CONNECTICUT

Number of Grants: 11

Total Dollar Amount: $290,000

I-Park Foundation, Inc.

$10,000 East Haddam, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Artist Communities
To support on-site residencies and a public symposium. The residencies and symposium will focus on site-specific,
temporary art. The public symposium will be presented on the I-Park campus and will serve artists working in
various creative disciplines, the academic community, and the general public. During the residency and exhibition,
filmmakers will document the art in progress as well as the finished works.
HartBeat Ensemble
$10,000 Hartford, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the creation of "Jimmy and Lorraine" by Talvin Wilkes. The play will depict the American political
climate of the late 1950s and early 1960s through the lens of two significant artists of the time - James Baldwin and
Lorraine Hansberry. Following their careers as artists, their call to social activism, and the challenges of balancing
an artistic career with politics, Baldwin and Hansberry's lives provide a look at a rich period of political and social
upheaval that resonates 50 years later. The play will be directed by Brian Jennings.
Litchfield Performing Arts, Inc.
$20,000 Litchfield, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Music
To support the Litchfield Jazz Festival & Jazz Camp. Residential and day students of different ages and skill levels
will participate in the multi-week program held at the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. While the
focus is on collaborative and improvisational music-making and performance, the core curriculum may include
combo coaching, music theory, composition, as well as electives such as ear training and sight reading. All students
are expected to participate in jam sessions, weekly concerts, and perform at the festival. Instructors include as
many as 40 internationally renowned musicians such as Don Braden, Vincent Gardner, Charli Persip, Claudio Roditi,
Avery Sharpe, and Matt Wilson, along with emerging musicians and teaching assistants. The festival will
commemorate the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in 2015 and honor the musical legacy of New Orleans
with performances by Louisiana artists such as Donald Harrison, Dr. John, Irvin Mayfield, Irma Thomas, and Dr.
Michael White.
Wesleyan University
$20,000 Middletown, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Dance
To support the Center for the Arts' Dance: Transcending Boundaries series. Artists may include Chicago's Lucky
Plush, Seattle's Zoe/Juniper, and Chicago- and New York-based Darrell Jones. Engagement programs will be
tailored to each artist to embed his or her work across the campus. The series also will include a commissioned
work by Austin-based Allison Orr, who will work with Wesleyan's College of the Environment and the Middletown
community to draw attention to environmental sustainability through the creation of a site-specific communitybased work. The performances and residency activities will happen on campus and in the surrounding community.
Wesleyan University
$25,000 Middletown, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Literature
To support the publication, distribution, and promotion of books of poetry. Poets to be published include Honoree
Jeffers, Rae Armantrout, Heather Christle, Jean Day, Marta del Pozo Ortea, and Evie Shockley. The books will be
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval.
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available in both print and digital formats, and accompanied by online readers for teachers, students, and general
readers.
Silvermine Guild of Artists, Inc.
$25,000 New Canaan, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support a series of performing and visual arts events. Events will include performances by musicians Caladh Nua
(Ireland), multidisciplinary animation and performance artist Miwa Matreyek (United States), and a new cocommissioned work from collaborators Bridgman/Packer Dance (United States) and filmmaker Peter Bobrow
(United States). Silvermine also will present Arts Fest, a free, outdoor festival of music, dance, and the visual arts,
featuring hip-hop and percussion troupe Street Beat(United States).
Connecticut Players Foundation, Inc.
$10,000 New Haven, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support the Contemporary American Voices Festival. Long Wharf Theatre will feature fully produced mini-runs
of plays by emerging and established playwrights such as "Forever," written and performed by Dael Orlandersmith,
and "Rodney King," a one-man show by Roger Guenveur Smith. Additional festival programming such as staged
readings of works-in-progress, post-show conversations, and communitywide conversations will be hosted by the
New Haven Free Public Library.
New Haven International Festival of Arts & Ideas, Inc.
$65,000 New Haven, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support the presentation of multidisciplinary artists, with accompanying engagement activities. Featured
projects will include "From Bach to Bebop," by Imani Winds with Jeff Scott (New York) and poetry by A.B. Spellman
(Washington, D.C.), and "Eve" from singer-songwriter Angelique Kidjo (Benin) with guest African artists. The
festival also will present "Song of the Jasmine" by Ragamala Dance (Minneapolis) and jazz saxophonist/composer
Rudresh Mahanthappa (New York), and the Mark Morris Dance Group's (Brooklyn) "Acis and Galatea.".
Yale University (on behalf of Yale Repertory Theatre)
$40,000 New Haven, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater
To support Yale Repertory Theatre's world premiere production of "Elevada" by Sheila Callaghan. Commissioned
by Yale Rep, the play follows a quartet of characters whose lives become entangled after a fateful blind date
between a young woman finishing cancer treatments and an Internet celebrity who is about to sell his identity to a
corporation. The play will be directed by Jackson Gay. Callaghan will be in residence at the theater through the
rehearsal process, and will collaborate with Gay and the dramaturgical staff on the ongoing refinement of the text.
Connecticut College
$10,000 New London, CT
FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Presenting & Multidisciplinary Works
To support onStage at Connecticut College, a series of multidisciplinary arts performances and related activities.
The college will present diverse productions in contemporary and classical dance and music for audiences from
southeastern Connecticut and southwest Rhode Island. Artists will include jazz violinist Regina Carter and Doug
Varone and Dancers.
Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center, Inc.
$55,000 Waterford, CT
Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval.
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FIELD/DISCIPLINE: Theater & Musical Theater

To support the National Playwrights Conference and the National Music Theater Conference. The project will
include the creation and development of new plays and musical theater works by emerging and mid-career artists.
Approximately 1,600 manuscripts will be received through an open submission process that will culminate in the
selection of seven to ten plays and two to four musicals. The scripts will receive a rehearsal period and staged
readings that will be open to the public.

Some details of the projects listed are subject to change, contingent upon prior Arts Endowment approval.
Page 46 of 234