Office for the Arts names grant recipients

The Office for the Arts at Harvard (OFA) has announced its support of 22 art projects and performances that will take place during Arts First weekend (May 6-9). Sponsored by the OFA grants program and selected by the Council on the Arts, the projects range from music and the visual arts to theater and the cultural arts.

The Council on the Arts, a committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, responded favorably to 80 percent of the grant requests. Council members include Robert J. Kiely (chair), Elizabeth Bergmann, S. Allen Counter, Deborah Foster, Jorie Graham, Annette Lemieux, Cathleen McCormick, Jack Megan, Robert J. Orchard, Marcus Stern, John Stewart, and Paul Stopforth.

Awarded to undergraduates, graduate students, faculty, and staff, the following funded grant projects combine artistic merit, artistic experimentation, and educational benefit to undergraduates.

Spring 2004 grants for dance

Arts First Dance Festival 2004, Megan Cameron ’05: Linker Grant for the annual dance festival that brings together many Harvard dance groups, both undergraduate and graduate, in a performance at Lowell Hall.

Crimson Dance Team Festival Performance, Rebecca Gomez ’04: Linker Grant for the Crimson Dance Team’s presentation of routines incorporating elements of jazz, funk, gymnastics, and ballet.

Harvard Ballet Company, ballet selections, Laurie Schnidman ’05: Linker Grant for a performance featuring TAPS – Harvard’s tap dance performance group – and original choreographed pieces created by members of the company.

Spring 2004 grants for multidisciplinary arts

Quincy Courtyard Music Festival, Nancy Chang ’05: Linker Grant for an outdoors music festival and art exhibit.

ArtSquatters, Science Center video project, Amar Bakshi ’05-06: Linker Grant for an interactive computer installation in which students respond to prerecorded questions about student life-experiences at Harvard. Answers to questions will be recorded and displayed on a TV screen. This installation will run on a continuous loop over a three-day period.

Spring 2004 grants for music

Harvard Pops Orchestra, “rock” themed concert, Joanne Wen ’04: Linker Grant for a concert featuring various “rock” music, including student-composed pieces and themes from the movies “The Rock” and “Rocky.”

Harvard Wind Ensemble, “The Eclectic American,” Doug Lieb ’07: Linker Grant for a concert on the steps of Memorial Church. This year the ensemble will perform works by American composers.

Spring 2004 grants for theater

Athena Theater Company, “A Perfect Disorder,” Jean Salisbury ’04: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for a production of a student-written play that addresses the issue of eating disorders and the pain they cause both directly and indirectly. This play will be performed in conjunction with an Eating Concerns Hotline and Outreach (ECHO) panel.

Immediate Gratification Players (IGP) Dinner Party, Andrew McGee ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for an improvisational dinner party hosted by IGP.

Theatre company, “Lessness,” Barbara Matteau (grants manager, Harvard School of Public Health): Timothy S. Mayer Grant for an original stage adaptation of the Samuel Beckett piece.

Hyperion Shakespeare Company, “Measure for Measure,” Brian Fairley ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for a production of Shakespeare’s dark and deeply moving play in the courtyard of the Gunzberg Center for European Studies.

Pforzheimer House Arts and Theatrics, “Savage/Tongues/Love,” Kaitlin Heller ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for a multimedia performance with music, movement, dance, and film to reinaugurate Pforzheimer House Arts and Theatrics.

Sunken Garden Children’s Theater, “Taming of the Shrew,” Johanna Karlin ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for an adaptation of the Shakespeare play performed outdoors in the Sunken Garden of Radcliffe Yard.

AAA Players, “The Rainy Season,” Jennifer Lee ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for a performance featuring characters of varying genders, ethnicities, and sexualities.

Winthrop House Drama Society, “Cymbeline,” Sarah Hill ’05: Timothy S. Mayer Grant for an outdoor performance of the Shakespeare play.

Spring 2004 grants for visual arts

“After the Frosty Silence in the Gardens,” Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer ’05: Linker Grant for an outdoor installation in the courtyard of Mather House re-creating the remains of a fake accident.

ArtSquatters, Bow Street Mural Project, Sarah Gogel ’04-05; Linker Grant for the completion of a mural located on Bow Street. This project brings together over 50 people from the Cambridge community to exalt their similarities and their differences.

Harvard-Radcliffe Television (HRTV), “Interactive Self-Perception: Changing the Self Through Elements of Moviemaking,” Lauren Berk ’06: Linker Grant for an installation project that aims to incorporate the three main elements of movie and television production – camera work, lighting, and audio – on a television monitor.

“Lawn Chairs,” Kris Trujillo ’05: Linker Grant for an outdoor installation presenting “natural” sculptures of sofas constructed out of sod creating a contrast between the kitschy novelty of “lawn” furniture and the formal prestige of Harvard Yard.

Harvard Photography Journal, photography exhibit, Felix Diaz ’05: Linker Grant for an exhibition of student work.

The Harvard Advocate, “Space and Imagination,” Lily Foster ’06: Linker Grant for a show that will consist primarily of video, animation, and sculpture centered on the subject of imagination, including imagined histories, places, and experiences.

“The River Show,” Jennifer Johnston (director of the Harvard College Parents Association and special assistant for tutor orientation and dean’s office publications): Linker Grant for the creation of a transportable art gallery in Elliot House library featuring a juried array of paintings, furniture, photographs, and short films made by house students and affiliates during 2003-04. The gallery will be open to the entire Harvard and Cambridge community during Arts First.