GCAC Annual Report 2005: Community Funding: Grants to Individuals

Community Funding

The mission of the GCAC/City of Columbus Grants Program is to maximize funding for Columbus arts organizations and artists through the responsible administration of a grants program, to increase funds available for that program, and to provide technical assistance aimed at increasing the level of artistic and management skills among the GCAC constituency.

Grants to Individuals

The Individual Artists Fellowship Program

The GCAC Individual Artists Fellowship Program recognizes outstanding local artists in Franklin County by awarding fellowships of $5,000 in at least one particular artistic discipline each year. Partnerships with major arts institutions to administer fellowships in their own discipline has extended our reach to more disciplines per year, and enabled those institutions to provide programming for local artists. GCAC contracted with one organization for awards in 2005, and two organizations to sponsor awards in 2006.

For the fourth time, The Thurber House administered the Columbus Literary Awards in the areas of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Recipients were: Matt Zambito, poetry; Juliet Williams, fiction; and Lee Martin, nonfiction.

CATCO will hold a competition for playwrights in the fall of 2006 Three Columbus playwrights selected for the Shorts Festival will also receive designation for fellowships of $5,000 each. The biennial Shorts Festival, held in the Riffe Center for the Arts, features the work of the fellowship recipients and other nationally known playwrights chosen by competition.

BalletMet Columbus will hold a unique process for fellowships in choreography during the 2005-2006 season. The Columbus Choreography Project offers ten emerging choreographers the opportunity to create new dance works with outstanding assistance by BalletMet Artistic Director Gerard Charles, technical assistance, and rehearsal and performance space. A final juried competition and public presentation will be held at the BalletMet studios. Three artists will receive fellowships of $2,000 each.

Visual Arts Fellowships, administered by GCAC, are awarded every other year. With the generous support of Annie’s Fund for the Creative Arts for a full fellowship, annual awards will begin in 2006.