Leeway Announces February 2007 Art and Change Grantees

$35,190 AWARDED TO 16 ARTISTS IN FIRST OF THREE ART AND CHANGE GRANT CYCLES FOR 2007

The Leeway Foundation is pleased to announce the February 2007 Art and Change Grantees. The Art and Change Grant provides financial support for women and trans artists, living in the Delaware Valley, committed to grassroots, community-based social change. The grant (of up to $2,500) is offered three times a year to fund art for social change projects.

Marking the third year of Leeway's grantmaking focused on art and change, the 16 grantees (listed below) for the February cycle represent the wide range of women and trans artists creating art for social change in the region. These artists have all found ways to raise consciousness about important issues affecting communities across the Delaware Valley and beyond, such as Rachel Goffe's oral narrative project that will document stories of long-time residents in Brewerytown and West Kensington who are collectively fighting eminent domain.

The February 2007 Art and Change Grantees

A. Q. Quintero
Barbara L. Gregson
Earth-fx
Isabel C. F. DeBeary
Jamese Wells
Jaye Allison
Jovida J. Hill
Julia Galetti
Kameelah Waheed
María R. Texidor
Ninah Harris
Rachel Goffe
Susan DiPronio and Linda Dubin Garfield
tiona.m.
Vena Jefferson

The Review Panel

The Art and Change Grant review panel for the February 2007 cycle are local artists and cultural workers, Bernadine Mellis, Evelyne Laurent-Perrault, and Riley Snorton. The following are brief bios of these review panel members:

Bernadine Mellis's father's role as lead attorney in Earth First! activist Judi Bari's civil case against the FBI prompted her to make THE FOREST FOR THE TREES, her first documentary. Bernadine also recently directed THE ODYSSEY, a collaborative adaptation of Homer's 24-chapter epic, made up of 24 shorts by 24 different mostly queer/trans/lady filmmakers. Bernadine divides her time between San Francisco and Philadelphia, where she is an adjunct professor of film, and the Programming Coordinator for the Black Lily Film & Music Festival (www.blacklilyfilm.org), which highlights work solicited from a wide range of women directors and producers.

Evelyne Laurent-Perrault was born in Venezuela from Haitian immigrant parents and has lived in Philadelphia since 1993. She has studied, visited, and worked in Europe, West Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. During the last 12 years, she has been involved with human rights activism. While working on issues of race, women rights, and social justice through culture, arts, and education, she has explored art forms such as clay hand-building artwork, pottery, and photography. She has worked at nonprofits and educational institutions, including Taller Puertorriqueño and more recently at Haverford College as the Coordinator of Multicultural Programs. While at Taller, Evelyne created the Annual Arturo Schomburg Symposium, the only forum in the Philadelphia region that explores the African heritage in Latin American history and cultures.

Riley Snorton identifies as an artist, activist and intellectual. After working with organizations around the country as a media activism trainer, Riley is now a graduate student in Communications and Culture at UPENN. He has worked with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, National Center for Transgender Equality, and Audre Lorde Project, among others. He is also a drag king, singer and painter.