The 2021 Added Velocity Fund grantees:
Artist Name: Ana Cecilia Gonzalez
Title: Alumbra
Grant Amount: $15,000
Proposal: Alumbra will expand the scope of its community impact by collaborating with the youth to create a night time destination with a long-term light art installation. This time, they will work with youth from a diversity of marginalized groups. They will implement a longer learning laboratory with participants, including workshops that will lead to capacity building related to lighting design and placemaking for the night. The workshop will also include activities to strengthen socioemotional skills such as collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving. The placemaking process will include a community assessment by the youth to understand the needs, the problems, and interests of community members which will then determine where and what the artistic lighting piece will be.
Artist: Yaroub Al Obaidi
Title: Al Mudhif – A Confluence
Grant Amount: $15,000
Proposal: This project will dismantle and document , Al Mudhif, a traditional Iraqi ceremonial structure made entirely out of phragmites reed, after parts of the structure were affected by the Ida hurricane, and then activate it for new audiences through digital resources and printing a catalog. The programming would build on the programming we created in 2020-2021, in addition to my social engagement practice with Veterans and Iraqis. It will include some virtual programming and resources for those who could not make it in person for many reasons, including trauma, distance, and other barriers. The artist will continue Al Mudhif’s purpose to create healing and welcoming space for everyone who needs to engage and make new friends.
Group: The Bearded Ladies Cabaret
Lead Artist: John Jarboe
Title: The Beardmobile
Grant Amount: $15,000
Proposal: The Beardmobile is a mobile performance and protest unit built into a 15 foot box truck. Moving out of the pilot phase, we are seeking funds to support the ongoing maintenance and staff infrastructure to continue offering it to community organizations as a no-cost resource. A newly created paid community committee composed of existing associate artists, local organizers, and community members will respond to requests. We aim to keep the truck responsive to actions and opportunities as they arise. We see our role as facilitating, supporting, and amplifying the excellent work of activists and community organizations. We are collaborators at heart: offering our knowledge of Beardmobile logistics and spirited, inclusive spectacle while listening to what the organizers need and best supporting those goals.
Lead Artists: Diente and Sky Fo
Title: Choreto
Grant Amount: $15,000
Proposal: Gente de Tierra reintroduced us to the abundance that lives within and around our Black and Brown community; and from this, for the next year, Casa Sabera will prioritize embracing our blessings, and honoring our ancestors. We will grow our community power, through renovating, developing, and designing essential infrastructure for our resource networks and distribution locations. These additions and advancements will provide us the space and ability to elevate our work. Fortifying our physical presence, knowledge, skills, organizing means, community reach and interactions. Actualizing the quality of life we all are owed, and allowing so many to rest, recover, and thrive. This is what drives our work forward, keeps our community intact, so that our legacy, love, and wisdom may continue.
Artist: Kristal Sotomayor
Project Title: Expanding Sanctuary
Grant Amount: $15,000
Proposal: Expanding Sanctuary is a (26 min) documentary about the campaign to end the sharing of the police database with Immigration and Customs Enforcement led by Juntos and the Latinx immigrant community in South Philly. Through the Added Velocity grant, they will grow the impact campaign for Expanding Sanctuary through (1) hosting rough cut screenings with Juntos community members, (2) creating accessible versions of the final film, (3) developing a screening toolkit, and (4) co-presenting screenings of the final film in key neighborhoods across Philadelphia.
Added Velocity—which is administered by Philadelphia Contemporary with generous support from the William Penn Foundation—builds on the momentum of The Velocity Fund by directly supporting five previously funded Velocity Fund grantees who demonstrate a commitment to expanding their initial projects in meaningful and far-reaching ways in Philadelphia.
More about the William Penn Foundation:
The William Penn Foundation, founded in 1945 by Otto and Phoebe Haas, is dedicated to improving the quality of life in the Greater Philadelphia region through efforts that increase educational opportunities for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creativity that enhances civic life, and advance philanthropy in the Philadelphia region. In 2020, the Foundation will grant more than $117 million to support vital efforts in the region.