2019-722-E Arts - Marie Rossettie LEVEL retreat arts grant

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DocuSign Envelope ID:OA47CF05-5273-4BB2-BC6B-7213ED83973C We also seek to inspire cross-cultural conversations between our visiting artists and members of the community. In the past, we have hosted several artist talks, open houses at LEVEL, and public events. For Tod's visit, we are seeking to expand our vocabulary of event hosting by moderating the aforementioned panel discussion, featuring Tod and local photographers in public conversation about their craft. This will be an open opportunity for people to learn about professional photography and directly ask questions of experts in the field. Tod's residency will constitute multiple wide-ranging cultural intersections. We will directly aid in the publication of his next work, with a significant chance of increasing the renown of Orange County and North Carolina through Tod's photography. We will provide a unique and heretofore unseen opportunity for local photographers to learn about live event photography from a master in the field. We will bring challenging and provocative art to downtown Chapel Hill in the form of a pop-up gallery show. And lastly, we will offer a panel discussion between Tod and local photographers, spurring cross- community conversation, and exposing new ideas to a wide local audience with an intriguing, free, educational event. Artist Experience Tod is a prolific photographer and photojournalist, known for his evocative documentation of events, locales, and scenes that few dare to explore. He has photographed all across America and in 25 other countries on five different continents for over 20 years. He spent over 15 years primarily documenting the underground music and art scenes tucked away in obscure basements and loft spaces throughout New York City, culminating in his first book, "Bright Nights". Tod has ventured to abandoned buildings and secret punk concerts, journeyed the country aboard freight trains, and down the Mississippi River on rafts made of recycled junk. His editorial work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Stern Magazine, Time, Wired, Vice, BBC Travel, Der Speigel, Art Forum, ARTnews, and Alta Journal. "His images at times elevate mere weirdness to a more striking realm of visual intrigue," wrote the New York Times. "Strange, vivid, baffling and relentlessly unexplained, they leave their viewers transfixed." LEVEL retreat has been a creative oasis in Chapel Hill for artists of all disciplines for over three years. Thanks to previous support from OCAC Artist Project Grants, we have hosted two previous artists-in- residence, sculptors Nicholas Chatfield-Taylor and Fafnir Adamites. We have also welcomed UNC and Carolina Performing Arts fellow Robin Frohardt, Duke/UNC visiting professor Jace Clayton (aka DJ /rupture), and Paint it Orange plein air artists Rose Kennedy and Katharine March. This summer, we will be separately hosting two experimental filmmakers, Kelly Sears and Ben Pender-Cudlip.