Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

Funding will support the creation of a contemporary dance inspired by Hawaiian oral histories about the volcano goddess Pele, with the mentoring support of Hula experts Kekoa and Pele Harman. This work celebrates a cultural exchange of artistic processes, offering a model for researching Indigenous dance cultures in a culturally sensitive manner.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,891)

Funds will be used to photograph and frame several handmade silver gelatin photo collages, in a variety of sizes and depths.

Germantown, Maryland ($4,500)

This project seeks to translate the Wēnbìng Tiáobiàn 溫病條辨 (Systematized Identification of Warm Diseases, 1798 CE), one of the four foundational works of Chinese medicine, into English. The completion of this project will give English readers access herbal literature about the history of Chinese medicine.

Potomac, Maryland ($5,000)

Funds will support the post-production phase of the documentary film THE NATIONAL CAPITAL AREA: HOME TO THE WORLD, the first in the series A SACRED PIECE OF HOME, about places of worship in America constructed by distinct ethno-religious communities.

Kensington, Maryland ($4,900)

Funds will be used to develop a new body of artwork consisting of sculptural paintings and paint sculptures made with oil paint and bamboo sticks. Each work will feature interplay between the three-dimensional body of the piece, its surface image, and will echo the way our experience of the world can change with emotional and physical distance.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,579)

This project will use augmented reality along with photography, painting, and digital art techniques to form a new body of art for a public exhibition titled Space and Place.

Kensington, Maryland ($4,750)

The project is a set of 20 oil paintings that start with the text of a poem that gets painted over or becomes illegible as the artist works. While the paintings are on display, the artist will give a talk/workshop about listening and the fallibility of words.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,623)

The grantee will develop drawings based on ideas begun during the pandemic, exploring dreams and memories. The grantee will work with colored pencil, on both Arches paper and vellum, intersecting the two surfaces through gluing, cutting, and scraping the papers together. The imagery will include shadows, color, and objects under vellum that are hazy.

Gaithersburg, Maryland ($4,500)

The grantee will create a series of four natural history illustrations in watercolor, of five to twelve specimens of local flora and fauna per illustration. Each illustration will depict a season and the local wildlife as it appears during that time. The illustrations will then be made into prints.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

Transformation will use film to tell stories of change based on local residents who represent the diversity of Montgomery County. One change can unlock a person’s potential and Transformation shows we are all human.

Damascus, Maryland ($4,900)

Visualizing Data: Mass Incarceration is an art installation that investigates and visually captures the carceral landscape in the United States of America and is intended to disrupt conventional assumptions about mass incarceration and capital punishment. While aesthetically appealing, the installation also aims to combine scholarly research, engage the audience to contribute to the work, and participate in dialogue about this crucial social justice issue.

Takoma Park, Maryland ($5,000)

The grantee will create an interactive dance performance to accompany the reading of the children’s story The Rainbow Bird, a family–friendly storybook about bravery, diversity, friendship, and finding home written by Judy Lieberman and illustrated by the applicant.

Gaithersburg, Maryland ($4,500)

People | Things is a series of profiles about creatives as they are creating in their creative spaces. The series aims to explore connecting threads of creativity throughout a myriad of different endeavors and to highlight aspects of the creative process that are usually only seen by those who create the works.

Potomac, Maryland ($3,040)

WINGED will be a new short story collection with 10-12 works all linked with themes of flight. The physical and emotional metaphors of flight will be explored in these short stories.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

The grantee will record a new album of original songs. The songs are written in several styles from folk to bluegrass and from jazz to swing.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

Awakening Pt. 2 is a seven-track jazz-influenced soul album that offers a radical reimagining of how love can transform each of us, our relationships, and society. It is inspired by the book All About Love: New Visions by the late Black, feminist author bell hooks.

Bethesda, Maryland ($4,750)

Funds will support a staged reading of True North, a full-length musical theater project. The reading will culminate in a public performance.

Boyds, Maryland ($4,750)

I am Homeless – Not Less is a series of four short films based on true stories that explores the tragic and often misunderstood reality of homelessness. The goal of presenting these true stories is to help others see homelessness through the eyes of the homeless and to be more compassionate, extending a helping hand to those who crave dignity, happiness, and a chance to be “no less.”

Potomac, Maryland ($5,000)

Funds will be used to edit the applicant’s documentary Bird Walk. The documentary focuses on the birds and birdwatchers who flock to RedGate Park in Rockville, Maryland, where 166 species of birds have been identified. Birders will recount their efforts to save the land from development, discuss the joys and challenges of spotting and photographing birds, and describe the conditions that make the park an ideal habitat for a variety of birds.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,703)

Funds will be used for the research, development, and production of a series of prints.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

The grantee will write, create, and produce a late-night talk show to increase representation of people of color in television.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($3,920)

The grantee will write a collection of short stories, entitled Half of Me that focus on the representation of disability. The two main characters, Sweets and Violetta, contend with conditions that limit their life activities. Nevertheless, the two attempt a relationship, and in doing so, experience fragments of joy and humor despite the despair of their situation.

Montgomery Village, Maryland ($4,900)

In 2021, TESSI, a physical and digital toy, landed in Montgomery County from space. TESSI quickly discovered the existence of alternate universes where unique variants of itself inhabit. This year the grantee will build alternate variants of TESSI. Each variant will represent a new adventure with an associated 3D print sculpture and art. This collection of work will be The TESSI Multiverse.

Bethesda, Maryland ($4,900)

Set in the near future, the applicant’s new novel, THE HOLE IN THE SKY, examines the current fascination with technology, conspiracy theories, and misinformation through one couple’s search for their missing adult son.

Potomac, Maryland ($4,750)

Unitus is the working title for a series of new works combining paint on canvas with neon light. Unitus is the Latin word meaning “to unite” and is the underlying inspiration for this new series.

Wheaton, Maryland ($4,900)

The grantee will develop a professional website for their brand, Another DinahMyte Creation.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

Funds will support the creation of a series of large-scale multi-media drawings using formal and technical experiments, combining media and different papers. The works will seek to engage the audience in understanding layers of meaning in nature in connection to human history and today’s environment.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,900)

Funds will be used to develop a series of paintings investigating how the language of abstraction, through chance and control, can evoke the sublime. In these paintings, fluid layers of poured paint will interlace with intricately painted patterns and imagery derived from Persian paintings and illuminated manuscripts. These paintings will merge conflicting elements into sublime landscapes that tread the fine line between equilibrium and chaos.

Takoma Park, Maryland ($4,500)

Based on the Journals (1986-1999) of Abbey Lincoln, the project includes a discussion about Abbey’s musical philosophy and weekend concerts of collaborative songs from this experience.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,750)

Patterns of Connection includes the development of a new series of works inspired by the mindset of interconnectedness, and a free printmaking workshop for residents and staff at Interfaith Works Center for Women. A loss of connection exacerbates many issues being confronted today, such as systemic racism, poverty, and climate change. Conversely, deepening our sense of connection to one another and the natural world, enhances our relationships and can lead to healing.

Bethesda, Maryland ($4,745)

The grantee will explore the techniques of Silk Aquatint and learn to apply these new non-toxic methods and materials to their printmaking skills and body of work.

Potomac, Maryland ($4,200)

The grantee will compose six pieces written for classical guitar and voice to raise awareness about the immigration experience among younger generations.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($1,706)

The grantee will engage in professional development, attending a workshop in cinematography specifically for documentarians.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,900)

The grantee will attend a Society of American Fight Directors’ (SAFD) Teacher Certification Workshop. SAFD certifies teachers of stage combat. Candidates undergo thorough training in the SAFD’s weapons disciplines and experience in choreography and teaching.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,500)

The project includes the composition, recording, production, and video of new original Jazz compositions.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,500)

Project Villa Yfel began as an exploration of the psychological nature of fear, evil and the human tendency to cope with fear-inducing phenomena by transforming said phenomena into controlled fun/thrill scenarios. Funds will be used for the physical build of Villa Yfel, a complex haunted dollhouse with a fictional storyline behind its origin, which will be told in audio-recorded storytelling format.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,750)

The grantee is writing a screenplay titled Kerouac. A biopic of the legendary Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac, the screenplay explores his childhood trauma, on-the-road adventures with fellow Beat writers, romantic difficulties, radical writing style, dramatic fame, and seismic cultural impact, culminating in his alcoholic, reclusive demise.

Chevy Chase, Maryland ($5,000)

Funds will support the scriptwriting of a short documentary film detailing how the African American benevolent society Morningstar Tabernacle No. 88 of the Order of Moses provided mutual support for its members and established a community meeting place and a burial ground in Cabin John, Maryland, during a century of legal and social segregation. Viewers will learn about this little–known County history and reflect on the preservation of endangered African American historical sites.

Bethesda, Maryland ($4,750)

Funds will be used to record an EP album of original songs by the applicant. Live and virtual concerts will accompany the release of the album.

Potomac, Maryland ($4,750)

Funds will be used to create a series of pen-and-ink and watercolor sketches of 19th century residential architecture, mat and frame the sketches, and exhibit them at the Connie Morella Library in Bethesda, Maryland.

Gaithersburg, Maryland ($4,900)

Recognizing that uncovering Montgomery County’s connection to the Underground Railroad for generations to come is vital, the grantee will explore the associated sounds in a newly created choreographic work.

Silvers Spring, Maryland ($4,815)

Sligo Creek, An Intimate Landscape is an ongoing photographic project. The grantee was struck by how the bright winter light falling on the brambles in Sligo Creek woods created masses of shimmering silver and red lines. These lines in nature felt like a possibility, a way to weave a life from fragility, upheaval, and chaos into a kind of beauty. This body of work will be presented in an artist photobook and exhibitions.

Bethesda, Maryland ($4,500)

Funds will support an exhibition of the applicant’s Identity-related mixed media works. The project will include a public presentation that will address identity as experienced in today’s diversified, multicultural environment.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

The grantee provides professional arts and movement instruction and performance opportunities to women in the orthodox Jewish community. With a mentor, she has developed a professional development program to hone her craft in three focus areas: technique building, choreographic creativity, and teaching development.

Potomac, Maryland ($4,750)

The grantee will write a new screenplay, MKG / MLK: Violent and Non-Violent Encounters, placing Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) within the crucible of a dramatic plot. Both Gandhi and MLK used a principled and strategic approach to nonviolent resistance and liberation. This project will emphasize the similar and divergent ways in which they carved their individual paths.

Kensington, Maryland ($4,500)

Funds will be used for a new stone carving, a playful and whimsical work reflecting the history and present–day activities at Glen Echo. The new work will be installed at Glen Echo Art Park.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

The grantee will create and print I Know Almost Everything By Now, a graphic novel about loss and broke-open family dynamics due to a father’s terminal cancer, a teenage son’s feelings of longing and alienation, and the slow onslaught of dread and endings. Written with hindsight, but braving the then-times, the story is an ode to growing up in Rockville, MD in the 90s.

Gaithersburg, Maryland ($4,750)

The grantee will paint temporary murals in acrylic on storefront windows in the Wheaton Urban District, creating an art walk that encourages pedestrian traffic and beautifies vacant spaces.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

GOOD MOURNING will be a comforting companion to anyone who is suffering acute grief from the loss of loved one. The completed book will provide guidance to process bereavement and reassurance that life, though different, can be fulfilling again.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,900)

The grantee will research and write a young adult fiction book, the fifth in their published series, Edge of Yesterday. The story is about a science-smart girl who builds Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for a time machine for a school science fair. She bends time to meet another superhero of history, anthropologist and writer Zora Neal Hurston, an icon of the Harlem Renaissance, confidant of Langston Hughes, and storyteller of the Black experience in the American South of the Jim Crow era.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,500)

The grantee will use funds to write a new novel inspired by the idea that stories need heroes who clean up messes, who can hold onto the idea that no human is garbage, even when humans make garbage choices. The premise revolves around a crew of trash collectors that keep three cursed swords they find on the curb, propelling them into a cosmic struggle for the soul of New Jersey. They’ll face poisoned land spirits, traffickers, and raccoons so big you can ride them into battle.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

Holster Buffalo is part annotated workbook for navigating America, part physical exercise in metaphor, and part dance experiment. Inspired by the changing landscape of terrain and politics, and based on the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, the project includes original choreography, family tree lineage, cultural exchange, social justice activism, and archival documentation.

Rockville, Maryland ($4,900)

Burtonsville, Maryland ($4,900)

Funds will be used to further the applicant’s scriptwriting abilities. The grantee is a comedic performer and scriptwriter who is focused on creating media content that offers positive representation of marginalized communities through light-hearted but thought-provoking scripts.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

Funds will be used to purchase supplies for a series of installations and paintings which will be featured in an art exhibition at Sandy Spring Museum in Montgomery County. The artworks integrate folk-art elements and contemporary concepts, using vibrant colors, symbols, metaphors to explore the interconnectedness in human life that is transformed and regenerated through the historic COVID-19 pandemic, to celebrate love and our resilient human spirit.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,900)

Funds will be used to edit videos from a virtual project, Under the Baobab Tree, and to increase marketing/promotion for associated online classes/workshops. A professional transfer of older materials from VHS will minimize the risk of losing ethnographic data collected by the applicant.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($4,750)

Funds will support the creation and framing of watercolor paintings on Yupo based on antique scientific instruments as exhibited at the San Francisco International Airport and in the collection of Mark McElyea. The grantee plans to exhibit the art in galleries at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda.

Potomac, Maryland ($5,000)

This project is an original, fifteen-minute abstract dance piece choreographed in a canonical structure (“Pallavi”) within the Indian classical dance style Odissi. It involves iteratively and collaboratively composing an original piece of music according to the style’s conventions and creating a performance-quality recording. The dance piece incorporates the raga mood Chandrakauns and the choreographer’s chosen visual motifs.

Kensington, Maryland ($5,000)

ALLIANCE, a documentary film, tells the story of the Alliance Colony, settled in 1882 by Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Russia. As one of over 40 now forgotten Jewish agricultural communities, including communities in Maryland, Alliance was the first and most successful colony. This is a personal story, as the applicant’s great-great-grandparents were among the original 43 founding families. The film interprets a vital part of Jewish history and immigration for local audiences.

Derwood, Maryland ($4,900)

Funds support the development of a dance film. The film will incorporate modern and urban dance styles to dissect the many ups and downs of being human, and our connections to others through physical alignment.

Silver Spring, Maryland ($5,000)

The project is a series of educational puppet shows with a focus on acceptance of differences, including but not limited to age, race, gender, language, and cultural experiences.