I am ecstatic to be awarded SPACES’ Urgent Art Fund. With the support I will present GROUNDED: an ambient, experimental film series and audio-visual installation based on meditation.
We are grieving on a global level. The purpose is to help find peace in the present moment and offer kindness and healing through difficult times. Modulated nature footage will show the powerful effects of nature’s everyday occurrences. While other meditations focus on relaxation, this series cycles through emotions sonically. It is a journey that pierces the audience’s attention throughout the process, creating an engaging experience that will remain with the viewer for a long time.
The series will be accompanied by a soundtrack composed specifically for this project. The music will feature vocal harmonies, field recordings of nature sounds, theremin, singing bowls, bells, and synths sprinkled throughout. Some songs are lyricless, ambient, and the visuals will be abstract – others pieces feature natural sounds and have breathing exercises intertwined. Mindfulness segments hope to depict short attention spans and share methods that can retrain focus.
Music is a community building art form. Recent BBC article, “The world’s most accessible stress reliever,” touts the positive, healing effects of music and how singing is meditative and mood boosting. The video will feature a continual stream of songs, providing a sonic narrative to accompany the visual segments.
There will be a free virtual viewing of the film. Guests who register will receive a download of one of the songs featured in the film. An audio release will be produced. Details will be shared later in the year as the project develops.
Congrats to the other awardees: Amanda D. King, Anna Tararova, and Mourning [A] BLKstar Collective! I have so much love and respect for your art and am looking forward to seeing what you create.
SPACES has one Urgent Art Fund grant left to award in 2020 and artists are encouragedto apply. Applications are judged by three external jurors based on feasibility, public accessibility to the project, artistic quality, and timeliness. Interested artists may contact the program coordinator, Cierra Rembert (cierra@spacescle.org) with questions about applications and requirements. The Urgent Art Fund is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a Support for Artists grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. (more).
In the theme of transparency and in hopes to help someone else with their proposal, I am sharing my application materials.
Thank you residents of Cuyahoga County and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture for your support. I am looking forward to giving back to you through my art.
July 8, 2020 CLEVELAND, OH – SPACES established The Urgent Art Fund in 2019, with funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture to support creation of artworks that are socially, politically, or culturally responsive. The Urgent Art Fund will support FIVE artist projects in 2020. Selected projects receive $5,000 each, plus additional resources including staff support, access to tools and studio space, and an annual SPACES membership.
We are pleased to announce the first four awardees of 2020: Anna Tararova, Mourning [A] BLKstar Collective, Christa Ebert, and Amanda D. King.
Anna Tararova will publish five risograph and screen printed books by artists of color through her project, Empress Editions. Artists will be selected through a call for proposals and interested artists are encouraged to apply online (link below). The five selected artists each receive short-term access to studio space in Midtown Cleveland in addition to design and layout assistance, printing, and binding services. The artist books will be released online, at art book fairs, and during a public event at Outlandish Press. Apply to Empress Editions HERE
Mourning [A] BLKstar Collective will present a series of online experiences filmed in culturally significant locations throughout Northeast Ohio. These Mourning [A] BLKstar Residencies, developed by James Longs, Theresa May, William Washington, LaToya Kent, Kyle Kidd, Dante Foley, Pete Saudek, and RA Washington, provide a gesture of fellowship and song while dealing with a global pandemic threatening the livelihood of hourly workers, teachers, artists and others. A premiere is expected online in September of 2020 via //BLK//BLUR, a POC founded and curated streaming platform.
Self-trained musician and activist, Christa Ebert, performs as Uno Lady and composes songs with her voice, electronic effect pedals, and unconventional instruments. For her UAF project, Uno Lady will present Grounded, an ambient, experimental film series and meditation-based audio-visual installation as a means to find peace in the present moment. This work is in development and will be presented online, free of charge., later this year.
My GOD is ANTIRACIST is a multi-layered, multimedia meditation on GOD as the embodiment of antiracism. Amanda D. King interweaves photography, text, video and installation with Black liberation theology, Black church aesthetics and recollections of Sunday service to invoke the viewer to perform antiracism as a spiritual practice. This work is in development for a public premier in the fall of 2020.
SPACES has one Urgent Art Fund grant left to award in 2020 and artists are encouragedto apply. Applications are judged by three external jurors based on feasibility, public accessibility to the project, artistic quality, and timeliness. Interested artists may contact the program coordinator, Cierra Rembert (cierra@spacescle.org) with questions about applications and requirements. The Urgent Art Fund is supported in part by the residents of Cuyahoga County through a Support for Artists grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.
The artists residency at Chateau Orquevaux was magical and allowed me the focus needed to write and record 15 songs. I drove over 1,500 miles (about 2500km), down bumpy back roads and single lane highways through sunflower fields and wind farms.
The first song recorded was “Dream” by the Everly Brothers. This song has been dear to my heart for as long as I can remember.
I spent a few extra weeks in Europe and performed at LaDIY Festival in Strasbourg, France. I had two performances in Bern, Switzerland, at Cafe Kairo and Voodoo Rhythm Records Hardware Store. The last night of my trip I sang at La Pointe Lafayette, in Paris. I made friends that will be lifelong and was warmly welcomed by pals I haven’t seen in ten years.
I plan to share short stories of my trip throughout the year. If you’d like to stay updated, please subscribe to Unolady.com/subscribe
Since the residency, I’ve been staying busy and released a new record, OSMOSIS, on Volar Records. You can stream, download digital, or order a limited edition green vinyl here.
Here are a few videos and photos from my adventure.
“Sunrise,” was inspired by waking with the sun. Time lapse feature the view from my bedroom window at Chateau Orquevaux.
During the residency, the other artists and I took field trips around town and to nearby cities. While other artists sketched, I took photos and made up melodies. One of the stops was the old stone church in town. I asked if I could sing, and it was there my new favorite hobby was born: Singing in cavernous spaces and belting what feels right. During my trip I sang and recorded improv performances in 5 churches and 1 tunnel.
This next video is an improv performance at Cathédrale Saint-Mammès de Langres (Langres Cathedral) which was built in the 1100’s. It is the first video in the illicit hymn series. An illicit hymn: Singing, uninvited. A collaboration with the architecture and natural reverb. I am sorting through the footage. I hope to find a creative way to share these pieces other than youtube. I’ll keep you posted.
Lastly, I want to share with you the Cow Crooner video. While walking with the other artists, we passed by a pasture. I shared that I grew up in rural Ohio. As a child, there was a farm across the street that had cows and I would sing to them. They encouraged me to sing to this herd, so I did. To my surprise, the cows listened attentively and walk towards me. This is when my second favorite hobby was born: Cow Crooning. I serenaded a few herds throughout the trip and have more videos to share.
“If you’ve never seen Uno Lady live, let me attempt to explain. A self-trained musician, Ebert composes songs mostly using just her voice. She’s been described as a “one-woman ghost choir”, which I find particularly apt. Her music includes dream-like layers of her own voice, looping like spells and chants, ethereal tones, instruments and beats all knit together into one lush soundscape. Every time I’ve heard her sing, I’ve had goosebumps – the beauty of her voice soaring, cutting through the air is so enchanting it can command the hairs on my arms to stand at attention.
I’ve seen Uno Lady perform many times over the years – she was the recipient of a CPAC Creative Workforce Fellowship, a Panza Foundation Award, and has performed at many venues and galleries: Transformer Station, the Cleveland Museum of Art, etc. But for the first time, she will be including a film component as part of her live show – thanks to Akron Soul Train. Akron Soul Train is an artist residency program that grants fellowships to provide resources for all creative disciplines – Ebert is the first musician they have supported. full article
PERFORMANCES by the 2018 Panza Foundation bands: The Village Bicycle, Uno Lady, FreshProduce, and Pillars.
HUGE RAFFLE of musical gear, services, and other awesome stuff. The Panza Foundation will also announce the bands it is supporting in 2019. Have a good time and support the local, independent music scene. link to event page
Happy Dog West
5801 Detroit Ave, Cleveland, OH
7pm doors, 9pm show
$8 www.panzafoundation.org
Akron Soul Train announces 2018-19 fellows; nearly doubles number of artists supported
CANVAS MAGAZINE, CLEVELAND – “After supporting a total of seven local artists since its inception in 2016, the Akron Soul Train announced its latest class of fellows would nearly double that figure.
Thirteen emerging and established artists will serve as Akron Soul Train fellows from September 2018 to August 2019, including the program’s first artist of color, first non-Ohioan and first two musicians, says Natalie Grieshammer, Akron Soul Train arts and programming manager.
The Akron Soul Train fellowship selection committee reviewed 70 applications. Each of the 13 selected will lead a community program during their fellowship as well as present a final exhibition or performance in Akron to share the artwork they created.
“Akron Soul Train is thrilled to be supporting so many new artists this fellowship round. Expanding the number of artists we support allows us to not only validate the role of excellent local and regional artists, but helps enrich the greater Akron arts landscape,” Grieshammer says. “Since each fellow will be creating and leading a community program, Akron area residents will have opportunities to engage with each artists’ unique creative perspective in ways that they may not usually get to.”…
Christa Ebert, of Cleveland, is a musician widely known as Uno Lady. She blends elements of jazz, doo wop, ’60s pop and folk through her voice, electronic pedals and unconventional instruments.” – By Marissa Nichol
