I am pleased to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded Bard College $2,000,000 in support of my research, artistic production, and curatorial practice. The funding will allow the Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard (CHRA), the Fisher Center at Bard, and and myself to implement a new model in which the college provides infrastructure to support my own creative and scholarly output. As the Founding Director of CHRA, Distinguished Artist in Residence at Bard’s Theater & Performance Program, and guest co-curator at the Fisher Center at Bard, the grant will support my practice’s production and touring, scholarly and artistic research at Bard College at large, and curatorial work at CHRA and the Fisher Center in particular.
The $2,000,000 Mellon Foundation grant makes it possible for CHRA and the Fisher Center to offer tangible resources to develop and disseminate ambitious, forward-thinking work, of my own and by other artists. This new model of artist-institution engagement follows the Fisher Center previous experience in becoming an artistic home for artists and supporting their practice, infrastructure, and livelihood. It will also allow CHRA to expand its team, intensify its public programming, and support future editions of an international art festival. This generous grant from Mellon Foundation comes at a time when the live performance industry is experiencing a fundamental restructuring due to the recent pandemic and major shifts in public and private funding streams. The grant will allow me to further pursue my artistic and curatorial practices, deepen my experimentation with new models of collaboration and institution-building, and reflect on my trajectory as an artist working at the intersection of politics and research.