Welcome to the Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program’s Monthly Newsletter! This newsletter will help keep you up-to-date with news and upcoming events from the Rhode Island Expansion Arts program, its funders, and alumni! The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program is a proud partnership between Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, and Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
2019 REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS:
Intercultural Collaboration Seed Grants
The RI Expansion Arts Intercultural Collaboration Seed Grants (ICSG)
2019 Request for Proposals
The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program (RIEAP) is excited to open the 2019-2020 funding opportunity for seed grants to promote intercultural collaboration. RIEAP offers funding and organizational assistance to community-based, culturally diverse arts and cultural organizations. It is supported by a collaboration between the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts (RISCA), and Rhode Island Council for the Humanities.
Description of opportunity
RIEAP seeks proposals from current and alumni grantees of the RIEAP for projects, programs, or planning that bring together people and organizations across cultures to share cultural ideas, traditions, and heritages. RIEAP Intercultural Collaboration Seed Grants support creative and innovative partnerships and collaborations that strengthen our state’s cultural ecosystem, create sustainable connections between cultural organizations, and come from Rhode Island’s diverse communities. By investing in connections, this opportunity has the potential to highlight the state’s cultural assets, challenge assumptions, and bring communities together across differences. RIEAP will distribute a total of $30,000 and will offer awards between $5,000 and $10,000. Projects must include at least one partner organization, in addition to the lead applicant, who is a current RIEAP cohort member or grantee alumni. Additional partners from other cultural or cross-sector (e.g. focused on health, environment, etc.) organizations can participate in the projects. Projects should begin after October 16, 2019, and must be completed by August 31, 2020.
Eligible lead applicants include:
· Current RIEAP cohort (see list below)
· Culturally specific organizations that are RIEAP alumni (see list below)
The application must include as a partner:
· At least one current RIEAP cohort member or grantee alumni (see list below)
The application may include as additional partners:
· Culturally specific organizations that have not received an RIEAP grant before
· Mainstream organizations (organizations that are not culturally specific)
· Cross-sector organizations (e.g. health, environment, social service)
· Scholars or individual artists
Eligible projects include:
· Events that foster commonalities and connections across the communities of the
organizations involved, their cultural practices, heritages, histories, and their audiences
· Research and development of new intercultural performances or other cultural
products
· Projects and planning that set the stage for attracting larger funding
opportunities and resources
· Projects that focus on the development of the next generation of participants
and leaders in cultural organizations
· Projects that support inter-generational exchange
Application
Process and Dates:
· Letter of Intent Form due: Friday, 8/2/2019
· Notification of Approval of Letter of Intent: Friday, 8/16/19
· Full Applications due: Friday, 9/27/19
· Notification of Approval of Full Application: Wednesday, 10/16/19
· Project Timeframe: Projects may begin after October 16, 2019 and must complete by August 31, 2020.
Where to find and submit applications:
All applications must be submitted online through the Rhode Island Council forthe Humanities’ grants portal. The first step in the process is completing the brief letter of intent form within the online portal by Friday, August 2, 2019.
For questions on the ICSG, please contact: Logan Hinderliter, Associate Director, Grants and Partnerships, RI Council for the Humanities logan@rihumanities.org 401.273.2250
List of Eligible Lead Applicants:
Current RIEAP Cohort
· Langston Hughes Community Poetry Reading
· EcoArts USA
· Sankofa Community Connection
· Korean American Association of Rhode Island
RIEAP Alumni Grantees
· Art and Culture of the Americas
· Columbian American Cultural Society
· India Association
· Laotian Community Center of RI
· Cape Verde Heritage Committee
· Cambodian Society of RI
· Eastern Medicine Singers
· ECAS Theater
· Hispanic Cultural Arts Committee of RI
· Hmong United Association of RI
· Oasis International
· Progreso Latino
· Puerto Rican Institute for the Arts and Advocacy
The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program supports small organizations whose programs and missions center on the cultural practices and traditions of Rhode Island’s diverse peoples. RIEAP provides the skills and tools these organizations need to grow as equal partners in the Rhode Island arts and cultural community. Priority is given to newly-emerging groups and those with little history of grant funding. In seeking to build the capacity of these organizations, the RIEAP recognizes the broader role they play in strengthening their communities including cultural preservation, education, and youth development. Funding from RIEAP focuses on developing resilient organizations, including governance, financial management, fundraising, marketing, documentation, evaluation, leadership, strategic collaborations, and partnerships. RIEAP fosters greater connections across the arts and humanities, while providing leadership and professional development for a broader network of RI Expansion Arts Program- eligible arts and cultural organizations. Click here for moreinformation, please visit RISCA’s website.
RIEAP Leadership Pipeline
Rhode Island Expansion Arts Leadership Pipeline
The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program (RIEAP) has created a leadership pipeline that
connects the RIEAP Cohort & Alumni to national and regional organizations.
Through the years, RIEAP has brought several national conferences to Rhode Island. In
Daniel Kertzner, Senior Philanthropic Advisor, from the Rhode Island Foundation. This was a memorable experience that connected the cohort to the growing national conversation about
capacity building.
Since then, the RIEAP Cohort & Alumni have received scholarships to attend a multitude
organizations share their knowledge while inspiring other leaders.
The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program acts as an incubator for intercultural leaders and culturally specific organizations by providing capacity building workshops, financial resources and knowledge that fosters growth within these organizations, so they can support their folk artists and leaders. Through this program they acquire best practices, network regionally and nationally, and receive professional development opportunities to become presenters, where they are able to tell their own story at a national forum.
In June, the Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program provided over 15 scholarships for the Current Cohort & Alumni to attend the New England Foundation forthe Arts Creative Communities Exchange in Vermont, once again fortifying the leadership pipeline. Whether it is bringing national conferences to RI, providing scholarships to attend conferences, or promoting leaders to present at these conferences, the RIEAP strives to expand access for our cultural diverse communities, while preserving these precious folk art traditions.
The Rhode Island Expansion Arts Program (RIEAP) provided over 15 scholarships opportunities for the members of the current cohort and alumni to attend the CCX conference in Vermont. The Rhode Island State Council on the Arts Program Directors, Elena Calderón Patiño, Mollie Flanagan, Todd Trebour and Logan Hinderliter of RI Council for the Humanities also attended the Creative Communities Exchange.
CCX gathers people from across New England who connect creative work to community goals. The event workshops at CCX highlighted a wide range of community initiatives from around the region that celebrate a culture of creative connection. CCX brings to life ideas grounded in NEFA’s longtime research on the creative economy and reinforces that the region’s varied and vibrant creative people and places are uniquely able to address social, economic, and cultural issues of our communities through collaboration, ingenuity, vision, and leadership. Participants at this networking event returned home with new relationships, ideas, and strategies.
This year RI Expansion Arts Alumni Julie Yang of the Hmong United Association of RI, Nikhil Shah and Smriti Gupta of the India Association of RI were presenters at the RI Intercultural Collaboration Workshop.
“It was an honor to be part of such elite groups of presenters. The opportunity to be exposed to an abundance of resources all in one event was truly an amazing experience.”
– Julie Yang of the Hmong United Association of RI
“Creative Communities Exchange 2019 conference was a profound experience which I am still only beginning to process. I loved the opportunity to hear about innovative approaches to building a strong and rich creative community and to be able to be in dialogue with one another. I left inspired to act and willing to replicate the strategies presented. The presentations ranged from community engagement and development to supporting diverse communities and youth artists to name a few. Listening to these workshops in the historical backdrop of Montpelier downtown made the whole experience holistic and uplifting.”
– Smriti Gupta of the India Association of RI
Americans for the Arts Convention
RISCA Program Directors Elena Calderón Patiño and Todd Trebour presented in June at the 2019 Annual Convention Americans for the Arts Convention (AFTA) in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Elena Calderon Patino (Director of Community Arts Programs, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts) presented the success of the RI Expansion Arts Program as a long-running partnership between the Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, and RISCA in the Succeeding at Complex Partnerships session.
Other presenters included: Helen Eaton (Chief Executive Officer, Settlement Music School), Kiyoko Motoyama Sims (Associate Director of Education, Children’s Theatre Company), Stephanie Dockery (Arts Team, Bloomberg Philanthropies) with Debra Garcia y Griego (Secretary, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs) serving as the moderator.
The panel discussed; increasingly, complex partnerships with varied stakeholders as the key to community and student success and support for arts and culture. How artists, arts organizations, and agencies can better prepare for such complicated interactions and attain positive outcomes for all. Panelists discussed how agencies, arts groups, and artists can work with other non-arts entities to more effectively support communities; they heard specific examples of how separate players, with different vocabularies and ways of working, have succeeded in partnering; and heard important components of partnership, including open dialogue, research, expectations, and evaluation.
For a small group of State Arts Agencies colleagues and State Arts Advocacy Organization leaders, Todd co-presented with Dr. Brea Heidelberg on the partnership with the Rhode Island Foundation and process behind the development of the Advancing Cultural Equity Pilot Program.
Elena also attended the The Intercultural Leadership pre-conference is an unique partnership connected to the great cultural diversity of the Twin Cities region. Americans for the Arts joined the leading organizations of the Intercultural Leadership Institute (National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples’ Fund, and Pa’i Foundation) as well as fellows from the first two cohorts and advisors to develop this pre-conference, which brings forward an intercultural lens of leadership. This approach emphasized overlapping experiences, shared spaces and mutual accountability – and sought to challenge dominant social norms while honoring differences of histories, traditions, vocabulary and more. Participants in the pre-conference were offered a framework to understand their own work as well as the work of others from an intercultural perspective; explored how identity, cultural heritage and personal experiences impact our perspectives and approach to leadership, the arts and cultural equity; and provided an opportunity to reflect on opportunities for greater intercultural awareness, equity, and action within their own work.
Succeeding at Complex Partnerships Panel AFTA Convention
Intercultural Leadership Pre-Conference
Intercultural Leadership Workshop
Gina Rodriguez of Providence Art, Culture + Tourism, and Elena Calderón Patiño, of RISCA at the Indigenous Roots Cultural Arts Center in Minnesota
News from Current Cohort
Wake Up and Live: Nature Guided Tour Walk by
Wolf Ras, Spiritual Culture Practitioner
The Wake Up and Live: Nature Guided Tour Walk, by Wolf Ras, offers an uniqueopportunity for individuals to experience nature and become more attuned with their natural selves. Through this walk, you connect with others to recharge your spirit, body, mind and soul, through the natural environment with guided meditation and drumming, with magnetic vortex water.
This personal and collective experience provides an opportunity to learn how the universe can heal your body, soul, mind and spirit with guided meditation of a Ancient Culture Practice.
Wolf Ras is a Spiritual Cultural Practitioner with over 40 years of experience learning from his ancestors and Spiritual Teachers around the world.
Partnering organizations: Blue Feathers, and RIEAP alumni, EcoArts
EcoArts Visits Cuba
News from Alumni
2019 Asian Art Exhibit
Atrium Gallery @ One Capitol Hill
The 2019 State Asian Art Exhibit is on display at the Atrium Gallery until August 5th, 2019. This exhibit is sponsored by the India Association of Rhode Island and the Hmong United Association of Rhode Island. The India Association of Rhode Island (IARI) and the Hmong United Association of RI (HUARI) collaborated as part of the Intercultural Seed Grant, where they worked in tandem to celebrate and expand two unique heritage across the greater community. Through this collaboration man ideas were realized and events became partnerships. This exhibit features artwork from a variety of artists representing Asian artwork in a traditional and comparatively modern form. The State-run gallery is located at One Capitol Hill, State’s main administration building on Smith Street in Providence, RI.
India Association of Rhode Island was established in 1975 with the mission of engaging, inspiring and invigorating our community with a deeper understanding and appreciation of Indian Culture. RISCA’s support enabled us to offer year-round cultural engagement to Indian diaspora across RI.
The “2019 Asian Art Exhibit” is yet another joint venture with HUARI to support artistic endeavors of the artists belonging to different ethnic back- grounds and culture.
IARI is proud to exhibit “Traditional India: An Artist Perspective”. Each painting depicts artist’s own experience, thoughts or muses. The sculptures are magnanimous and brings life to the exhibit. Since dance is yet another form of art, Indian cultural performances will further demystify these art forms.
Hmong United Association of RI was founded in 1978 with the intent to preserve the Hmong identity and promote Hmong culture and traditions. The Hmong United Association of RI serves and supports the Hmong community, including the youth and elderly.
The 2019 Asian Art exhibit showcases Hmong artists, it is display of the old and of the new of Asian art and culture. This partnership has been a rewarding experience and we hope to continue the friendship and partner- ship between the Hmong United of Rhode Island and the India Association of RI
“A Place in Time, Ib Qhov Chaw Rau Lub Si Hawm” displays special moments that are captured though song, dance, photos, and costumes that represents what was once lost but now found.
About Atrium Gallery:
The Atrium Gallery was developed by RISCA to exhibit the work of Rhode Island artists in the State Capitol Complex. It hosts exhibits on a rotating basis, in partnership with community artists and art organizations from across the state. The contemporary gallery frequently showcases artwork from a variety of diverse groups including African, Asian, Latin America, and the Native American community among others.
