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The Nasher Sculpture Center‘s artist microgrants will be announced twice a year — in the spring and fall — but these are the first: $1000 for artists and arts groups with studio-based projects in mind — like Margaret Meehan, who works in ceramics and needs her new kiln installed and wired up in her studio. Or the Brick Haus Collective in Denton, which is establishing affordable and collaborative studio spaces for artists. Look down below for the full press release.

Earlier this week also saw the Community Foundation of North Texas announced $285,000 of what it calls Tool Box Grants. They’re designed to help Tarrant County children with after-school or outreach projects. Most of the recipients are ones you might expect — educational centers, family counselors, health care outfits — but some cultural groups received grants as well, including the Fort Worth Opera for developing a children’s opera theater program. Again, see below for the full list.

Finally, today is the opening day for a new round of applications to the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs for its special-project grants. The Cultural Affairs Commission recently awarded five grants of $5,000 each to such artists as Ted Kincaid, who is photographing the Great Trinity Forest for a major exhibition, and Arthur Pena, who is developing his music venue, Vice Palace, into a music label focused on Dallas-based musicians.

Here are the releases:

Nasher Sculpture Center Announces Inaugural Artist Microgrant Winners
Five North Texas Artists Chosen to Receive Grants to Support Studio Practices

DALLAS, Texas (May 1, 2015) – The Nasher Sculpture Center announces the winners of the
inaugural Nasher Sculpture Center Artist Microgrants, a program which provides twice-annual
financial support to North Texas artists through the distribution of small-sum grants.

Chosen by a jury of Dallas-based artists Frances Bagley, Annette Lawrence, and John Pomara and
the Chicago-based artist Tony Tasset, as well as Nasher Assistant Curator Leigh Arnold and Nasher
Curator of Education Anna Smith, each spring 2015 awardee will receive $1000 to realize projects
related to their studio practice. Another round of microgrants will be awarded in the fall.

“Artists are typically very resourceful in finding ways to bring their ideas to fruition,” says Director
Jeremy Strick, “but since even the savviest artist sometimes can’t realize the hopes for a project
without some outside financial assistance, the Nasher is proud to have initiated this microgrant
program in support of our artist community. Need for this program was demonstrated by the large
number of applications we received, and we’re grateful to our strong panel of jurors for their hard
work in selecting an impressive group of talented artists to receive this first round of awards.”

The spring 2015 Nasher Microgrant awardees are:

• Christopher Blay, Fort Worth. Blay plans to realize a video production and installation of
  the project Kara Walker Texas Ranger which considers the history of violence toward African
  Americans by police and other armed authorities. The project will be done in collaboration
  with New York puppeteers Lake Simons and Christopher Green.
• Brick Haus Collective, Denton. Artists Rachel Fisher and Abby Sherrill will use funds to
  establish an artist-run incubator space in Denton which will include affordable studio spaces
  as well as opportunities for artists to collaborate and participate in exhibitions, performances
  and instructional workshops.
• Celia Eberle, Dallas. Eberle has been using stone and natural materials in her work in
  recent years which require pneumatic tools to carve, so she plans to use her microgrant to
  purchase a new compressor to operate carving tools.
• Jeff Gibbons, Arlington. Gibbons will use his funds to rent a studio space in Dallas and pay
  for the transport of his work to national and international exhibitions at this critical point in his
  career.
• Margaret Meehan, Dallas. Meehan often uses clay in her artistic practice and has always
  had to rely on outside sources for the use of a kiln to fire the work. However, she recently was able to purchase a kiln, and she will put her Nasher microgrant funds toward hiring an electrician and purchasing an environmental vent to make it function safely in her studio.

The inaugural Nasher Microgrants are made possible by the generous support of Michael M.
Corman and Kevin Fink, and Christen and Derek Wilson.

Community Foundation of North Texas Awards $285,000 in Grants
27 Nonprofits Receive Funds to Support Early Learning in Tarrant County

FORT WORTH (April 24, 2015) – The Community Foundation of North Texas, along with several philanthropic partners, has awarded $285,000 in grants to 27 area nonprofits through its ToolBox Grants: Giving Children the Tools to Succeed program. The Foundation also initiated three cross-sector efforts with multiple partners in the areas of family engagement, professional development and evaluation.

All gifts disbursed for 2015 enhance charitable organizations’ capacity to serve Tarrant County children ages 0-8.

The ToolBox Grant program runs on a three-year cycle. Each sequence addresses a designated area of need for the community. In year-two of its second cycle, the current focus for Toolbox Grants is improving the quantity, quality and accessibility of early learning opportunities. The previous and first ToolBox Grant cycle supported capacity building for area nonprofits.

“Community Foundation of North Texas monitors the landscape for areas of public interest so we can help donors make our region a better place,” said Nancy E. Jones, President/CEO of Community Foundation. “We chose early learning as the current ToolBox Grants focus because it impacts a variety of outcomes that benefit the community as a whole, from high-school graduation rates to physical well-being.”

In January, Community Foundation of North Texas invited all not-for-profits that met outlined criteria to apply. Recipients were selected by the Community Foundation of North Texas Grants Committee.

“Through this initiative, the Community Foundation marshals resources from many charitable entities and applies them across multiple agencies,” said Jones.

Funding partners for this grant cycle include Amon G. Carter Foundation, Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation, Fort Worth Foundation, The Miles Foundation, Rainwater Charitable Foundation, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, and Thomas M., Helen McKee and John P. Ryan Foundation. Support has also been provided by numerous Community Foundation of North Texas endowed funds, donors and friends.

About the Community Foundation of North Texas
The Community Foundation of North Texas, a permanent collection of charitable funds supported by donors, serves 11 counties in and around Fort Worth. The Community Foundation encourages philanthropy by providing community knowledge and reliable stewardship to individuals who wish to fulfill their charitable goals in a meaningful way—either during or beyond their lifetimes. It has assets exceeding $207 million and awarded $18.7 million in grants to nonprofits locally, regionally and nationally in 2014. For more information, visit www.cfntx.org.
FACT SHEET: 2015 TOOLBOX GRANTEES

Family Engagement
• Alliance for Children – Improve parent-child interaction and reduce child behavior problems through therapy.
• Child Study Center – Connect families of developmentally disabled children with critical services.
• Fortress Youth Development – Help parents be more intentional in the academic and social development of children.
• Fort Worth Museum of Science and History – Provide enrichment through its Morningside Children’s Partnership.
• Fort Worth Public Library Foundation – Improve reading comprehension, critical thinking and problem solving skills for parents and children.
• Girls, Inc. – Develop activities that increase parent engagement.
• Kids Hope USA – Establish new school-church partnerships that connect at-risk elementary children with mentors.
• Lena Pope – Train staff in “Conscious Discipline” curriculum that improves self-regulated child behavior.
• Literacy United – Implement a summer reading intervention program for early elementary children at Nick Martin Boys & Girls Club.
• Love Never Fails – Fund a no-cost after school program for students of Eastern Hills and I.M. Terrell Elementary schools in Fort Worth ISD.
• Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex – Fund construction costs of children’s play room that will provide learning activities for pre-school children who visit the Mission.
• Recovery Resource Council – Expand play therapy, early learning and child care services at the agency’s Veterans Counseling Center.

Professional Development
• Camp Fire First Texas – Support the Director’s Leadership program that works to impact the early education and care system for children from birth to age five.
• C.A.S.A of Tarrant County – Provide staff training in volunteer management, dealing with difficult situations, ethics and leadership.
• Communities in Schools – Add a new Director of Human Resources.
• East Fort Worth Montessori – Provide staff training on a Children’s Soft Skills Curriculum.
• First 3 Years – Support the Early Alignment for Young Children working group through mentoring and endorsement.
• Presbyterian Night Shelter – Train staff in Trauma-Informed Care to cultivate environments that are healing, soothing and rehabilitative to the shelter’s women and children clients.
• The Learning Center – Purchase equipment to support diagnosis of learning disabilities in young children.
• United Community Centers – Train staff to help children reach their appropriate literacy level.
• YWCA Fort Worth and Tarrant County – Purchase and implement Teaching Strategies GOLD to support assessment of children’s development and learning from birth through kindergarten.

Evaluation
• Arlington Life Shelter – Identify children living in dangerous situations and help families address them.
• Boys & Girls Club of Greater Fort Worth – Evaluate efforts that help youth achieve academic and personal success.
• Botanical Research Institute of Texas – Provide professional guidance for BRIT’s early childhood outreach to preschools.
• Childcare Associates – Develop an organizational Theory of Change and related Logic Models and improve communication to parents and stakeholders.
• Educational First Steps – Evaluate the technical, financial and marketing status of Tarrant County EFS-assisted childcare centers and develop action plans to address issues identified.
• Fort Worth Opera – Evaluate the Children’s Opera Theatre program.

OFFICE OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS ANNOUNCES RECIPIENTS
OF FIRST-ROUND CULTURAL SPECIAL SUPPORT GRANTS
New funding cycle begins May 1, 2015
DALLAS: The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) announces the recipients of the first round of Cultural Projects Program–Special Support Grants, a new funding initiative by the OCA to support special projects for non-profit cultural arts organizations and individual artists. Thirty-two applicants vied for contracts with the Cultural Affairs Commission awarding 5 grants of $5000 each. The next call for applications will be on May 1, 2015 with a June 5 deadline.

“We were pleased to see so many new applicants for this first round of grants,” says Office of Cultural Affairs Interim Director, David Fisher. “There was a high level of competition. All of the applications were reviewed and scored on the criteria set for the funding program and the five scoring the highest were awarded grants.” The following artists received funding:

Richard Andrew Sharum
Large photographic work displayed on the exteriors of five prominent, downtown Dallas buildings. The photographs range from 40’ x 40’ to 40’ x 60’. His work documents citizens and structures of everyday life.

Arthur Pena
VICE PALACE is a roving music venue. The project will be to establish a VICE PALACE music label which will focus on Dallas based musicians. Two events will be part of this project.

Cynthia Mulcahy
“Splendid Silent Sun” will be a socially engaged artwork that culminates in a community-built temporary floating structure in the middle of the lake in Kidd Springs Park. It will serve as a viewing and sundeck for the parks wildlife.

Ted Kincaid
A major photographic project and exhibit based on the Great Trinity Forest. It will present the swath of wilderness in the middle of Dallas, removing all traces of human development and returning to the land to its natural state.

Darryl Ratcliff
This project consists of two events designed to bridge our cultural divides and let people come together via culture. It will include a variety of ethnic bands as well as curated experimental film and video. A culture driven space that breaks down race-based barriers.

ABOUT THE SPECIAL PROJECT GRANTS
The CPP Special Support Grants are awards of $1,000 to $5,000 made available multiple times during the City’s fiscal year. Artists and organizations must meet the eligibility outlined in the Special Projects Grants Guidelines posted on the website, and must not currently be receiving OCA funding through either the Cultural Organizations Program (COP) or Cultural Projects Program (CPP). Funding will be made available to individual artists who are permanent residents of Dallas, and nonprofit arts and cultural organizations with administrative offices within the city limits. Priority will be given to new works by emerging organizations with operating history of at least 3 years, cultural organizations with budgets under $1,000,000 based on prior year’s expenses, and individual artists with at least 3 years of experience in their field. All projects must take place within the Dallas city limits during the timeframe for each deadline. Additional information is available online at http://dallasculture.org/cpp.asp or by calling the Office of Cultural Affairs at 214-670-3687. For more information contact Charla Sanderson: charla.sanderson@dallascityhall.com