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.

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 →

On Thursday, 18 April, Awesome Foundation – Kingston hosted its monthly pitch party at the RCHA Club on Ontario St! We heard three great pitches from the community and had a guest presenter and guest musician to round out the night. Read about how it all unfolded – and who won!

We thought we’d try something new in Chicago this month, so instead of picking our winner in the smokey backroom of an undisclosed location like we usually do, we invited six finalists to pitch their project proposals to a live audience and let the crowd decide on the winner. All six of the projects were certainly worthy of a thousand-dollar grant, but after hearing all the pitches and engaging in 20 minutes of intense deliberation the dedicated crowd at the Next Door Café rose to the challenge of selecting a single winner for the night. Clean Graffiti: positive messages pressure-washed into the grime of the sidewalk. Elizabeth Ortiz & Gilberto Sandoval, two teenagers from Yollocalli Arts Reach, delivered an enthusiastic pitch for their “Clean Graffiti” project that won the audience over. The idea is simple, creative, and compelling: they’re going to make stencils, rent a pressure washer, and blast positive messages into the grime of the city’s sidewalks. In doing so they’re flipping the idea of graffiti on its head, replacing the defacement of public property with an act of civil service (cleaning the sidewalks) and turning the negativity of gang tags into encouraging messages. Congratulations to Elizabeth and Gilberto, and a big nod… read more →

and the South Bay Awesome Foundation is rewarding The Bella Foundation for their deep inner beauty. The $1000 grant goes to “Childrens Portraits for Struggling Mothers.” A picture is worth a thousand words and provides a lasting memory that is forever. Working with a local womens shelter, Ms. Ward, the project leader on this one, used her photography skills to provide a beautiful family photo to women and their children who otherwise might not be able to afford one. At a time when money is tight, the women were happy to bond with their children around the photo. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Besides writing a mandatory by-law that says that chocolate must be eaten at every meeting, the four girls: Avery Ward, Annaliese Snowhook, Rebecca Schomer, and Alicia Schomer are serious about making the world a better place. The girls are on their way to non-profit status and using our Awesome grant, have been propelled to a higher realm.  They are already making plans for future projects which include other photo days with Richmond Family Center, working the a local stable to provide lessons for autistic children, and providing improv classes to local youth. The Bella Foundation proves that a… read more →