Arts & Entertainment Atlanta Announces 2020 Grant Program Recipients
Seven artists and arts organizations receive funding to support operations and activate projects in Downtown Atlanta
ATLANTA (November 23, 2020) – Arts & Entertainment Atlanta (A&E Atlanta) is pleased to announce the recipients of its first-ever grant program. Grants ranging from $5,000-10,000 have been awarded to seven artists and arts organizations.
A&E Atlanta grant recipients in this inaugural cycle are: Murmur Media, Kris Pilcher, C4 Atlanta, Dance Canvas, Cat Eye Creative, Ebony Blanding, and Sara Santamaria. More information about the grant recipients can be found on A&E Atlanta’s newly launched website, AEAtlanta.com, as well as this fact sheet.
A&E Atlanta is a neighborhood activation and economic development project for Downtown Atlanta. The program fuses new outdoor media, local art, and advertising and funds cultural and public space programming in the city’s core. The effort is managed by the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District (ADID) and self-funds its management and programming through revenue-sharing agreements with media companies within the district.
In 2020, its inaugural year, A&E Atlanta has presented outdoor, digital exhibits like In Light, curated in partnership with Dashboard and MINT; utilized its digital signs to feature COVID-19 community PSAs and uplifting messages created by local artists and curated by Dashboard, Orange Barrel Media, Living Walls Atlanta, and the United Way of Greater Atlanta; and sponsored arts activations like The Juneteenth Takeover, curated by Power Haus Creative.
A&E Atlanta will play a key role in PRISM: Winter Lights—returning to Woodruff Park for its second year on December 5—by piloting a projection mapping effort that will showcase animated artwork by local artists on the park’s International Peace Fountain water wall.
Murmur Media
Multi-Discipline
Funds will be used for gallery installations and to improve Murmur’s restroom, lighting, and security. Refurbishing the restroom will bring the facility closer to ADA compliance. For exhibits and window installs, switching to LED lights will reduce utility costs by 30%, increasing fund supplies for artists. Grant funds will also be used to hire a marketing consultant and support event staff.
Kris Pilcher
Augmented Reality
Pilcher will use grant funds to create an augmented reality application tied to geolocation-based coordinates in Downtown Atlanta,in which users will find unique art experiences,such as holographic dancers, morphing sculptures, and AI created work. Each location will be a culturally relevant spot in Downtown,and each augmented art activation will speak to the local culture of Atlanta.
Sara Santamaria
Sculpture/Installation
This grant will provide financial resources for an installation functioning as both sculpture and urban amenity that envisions how migration can define the future of Atlanta’s urbanism and public art. "Collective home" is a medium-scale, free-standing installation that transforms the security fence used to divided people into a powerful social and artistic symbol of welcome home.
C4 Atlanta
Multi-Discipline
Funding will be utilized to supportC4 Atlanta’s WarnerMedia Creative Residency program,a yearlong professional development and studio residency program for women artists and artists of color. Residency artists receive subsidized studio rent, monthly networking meetups, a staff mentor and C4 Atlanta professional development training for a year.The purpose of this program is to grow small arts businesses through an intensive workforce development incubator
Cat Eye Creative
Curator/Arts Advocate
Cat Eye Creative(C.E.C.) has partnered with Newport RE for an artist residency in Downtown. C.E.C represents 75+ artists, from Atlanta’s underrepresented artists to well acclaimed classical oil painters and contemporary street artists from around the world. Grant funds will be used to grow Atlanta’s art community at 186 Mitchell St. C.E.C will occupy the space for one year,hosting artists’ studio spaces, dozens of exhibitions,and free art events open to the public in the 2500sq/ft location.
Dance Canvas
Dance
Dance Canvas has been producing work and providing youth arts outreach in Downtown Atlanta since 2008. Funding from Arts & Entertainment Atlanta will go towards artists and administrative fees surrounding Dance Canvas’ 2020-21 Season, which will include new outdoor performances in various Downtown locations (TBD), virtual programming, and youth outreach.
Ebony Blanding
Media/Film
Ebony Blanding will use funds to create a short film: “My project is about Jordan Conway (13, curious adventurer), a young girl making a big discovery in a place where fantastical happenings are least expected to everyone but her. A mermaid enthusiast on a fishing trip with her father, Zod Conway (35, quintessential "Girl Dad"), the pair find a distressed mermaid and take her back to Atlanta to care for her,only to discover she is not exactly what she seems.”