2017 Grantees: First-Time Recipients

05/23/2017 Kim Savarino

One performer is on their back on the floor while another flies "superman" style on their shins. Both performers balance their bodies and their wheelchairs in the shape.

MAP is thrilled to support 40 projects this grant cycle! The 2017 grantee projects are led by a mix of artists: first-time recipients as well as artists who have previously received MAP funding.

There are 71 lead artists / ensembles among this year’s cohort of funded projects; of these, 43 are first-time grantees. Some of these artists include:

Ismail Khalildi and Hadi Eldebek | Dead Are My People

Dead Are My People is a music and theater work created by playwright Ismail Khalidi and composer Hadi Eldebek. Told through the story of Nicola, a man fleeing the famine-stricken mountains of Lebanon for the U.S. during World War I, this play uncovers the little-known history of Arab immigrant lynchings in the South during the early 20th century.

Alice Sheppard | Descent from Beauty

Descent From Beauty is an evening length dance work — created as a response to Rodin’s “Toilette of Venus and Andromeda” — that asks new questions about social justice, movement and embodiment, and art and architecture. Disabled choreographer Alice Sheppard will work with Sara Hendren, Yevgeniya Zastavker and the students at Olin College of Engineering to create an architectural stage and immersive environment that challenges conventional notions of access.

NEW NOISE, Phil Cramer, and Bear Hebert | Jubilee

Jubilee, created by NEW NOISE and led by Phil Cramer and Bear Hebert, stages a Southern family feast to host a purposefully uncomfortable conversation about race in the American South. Following one white Alabama family’s history, this food play explores themes of Southernness, personal ancestry, and systemic white supremacy.

Congratulations to all of the 2017 first-time MAP grantees: