The Arts Community Alliance announced its second round of grants from the TACA Bowdon and Embrey  Family Foundations Artist Residency Fund. The fund gives up to $100,000 annually to support innovative artistic residencies in Dallas. Previous recipients include the Dallas Black Dance Theatre with choreographer Jamal Story and Shakespeare Dallas with playwright Octavio Solis.

The residency programming has funding through 2017.

Here’s the complete release:

TACA Announces Second Year of Recipients of Artist Residency Fund
Support from Bowdon and Embrey Family Foundations Provides Grants for Impactful Residency
Programs by Local Performing Arts Organizations

Dallas, TX – TACA (The Arts Community Alliance) has announced three recipients to receive funding from the TACA Bowdon and Embrey Family Foundations Artist Residency Fund. Launched last fall, the Artist Residency Fund awards up to $100,000 annually to support the development of innovative artistic residency programs in Dallas County. The Artist Residency Fund expands upon TACA’s continued efforts to foster meaningful interaction among arts organizations, artists, and the greater community.

The fund-winning performing arts organizations include:

• Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas, with choral conductor and educator Sandra Snow
• Dallas Chamber Symphony, with composer Doug Buchanan
• Orchestra of New Spain, with dancer and choreographer Danica Sena

A panel of both local and national artists and arts managers narrowed applicant organizations through a highly competitive application and review process. Three local nonprofit and arts experts interviewed representatives from finalist organizations before making funding recommendations. Panelists selected the three recipients based on the innovativeness and merit of their project, the inclusion of artistic collaborations, and the quality of engagement of target audiences.

“The project will create new music for our talent and other ensembles to perform, and will enable many to explore and hone their creative abilities while developing a better understanding of their interaction with both music compositions and performances,” said Richard McKay, Conductor and Artistic Director of the Dallas Chamber Symphony. “Through partnerships with local universities, service organizations, and programs like the Sight of Sound film festival, this residency will significantly expand the Dallas Chamber Symphony’s outreach.”

“Now with this opportunity, TACA, in offering an incentive to create new ways of engaging a greater public, make possible our project that’s been in the wings for a number of years, and is now attainable at a level we could scarcely have imagined before,” said Grover Wilkins, III, Artistic Director of the Orchestra of New Spain.

TACA developed the Artist Residency Fund in response to the 2014 edition of Perforum, their annual arts-related symposium, at which members of the local arts community expressed a need for more support for unique artist-community engagement opportunities. Previous recipients of the Artist Residency Fund include the Dallas Black Dance Theatre with choreographer Jamal Story; the Dallas Theater Center with theater artist Lear deBessonet; Shakespeare Dallas with playwright Octavio Solis and director Gustavo Tambascio; and The Dallas Opera with conductor Nicole
Paiement.

“While planning this residency, we found that cost is generally prohibitive for individual school districts to provide the opportunity for their educators to work with someone of Dr. Sandra Snow’s caliber,” said Chris Collins, Executive Director of the Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas. “We are grateful to TACA and the Bowdon and Embrey Family Foundations for helping us to provide this free opportunity for our local music educators to learn from a renowned choral conductor and
educator.”

TACA has secured funding to continue the Artist Residency Fund through 2017. The Artist Residency Fund is the second topic-specific grant fund developed by TACA, following the TACA Donna Wilhelm Family New Works Fund which launched in 2012. Additionally, TACA provides general operating and project-related grants to nearly fifty local performing arts organizations each January.

About the 2016 Recipients and Residencies:

The Children’s Chorus of Greater Dallas will engage renowned choral conductor and educator Sandra Snow for a three-day residency. The residency will entail professional development opportunities for choral educators in the North Texas region, with the aim of enhancing the caliber of school- and community-based choral programs for student from grades three through twelve. Dr. Snow will host a choral conducting masterclass, lead a workshop for the Children’s Chorus of
Greater Dallas’ seven assistant conductors, and visit several local schools to observe rehearsals and
provide feedback to instructors.

The Dallas Chamber Symphony will enlist composer Doug Buchanan for an extensive eighteen-month residency as part of their project The Sounds Between: Exploring the Interface BetweenMusic Composition, Performance, and Consumption. Dr. Buchanan will create three commissioned works over the course of the residency, including a piece for the Sight of Sound film festival, and will host multiple lectures and workshops for local emerging composers. Additionally, Buchanan will support the Dallas Chamber Symphony’s community engagement programs for local homeless
citizens and at-risk youth.

The Orchestra of New Spain, as part of their upcoming project Misa Flamenca: Seville and Spanish Dance, from Cathedral to the Street, will bring flamenco artist Danica Sena and the Spanish flamenco ensemble Son y Tacon to Dallas to create a work intertwining both classical and popular culture from Spain. The work will to premiere in February 2017 at the Dallas City Performance Hall. Additionally, Sena will lead multiple public events during her stay in Dallas, including master classes, school performances, and lectures, all with the goal of further awakening local interest in Spanish theater and dance.

About the Jurors:
Sarah Allen, Associate Professor of Music Education, Southern Methodist University
John Paul Batiste, Member, City of Dallas Cultural Affairs Commission
Stephen Birch, Managing Director, Flying Crown Land Group
Gigi Bolt, Theatre and Musical Theatre Program and Philanthropy Consultant
John Carnwath, Consultant and Researcher, WolfBrown
Janeil Engelstad, Founding Director, Make Art With Purpose
Melanie Glaser, Executive and Artistic Director, The Wooden Floor
Zachary Hammer, Dance Instructor, Booker T. Washington High School
Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Chairman of Education, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Millicent Johnnie, Dancer and Choreographer
Cassie Meador, Artistic Director, Dance Exchange
Michelle Merrill, Assistant Conductor, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Peter Kupfer, Assistant Professor of Music History, Southern Methodist University