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A committee comprised of
members of the visual, performing and literary arts
communities meets each grant cycle to review applications
and make recommendations for funding to the Arts Commission
staff and board. The remaining 2019 deadline is September
23. Application details and full guidelines can be found at
www.theartscommission.org/forartists.
The July grantees are
Jennifer Bak, El Corazon de Mexico, Emilio José González,
and Loraine Lynn.
Growing up as a shy,
biracial, artistic bookworm in small-town Ohio helped shape
Jennifer Bak’s rather quirky and unconventional worldview,
informing her work as a photographer, bellydancer, and fire
performer. Bak’s next portrait series will highlight the
history of people of color, who are often regulated to
secondary character status and erroneously portrayed as
needing guidance and policing, instead of being the heroes
of their own stories.
Accelerator Grant funds
will be used to purchase a studio strobe that will allow for
precise control over color temperature and consistency in
diverse studio and on-location situations ideal for this
portrait series.
In 1996, El Corazon de
Mexico, which translates as "The Heart of Mexico", was
founded by director Elaina Hernandez. Hernandez is a 33-year
veteran of Mexican Folkloric Dance. She has studied under
Maestro Carlos Vega of Mexico, Director Sam Cortez of
Chicago, Instructor Rene Cardoza of Chicago, Instructor
Placido Lopez Guerrero of Colima, Mexico, Director Bladimir
Bravo of San Antonio and Maestra Karina Estrella of
California.
Hernandez has been
directing and choreographing for over 20 years. She is
recognized as a Master Artist by the Ohio Arts Council. In
2010, she received the Diamente Award for Adult Leadership
and in 2016, she received the Ohio Heritage Fellowship. In
2018 and 2019, Master Elaina Hernandez received the Ohio
Traditional Apprenticeship grant to train assistant Vanessa
Hernandez in the art of Mexican Folkloric Dance.
Accelerator Grant funding
will be used for the company to study under Maestro Jose
Tena of New Mexico, a renowned Folkloric Dance Instructor
with over 40 years of experience.
Emilio José González is a
composer, percussionist, and educator. His music is
influenced by classical and pop genres as much as it is from
nature and the (super)natural world, and it explores
rhythmic complexity to create vivid imagery, as his primary
goal has always been to tell a story— especially stories
that might not be commonly known.
In 2019, he received a
Master of Music in Composition from Bowling Green State
University, and he also holds a Bachelor of Music in
Composition from Pacific Lutheran University. His primary
teachers have included Elainie Lillios, Mikel Kuehn, and
Gregory Youtz.
González will use
Accelerator Grant funding to purchase an iPad as a music
composition tool. Loraine Lynn is an interdisciplinary
artist interested in recontextualizing the familiar in order
to challenge notions of identity, labor and the scripts they
follow.
Lynn completed her MFA at
Bowling Green State University and earned her BFA from the
Cleveland Institute of Art. Her work has been exhibited
widely in locations including South Korea, Italy, and
Ireland. She has had solo shows at River House Arts and the
Greenly Gallery in Bloomsburg, PA.
Lynn’s Accelerator Grant
funding will be used to purchase yarn to complete projects
started during a recent residency at the Vermont Studio
Center.
The Arts Commission Artist
Services programming is supported by ProMedica, the National
Endowment for the Arts and the Ohio Arts Council.
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