Remember that scene in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark where Indy ends up fleeing from a mammoth boulder? Now imagine that scene with you in it, only instead of running through an ancient crumbling temple, you’re racing down an alley in DC. The boulder? An enormous zorb disguised like a boulder. (Don’t worry: You’ll still get to wear the hat.) That’s right folks! The DC Awesome grant for August goes to the Laurenellen McCann for her project: Indiana Jones and the Alley of Doom! She had us with the title, but we asked Laurenellen to go ahead and explain the project in more detail: The Alley of Doom is a pop-up experience that’s one part theme park, one part guerrilla theatre, and one part pure, geeky wish-fulfillment. Cameras will be set up along the course to capture the action so that, after you run, you’ll no longer have to just *imagine* yourself in the scene: You’ll be in it. All video will be edited into personalized segments that will be loaded onto YouTube (and the Alley of Doom website), and folks who give their email address when they run will get their race sent to them… read more →

Sometimes, here in DC, we get so overwhelmed with awesome projects that we need to experiment with new ways to fund more than one a month. One such project came our way this August from the creative powerhouse of Bluebrain – also known individually as Ryan and Hayes Holladay. Ryan and Hayes live and work in Washington DC and have gained a reputation for innovative and often large scale works, installations, concerts and experiences. Their most recent endeavor, an album called ‘The National Mall‘, made available exclusively as an iPhone app, is a musical chose-your-own-adventure that allows the listener to explore music as they traverse the landscape in downtown DC. They have been featured in WIRED Magazine, Fast Company, The Washington Post and others. The Awesome Foundation DC is hosting a special starlit fundraising dinner in their honor to raise an additional $1000 grant to fun their new project: The Living House. The Living House is a 2 day sound installation that transforms a house on H St into a walk-through sonic experience designed by Bluebrain and featuring contributions from other sound artists and composers. Each room in the house will be equipped with a separate speaker that will combine to create the entire work. Sounds will literally run through the house, rooms will harmonize with one… read more →

Artwork by Kateriela Snipes This August the DC Chapter of Awesome was joined by the organizers of Tribal Affairs http://tribalaffairs.tumblr.com/, a local group of arts, fashion, design and culinary students working to support young artists in The District. Tribal Affairs generously donated the proceeds of a recent event as an extra $500 grant to be awarded to a young artist. The winner of this grant was the inspiring Katrieia Snipes, for her arts mentoring project. It is an 8-week, daily after-school program designed to inspire young people to believe in themselves and build confidence in through art. https://apotheekpillen.nl

It was a humid summer night in DC when we were seduced by One Night Stand – the winner of the July grant from Awesome Foundation DC. One Night Stand seeks out vacant lots in the greater Washington DC area and turns them into contemporary art venues for one night. The project team revitalizes the vacant lot, cleans, removes debris and prepares the space for an exhibition that lasts 2-3 hours. Photo with thanks to @PinklineProject The aim of the project is to provide spot exhibitions and involve the community in the transformation of their neighborhood. The project is the brainchild of Randal Scott, and we talked to him about his inspiration for the project: What is One Night Stand all about, what do you do, where is it, who is it for, and when is the next one? In a soundbite…ONS puts contemporary arts exhibitions in vacant lots, unused space or wherever, for one night. ONS was kinda put together on the fly. Traveling back and forth from NY I have lots of time to think and it just came to me (after a long process of looking at way overpriced commercial space in DC) to just throw an exhibition together in a vacant lot. I… read more →

Please note a CORRECTION: The 2nd Awesome grant for August, donated by the good folks at Tribal Affairs, will be for $500, not $1000 as originally stated. A Call to AWESOME: The Awesome Foundation DC partners with Tribal Affairs for a 2nd youth arts grant in August. The Awesome Foundation DC and Tribal Affairs are pleased to announce an exciting collaboration for a special $500 youth arts grant in August. This will be in addition to the regular monthly $1000 Awesome Grant. Submit your ideas to the DC Chapter here: http://awesomefoundation.org/submissions/new We are looking for the most courageous and ambitious and most talented student and youth artists from DC and surounds.This months special youth grant has been made possible through an event named Tribal Affairs, that was created by three students from Washington D.C. These three students Alfredo Weeks, Lara Al- Soudani and Matilda Nwoke felt the need to organize an event focused on promoting student work. The Tribal Affairs event united student from culinary arts, visual arts and fashion design into one show to promote themselves. In addition to creating and hosting a spectacular event, Alfredo, Lara, and Matilda decided that they wanted to donate all ticket proceeds to the Awesome foundation in order to… read more →