Featured on Arizona Illustrated, this TPAC-funded exhibit hosted by the Worker Transit Authority looks at Tucson’s life in cars. The broadcast includes interviews with TPAC Executive Director Roberto Bedoya and artist/architect Bill Mackey.

“Read the related Arizona Public Media story”

Press Release

Contact: Roberto Bedoya | 520.624.0595 x. 25

TPAC Announces 2012 Lumies Arts & Business Award Nominees

TUCSON, AZ – Tucson Pima Arts Council is thrilled to announce the slate of nominees for the 2012 Lumies Arts and Business Awards, which celebrate the outstanding businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals who help build the unique and distinctive character of Tucson and Pima County.

Nominees for this year’s Lumies include bedrocks of the arts and culture community whose patronage has buoyed organizations and artists through the economic difficulties of the past year as well as brand new arts programs and organizations whose work has already made a big splash.

The Artist Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes a county resident for an outstanding creative body of work, includes a diverse cadre of local superstars.  Tucson Symphony Orchestra director George Hanson, visual and performing artist To-Ree-Nee Wolf McArdle, artist and curator Gail Marcus Orlen, botanical illustrator Manabu Saito, and visual artist Marvin Shaver have all received nods in this category.  The Outstanding Emerging Artist Awards recognize newer talent who show exceptional promise.  The nominees are poet Amy Briseño, visual artist Mel “Melo” Dominguez, musician Sergio Mendoza, and muralist Joe Pagac.

Nominees for the Outstanding Established Arts Organization include treasured Pima County institutions 91.3 KXCI Community Radio, Children’s Museum of Tucson, Museum of Contemporary Art, New ARTiculations Dance Theatre, Rhythm and Roots, University of Arizona Press, and UA Presents.  They will be recognized alongside newcomers in the Outstanding Emerging Arts Organization nominees Fluxx Studio & Gallery, the Fund for Civility, Respect & Understanding’s Antibullying Task Force, Stories that Soar!, and Velociprints.

Winners will be announced at the Lumies Arts & Business Awards ceremony on June 15, 2012, at El Casino Ballroom in Tucson.  The annual celebration includes a casual reception, dinner, awards ceremony, and post-event dancing.  This year’s musical performance will be Emerging Artist nominee Sergio Mendoza y la Orkesta, who will infuse his unique brand of “classic big band Latin indie mambo” music for the delight of guests, nominees, and winners.  The general public is invited to attend and toast the accomplishments of the entire region’s arts and culture movers and shakers.

To demonstrate the symbiotic relationship and partnerships between arts and business, the Lumies recognize both small and large businesses for their nurturing, support, and championing of local arts endeavors.  Outstanding Large Business Partner nominees include Buffalo Exchange, which sponsors an annual arts award; General Growth Properties, which sponsors myriad arts events at Tucson and Park Place Malls, and the Tucson International Airport, which displays a variety of art by local and regional artists.  Outstanding Small Business Partner nominees are Bentley’s House of Coffee & Tea, home to the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam events; Cemrock, which assists public artists and constructs rock-like facades for our cultural institutions; Feast, which displays local art; Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, PC, which turned its offices into a rotating art gallery; and Tucson Botanical Gardens, which extends invitations to artists to curate shows on its grounds.

Arts and culture organizations rely heavily on support from donors and volunteers as well.  The Outstanding Arts Patron award nominees include exceptional individuals whose commitment to growing arts and culture opportunities in our region had a significant impact on a variety of organizations.  The nominees for 2012 are Jean-Paul Bierny, Al & Marilyn Cook, Fletcher McCusker, and Julie Sasse.

This year’s newest category, the Outstanding Public Art Partner, recognizes significant contributions to public art display by a business or organization.  The inaugural nominees include Beyond Bread, Northwest Medial Center – Oro Valley Hospital, and Tucson Medical Center, all of which have made steps to curate public art collections on their grounds.

Because of the significant value arts education has on the intellectual and social development of all county residents, especially children, TPAC also sponsors categories to recognize exceptional programs and teachers.  The Oustanding Art Educator Award nominees include David Andres, Mariana Carreras, and Stevie Mack.  Outstanding Arts Education Program nominees include Odaiko Sonora, Pan Left Productions, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson Arts Brigade, and Tucson Jazz Institute.

“The Lumie” is the name of the physical award presented to each winner. Designed and produced by local artist Tom Philabaum, each Lumie is a beautiful disc of hand blown glass, crafted to resemble the intricate markings of natural snakeskin. The awards recognize outstanding contributions to the arts by Pima County residents whose work nurtures our community, our economy, and Pima County’s unique identity.  The Awards began in 2001 as the Mayor’s Arts Awards under the leadership of Beth Walkup. In 2005, it was renamed the Tucson Pima Arts and Business Awards to emphasize the relationship between the arts, artists, and local commerce.

Tickets for the event can be purchased online at http://lumies2012.eventbrite.com.  Admission is $35 in advance or $45 at the door.

Nominee List

Established Arts Organization

91.3 KXCI Community Radio

Chidren’s Museum Tucson

Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson

New ARTiculations Dance Theater

Rhythm and Roots

The University of Arizona Press

UApresents

Large Business Partner

Buffalo Exchange

General Growth Properties – Tucson Mall & Park Place

Tucson Airport Authority/Tucson International Airport

Arts Patron

Jean-Paul Bierny

Al & Marilyn Cook

Fletcher McCusker

Julie Sasse

Small Business Partner

Bentley’s House of Coffee and Tea

Cemrock

Feast

Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, P.C.

Tucson Botanical Gardens

Artist Lifetime Achievement

George Hanson

To-Ree-Nee Wolf McArdle

Gail Marcus Orlen

Manabu Saito

Marvin Shaver

Arts Education Program

Odaiko Sonora

Pan Left Productions 

The University of Arizona Poetry Center

Tucson Arts Brigade

Tucson Jazz Institute

Visiting Artists, Scholars & Exhibitions program (VASE) – University of Arizona College of Fine Arts School of Art

Arts Educator

David Andres

Mariana Carreras

Stevie Mack

Public Art Partner

Beyond Bread

Northwest Medical Center – Oro Valley Hospital

Tucson Medical Center

Emerging Arts Organization

Fluxx Studio & Gallery

Fund for Civility, Respect and Understanding a project of the Community Foundation for Southern

Arizona Anti-Bullying Task Force

Stories that Soar!

VelociPrints

Emerging Artist

Amy Briseño

Mel “Melo” Dominguez

Sergio Mendoza

Joe Pagac

Chairman of National Endowment for the Arts Visits Tucson:

Tuesday, February 28, 2012
12:00 to 1:30 p.m

Creative Placemaking Conversation Open to Public
RSVP:  info@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman will visit Tucson on February 28. The public is invited to a panel discussion and community conversation on Creative Placemaking with him at noon at the Leo Rich Theatre.

The chairman’s visit to Tucson is prompted by his interest in learning more about the Tucson Pima Arts Council’s NEA “Our Town” grant – which supports cultural asset mapping associated with the Warehouse Arts District and TPAC’s P.L.A.C.E. (People, Land, Arts, Culture, and Engagement) Initiative. Landesman also will be a guest at “FILM FORWARD: Advancing Cultural Dialogue,” an initiative of the Sundance Institute taking place in Tucson in partnership with the Loft Cinema.

The free public event on Creative Placemaking with Landesman and other panelists will be from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. at the Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church Ave. TPAC also has scheduled a morning walking tour for Landesman of Tucson’s Art Warehouse District with Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild, Elizabeth Burden of the Warehouse Arts Management Organization and civic leaders.

Landesman is the tenth chair of the NEA. He ran a private investment fund before becoming president of Jujamcyn, a company that owns five Broadway theatres. His Tony award winning productions include “Big River,” “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” “Angels in America: Perestroika” and “The Producers.” He also has a passion for minor league baseball and country music. He holds a doctorate in dramatic literature from Yale.

“We know that when we bring the arts and artists into towns and cities, it changes those places profoundly,” he said. Landesman is visiting many communities across the country that have received Our Town grants. “Creative placemaking is about how the arts can change and transform places, where the arts can intersect with the real world,” he has said.

Also participating in the panel discussion and community conversation are Maribel Alvarez, program director of Tucson Meet Yourself, Tucson artist Bill Mackey and Gail Browne, executive director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center.

Alvarez is a recipient of a TPAC P.L.A.C.E. initiative award to conduct a neighborhood cultural asset mapping project with the San Ignacio Yaqui Council in Old Pascua, a historic barrio in Tucson.

Mackey received a P.L.A.C.E award for a participatory arts project – the Worker Transit Authority – which looks at the relationship between infrastructure and choice as it relates to the built environment. The Worker Transit Authority explores the question How do you move through the city?

Browne and the Poetry Center have an extensive history of community partnerships and programs that illuminate placemaking through collaborative practices.

The free Creative Placemaking event will be moderated by Roberto Bedoya, executive director of TPAC. The event is free to the public, but TPAC requests an advance RSVP with names of attendees sent to info@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

Bedoya said, “Tucson is a community that values and supports creative placemaking and that is why the chairman is visiting us. His visit will offer him opportunities to learn more about how our local arts community creates civic belonging, contributes to the local economy and feeds the vitality, distinctiveness and identity of what makes Tucson unique.”

For more information, contact TPAC at 624-0595.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Open Society Institute, the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

Press Release

Contact: Charles Jensen | 520.624.0895 x. 19 | cjensen@tucsonpimaartscouncil.org

This year’s awards include a new category to recognize a “Public Art Partner,” an organization or business whose inclusion of public art has a positive impact on the community around them.  Nine other categories will carry over from last year, including Outstanding Arts Patron, Emerging Arts Organization, Small Business Partner, and Artist Lifetime Achievement.  A complete list of categories and descriptions is included at the end of this document.

The Tucson Pima Arts and Business Awards, affectionately known as the “Lumies,” recognize outstanding contributions to the arts by Pima County residents whose work nurtures our community, our economy, and Pima County’s unique identity.  The Awards began in 2001 as the Mayor’s Arts Awards under the leadership of Beth Walkup. In 2005, it was renamed the Tucson Pima Arts and Business Awards to emphasize the relationship between the arts, artists, and local commerce.

“The arts and culture sector continues to be an economic driver for Pima County,” says Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director of TPAC.  “Our thriving local arts and culture scene, from galleries to concert venues, theatres to festivals, museums to literary centers, keeps local money local and attracts tourist dollars from across the country.  The Lumies celebrate our arts and culture leaders who work hard and contribute much to our cultural vibrancy.”

Ventana Medical Systems received a Lumie as 2009’s Outstanding Business Partner.  “Having The Ventana Gallery recognized by the community has encouraged us to include nationally recognized artists in our quarterly art shows, like the recent Adriel Heisey Exhibition,” says Cathy Gawronski, Chair of the Ventana Medical Systems, Inc, Gallery.  “Our core purpose, however, is to support burgeoning local artists and guilds who might not otherwise have an opportunity to showcase their work.  We believe the Lumie Award ultimately supports these new artists in bringing more exposure to their works.”

“The Lumie” is the name of the physical award presented to each winner. Designed and produced by local artist Tom Philabaum, each Lumie is a beautiful disc of hand blown glass, crafted to resemble the intricate markings of natural snakeskin.

The Lumies Award Ceremony will be held June 15, 2012, at the historic El Casino Ballroom in South Tucson.  Everyone in the community is invited to attend the event and to celebrate the contributions of Pima County’s arts and culture movers and shakers.  The ceremony will feature drinks, hors d’oeuvres, and a live musical performance.  “The El Casino Ballroom is really the perfect place for this event,” says Sally Krommes, who coordinated last year’s very successful ceremony for TPAC.  “The architecture and the energy of the ballroom itself feed into the spirit of the Lumies so seamlessly. Everyone had a blast.”

Nominations for the 2012 Lumie Awards can be submitted online.  Complete guidelines are available at http://www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org/programs/lumies/lumie-nomination/.
Nominations are due by midnight on April 12, 2012

2012 Lumies Arts and Business Awards Categories

Emerging Arts Organization This award will be presented to an organization operating fewer than ten years, given in recognition of their innovation and creativity in their field.

Established Arts Organization This award will be presented to an organization operating for more than ten years, given in recognition of their innovation, creativity and sustained excellence in their field.

Arts Patron This award will be presented to an individual demonstrating outstanding leadership, evidenced by support in advancing the arts through advocacy and promotion of the arts through individual resources.

Arts Educator This award will be presented to an individual demonstrating outstanding leadership, innovation, and creativity in arts education. Individuals may be involved in primary, secondary, or independent educational programs.

Arts Education Program This award will be presented to an organization demonstrating outstanding leadership, innovation, and creativity in its arts education program.

Small Business Partner This award will be presented for outstanding support of the arts by a business with fewer than 50 employees.  This category recognizes a business that promotes the value of the arts as a strong, vibrant economic development partner through the donation of financial support, resources, leadership or other resources that promote the arts in the region.

Large Business Partner This award will be presented for outstanding support of the arts by a business with more than 50 employees. This category recognizes a business that promotes the value of the arts as a strong, vibrant economic development partner through the donation of financial support, resources, leadership or other resources that promote arts in the region.

Public Art Partner This award will be presented to a business or organization whose inclusion of public art has a positive impact on the community.

Emerging Artist This award will be presented to an emerging artist for her or his outstanding innovation in a chosen field of art.

Artist Lifetime Achievement This award will be presented to an individual artist who has sustained excellence and innovation in her or his art over a significant number of years.

For more than 25 years TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art.. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

Through Tucson Pima Arts Council
National Foundations Provide $103,963
For 18 Arts-Based Civic Engagement Grants

TUCSON, AZ – From now through next December, 18 local organizations will create arts-based projects designed to strengthen cross-cultural understanding, increase tolerance and encourage a more civil society.

Tucson Pima Arts Council awarded grants totaling $103,963 with funding received from Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Open Society Institute.

“These awards illuminate how Tucsonans working in the creative arts are building bridges and contributing to our civic wellbeing. These awards speak to the fact that our community is working to bring out the best in us,” said Robert Bedoya, TPAC’s executive director. “It’s all about building bridges of understanding,” he said.

• “Beyond Groceries” will explore the relationships between Tucson’s Chinese grocers of old and multi-ethnic neighborhoods. This is a project of the Tucson Chinese Association.

• “Page to Stage and Beyond” will use performance poetry to examine stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings between Mexican American and Native American communities. This is a Safos Dance Theatre project.

• “The Wonder of We” will create a sense of place by giving Tucson a face – posting portraits of people of all ages throughout the city. Lewis Humphreys, organizer and curator of TEDxTucson, will head this project.

• Pan Left Productions will use the voice of homeless youth to create a media arts project that addresses the systemic causes that lead to children raising themselves on the streets of our city.

• C.A.S.T. will provide expressive arts workshops for homeless youth that will culminate in a collection of stories presented in a public performance.

• “Bus Stop Dreaming” is an eight-month oral history project concerning recent deportations that will culminate in a multi-media performance. This will be led by Denise Uyehara, performance artist, writer and playwright.
• “Soundscapes, Landscapes and Lifescapes” will be an exhibit that celebrates the rich cultural heritage of the Arizona/Sonora borderland. This is a project of the University of Arizona Museum of Art.

• Through a Tucson Meet Yourself project, UA ethnographers will train up to 25 “community scholars” to record and share stories of cross-cultural mixing, migrations, civic participation and artistic practices.

• Self-described “writer, videographer, composer, musician and recovering scientist” Dan Buckley will produce a documentary on the El Casino Ballroom, Tucson’s original community center.

• In “Bringing Numerical Statistics to Life”  Wesley Fawcett Creigh will create larger-than-life portraits of women in detention centers.

TPAC also awarded grants for projects by All Souls Procession, Borderlands Theatre, Esperanza Dance Project, the Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network, The Loft Cinema, New ARTticulations Dance Theatre, Stories That Soar! and Tucson Arts Brigade. Grants ranged in amount from $1,560 to $7,000.

“This wonderful array of projects helps us appreciate the vibrancy of our civil society and just how dynamic and rich our community is,” Bedoya said.

TPAC applied for funding from several national foundations, addressing the broad topic of building a civil society. “Arts and culture can inspire citizens to transform neighborhoods and encourage civic dialogue around challenging issues,” he said.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation, based in New York, supports a wide range of projects, including community-based artistic and cultural projects that build a just society. The Open Society Institute is dedicated to building vibrant and tolerant democracies and funds projects worldwide.

This foundation support further develops the TPAC’s Tucson P.L.A.C.E. initiative – which stands for People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

The Tucson Pima Arts Council selected 18 local organizations and individuals to receive the Tucson: P.L.A.C.E. Initiative grant funded by The Nathan Cummings Foundation and Open Society Institute. The grants range from $1,500 to $ 7,000 and total $ 103,963.00.

P.L.A.C.E. III  Initiative Recipients and Projects 2011-2012:

Borderlands Theater- this project will embrace civic engagement through the annual Tucson Pastorela.

Clean And Sober Theatre (CAST) Compass Behavioral Health Care- C.A.S.T. Encore! will provide two six-week expressive arts workshops to homeless youth served by partnering agencies that will culminate in a collection of stories to be presented in a public performance.

Daniel Buckley- will conduct an oral history project that will document  and re-energize Tucson’s original community center, El Casino Ballroom, while engaging the Latino and multi-cultural communities it has brought together with an air of dignity and civility.

Denise Uyehara- an eight-month oral history project with the South Tucson community concerning recent Police/Border Patrol deportations, culminating in a  multi-media performance at actual sites of deportation in the city.

Esperanza Dance Project- is a multi-media performance project whose mission is to raise awareness, create visibility and educate teens and adults in Tucson and throughout Arizona, about childhood sexual abuse and sexual assault through the use of dance/performance, language/writing and visual art/film.

Lewis Humphreys- is creating a sense of place by giving Tucson a face, through a project entitled “The Wonder of We”. Humphreys will be posting  portraits of people of all ages throughout the city of Tucson to engage the public in civic dialogue about place.

NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre- Re:Configurations: Dance and Stories is a series of workshops and a performance addressing issues of identity and relationship in Tucson’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) community using modern dance, storytelling , performance and civic dialogue.

Pan Left Productions- is conducting a media arts project using homeless youth voice to ignite the people of Tucson to take action on the systemic causes of children raising themselves on the streets in our city.

The All Souls Procession-The All Souls Procession provides a substantial forum for the expression of grief and despair in a creative, uplifting and deep manner for all of its participants.

Safos Dance Theatre- this project is a collaborative two week long arts education residency for Pistor MS and Hiaki HS that will address issue of stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings between the Mexican American and Native American communities

Iskashitaa Refugee Harvesting Network- using culinary and traditional arts of Tucson’s refugees, Iskashitaa RHN will engage the Tucson community to address preservation of heritage food waste under health wellness and the local food system using digital stories and direct engagement.

Stories that Soar!- documented on film for audiences of all abilities, this multitier project uses theatrical storytelling and the creative arts to empower deaf and blind youth by highlighting their unique realities and sharing them in general public.

The Loft Cinema-The free Human Rights Watch Film Festival, bears witness to human rights violations and creates a community forum for outcome-based cross-cultural discourse.

University of Arizona Museum of Art (UAMA)- The Border Project: Soundscapes, Landscapes and Lifescapes is  an exhibit celebrating the rich cultural heritage of the Arizona/Sonora borderlands.

Tucson Arts Brigade- this project works with youth, elders, and adults and provides multi-disciplinary (drawing, painting, design, research, dialogue) arts and cultural activities that addresses critical community needs in the 29th Street Coalition neighborhoods of Tucson.

Tucson Chinese Association- this project returns to selected Tucson neighborhoods to explore the relations of historic Chinese grocers with their neighbors and the associated history of tolerance in those multi-ethnic communities.

Tucson Meet Yourself- brings the tools and methods of ethnographic documentation from the university to the community to train up to 25 community scholars in Tucson/Pima County to record and share stories of cross-cultural mixing, migrations, civic participation and artistic practices.

Wesley Fawcett Creigh- this project addresses concerns around the relatively recent practice of detaining women in Arizona; larger than life-size portraits of women detainees will be created through public participation at various local events in 2012.

Funded by the City of Tucson through TPAC, these grants will help nonprofit organizations address priorities that will help them sustain, thrive and grow during these challenging economic times, according to Leia Maahs, TPAC grants and community cultural development manager.

“As government funding for the arts diminished, TPAC re-envisioned its grants process and focused on using public monies to strengthen our local arts and culture organizations and grow the vitality of our city’s creative culture for the long term,” Maahs said.

The grants are a direct response to the current economic climate. They support creative thinking and leadership in the nonprofit arts and cultural sector.

“These awards are resources that will support the dynamic adaptability of our cultural community as it moves through this sputtering economy. They also affirm the public’s support of Tucson’s diverse art organizations and their valuable contribution to our civic well-being.” Says Roberto Bedoya, TPAC’s Executive Director.

TPAC awarded eight $2,500 grants, seventeen $5,000 grants and six $10,000 grants. A total of 46 organizations applied, detailing the challenges they were facing and how the grant would sustain operations, strengthen management capacity and further the mission of the organization.

Recipients of the $10,000 grants were among the first to submit information through the Arizona Cultural Data Project, part of a national database sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts. Organizations input detailed background including financial, programmatic, demographic and operational data one time, then continue to access and update the information into the future.

To date, Arizona is one of 11 states participating in the project that began in 2004 after four years of research and a $2.3 million investment by The Pew Charitable Trusts in the Cultural Data Project. Until then there had been no standardized system for gathering cultural data.

As use of the database expands, local organizations will have increased visibility and opportunities. Funders around the nation use this information plan and evaluate grant-making activities.

In addition to TPAC, other organizations in Arizona using this database for grant funding include the Arizona Commission on the Arts, City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, Flagstaff Cultural Partners, Flinn Foundation and Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

The database also helps participating organizations to easily track trends and benchmark their progress through sophisticated reporting tools.

Through sustainability grants, the new database project, economic impact research and community cultural development projects, TPAC’s Grants Program is committed to provide the resources organizations need to increase their capacity, leverage new resources and support the growth of a vibrant and diverse nonprofit arts and culture community in Tucson, Arizona Maahs said.

The grant recipients are:

$10,000 – Arizona Theatre Company, Loft Cinema, The Drawing Studio, Tucson Botanical Gardens, Tucson Museum of Art and Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

$5,000 – Ballet Arts Foundation, Beowulf Alley Theatre, Borderlands Theatre, Chax Press, Kore Press, Live Theatre Workshop, NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre, Odaiko Sonora, Pan Left Productions, The Rogue Theatre, Tucson Arts Brigade, Tucson Chamber Artists, Tucson Literacy Movement, Tucson Meet Yourself, Tucson Pops Orchestra, Warehouse Arts Management Organization and ZUZI! Dance Company.

$2,500 – FUNHOUSE Movement Theatre, Lead Guitar, Safos Dance Theatre, Sons of Orpheus – The Male Choir of Tucson, Studio Connections of Arizona, The Symphony Women’s Association, Tucson Kitchen Musicians Association and Winding Road Theatre Ensemble.

TPAC has served as the arts agency for both the City of Tucson and Pima County for more than 25 years. TPAC awards grants, oversees public art programs, offers professional development services to artists and arts leaders, and maintains a roster of teaching artists for community projects and public art. TPAC also partners with Americans for the Arts on economic impact research and implements community-based cultural development projects with the Kresge Foundation and Community Foundation of Southern Arizona. For more information call (520) 624-0595 or visit www.tucsonpimaartscouncil.org.

August 2011

P.L.A.C.E. initiative grants range from $2,500 to $10,000 and are available for individual artists, arts and culture organizations, and community-based projects through a panel review process. Community engagement and civic dialogue are cornerstones of the initiative, making it uniquely competitive and project oriented.

“The Kresge Foundation gave us the means to implement the P.L.A.C.E. initiative,” says Roberto Bedoya, TPAC’s Executive Director, “a key recommendation from the Pima Cultural Plan completed in 2008.”

P.L.A.C.E. II Initiative Recipients and Projects 2011:

Ben’s Bells – Commit to Kindness Mural: Engages minds, hearts, and hands in a public art project with enduring value for theTucson community.

BICAS – Bridging Generations: Connecting Armory Park Seniors and Youth through Art: Connects seniors and youth in learning projects that explore history in relation to the present to build a deeper understanding of personal experience.

Bill Mackey – Worker Transit Authority: Presents events that incorporate performance, graphics, and data in a participatory manner designed to facilitate discussion about the issues of land use, infrastructure, transportation and the environment.

Borderlands Theater – Welcome Refugees and Immigrants: Fosters civic dialogue through theater productions that addressTucson refugee and immigrant communities.

Casa Libre en la Solana – Made for Flight: Produces a youth empowerment workshop series that includes transgender history, ally development, creative writing and kite building to commemorate the lives of transgender individuals who have recently passed.

Finding Voice – Finding Voice Project: Engages refugees and immigrants atCatalinaMagnetHigh School to develop their personal and community voice through literacy, visual arts, and civic engagement.

Kore Press – Coming in Hot Civil Discourse Tour & Cross Cultural Interviewing Project: Engages the public through performance and storytelling to help create social change by raising awareness and bridging cultural and generational gaps.

New ARTiculations – FLOW: Dancing for Water Awareness in the Desert (Phase 2): Engages the community in an interactive dialogue about the past and present flow of water inTucson to inform the creation and presentation of a dance performance in theSanta Cruz riverbed.

Pan Left Productions – Community Media Education Project: Produces youth-oriented courses in media literacy and production focusing on under-represented community voices.

Sharmoore Productions – Stories Thrive in ’05: Engages elementary students in the development of stories that are transformed into performances and picture books.

The Drawing Studio – Neighborhood and Family Outreach: Involves youth at risk for gang involvement, substance abuse, and truancy in art education to develop skills to create a narrative work that explores their relationship to larger family and cultural histories.

Tucson Meet Yourself – Old Pascua Cultural Inventory: Provides workshops on folk life, community asset mapping, and digital photographic documentation in partnership with San Ignacio Yaqui Council in the Old Pascua neighborhood.

Tucson artist Denise Uyehara (left) and Roberto Bedoya (right), executive director of Tucson Pima Arts Council, discuss the public dialogue over arts and politics.
The Tucson Pima Arts Council and Alliance for Audience/ShowUp.com are inviting southern Arizona residents to engage in a conversation about the role of artists in the broader community.
“Arts, Culture & Democracy: A Tucson Community Discussion” is giving participants a chance to hear from leaders from both the political and artistic realms, including Ron Barber, district director of the office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, local artist Denise Uyehara, and Doug McLennan, the Seattle-based founder and editor of ArtsJournal.
Uyehara and Roberto Bedoya, executive director of Tucson Pima Arts Council, join Arizona Illustrated to discuss the project. They say its goal is to advance public dialogue about important issues, not to politicize the arts.

Watch the actual interview:

The Tucson Pima Arts Council selected 15 local organizations and individuals to receive the first Kresge Arts in Tucson: P.L.A.C.E. Initiative grants funded by The Kresge Foundation. The grants range from $1,500 to $10,000 and total $82,000.

P.L.A.C.E. I  Initiative Recipients and Projects 2010:

Borderlands Theatre – for the production of a play and workshops to be held in two Southside community venues addressing the issues of women who cross the U.S./Mexico border illegally.

Catalina Magnet High School / Finding Voice – helping refugee and immigrant students use autobiographical writing and photography to find their personal voices while conducting opportunities for civic engagement to address community issues.

Toltecali Academy/Barrio Sustainability Project – students will work with community members to research neighborhood environmental issues impacting the community such as TCE (trichloroethylene), a ground water contaminant, and then create a mural reflecting their community work.

City High School – using oral history, photography, writing and theatre to engage directly with the public – on the street, in print, over the radio and online – focusing on downtown revitalization and historic preservation of 48 E. Pennington St.

CODAC Behavioral Health Services – working with artist David Tineo and the Hendrick Acres Neighborhood Association to create a mural about overcoming the stigma of mental illness and addiction.

Filmmaker Jaime A. Lee – developing a website and short film about “the power of our stories to connect us,” prompting conversations about the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender) community in Arizona.

Prescott College / Ironwood Tree Experience– an opportunity for children, families and neighbors to express “sense of place” and community cultural development through art making in and with nature with the Coronado Heights Neighborhoods.

Laura N. Banks Elementary PTA – collaborating with the Terra Cotta and Cooper Crest neighborhoods to create assessable community assets and shared community resources on the school campus.

NEW ARTiculations Dance Theatre – creating a community-based dance performance and on-going workshops for children, youth and adults addressing issues about water scarcity, riparian ecosystems and Sonoran Desert ecology.

Barrio Centro Neighborhood – producing a neighborhood festival that promotes diabetes awareness and healthy lifestyles through music, dancing and an educational health fair.

Pan Left Productions – involving neighborhood associations and organizations to provide media literacy and production courses for youth, homeless people and those living in poverty.

The Drawing Studio – providing visual arts studio learning for low-income at-risk teens and youth in downtown and South Tucson neighborhoods.

Arizona State Museum– creating a digital graphic comic-style book with a Native American artist and local Native youth dealing with diabetes prevention for middle school, high school and college aged youth.

Tierra Y Libertad Organization – using a variety of expressive methods to build and disseminate positive social, neighborhood and cultural messages in the Southside of Tucson.

Tucson Arts Brigade – using mural arts to inspire community engagement, teach civic responsibility, promote stewardship and create a strong sense of place, belonging and pride in three Tucson neighborhoods.