Announcing April's Window of Opportunity Grantees

Our Window of Opportunity (WOO) Grant launched earlier this year as a pilot program. Open to previous Leeway grantees only, the grant is meant to fund time-sensitive opportunities to support their art for social change practice. We are happy to announce April's grantees:

Elizabeth Hamilton (ACG '15) has been invited by the Immigrant Affairs Department of City Hall to create a Mini Museum exhibit in Chinatown and host a free community art making workshop in June as part of Immigrant Heritage Month. Mini Museum is a project that focuses on exhibiting miniature art works, no greater than 6 x 6 inches. The works are created during free community workshops and installed in publicly accessible areas, dismantling boundaries around who can be exhibited and what it means to “be in a museum.” Funds will be used for weather-proof exhibition installation materials, framing and presentation, documentation, and workshop supplies.

Jos Duncan (LTA '13, ACG '11) has the opportunity to have her work as a cultural producer documented by a filmmaker and videographer. A series of short videos will be made during her event, 11 Days of Love Stories, that she’s directing with her nonprofit social enterprise Love Now Media, which will be held over 11 days (July 5 - 15) in 11 locations throughout Philadelphia. Each event or workshop will be free, open to the public, and hosted in partnership with a group that is making a social impact. The focus is to engage these community groups in her art for social change practice, which centers love-activism and the power of love-based storytelling and media-making within social justice work. Video documentation will affirm this practice and help Jos develop it as something that could be implemented in other cities.

Mayada (ACG '16) has the opportunity to exhibit her paintings at Philadelphia Folklore Project in June. Mayada will be able to use video projection to present Iraqi songs, lyrics, and stories bilingually in English and Arabic, and will also serve Iraqi tea and cookies (klecha) to accompany the songs. Mayada has also been invited to participate in the Letters from Iraq event at International House Philadelphia in May. In conjunction with a musical performance by Iraqi musician Rahim Alhaj, Mayada will display her paintings centering Iraqi folklore. Funds will be used to frame the art, rent easels, and purchase exhibition supplies.