RENAISSANCE GRANTS - PROJECT UPDATE

African American Jazz Preservation Society

 
$10,000 for a collaboration with the Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater for a theatrical production focusing on the Musicians Club in the Hill District. Written by a local author, the production will utilize students from the Pittsburgh Public Schools CAPA School, and will demonstrate the rich history, cultural influences and artistic contributions made by African American jazz musicians in this region, past and present.

Update: The program was performed at the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater in April of 2008.  Visit the African American Jazz Preservation Society and the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater web sites for more about these organizations.

August Wilson Center for African American Culture

$25,000 for the Pittsburgh Civil Rites oral history project that will record, interpret and share experiences of African Americans that came of age in Pittsburgh after World War II. Students from Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for African American Urban Studies and Economy will serve as interviewers. The exhibit will premiere as a permanent exhibit at the August Wilson Center opening.

Update: The exhibit is still under development. The August Wilson Center is expected to open in the Fall of 2009.

Calliope: The Pittsburgh Folk Music Society

$24,430 for a project to produce a series of original songs to "capture the essence of the Pittsburgh experience." Students from the organization’s School of Folk Music will serve as apprentices to teaching artists to produce a CD with the songs that will be distributed to schools and performed at future Calliope concerts.

Update: The CD When We Shine was produced last summer and is available at Calliope. The songs were performed at the Calliope summer festival in July, 2008.

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh

$15,000 to conduct a High School Photo Contest to solicit photographs that capturing the region in the new century. The photos will be exhibited in the Main Library’s Gallery, preserved in the CLP’s Pittsburgh photographic Library, and included in the next phase of A Pittsburgh Album: 1758-1958, adding images from 1959 to the present.

Update: The photo contest was completed in the Spring of 2008. Tom Morrison, (then in 11th grade at Chartiers Valley High School) won "Best Achievement in Photography" for his photo Morrison2 – Boy viewing the city from the incline. Photos were exhibited in the Main Library’s Gallery. Visit the Carnegie Library web site for more about this organizations.

Children’s Festival Chorus

$5,000 for commissioning a choral piece on Pittsburgh history, Pittsburgh Portraits, with lyrics by Chorus members and music composed by the Chorus’ 2008 resident composer Dr. Jeffrey Nytch. Pittsburgh Portraits will premiere at the 2008 CFC Spring Concert.

Update: The commissioned choral piece was presented in May of 2009.  Visit the Children's Festival Chorus web site for more about this organization.

City Theater

$25,000 for middle and high school students to participate in a playwriting program resulting in the production of three plays for public performance and a student matinee that will premiere at the 2008 Young Playwrights Festival.

Update: The works of winning playwrights were featured at the Young Playwrights Festival in January of 2009.  Visit the City Theater web site for more about this organization.

Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center

$25,000 to work with students from Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment and Technology Center on the development of interactive exhibits for Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation, a new exhibit at the History Center that will explore Pittsburgh as a center for innovation and inventors.

Update: Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation, featuring the RAD-funded interactive exhibits, is now on exhibit at the History Center.

New Hazlett Theater

$12,500 to partner with Antithesis, CAPA High School’s new music ensemble, with noted jazz artist Anthony Braxton resulting in a series of public concerts that highlight both Pittsburgh’s contributions to jazz and the talents of emerging young artists.

Update: The concert was presented in May of 2008.  Visit the New Hazlett Theater web site for more about this organization.

Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society

$7,000 to support the student portion of Bridges: Celebrating String Quartets in Pittsburgh, a project of music composition, new works and performance of chamber music. The student composer would create a piece to be played by the Biava Quartet at a public concert.

Update: The concert was performed on April 8, 2009.  Visit the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society web site for more about this organization.

Pittsburgh Filmmakers

$25,000 to repurpose footage of a film first produced for the 1957 bicentennial but not widely shown. Students from Filmmakers and Center for the Arts schools would assist professionals in remastering the footage, adding new images, and editing the film to create a new HD video which will be shown at the 2008 Three Rivers Film Festival and made available to schools, libraries and the public.

Update: Reframed was completed and presented at the Three Rivers Arts Festival in November of 2008. The DVD is available from Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

Renaissance and Baroque Society

$8,000 for a performance of a commissioned concert, The Battle of Ft. Duquesne, highlighting the rich history of an historic battle. The project will combine 18th century music and student actors from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama who will research and then read from works of the time at a September 2007 performance featuring The Chris Norman Ensemble.

Update: The commissioned concert The Battle of Ft. Duquesne was presented in September of 2008.  Visit the Renaissance & Baroque Society's web site for more about this organization.

Saltworks Theater

$25,000 for a collaboration between Saltworks’ Young Actor Studio and Rogers Middle School for the Creative and Performing Arts to write, design, direct and perform one or more plays that Imagine What you Can Do Here.

Update: The plays of Rogers CAPA School students Kelsey Miller (Beechview) and Langston MacDiarmid (Lawrenceville) were produced and presented on stage at Rogers CAPA in November, 2008.  Visit the Saltworks Theatre web site for more about this organization.

Steel Industry Heritage Corporation

$24,740 for Seeing Pittsburgh, an oral history and photojournalism project that will bring together diverse student photojournalists and adults to explore the uniqueness of greater Pittsburgh neighborhoods. The project will culminate in exhibition, a catalogue, video podcasts, cell phone tours and classroom tools.

WYEP-fm

$25,000 for the multi-media Pittsburgh Performance Project, an on-air radio series that will profile 10 legendary Pittsburgh performance venues of the past and present. WYEP will partner with high school and college student radio journalists to produce this series; a visual exhibit will also be created.

Update: Pittsburgh Performance Project aired in July of 2008. The accompanying visual exhibit toured the region in the summer and fall of 2008.   More can be found on the WYEP-fm web site.