those who otherwise would not easily be able to access such opportunities. In addition to performances and workshops, they will host screenings of dance films for dancers and dance lovers.

Christian Penn – Beautify Hungerford
Penn will continue to paint more murals throughout the Hungerford School campus. Funding will allow for the entire perimeter of the school to be painted. The murals will include a theme of “Saving the Bees” since the mascot of the school is a bee as well as a signage for the front of the building.

Christian Penn – O.P.T.I.O.N.S. Part 3 (Anti-Violence Album)
Penn will produce a 10 track album based on the theme of non-violence with a specific focus on racial issues on Staten Island, with stories from the community about their experiences. The participating artists have a direct connection to issues stemming from violence and racial discrimination, both domestic and public, and they are currently working to spread awareness of these issues in their community. The project will culminate in a series of concerts engaging youth in public schools.

Edward Coppola – S.I.gns: Staten Island’s Visual Messages
Coppola will create new work around street signage and other public messages that appear in various places on Staten Island. These signs are often in stark contrast with the landscapes they share. Some ultimately become part of the landscape, in a sense; others are completely ephemeral. The juxtapositions and contrasts between message and setting — and the ironies they reveal. The artist will explore how these postings reflect our culture both locally and broadly while becoming familiar statements of our desires, values, aspirations, and the social patterns that we grow to live with.

Irma Bohórquez-Geisler – Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Staten Island
This program looks to preserve and promote the Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead) tradition in Staten Island, which honors the lives and memories of loved ones who have died. Participants will be immersed in this Mexican tradition through hands-on workshops, learning how to build an altar (ofrenda) for loved ones, food-ways, and music & dance performances. This year’s event will feature a regional ofrenda representing the Mexican state of Oaxaca. This event allows Staten Islanders to have an opportunity to celebrate Mexican heritage and values.

Imara Moore – Connections
Moore will help Staten Islanders connect to their ancestors by photographing residents and combining their pictures with old photos of their relatives creating a new merged photograph. Moore will photograph people in a fashion similar to that of one of their past relatives and then merge the photographs creating a new connection, a rebirth of a lost relationship. Some families have been on Staten Island for generations and this project will honor that local heritage. The work will be publicly exhibited and Moore will provide portrait workshops for community members.

James Indelicato – 12th Westerleigh Folk Festival (Westfest)
Westfest, an original Roots music festival, presents an array of excellent live music and dance, fine art and crafts, children and adult activities such as fine and folk art making workshops, and dance lessons. The festival is free, family friendly, multicultural, multigenerational, and educational. This year the festival will be expanding their visual arts program and children’s educational art activities as well as including a new dance program.

Janice Patrignani-Munoz – Shibori in Shades of Blue
Shibori in Shades of Blue is an eight part workshop series that will result in a community made fiber arts mural. This synthesis of texture and shadow will incorporate Shibori, an ancient Japanese fiber art, in conjunction with Natural Indigo, (the oldest known dye). The finished piece will be exhibited at various locations showcasing a dance of the Shibori patterned transparent, translucent & opaque Indigo dyed cotton textiles.

Joan Caddell – Divine Women
The Divine Women Project is a showcase featuring the original work of young Staten Island female artists, ages 11 to 18, in multi-disciplines such as music, dance, spoken word and comedy. The participants will be brought together to share their talents and artistic insights with each other and with a live theater audience, as well as a live-streamed media audience. The intent is to promote these young female artists and to inspire their peers and others to aspire to art, as a healthy form of expression and esteem-building outlet. The goal of the project is empowerment through art and cooperation rather than competition, and to provide these young artists with a nurturing atmosphere.

Jose Ocasio – Living Culture
This project is a continuation (volume 2, part 2) of Ocasio’s past grant funded project El Barrio Taino, a recording project that documented original musical collaborations. The collaborations featured music based in Afro-Puerto Rican rhythms that incorporated aspects of hip-hop, rap, rock and roll, Irish song, and guitars (Spanish, acoustic). The goal of the project is to honor the musical traditions that have been passed down through generations and share those traditions between artists and with the community at large.

Katie McCarthy – St. George Day Festival
The St. George Day Festival celebrates Earth Day, St George Day, and the local artistic community. The themes of the day are civic engagement, community pride, peaceful co-existence and sharing of resources. In keeping with the themes, the festival is put together collaboratively by artists, environmentalists, activists and interested neighbors to co-create the event. With a focus on participation, the event includes performance stages, an art wall, vendor booths, activity stations and more to encourage members of the community to express themselves and share ideas through visual arts, song, dance, storytelling, puppetry and more.

Lina Montoya – La Isla Bonita Summer Festival
Funding will be used to support La Isla Bonita Summer Festival, restoring the installation Las Mariposas Amarillas, maintenance and relocation of Mariposas Lamps, and to create at least one mural at Caddell Dry Dock.

Lisa Dahl – Culturbia
Culturbia’s objective is to reveal the often unseen cultural production occurring within the borough’s neighborhoods. Culturbia is a mashup phrase to define the creative zone of our residential districts and the cultural production going on “behind closed doors.” The project will gather information on cultural practitioners through open calls, presentations and printed flyers. The aim is to reach self-identified artists (any and all disciplines) who live and work on Staten Island, as well as include famous artists from its past. The results will be shared in stages through an internet-art website and in-person exhibition.

Lys Obsidian – Kala Lolo: A Night of Queer Amusements
Kala Lolo is a series of variety shows focused on bringing queer programming and avant-garde theatre to Staten Island. The events feature artists of various disciplines, but with an emphasis on experimental theatre/performance art. The project aims to create a welcoming space in Staten Island for artists to present works that are experimental, openly LGBTQ, avant-garde, and/or challenge societal norms. Performances feature a vaudevillian casts of drag queens, gender-bending burlesque dancers, avant-garde sound artists, transgendered performance artists, and gender-queer musical performers. Acts have incorporated songs about LGBTQ experiences, dance pieces that challenge gender perception, and theatrical skits that have explored aspects of femininity and masculinity.

Mark O’Brien – Sitewave Cinema Film
The project is a full length feature film centered on the world of backyard wrestling, filmed in a mockumentary style. Childhood friends clash when one becomes famous in the world of professional wrestling and visits his hometown. Feeling abandoned and robbed of a trophy that had sentimental value to all of them, one friend who can’t let go of the past will confront him in the squared circle.

Melissa West – Transmissions: A Decade of Dance Making
Transmissions: A Decade of Dance Making is a project that explores West’s choreographic body of work through the lens of transmission. As a choreographer, West is interested in the lives of dances: how they are created, how they are shaped by the spaces they are performed in, how they are archived, and how they can be transmitted between dancers (via video, written instructions, hands-on teaching, etc.). Questioning how these factors shape the context of a dance and how an audience might receive it, this project aims to unpack the questions by taking dances West has created over the last decade, some of which have never been performed on Staten Island, and reconstructing them through varied methods of transmission. The goal is to present these dances as new while maintaining their original essence.

Nancy Quin – Interpretations of Armor & Adornment
This multi-disciplinary project will incorporate the writings of two Staten Island writers into a metal work sculpture inspired by armor and adornment. Armor is something we wear to protect ourselves while adornment is meant to enhance the armor. The writers will create poetic pieces relating to this idea. The words will be used as design elements and inspiration for a new metal work which will be incorporated into an art installation inside a container in Maker Park.

Nañi Migrante – Carnaval Mixteco
The Carnaval Mixteco is a celebration of ancient dances, traditions, and cuisine of the Mixtec from the region of La Mixteca Poblana. The goal of the event is to gather communities together to celebrate indigenous communities through dance, live music, and art while educating new generations of ancestral traditions. The festival will provide the opportunity to bring family members directly from Mexico to represent their culture on Staten Island.

Neil Mitchell – Comedic Short Films
This project will explore culture and commercialism in the hero narrative. To explore these themes, Mitchell will create two satiric, faux-documentaries. One will be a music documentary satire about a gym coach who changed the sound of hip hop with the sound with his whistle. And the other will focus on a couple lovingly looking back on the theme park they’ve created in their yard out of old chairs that were accumulating in their home.

Phyllis Forman – “Making Faces” sculpture and drawings by Victoria Bellinger
Forman will organize a solo exhibition of the work of Staten Island artist Victoria Bellinger, to share this amazing local artist’s creative vision and talent with a larger audience and honor her achievement with a professional show, catalog, artist talk, and clay workshop. Victoria has been an artist for over 70 years – while she primarily sculpts heads and faces, her imagination runs wild as she enlivens her subject matter with a creative variety of shape, gender, species, affect, tone, surface design, color and texture. The works all share a playfulness of spirit even when some might seem to be slightly ominous, with multiple heads and limbs, strange proportions and odd expressions.

Robert Geronimo – Agent 87 and the Brotherhood of Doom
Geronimo along with artists Patrick Smith and Michael O’Shea will create Agent 87, a comic book that pays homage to pulp fiction novels of the 1930s and 40s. Agent 87 goes undercover to investigate a demonic cult practicing black magic in honor of a dark god from another dimension. With the help of her sidekicks, she must thwart a diabolical plan to unleash this evil power into our world. The project aims to promote gender equality through books featuring strong female characters. Although Agent 87 is enigmatic and lethal, the goal is to tell the gripping story of a brave, compelling female character.

Sara Valentine – Honk NYC Staten Island Programs 2019
HONK NYC will produce a HONK NYC Kids Camp, a full Staten Island day of programming, and a Winter Solstice Celebration in conjunction with Make Music NY. The HONK Kids Camp provides Staten Island children with an in-depth introduction to music. In the course of the camp, participants are transformed into a marching band. Children find out how instruments create sound and make their own instruments out of recycled materials. They also make costumes, masks, a band banner, and posters to advertise their performance. All this culminates in a performance parade for parents and friends. HONK NYC Staten Island Day will be a full day of interactive performances at various locations/schools and the Winter Solstice Celebration will include a procession from the Ferry to Tompkinsville ending with a free concert at Everything Goes Book Café.

Maker Park Radio – Maker Park Radio
Maker Park Radio will expand their annual musical festival as well as produce monthly outdoor daytime family-friendly events and a monthly concert series at Makerspace NYC featuring live performances. The station will continue to stream and be a presence at live events in the community and spotlight local artists and arts based non-profits through live programming at the studio. They are currently working with over 85 DJs and hosts producing programs focused on women artists and entrepreneurs, farming, brewing, literary shows in English and Spanish, graphic novels, as well as music shows that range in focus such as metal, jazz, classical, house music, rockabilly, soul, rock, Caribbean music, funk, indie, techno, disco, punk, latin jazz, afro-pop, electronic, hiphop, and traditional Southeast Asian, etc.

Makerspace NYC – Art in the Park 2019
Art in the Park is an 8-week sculpture residency and workshop program for artists and an 8 week outdoor group exhibition at Maker Park sculpture park which is located across the street from the Makerspace. The program is for sculptors and designed to help them create art for the public realm. Eight artists will be selected by an independent panel and they will spend the 8 week program participating in guided studio sessions to build skills and create an outdoor sculpture. In addition to the workshop and residency program for artists, Makerspace NYC will present four free sculpture programs for families. The purpose of these programs is to engage the public with the Art in the Park project, introduce people to sculptural art-making processes, and to help build a community of sculptors and sculpture enthusiasts at MakerSpace NYC.

Nigerian-American Community Association – 3rd Annual African Arts & Cultural Festival (Africafest)
Africafest is a two day event celebrating arts and culture from across the African Diaspora. The festival features authentic African cuisine, music, folklore, fashion, poetry, crafts and more. The festival hopes to bring a greater awareness, understanding and appreciation for African people, and their artistic and cultural traditions. The festival venue will be transformed into African villages across the Diaspora with vibrant drumming, storytelling, dancing, interactive demonstrations, historical artifacts, colorful and rich textiles, and informative health & wellness workshops.

Projectivity Group – Through Faith (A Hip-Hop Musical)
Through Faith is a hip-hop musical written by Malissa “Ms. Malita” Wilson. The play is a teen drama that incorporates different themes and perspectives on topics such as gang violence, violence in the media and exposure to violence, sexual assault among teenagers, social media pressure and abuse, depression, alcoholism and substance abuse, anxiety, and other issues that are relevant in all schools across the country. The play will be presented to the public and filmed to be presented as a school program to encourage students to get involved in theatre, dance, and music while also addressing real-world issues that face them and their peers every day.

Richmond Choral Society – Eternal Light
Richmond Choral Society’s Spring 2019 concert will feature the works of W.A. Mozart and Contemporary composer, Damijan Moçnik, exploring the theme of eternal light: Mozart, the young musical genius coming of age in his craft; Moçnik, a modern composer finding transcendence in the spirit of the Renaissance.

Sea View Playwright’s Theatre – Disgraced, a play by Ayad Akhtar
Sea View Playwright’s Theatre will produce Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar. Disgraced, a play with socio-political themes, won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2013. The play touches upon subjects such as Islamic and Judaic tradition, and racial profiling after September 11th. The play’s protagonist has rejected his Muslim upbringing to better assimilate in contemporary society.

Staten Island Philharmonic – Concert: Variations on America
Staten Island Philharmonic will produce a concert, Variations on America. The program is inspired by, Variations on ‘America,’ by Charles Ives (1874-1954). Ives started with the tune My Country ‘tis of Thee, and rearranged it a number of times in the styles of different cultures. As in real life, the music clashes between some of the variations, but it all comes back together for a triumphant ending. The program will also feature a concerto for wind quintet and orchestra by African American composer Valerie Coleman, called Phenomenal Women, inspired by the Maya Angelou poem Phenomenal Woman, and by women whom Coleman calls her “sheroes,” ranging from Angelou herself to the immigrant mothers who are currently struggling to reclaim their children. The program will also feature emerging immigrant composers who will be invited to submit through an open call process.

Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre – 2019 Community Classic: Richard III
Staten Island Shakespearean Theatre will produce Shakespeare’s classic Richard III, free to the public, in September 2019 in Fort Wadsworth. Richard III chronicles the cataclysmic end of one of history’s greatest villains. Richard is as charming as he is cunning. Through scheming and seducing (and a few murders along the way), Richard secures the crown for himself…but can he hold it? Attempting to thwart his ill-gotten rise to power are some potent women who envision hope for their country in a new generation of leaders. Richard III is a fast-paced master class in political intrigue with a character that is as alluring as he is obnoxious. The play will be set in a near-future, dystopian America struggling under the weight of a vicious, narcissistic tyrant that should seem all-too possible and familiar.

Staten Island OutLOUD – SI OutLOUD 2019
Staten Island OutLOUD will host a continuing series of grass-roots readings of world classics, historic texts and other compelling works. Most events are intimate participatory readings; some are larger stage performances with music and dance. They meet in historic sites, nature preserves, delis, bookshops, museums, galleries, public housing projects, on the beach, on trains and on the Ferry, in libraries, parks & playgrounds, cafes, community centers, and in churches, temples, mosques and synagogues. All events are free & open to the public.

Sri Lankan Dance Academy of New York – Nrutha Haramba Sara IV
The Sri Lankan Dance Academy of NY (SLDA) will present the program called Pahim Path Mangalya at the College of Staten Island during the Summer of 2019. Pahim Path Mangalya is a Sri Lankan phrase for a stage performance that an art student gives, after undertaking years of training. It is a rite of passage for young dancers to perform their Pahim Path Mangalya and it is often considered a debut dance of a new generation of tradition bearers that will teach the next generation. The dancers at the Pahim Path Mangalya will perform traditional Kandyan dances or “Up Country” dances. This type of dance is one of three styles of Sri Lankan dance along with Low Country dances of the southern plains known as Pahatha Rata Natum, and Sabaragamuwa dances. The group will be accompanied by live drumming. The program hopes to deepen the understanding of Sri Lankan dance and the important ways it carries the language, knowledge, and heritage.

The Mighty String Demons – Dance with Us! Music for Dancing from Around the World
The Mighty String Demons will present a concert of classical and folk dance music from around the world, including countries such as Italy, Mozambique, Hungary, Argentina, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and the United States. The concert will have educational aspects to compliment the music performed. There will also be a demonstration of the differences and similarities between bowed stringed violins, violas and bass and the classical guitar.

Viva Voce Chamber Ensemble – Summer Sundays at High Rock
Viva Voce Chamber Ensemble will present a 4-week performance series during the Summer of 2019. The series will feature jazz and American standards, a performance with members of the SI Acoustic Music Society, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, music from the Baroque to the neo-Baroque, a selection of songs based on wildlife, and world premieres by two Staten Island composers, Howard Fox and Michael Sirotta.

Voyces – Vespers of 1610
Voyces and Young Voyces will present Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 at Trinity Lutheran Church. This will be the first time that the entire Monteverdi Vespers will be performed with a full Baroque orchestra on Staten Island. It was the largest scale musical work for chorus and orchestra in history until the Bach B minor Mass claimed that distinction. Their season will also include a 2 hour masterclass for Young Voyces, which aims to give the youth participants a deeper understanding of the history, significance, and importance of the music they perform.

Kelly Vilar – Our Urban Town Talk Series
Our Urban Town Talk Series seeks to spur creative community conversations and imaginative ideas for shaping our growing north shore. The series would focus on the melting pot of the north shore through recorded interviews and discussions, there will also include a one minute of an undiscovered talent of a local community stakeholder. These may be people unknown for their artistic talents but perhaps known for their community activism. The topics discussed will center on core points emanating from Future Culture recommendations such as maritime culture building and access to public spaces. The recorded videos will be used for advocacy and will be made available online.

Lina Montoya – Las Mariposas Amarillas Staten Island Tour
Montoya will develop and conduct a series of 8 workshops to hand cut yellow butterflies with community members, the idea is to collect these pieces made of plastic fabric (vinyl), as part of the plan to restore the art installation located at Richmond Terrace and Jewett Avenue. Temporary art-making stations will be set up at schools, public spaces, and partner locations. During the art-making process the community will share personal anecdotes about living on Staten Island. The idea is to generate a dialogue with the participants about migration and diversity.

Lisa Dahl – Culturbia
Culturbia’s objective is to reveal the often unseen cultural production occurring within the borough’s neighborhoods. Culturbia is a mashup phrase to define the creative zone of our residential districts and the cultural production going on “behind closed doors.” The project will gather information on cultural practitioners through open calls, presentations and printed flyers. The aim is to reach self-identified artists (any and all disciplines) who live and work on Staten Island, as well as include famous artists from its past. The results will be shared in stages through an internet-art website and in-person exhibition.

Aileen Renner – Save The Earth Program
Renner will produce her award-winning Save the Earth program to teach the students and others about saving our environment. It will include a skit as well as musical and/or dance performances followed by a question and answer session. 36 students will be involved for 8 weeks/13 sessions and they will learn to perform musical numbers, dance, and perform a skit about saving our environment. Through these sessions the students will not only learn songs and/or lines in the play, they will also learn sign language to song lyrics as well as the use of picture symbols which will enable all students to participate. They will learn the meaning of the lyrics to the songs, how to work as a team, how to interact with their peers and will feel a sense of self-esteem for their performance. The final performance/assembly will include a “reduce, reuse, and recycle” question and answer session. There will be 374 students and 85 staff watching the show. PS 37R serves 374 children on the autism spectrum and with intellectual disabilities, grades K-12.

Carolyn Clark – Building Brass Musicians at Port Richmond High School
The brass section of the Port Richmond High School music department (approximately 45 students in grades 9-12) will have twelve intensive, small group instructional sessions with Carolyn Clark, an experienced teaching artist/professional musician who is an expert in her instrument and instrument family. Clark will work with students on technique, musicality, music literacy skills, and teamwork skills in preparation for their final concert. A secondary focus of the program will be helping students place the music they play in their classes. The third aspect of the project will involve discussing career opportunities in music, and helping students identify higher education programs related to careers they would like to pursue. Many PRHS students are economically disadvantaged. None have access to the tutoring necessary to achieve their full potential as musicians, and to stay on par with music students from the more affluent schools. Working with a brass-section teaching artist will give students the individual attention they need to thrive.

Dan Auerbach – American Festival of Microtonal Music at Port Richmond High School
Dan Auerbach and Johnny Reinhard, members of the American Festival of Microtonal Music (AFMM), will work with 70 students in the Port Richmond High School orchestra and band programs. The two will use Microtonal music practices as a method to advance student’s abilities to play better in tune. Auerbach has worked with the orchestra at Port Richmond in previous years, and also teaches in the College of Staten Island Orchestra. This is an opportunity for students at Port Richmond to study one of the most fundamental and most elusive skills in any music-making, with highly skilled specialists in that area. 

David Nudelman – Making the World a Better Place with Graphic Design
Thirty-five fifth grade students will work together to create a design for a campaign tee shirt for PS21l, focusing their campaign on the theme of making the community a better place. Students will be engaged in illustration, graphic design, marketing, screen printing and journaling their experience. During the course of an eight-week program, the students will work with graphic designers and artists to learn what it means to be an entrepreneur, how to work with other artists, coming up with a meaningful idea, creating an interesting design, creating the product, online responsibilities and social media and marketing the product.

Janice Patrignani – Munoz – Our Legacy
Patrignani will partner with PS19 teachers to guide 4 classes, (1 General Education, 1 Integrated Collaborative Teaching, 1 Dual Language Spanish/English, and 1 Special Needs Self-Contained) totaling 85 students, through a sequential 7-week visual arts residency. Media explorations will consist of drawing, painting, collage, & mosaic. This grant will provide an opportunity for further development of the mosaic mural, Our Bright Future created last spring by these students as 3rd graders. Language Arts will be supported though vocabulary & reflective writing to synthesize with social studies using visual arts as a springboard. The students experience how a group working in harmony can contribute and feel accomplished knowing that they have created an inspiring beacon of achievement for all of PS19’s community.

Rinor Jani – Music Through Mindfulness. Mindfulness Through Music.
Mindfulness instructor and vocalist Rinor Jani will provide 212 chorus students at Tottenville High School with tools to enhance their singing technique to empower breathing, vocal clarity, pitch accuracy and overall performance through mindfulness. These tools will also help remove the mental/emotional block that can restrict a student’s ability to sing and to embrace the benefits that singing freely offers. These tools will help develop sound through mindfulness vocalizations, strengthen their breathing apparatus, and give them a calm and confident demeanor to make each performance more beautiful and successful.

Robert “Bobaloo” Basey – Tales and Tunes with Bob Bobaloo Basey
Tales and Tunes with Bobaloo is an interactive story and song program for 36 Kindergarten students at PS68 using music, movement, storytelling, and instrument making. The program will involve group singing with hands on projects using found objects and recycled materials. Students will learn a variety of folk songs and stories that reflect the school’s diversity and curriculum goals.

Sarah Yuster – Small Truths Project
Yuster will work with 60 students at PS 20 and teach the students the process of interweaving expository writing and visuals. The class will have a series of academic drawing lessons employing action sketching, spatial relations, color and perspective. Students will produce a narrative in written form recounting an experience of their choice. This is the “small truth” of what it’s like to be them. Armed with new skills, the culmination of this project is the illustration of an image to accompany the written pieces. PS 20 is a Title One school with approximately 85% of the children from Mexico or Central America. The remainder are primarily African American, African and from the Middle East, specifically Yemen.

Carolyn Clark – Our Songs, Our Stories
Our Songs, Our Stories will give participants an opportunity to re-experience popular songs from the past through singing, listening to music, watching videos, filming themselves, light percussion, and even dancing. The songs will encourage participants to remember and share stories from their lives which will be preserved by video recordings. For the final presentation students may perform some choral pieces, some karaoke-type pieces, and possibly even some sing-alongs with the audience. Participants will also show the video recordings of them sharing their stories. Through this project participants will gain some of the proven health benefits of singing. They will develop significant social connections with others in the group and realize that each person’s life is meaningful and their stories should be heard.

Janice Patrignani – Media Melange: Silk Painting, Printmaking, Book Arts, and Mosaic program
Four different arts techniques will be explored during this mini workshop series. For Chinese Silk Painting, students will learn about and experiment with a variety of silk painting techniques. They will create one of a kind silk scarves and also paint components for a fiber arts mural. In Printmaking on Silk & Paper, students will explore the printing techniques of mono-printing, nature printing, & collagraph. For Paper Transformations & Book Arts, students will explore paper-embellishing methods of paste paper, marbling, and paper-making, to personalize one-of-a-kind handmade books/journals. They will also collectively collage our transformed paper into a larger piece of artwork. For Mosaics, students will learn about and create mosaic murals for individual projects and a joint mural using stones & ceramic tiles. This series will culminate in an art party style exhibit for guests.

Kelly Gilmore – Dance for Fun and Fitness
Dance for Fun and Fitness is a program that will give seniors an opportunity to participate in a dance and exercise program. Ballroom dances including Foxtrot, Tango, Swing, Salsa, Merengue and Cha-Cha will be taught in an interactive manner with patience, enthusiasm, and consideration for all skill levels. Students will also be able to express themselves through their own dance styles if they would like. The program will develop dancing skills, strength, stamina, improved balance, coordination, and a greater appreciation for the art of ballroom dancing. Participants will also learn about the history of the dances and even share their own experiences about their relationships with dancing. The goal is to get participants active and socializing. The program will be followed by a dance celebration party/performance in June 2019. This public event will be open to family and friends and will allow students to demonstrate their new creative skills and share their achievements with the community.

Lindsey Milazzo – Untapped Creativity through Water Colors
Untapped Creativity through Watercolors is a workshop series where participants learn the watercolor medium and discover their hidden creative abilities. The expectation is that students will finish at least one painting of their own subject. Students will initially learn about different styles of brushes and strokes and then how to use the palette to control their water to paint to color ratio. Students will then move onto techniques like washes, wet on wet, and glazing. Finally students will learn how to organize a color wheel, create colors, and learn about what makes color schemes work by making paintings either complementary or harmonious. Half way through the program an open studio will be set up so students can see their fellow classmate’s works and share observations. The final session will be an exhibit for friends, family, and the public.

Nancy Delaney – Crazy Memories Art Quilts
Memory quilts and crazy quilts gained popularity in the mid to late 1800s. Memory quilts are a way to celebrate family history, a special occasion, mark change, or even reflect the maker’s feelings about current political events. Participants will create an art quilt inspired by a memory of a person, place, or event in their lives past or present. They will be encouraged to bring fabrics and embellishments to personalize and reinforce their stories but materials will also be provided. Participants will learn basic sewing, embroidery, and other methods of embellishing blocks. They will piece materials and set the blocks. Participants will complete a small to medium size art quilt. The project’s culminating event will be a public exhibition where friends and family members can see the completed quilts and hear about the inspiration behind them.