AF Austin’s May grantee: Queerbomb

May 22, 2013

The Austin Awesome Foundation is proud to be a part of the fourth-annual QueerBomb, the winner of our latest $1000 grant.   The QueerBomb Manifesto explains the inspiration behind the event and the movement it represents: QueerBomb is a family of LGBTQIA individuals gathering to support our unique and collective pride. Our purpose is to provide a space to celebrate each and every member of our community and encourage all to embrace the manifold ways we contribute to building a beautiful and diverse society. We reclaim the radical, carnal and transgressive lineage of our ever-changing community in our ongoing fight for equal justice and the right to express ourselves in whatever way we see fit. Each June, the month of Stonewall, we stand together to embrace our sexuality, bodies, personalities, art, music, literature and politics, while recapturing pride from corporate sponsorship. We strive for a pride that refuses to put rules on what you can and can’t be proud of, that says every expression, from the spirit to the flesh, is worthy. QueerBomb does not apologize. QueerBomb does not make excuses. QueerBomb is free for all. QueerBomb stands proud, and so should you. Writes organizer Beth Schindler, “We have definitely… read more →

Awesome Foundation Panel at the Creative Chicago Expo – Catch it Online!

May 2, 2013

Small Projects, Big Impact Some creative projects require years of planning, large staffs, and extensive fundraising campaigns. Others don’t – but that doesn’t mean that smaller projects are easy to accomplish or that they are any less important. On March 2, 2013, John Carnwath and Derek Sherman of The Chicago Awesome Foundation sat down with Janet Attarian (Chicago Department of Transportation), Katherine Darnstadt (Latent Design / Architecture for Humanity Chicago), and Lindsay Obermeyer (The Red Thread Project®) at the Creative Chicago Expo to discuss Small Projects and Big Impacts. An audio recording of the discussion is now available online. The panelists discuss small-scale projects of various sorts – “small” being defined variously in terms of physical dimension, budget size, duration, or institutional establishment – asking why people do them, how they get funded, what challenges to expect, and what their impact is.

Becoming a Beluga in Northern Manitoba, Canada

April 28, 2013

In July of 2013, a group of art graduates called WHALE is returning to the northernmost parts of Manitoba to continue their adventures with Canada’s beluga whales. Their project: Becoming Beluga, to create a suit of wearable artwork that resembles a beluga and allows the wearer to don the whale’s appearance. Can a human be accepted into the pod? Can we break the barriers of communication? WHALE will construct the suit using underwater cameras, a speaker on the top of the head, and hydrophones for ears, among other things. The experience can be recorded for later. AF Winnipeg is excited to award WHALE $1000 for their April grant, and look forward to hearing all about their adventures come summer.

Awesome Foundation MIAMI’s First Event a Success!

April 22, 2013

The Awesome Foundation MIAMI kicked introduced its first batch of grants with a Sunday event that brought together applicants, grant winners, family, friends, and a greater Miami network. It was a fantastic way to continue our introduction to the South Florida community! For photos of the event, see our Facebook album.

Interview: Rooms Fall Apart EVEN Faster! (reposted!)

April 20, 2013

Close your eyes. Now, imagine the most intense and exciting performance extravaganza you could possibly conjure up in your most creative of states. Seriously, just picture it: a building filled with rooms bursting with the energy of some of the most talented and crafty folks living in our fair and filthy Baltimore City. Now, imagine that we, here at Awesome Baltimore, threw it $1,000 for its sheer awesomeness and breadth of vision. Well, lucky for you, that is exactly what happened! Ladies and gents of Charm City: we give you Rooms Fall Apart: A Serious Play, our second grant recipient! Awesome Baltimore: How did the idea of Rooms Fall Apart originated? When did you decide that you needed to make it a reality? Rooms Fall Apart: Rooms Fall Apart is a project that was born out of a performance thesis and the resulting model that was produced by the Copycat Theatre in 2010. In the fall of 2012, we put our heads together and conceived of the Rooms Fall Apart performance project. It began with a series of conversations about microaggressions, love, hate, and fear. We visualized how to express the range of human emotions that can and cannot be… read more →