Griot artist Vanessa Johnson to Work in Partnership with The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation
Johnson is a recipient of Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program Fayetteville, NY — Vanessa Johnson and The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation announced today that they received an Artist Employment Program (AEP) grant from Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY). Designed to support employment opportunities for artists, the program is funding 98 collaborations involving a dynamic group of 300 artists employed by community-based organizations, municipalities, and tribal governments across New York State. CRNY has awarded a total of $49.9M in funding to support artists’ salaries and benefits, with an additional $11.7M in funding provided to the organizations holding employment.
“If we are to truly rebuild our amazing state, we must celebrate artists’ contributions not only to the economy but to what makes us human,” says Creatives Rebuild New York’s Executive Director Sarah Calderon. “The incredible work being funded through CRNY’s Artist Employment Program underscores the importance of direct support for both individual artists and the organizations that hold their employment.”
Vanessa Johnson will work with The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation and Center for Social Justice Dialogue to engage community audiences in programs, performances, and interactive exhibits that have not had access to the Gage Center because of geographic distance, the lack of transportation, and a perception that the Gage Center is not relative to people of color communities. The Gage Foundation will receive $60,000 to support the collaboration in addition to its artist’s salary and benefits.
Says Johnson, “I am excited to continue my 22-year partnership with The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, including the stories of Women of Color in its histories of women in social justice movements. In this time period in our nation when the personal choices and freedoms of women and voting rights of Women of Color are being eroded away, when human trafficking is in higher numbers than during the Transatlantic Slave Trade, it is important that institutions like the Gage Foundation provide a place for women’s voices to be preserved and championed.”
“We are so honored that Vanessa chose our Gage Center for Social Justice Dialogue to partner with and become our Artist in Residence for two years,” says Gage Center Founder and Co-Executive Director Sally Roesch Wagner. “Her work will immeasurably expand our work to educate and inspire intersectional justice.”
Artist Employment Program recipients were selected through a two-stage process by a group of twenty external peer reviewers alongside CRNY staff. From an initial pool of over 2,700 written applications, 167 were shortlisted for interviews with reviewers. To view the list of 98 Artist Employment Program participants, visit Creatives Rebuild New York – Participants
For more information about Creatives Rebuild New York’s Artist Employment Program, please visit creativesrebuildny.org
