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FY20 Wheaton Cultural Project Grants

$91,815 awarded for January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020

Wheaton Cultural Project Grants support impactful projects taking place in the Wheaton community. Projects provide cultural opportunities for artists and scholars to work in Wheaton. Eight organizations and three individuals (11 total grantees) received FY20 Wheaton Cultural Project Grants.

• Wheaton Wonders, Wheaton, Maryland ($9,790)
  Grant funds will be used to produce the fourth annual Wheaton Arts Parade and art festival to celebrate local artists, cultural organizations, and Wheaton’s cultural diversity. The Wheaton Arts Parade presents Wheaton as an arts friendly community and an arts destination. The parade and festival help the community appreciate its wealth of art and culture. Grant funds will be used for equipment rental, printing, insurance, marketing, arts supplies, and workshop instructors.
• Leila Cabib, Potomac, Maryland ($9,500)
  Grant funds will be used to provide free multi-session animation and graphic novel creation classes for children, multi-session cartooning classes for seniors, and five self-contained, one-hour animation workshops (four for children and one for seniors) at the Wheaton Library during spring, summer, and fall 2020.
• Urban Artistry, Silver Spring, Maryland ($9,000)
  The International Soul Society Festival is a weeklong series of events celebrating the full spectrum of Hip-Hop, Urban Arts, and its many influences. This annual festival creates an opportunity for inspiration and collaboration between global artists and the Wheaton community. In FY20, Urban Artistry plans to emphasize Blues and Roots Music as foundational to urban dance culture and urban dance culture as traditional American culture.
• Brian Frankel, Wheaton, Maryland ($8,800)
  Grant funds will be used to produce the 6th annual Wheaton Film Festival and the 5th annual Make a Movie in a Month The applicant will offer educational panels, networking opportunities, film screenings, and a month-long collaborative filmmaking project that will take place in Wheaton. The 2020 Wheaton Film Festival is scheduled for Friday, November 13, 2020.
• Joanne Miller, Bethesda, Maryland ($8,600)
  Grant funds will support a yearlong photography and oral history project engaging Wheaton community members in documenting the changing landscape of Wheaton’s architecture, green spaces, residents, and businesses. The project will be led by artist Joanne Miller collaborating with community partner Montgomery History. Westfield Wheaton Mall will host coordinated exhibits, pop-up events, artist and history talks, and social media outreach. Wheaton High School ESOL teachers will facilitate student participation. One Montgomery Green will collaborate on green spaces artist photo walks.
• New Orchestra of Washington, Rockville, Maryland ($8,400)
  Grant funds will be used to support three family concert performances tailored to children. The concerts will take place in January and June 2020. The project features new and recent work by ALAANA composers, including a world premieres commissioned by the New Orchestra of Washington (NOW), which will be site-specific to the playground at the Wheaton Local Park, and will utilize the playground’s innovative new outdoor musical instruments. 2020 will be the third consecutive year that NOW has presented a family concert, but it is the first year that NOW will present a series of such events.
• DC Beauty of Beijing Opera Ltd, North Potomac, Maryland ($6,725)
  Grant funds will be used to support a presentation of Asian traditional performing arts, including music, dance and theater, to broaden the cultural horizon of local residents and advance the philosophy of harmonious society in Wheaton, MD.
• DC South Asian Arts Council Inc., Gaithersburg, Maryland ($7,900)
  DC South Asian Arts Council Inc., (DCSAACI) will host the ninth annual Washington DC South Asian Film Festival (DCSAFF) to showcase independent cinema by South Asians in the USA and from South Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. DCSAFF offers the community a unique opportunity to learn about South Asia’s multi-faceted culture. DCSAFF will screen feature, documentary, and short films with South Asian content at AMC Wheaton Mall 9.
• Six Degree Singers, Silver Spring, Maryland ($7,800)
  Six Degree Singers (SDS) educators will serve a newly recruited class of 35 adult students weekly, as well as children at public schools in Wheaton bi-monthly. SDS educators will also provide a series of concerts in Wheaton at public events culminating in a concert at Hughes United Methodist Church. Grant funds will be used for artist stipends and the production, marketing, and venue costs of the concert series.
• ClancyWorks Dance Company, Silver Spring, Maryland ($7,800)
  Grant funds will be used to continue and expand a multi-faceted program bringing together a diverse cultural and inter-generational population through a series of workshops in the Wheaton community. The series of workshops will culminate in performances by various members of the Wheaton community including middle school students, high school students, senior citizens, and the ClancyWorks Dance Company.
• ChorSymphonica (formerly the Rockville Bach Academy), Rockville, Maryland ($7,500)
  Grant funds will support a musical and educational event, the presentation of Bach’s Cantata No. 71, Gott ist mein König (God is my King), with introductions in English and Spanish on November 7, 2020 at Hughes United Methodist Church. The cantata, one of several Bach composed for the election of the town council, offers a historic view of how a new government or administration was welcomed in Bach’s time.

FY20 Arts Residencies in Schools Grants

$39,599 awarded for January 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020

Arts Residencies in Schools Grants (ARSG) support the work of individual teaching artists trained in curriculum-based arts education. Teaching artists collaborate with a classroom teacher to develop an arts education program for students during the school day.

• Ali Oliver-Krueger, Eastern Middle School and White Oak Middle School ($6,000)
  Grant funds will be used for a theatre residency by Ali Oliver-Krueger, exploring Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other selected Shakespearean texts, with 7^th grade students at Eastern Middle School. Students in twelve 7^th grade English classes will participate in a sequentially structured residency of 4 sessions each. Over the course of the residency, students will explore, analyze, interpret and perform selections from Shakespeare’s plays. A second residency exploring only Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with 7^th grade students will take place at White Oak Middle School. Students in all ten 7^th grade English classes will follow the same structure as the first residency.
• Carien Quiroga, Summit Hall Elementary School ($6,000)
  Grant funds will be used for South African-born artist Carien Quiroga to work with 3^rd grade students at Summit Hall Elementary School. Students will create a large-scale glass mosaic mural that will be permanently installed on the exterior facade of the building. During this collaborative mosaic mural making residency, students will learn about the history and culture of South Africa. Students will also find inspiration in their own personal heritage and traditions, while creating a painted and mosaic mural that will celebrate the school community and the many cultures and voices it represents.
• Leila Cabib, Glenallan Elementary School ($6,000)
  Grant funds will be used for a cartooning residency during which 4^th grade students at Glenallan Elementary School will work with teaching artist Leila Cabib to write and illustrate their own original fairy tales in graphic novel format. Each student will complete one page in pen ink and color. The students’ artwork will be displayed at the school.
• Arianna Ross, Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School and JoAnn Leleck Elementary School ($5,998)
  Arianna Ross will work with a cross-section of teachers and students at Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School on a project focused on storytelling and building literacy skills. The project will include: 1) a 2-hour professional development workshop held during staff meeting time to maximize teacher participation; 2) back-to-back performances for the whole school to enjoy; and 3) a series of three 45-minute workshops for six classrooms. For the second residency, JoAnn Leleck Elementary School has asked Arianna Ross to work with the 1^st grade class to focus on developing their literacy skills. The second residency is structured the same as the first, except the series of workshops will be for seven classrooms.
• Sue Fierston, Dr. Martin Luther King Middle School ($3,601)
  Grant funds will be used to allow 220 6^th grade students at Dr. Martin Luther King Middle School to work with Sue Fierston over 4 days to create a 9 x 12 inch watercolor painting. The painting will reinforce a lesson in ekphrasis. Students will write a poem inspired by a work of art they will see on a field trip to the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Over four 45-minute lessons, students will learn art skills with Ms. Fierston, including contour drawing, watercolor painting, and interpreting symbolic color, and will create a symbolic watercolor painting reflecting the emotion of their poem.
• Joanne Miller, Wheaton Woods Elementary School ($6,000)
  Teaching Artist and photographer Joanne Miller will lead 3^rd grade students at Wheaton Woods Elementary School on a photographic journey. This arts-integrated residency is designed to bring the study of art and nature into the classroom and students outside to photograph the natural world. Classroom instruction begins with art vocabulary and ecosystem concepts. Instruction in camera use precedes photography outdoors with 30 cameras provided by the artist. Students will use their imaginations to create a collage incorporating two chosen photographs and a drawing to demonstrate understanding of art and ecosystem concepts.
• Adrienne Clancy, Albert Einstein High School and A. Mario Loiederman Middle School ($6,000)
  Grant funds will be used for a dance integration residency at Einstein High School focused on history and world cultural themes, which will be conducted with a core group of 9^th – 12^th grade students. Students will work with Dr. Clancy and a teaching assistant to create work using improvisation, choreographic devices and structures, and the elements of dance to highlight historical and cultural themes. A second residency will take place at Loiederman Middle School, focused on the same themes, which will be conducted with a core group of 7^th – 8^th grade students.