Region’s Arts Fund awards 28 grants

NEWS RELEASE
REGION OF WATERLOO
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The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund is awarding 28 grants, totaling $195,118, in response to dynamic proposals submitted by a wide range of artists and arts organizations. Applications totaled 68 requests in all, for a sum of $534,373.

The Good Foundation is supporting the Fall 2021 grantees with another donation of $50,000. Given the challenges faced by everyone in the region over the last 22 months, the Arts Fund’s volunteer board expresses heartfelt gratitude for this continued trust and support. We are honoured to have the opportunity and responsibility to carry on the philanthropic legacy created by the Good family in the name of Milton and Verna Good.

The grants awarded are listed below and include where the project will take place.

The mandate of the Arts Fund is to contribute to the creative vitality of our community by providing meaningful grants and other advocacy support to individual artists as well as arts and culture organizations. The not-for-profit corporation is one of the few granting bodies in Canada that awards grants directly to artist-led projects.

Since its establishment in 2002, the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund has supported 882 projects, for a total community investment of $4,877,910. The Arts Fund welcomes grant applications in all arts disciplines, from individual artists and arts organizations based in Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo and in the townships of North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich. Applicants may apply in the spring or fall of each year for projects slated to occur within the next 12 months.

Good Foundation supported grants:

DiverseWorks Dance Productions – Raechele Lovell (multiple locations throughout the region): $11,000 towards producing a unique blend of choreographic styles and expressions by this emerging biracial dance artist, who will bring together a diverse group of professional artists to create vehicles for local storytelling through contemporary movement and dance.

Green Light Arts – Matt White (Kitchener): $12,000 towards producing the Waterloo Region premiere of This is How We Got Here by award-winning Métis playwright Keith Barker in May 2022. This will be the company’s inaugural presentation at their new home in the Conrad Centre, Kitchener.

SHORE Centre – Catherine Mellinger (Kitchener): $10,240 to produce an interactive community-based digital arts installation, which will celebrate the 50th anniversary of SHORE Centre (formerly Planned Parenthood).

Stephen Svenson, Ernest Daetwyler, Lila Bruyere – Stephen Svenson (multiple locations throughout the region): $12,000 towards the filming of Lila – I am Water, a documentary addressing the horrific legacy of the residential school system through the experiences of Lila Bruyere, a respected elder and residential school survivor who sits on the National Survivor's Circle for Truth and Reconciliation.

Waterloo Chamber Players – Christine Ritchie (Kitchener): $7,500 towards production and livestreaming of the Waterloo Chamber Players’ spring concert performance, featuring Among Friends, a cello concerto for chamber orchestra, written and performed by Ben Bolt Martin.

Organizations and Collectives:

Adult Recreation Centre – Daniel Brenneman (Kitchener): $5,000 towards this indie rock band’s second full-length LP, Driftwood, a musical reflection on growing up in the local community.

Backyard Theatre – Kathleen Cleland Moyer (Kitchener): $7,600 towards production of Live and on Radio! – Barn Talk, Backyard Theatre’s first 3-episode audio drama using a script developed with past RWAF support.

David Bragg – David Shute (Kitchener): $5720 towards the filming of A Brand New Hell, a short, dark comedy in which two slacker roommates try to wait out the zombie apocalypse by playing video games.

The Dundee Arts Collective – Jenny Miller (Wilmot): $7,155 to provide interactive video tutorial sessions with take-home Art Kits for kids resulting in a pop-up Art Gallery show.

KW Big Band Theory – Paul Ellingham (Wilmot): $10,000 to record and produce an all-Canadian big band CD celebrating the 10th anniversary of this popular and well-established performing group.

Lightning Banjo Productions – Amy Neufeld (Kitchener): $5,000 towards dramaturgy and script development for Witches in the Woods, a retelling of Hansel and Gretel exploring themes related to queer identities, family, and exclusionary bureaucracy.

NUMUS – Kathryn Ladano (Waterloo): $8,000 to live-stream and/or pre-record their Winter 2022 concerts, expanding their audience’s options for engaging with new music.

Isabel Ochoa & James Clarke-Hicks (Waterloo): $6,978 towards the creation of Grading Light, an exhibition of ceramic light sculptures to be presented at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery.

The Relative Minors – Kierstan Robertshaw (Cambridge): $6,000 towards producing the Relative Minors' third studio album Minor Third, a collection of songs to entertain and inspire children everywhere.

Three Sisters Cultural Centre – Adrienne Carter (Woolwich): $3,000 towards Moving Forward: From Behind the Mask, an interactive exhibition and workshop series commemorating and reflecting upon the impact of the pandemic, centred on the community-created quilt.

Individual Artists:

Danny Bailey (Kitchener): $5,980 towards the creation of A Story From The Reels, a pseudo-documentary film/video developed from found silent film footage.

Sherry Czekus (Waterloo): $6,000 for Ghost Image Project, a research- and methods-based project to generate new artworks in relation to photography through painting, based on the text, “Ghost Image,” a series of 62 essays written by French photographer Herve Guibert.

Perry Gasteiger (Waterloo): $4,000 to produce Don't Think Twice, It's Alright multidisciplinary publication. Writing, photography, and imagery explore innocence, loss, and nostalgia encountered in the transitions faced when growing up.

Sara Geidlinger (multiple locations throughout the region): $5,500 towards producing Playtime, a short documentary exploring the nostalgia of lost toys that focuses on vintage finds and collectors' resurgence as the world reopens.         

Benjamin Gorodetsky (Waterloo): $7,500 to present Pinch Cabaret, a curated, interdisciplinary monthly performance series celebrating diverse live arts using an engaging and interactive variety show format.       

Karen MacLeod (Kitchener): $4,900 for a workshop and presentation of Folk Baroque, an Early Music/Folk Music crossover project exploring vocals and instrumentation from troubadour songs, broadside ballads, or madrigals, interspersed with traditional folk and contemporary songwriter materials.   

Nicole Smith (Cambridge): $6,000 for a first draft of Every Flower Has Kept Me, a novel inspired by the author’s memories of growing up “among a matriarchy of women who are strong and weak and sad and hilarious and bold and wrong and complicated.”      

Sharl Smith (Kitchener): $7,950 towards the creation of new sculptures for the artist’s first solo exhibition Of Wood and Water at Homer Watson House and Gallery.        

Conan Stark (Waterloo): $6,200 towards the online publication of a visual essay, Potential of Intimacies, featuring original photographs, illustrations, and writing that explore the ways we bridge the gaps between us. 

Jenn Weatherall (Waterloo): $5,000 towards the collaborative creation of the first draft of music and script for a musical portraying the 1847 story of Irish immigrants’ struggles and tenacity.

Carol Ann Weaver (Waterloo): $6,000 for Silence to Silence – Remembering Murray, a composition honouring composer R. Murray Schafer. Music by Carol Ann Weaver and text by poet Rae Crossman.

Tammy Whetham (Cambridge):  $5,000 for the debut EP of Miss Tammy Darling, a collection of original songs in the iconic styles of the 1950s and 60s, to be released in spring 2022.

Stephanie Wilson (multiple locations throughout the region): $7,895 for the production and exhibition of Cyclical Impacts,an interactive human-sized wheel that provokes consideration of the environmental impacts of human activity.

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