Reporting Back: "Dear Art Matters..."

At the end of each year, we ask Art Matters grantees to give us a sense of how their grant year has unfolded, including any successes or challenges they wish to share. While these reports illuminate the thinking that guides artists' practices—and provide crucial context regarding the challenges artists face in the present moment—they tend to remain vaulted in the archive.
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In celebration of Art Matters grantees’ unique practices, we are sharing excerpts of reports we have received over the last several years. We invite you to read them, along with the other source materials on our website, including Grantee Texts, Artist2Artist Conversations, and Grantee Curated Links.

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Carolina Caycedo

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“Be Dammed has continued to be my main exploration and body of work since receiving the Art Matters grant. The body of work has grown in many directions, both from my personal studio practice, as well as the community component of it. I have expanded my collaboration to several communities outside of Colombia, including the Yaqui Tribe in Sonora Mexico, and several communities in Brasil. I have also done field work and film trips in the US, including dam sites in Southern California and along the Colorado River. Art Matters funds were used to complete these research trips, and in the production of new films such as Geochoreographies Oritoguaz and Esto No Es Agua both from 2015, and other footage that still is on the editing table; and in the production of footage that will be showcased at the end of 2017. Two new performances stemmed from this research: One Body of Water (2015), and Atarraya (2015). The deepening of the research, and the opportunity to continue to produce work around the subject of extractive economies and water privatization, has gained recognition from different institutions internationally through invitations to speak, perform or show work, such as the Getty Foundation, the LACMA museum in Los Angeles, the São Paulo Biennial, Lima Independiente Cinema Festival in Peru, International Rivers, and Creative Time Reports, amongst others” —Carolina Caycedo, 2014.

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Tina Takemoto

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"The Art Matters Grant enabled me to make substantial progress on my current experimental film project inspired by Isa Shimoda, a butch gender nonconforming immigrant who served meals to female Japanese American cannery workers in her restaurant on the docks of San Diego in the 1930s. She was known for her skills in naginata, a Japanese sword-based martial art practiced by women. Her restaurant was a refuge for the women who endured gruesome hours cleaning fish and lived in meager housing shelters known as ‘fish camp.’

With the generous support of Art Matters, I made two trips to San Diego to conduct research at the Japanese American Historical Society of San Diego, where Shimoda’s archival collection resides. On my second trip to San Diego, I shot footage on the docks and piers of the former canneries. Art Matters also enabled me to conduct research at the National Archives in Washington DC and to shoot footage at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. [...]

Alongside my ongoing interest in using sourced footage and performance for the camera, I began working with 16mm and 8mm filmmaking techniques that have significantly expanded and transformed my practice. As a result, I produced a series of short films (including On the Line and Out of Sink) that bring together archival footage, hand processed 16mm and Super 8mm film, cameraless manipulated film leader, performance for the camera, and digital film.” —Tina Takemoto, 2016.

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Troy Michie

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"With the generous grant from the Art Matters Foundation I was able to commence research and collect materials for the beginning of a project at the time called Disruptive Patterns. The project that focused on the zoot suit's history of transgressive self-expression led me to research the duality of camouflage. Due to the outcome of the last presidential election I felt an urgency to do a project that focused on the misrepresentations of border culture which I know well, being raised on the Texas/ Mexico border in El Paso, TX.

This grant helped fund two trips to El Paso, TX where I purchased local materials from the consignment shops (found objects and garments), interviewed friends and family about their knowledge of Pachuco culture, and documented the terrain. It was important for me to spend time in El Paso since I have not resided in the community for 8 years. This time in Texas helped me examine how I would ultimately approach the Disruptive Patterns project and develop my relationship to camouflage and invisibility through the Ft. Bliss Army base. [...] 

The proposal for Disruptive Patterns inspired me to propose a project at Recess Art which expanded upon the ideas of camouflage, dandyism, and a way to align the history of the zoot suit in both Harlem and El Paso. My session, A Ponemos Chancla, transformed Recess' Soho space into an installation that simulated a men’s formal wear store. A series of 6 unique zoot suits were showcased along with collages and assemblages created from clothing accessories.” —Troy Michie, 2016.

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Free Black Dirt

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“We had for the previous 7 years as Free Black Dirt (FBD) been working very hard on making moves professionally and creatively as a collective. When we received this award we were at a point in our journey of seeing the momentum of our hard work yield an impact in our community, yet also we were experiencing burnout as well from doing too much.

The grant gave us very much needed time to reflect on who we are, what we have done and what we imagine our future looking like. We had decided to spend the year checking in with our vision for ourselves as a collective and to restore a sense of wellness in our bodies, minds and souls as well as dream the next phase of our work. [...]

What was most important for us this year and was certainly made possible by the grant from Art Matters was an opportunity to slow down and care for ourselves and wellness in ways that could only be done by slowing down. We made doctor’s appointments, began grounding in self-care in ways that were difficult to give ourselves the permission to do before this grant. This by far has made a big difference in the kinds of projects we say yes to and how we create a life/work balance that is not easily thwarted by the demanding rigor of being an artist.” —Free Black Dirt, 2016.

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Jina Valentine

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"I was awarded an Art Matters grant at a transitional and pivotal moment in my career and in my personal life. 2017 was my first year as a single mother and my last year as faculty in the Art Department at UNC Chapel Hill. It was also a year in which I had the great fortune to participate in numerous group shows both local and national, as well as solo shows, panel discussions, and visiting artist engagements. Receiving this award at the end of so much change validated the decisions I was making, the work I was producing, and afforded encouragement to pursue the trajectory my circumstances and ambitions had created. In December, I packed and shipped the contents of my house and studio from North Carolina to Chicago. My son and I drove up in an over-full compact car to begin our new lives here. [...]

In the past year, I have begun a new teaching position in the department of Printmedia at SAIC, made connections with galleries and academic institutions here in Chicago, begun work on a new series of drawings, completed another series of drawings, written several articles related to BLT (Black Lunch Table) and hosted numerous events for BLT, completed my tenure review, and have found a community and support here for both me and my son. I am grateful for the fiscal support this grant provided as it has funded critical aspects of this transition. And I am grateful for the encouragement, quite literally, that such recognition affords the courage to make great leaps of faith.” —Jina Valentine, 2017.