Past Awarded Projects

Rebirth and Revival in Johnstown, Pennsylvania

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Hunter Zepeda
        Siobhan Furnary
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: XARTS Fund
Year: 2016-17
Semester: Spring

Project Description
In this exploration of Johnstown, PA as a site of both (simultaneous) decay and prospective revival, we hope to examine how its residents yield hope amidst the town’s economically disadvantaged position. Furthermore, we are interested in how the town’s historical cycle of destruction and rebuilding, as evidenced by catastrophic floods and economic depletion, have formed a cultural identity which has further informed its political perspective and interests. We are also interested in exploring how the residents’ religiosity influences their political perspectives, and how those perspectives have also been influenced by their economic oppression. By means of a documentary film, we will explore how faith responds to the tangible economic reality of oppression and how faith and economic realities coalesce into one’s political perspective.

From Art as Therapy to Art as Liberation: Arts and Writing at Grafton Correctional Institution

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Kathleen Wilson
        Emma Marcus

PROJECT AWARD
Program: XARTS Fund
Year: 2018-19
Semester: Fall

Project Description
After two years of making art alongside men at the Grafton Correctional Institution, and printing one anthology of the work they have made (Dear Fazzoli’s), we are continuing our work with the participants in our writing and art class to create work to be featured in a second edition of our anthology and other types of publications. The future publications will take the form of a formal, printed book, like the first edition, and will also borrow from the radical DIY aesthetic and process that has allowed marginalized artists to publish and circulate work without engaging in the mainstream publishing industry—through handmade books and zines. We envision this project as a preservation of the legacy of the individuals we’ve been lucky enough to encounter along the way.

Modeling a Minority: the Asian American Experience through Dance and Fashion

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Brian Tom
        Lynn Jiao
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: XARTS Fund
Year: 2019-20
Semester: Fall

Project Description
Artists Lynn Jiao and Brian Tom will travel to Los Angeles to conduct ethnographic research on the Asian American identity and its expression through clothing and urban dance. Through dance classes, observations, and anonymous interviews, the relationship between Asian American identity and freedom of expression will be explored. Ultimately, this research will culminate in a dance performance and a clothing collection in the spring semester to present understudied and underrepresented Asian American identity. In their research, and through their resulting art, the artists will answer questions about: how and why urban and hip hop dance forms are so appealing to Asian Americans, what Asian American fashion or expression looks like, and how these creative outlets represent a segment of this population.

Exposing and Unpacking Industrialization on the Usumacinta River

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Leah Treidler
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: XARTS Fund
Year: 2019-20
Semester: Fall

Project Description
Through a short documentary film, Leah Treidler will be exploring the issue of climate change in a small area of the Peruvian Amazon through the lenses of environmental science, art, and history. The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve is known as one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, with almost a thousand species of plants and about five hundred species of birds. Though it's a "protected area", regulations have been alarmingly relaxed, allowing corporations to dig for oil with little to no oversight for decades. Today, the people of the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve are at the forefront of the fight against climate change, protesting for the eviction of companies that are destroying their home. Through candid imagery and interviews with scientists and community members, this documentary will highlight people’s stories and emotions with a scientific and historical backdrop. The documentary will not sum-up or simplify the immensely complicated issue, but illuminate the consequences of climate change and provoke a critical conversation.

Dear Fazzoli's: Art from the Inside

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Anya Katz
        Juliet Wayne
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: XARTS Fund
Year: 2017-18
Semester: Spring

Project Description
After a year making art alongside men at the Grafton Correctional Institution, we’re producing an anthology of artistic work, personal fiction, and non-fiction narratives of prison life. The publication will borrow from the radical DIY aesthetic, a process that has allowed marginalized artists to publish and circulate work without engaging in the mainstream publishing industry. We envision this project as a preservation of the legacy of the individuals we’ve been lucky enough to encounter along the way. This text can be inherited, passed on, and discussed. The experience of holding and owning the anthology is as much a part of the creation as the components themselves. We hope it will be utilized to form bonds, both of affection and resistance.

Recording a Traditionally Informed and Innovative American Roots Album with Producer Joel Savoy in Eunice, LA

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Riley Calcagno
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: FIG Fund
Year: 2019-20
Semester: Fall

Project Description
Vivian & Riley (featuring Riley Calcagno ’20) will record a full-length album of original music with GRAMMY winning producer Joel Savoy in Eunice, LA. The duo came together through the practice of traditional music, with both members learning ballads and old fiddle tunes at early ages and falling asleep to jams and square dances that lasted through the night. This album will aim to combine narratives (original and traditional) relatable to the current moment, with an organic mode of honest music creation that is once again innovative and goes against the grain of the current music industry. In this vein, they will collaborate with musicians steeped in the Cajun and Country lineage, such as acclaimed Cajun fiddler and producer Joel Savoy, founder of Valcour Records.

Organs, Music, and the Teachers of France: A Winter Term study away project

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Matthew Dion
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: FIG Fund
Year: 2019-20
Semester: Fall

Project Description
The project consists of traveling to study the organs and organ music of France. The trip will include visits to instruments, lessons with Parisian organists/pedagogues, and intensive practice. The trip will take place from January 5th to 14th. I will begin my lessons with Parisian organist Marie-Louise Langlais, where I will be studying music of her late husband, composer and organist Jean Langlais. This 20th century music is my true passion and my life's work to perform. We'll be looking at ten of his earlier major works. The other lessons will consist of concentrations in19th century French romantic organ music, as well as 17th century French classical music with various teachers and organists in the city of Paris and surrounding areas.

Cello Springs Festival Project

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Miriam Liske-Doorandish

PROJECT AWARD
Program: FIG Fund
Year: 2017-18
Semester: Fall

Project Description
The Cello Springs Festival project is an exploration of music through the lens of the cello. It began in 2016 as an event which explores the ways cello connects musicians.

Participating musicians will be given the opportunity to work with like-minded artists over the course of two weeks of practice, teaching, and performing in Yellow Springs, OH. The core group will be eight cellists and will be joined by up to 20 other musicians for larger ensemble performances.

CSF is an intergenerational event with participants ranging in age from college students to seasoned professionals. In this spirit, CSF will offer an apprentice position to a dedicated young cellist between the ages of 10-18. Additionally, CSF looks forward to acquainting the Yellow Springs community with cello-centric repertoire, with planned performances in the local retirement community and workshops and presentation in local schools.

Recording the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        Liam Kaplan
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: FIG Fund
Year: 2018-19
Semester: Fall

Project Description
I have spent the past eight years studying and performing the 48 Preludes and Fugues from the Well-Tempered Clavier by J.S. Bach. This Winter Term, I will make a professional-quality video recording of the second book to release on YouTube as well as music distribution channels such as iTunes and Spotify. The recording will take place in Oberlin’s state-of-the-art studio Clonick Hall, and Paul Eachus will be the recording engineer and producer. My interpretation of the music has been greatly influenced by Mark Edwards’ course “Bach at the Clavier”, in which I learned to play several of the Preludes and Fugues on the harpsichord.

Art and Ecology in the Great Lakes

PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
        William Bertrand
        Sophie Shalit
        
PROJECT AWARD
Program: FIG Fund
Year: 2018-19
Semester: Fall

Project Description
This Winter Term, we will travel to the upper peninsula of Michigan in order to explore its sonic world – the people who record the region for art and science, the sounds they collect, and those they create. Along the way, we will meet with environmental scientists and sonic artists to listen to their perspectives and hear about their engagement with the region. This study will inform the core goal of our project: to use our field recording practice to sound out the interface between nature and culture in the region. Upon returning to Oberlin, we will present what we heard through a multichannel electro-acoustic work and a virtual sound walk.