Artist
Receives Federal Grant
The
Indiana Arts
Commission (IAC) recently announced that Brown County Artist Susan W.
Showalter
is among 14 Hoosier artists to receive career development grants through
a new,
federally-funded component of the Individual Artist Program (IAP). The new IAP Artist Access category is funded
by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Assembly
of State
Arts Agencies (NASAA), and will permit artists with disabilities to
receive
grants of up to $2,000 for projects that will have a positive impact on
their
career development.
“This
one-time
project was made possible as a result of the Indiana Arts Commission
receiving
the 2009 National Accessibility Leadership Award from the NEA,” said IAC
Executive Director Lewis C. Ricci. “This project will enable us to
specifically
reach an important and often under served segment of Hoosier artists. We
are
excited to be the only state arts commission in America to receive this
award in
2009.”
“I am delighted to find that attention is
finally being given to challenged artists”, said Ms. Showalter. “My project, Artists Interrupted: Brown
County Artists Challenged by Illness or
Injury involves other Brown
County artists. I was
injured in 1998 and my life and livelihood as a full time artist have
changed
drastically. I hope to obtain important data for the use of arts
organizations
and art show organizers through this project.
I will also promote and market these local artists and their
works of
art as well as educate the public about these artists.”
Decades ago Susan Showalter received
grants from the Indiana Arts Commission and Cummins Engine Foundation
for the 1980 Brown County
Craft Worker Identification and Documentation Project.
Collecting data about local artists was very
important to her, a full time artist and community organizer. She used that information to help develop
several successful community arts organizations still in existence
locally,
state wide and nationally. That list
includes The Brown County Craft Guild, The Brown County Craft Gallery,
Indiana
Heritage Arts, Indiana
Blacksmithing Association, National Institute for Cooperatives and
Economic
Development, Artists Blacksmiths’ Association of N. America and others.
Showalter, currently a fine art
photographer and jewelry designer, will identify professional Fine
Artists,
Fine Crafts Artists and those in the Performing Arts working in Brown
County, IN
who have become temporarily or permanently challenged through injury or
illness
during their careers as artists. She will select then document up to
five of
these artists through interviews during which time she will photograph
them and
write about how their challenges have affected them physically,
emotionally and
financially. She will explore how this has affected their artwork and
marketing
then will describe how they have found ways to continue being artists in
spite
of their challenges.
“Finally, I especially want to reveal
what "gifts", if any, the artists feel they have received from becoming
injured or ill,” concluded Showalter. “I
believe these artists will inspire me, other artists and the general
public.”
To complete this project, Showalter will
produce a webpage where the artists will be promoted and their work can
be
marketed. She will produce an exhibition of photos and samples of their
works
of art with written narratives then exhibit what can become a traveling
exhibition.
For
a complete
list of the Artist Access grant recipients and a brief description of
their
proposed projects, visit: www.IN.gov/arts/2645.htm
On
behalf of the
people of Indiana,
the Indiana Arts Commission advocates engagement with the arts to enrich
the
quality of individual and community life.
Note: Interested Brown County artists who want to be considered for the project should send their name, address, phone number, email address and/or website address to Artists Interrupted Project Coordinator, Susan W. Showalter by email to HandsandSpirits@aol.com (Artists Interrupted Project in subject line) or by regular mail to 2900 Shepherd Road, Nashville, IN 47448. Questions? Call 812 988-7830
Note: Project Starts: April 1, 2010 Project Ends: March 30, 2011
