Grants and Residencies and Fellowships… oh my!

It is hard to imagine that I have been home for a full 3 weeks! Being back in my hometown has been such a great respite from the very full and active schedules I maintained during the last year. The most refreshing thing about returning home has been being in a city that I already know and understand, and around people that I already know and love! But I can’t exactly say that I have been any less busy.

Since arriving back in Austin, I have completed several proposals for grants, residencies and fellowships. I have also re-connected with and been introduced to several Austin-based artists and scholars, inspiring many more project ideas. I am currently a finalist for two residency programs – Tulane University’s A Studio In the Woods and California Shakespeare Theater’s Artist-Investigator. I have proposed to the organizers of A Studio in the Woods that I work with New Orleans residents, using the Mississippi River as a the inspiration for exploring the ways in which we mark our existence and our spaces. As an Artist-Investigator, I will work with a social justice organization in the Bay Area to use art as a means of supporting the organization’s current work. If selected, I will likely work with an organization who uses garden education to offer job skills and leadership opportunities to community members who were formally incarcerated. I am excited about the possibility of working with both of these communities to play with movement and art in two different settings. Even before I hear the final word on these residencies, I have really enjoyed the opportunity to imagine and build new project ideas that the application processes have afforded me.

But before I leave Austin, I am going to use some of that imagination and inspiration right here! I am currently organizing a series of creative movement workshops to be held at Austin's Carver Museum. Stay connected to my offerings page to learn the details of those classes.