This story was originally published by ArtsATL.
South Arts has given out Jazz Road Creative Residencies grants totaling nearly $730,000 to 20 recipients across the country, including one Atlanta resident.
The Atlanta-based nonprofit partners with the National Endowment for the Arts, state arts agencies and foundations to support artists and arts organizations. Individual Jazz Road grants, announced last week, range from $5,000 to $40,000. The South Arts program gives working jazz artists flexibility to define their residency.
Among the recipients is the Rev. Andrew Barnett, senior associate rector for program at All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Atlanta. He is a pianist and founding director of the Theodicy Jazz Collective, which performs and leads religious services across the U.S. and U.K. Barnett has co-composed a commissioned jazz mass for the Canterbury Cathedral in the U.K.
The $40,000 grant will enable Barnett and the Theodicy Jazz Collective to accept an invitation from the Chapel Choir of Syracuse University to compose, perform and record a suite of “Freedom Songs.”
Credit: Courtesy of Theodicy Jazz Collective
Credit: Courtesy of Theodicy Jazz Collective
The grants will fund a variety of projects. Andromeda Turre, a jazz artist from Katonah, New York, will complete and record her new work called “From The Earth” a project focused on the impact of climate change on people of color.
Filmmaker Ali Jackson of Detroit will produce a documentary series called “Mind The Music” to explore the artistic journeys of master musicians in New York City and New Orleans.
Quiana Parler of North Charleston, South Carolina, will use the grant to preserve and promote Gullah culture and its connections to jazz through compositions inspired by stories and memories of Gullah elders.
“We are at such an amazingly creative time for the field of jazz,” Drew Tucker, director of jazz with South Arts, said in a press release. “Artists are building their work across disciplines, blending with new media in exciting ways and propelling their artistry forward while still looking at the legends who paved the way.”
The program is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.
In addition to Barnett, Turre, Jackson and Parler, this year’s recipients are Bryan Carter of New York City; Darrian Jerrell Douglas of West Orange, New Jersey; Diane Downs of Louisville, Kentucky; Nelson Eubanks of Tulsa, Oklahoma; Lenora Zenzalai Helm of Durham, North Carolina; Jake Hertzog of Fayetteville, Arkansas; Laura Lambuley of Miami; Stephen Lehman of Altadena, California; Abel Mireles of El Paso, Texas; Chase Morrin of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; Israel Neuman of Sugar Land, Texas; Jesse Palter of Huntington Woods, Michigan; Nicholas Payton of New Orleans; Aditya Prakash of Los Angeles; Benjamin Williams of Los Angeles; and Damon Zick of Burbank, California.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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