2019-697-E Arts - Wendy Spitzer arts grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID: 10E8B343-2156-4874-8BD1-45454A122F65 Community Impact The target audiences for these events are twofold. The audience for the Ronald McDonald House event will be the families staying at the house. These are folks from all over North Carolina, the United States, and even other countries who are residing temporarily in Orange County because a child in their family is seeking medical care at UNC Hospitals. These are families that can stay at the house at low cost, and they have the chance to be part of a supportive, more `home-like' environment as their child is undergoing treatment. Free programming, including musical concerts, is offered periodically to give the temporary residents a chance to experience life beyond the hospital. As members of this population are often transitory and not integrated into Orange County, they have fewer chances to experience life in our area and can be socially isolated. This performance brings music and culture directly to where they are. Based on a previous performance I organized for this space, I estimate that 20-30 people of all ages/ethnicities will be reached, including children. The audience for the Nightlight event is a more general one, and I estimate (conservatively) that 40 adults of all ethnicities will be reached. Participants of the workshop will be actively engaged in vocal improvisation, using their voice to tap into their own creativity and connection with each other (see GenevieveDawson_Works hop.pdf in publicity/press for more). Attendees of the performance will experience the unique connection between performer and audience member that is possible through live performance. Artist Experience I have planned, organized, and executed many performances and participatory arts projects. For example, in 2009, 1 hosted a time capsule party in conjunction with a live musical performance— attendees brought objects for inclusion in time capsule, to be opened in 2059 (partnering with the Historical Society of Chapel Hill and the Orange County Arts Commission). Also in 2009, 1 partnered with the Strowd Roses Foundation, the Ronald McDonald House, and others in hosting the Liminal Festival—a festival of unusual music for underserved audiences. In 2018, 1 partnered with Downtown Durham Inc. for a project called `Portraits in Common'-100 participants were paired up with a stranger, tasked with finding the most unusual thing in common with that stranger; then, portraits were taken and aggregated into a video for which I wrote the musical score. In 2019, as part of Raleigh Arts' SEEK Raleigh festival, I created `Dix in Sound in Situ'—a traveling audio installation for visitors to Dorothea Dix Park, home to a former psychiatric hospital. The audio piece, about the history of the hospital and mental illness, includes original music, archival and modern-day hotline recordings, and found sounds. Lastly, I curated and performed a six-set show at The Nightlight in July 2018 called `The Co-Labor-atory' which featured all of my recent and ongoing music/arts collaborations. In short, I have reached many diverse audiences with many diverse projects and am confident I can execute the proposed program.