Forty-seven local artists and creators applied to the City of Windsor’s second round of ACHF funding this year. Of these, twenty-seven applicants – twenty-one individuals and six organizations – will receive support for arts, culture and heritage projects in the community.
The funding requests totalled about $180,000. With $59,000 available in this round, the competition was high and the jury had to make difficult decisions. The jury was pleased to see seventeen of the submissions come from first-time applicants, and excited to be able to select fourteen of those to receive funding. The jury selected a strong mix of projects across genres including the visual arts, performing arts, film, music, literary arts and storytelling, and podcasts; and some important projects supporting diversity, inclusivity, heritage and the celebration of humanity in the city of Windsor.
Since the launch of this program in 2014:
750 applications have been submitted for consideration for funding
393 individual projects have received funding
$832,000 has been awarded in project funding to local arts, culture and heritage initiatives benefitting our community.
Louise Paquette. $5,000. Contemporary Dance Master Classes. Funding for artist fees for dance workshops and classes.
Elliott Hale. $4,000. Falling Through a Dream. Funding for artist fees, venue rentals, and production costs to create a short film.
Jillian Goyeau. $3,750. Talking Violet Music Video Cycle. Funding for artist fees for four music videos.
Tracey Atin. $3,500. Flutter Opera – Phase 2. Funding for artist fees for musicians and singers creating an original opera.
Gavin Booth. $3,500. Sunset Junkies. Funding for artist fees, production and post-production costs for an original dramatic short film.
Frank Varga. $3,000. Dolores Goes Downtown. Funding for artist fees for production costs for a short film.
Jaclyn Meloche. $3,000. Cars & Curves. Funding for artist fees, sculpture material costs, and finishing costs for four large-scale artworks.
Bangladesh-Canada Association Windsor-Essex. $3,000. International Mother Language Festival 2023. Funding for artist fees for Indigenous drummers, multi-discipline artists, dancers and more as part of a community culture and heritage festival.
Kristina Bradt. $2,500. Tiny Art Vending Machine – Phase 2. Funding for artist fees and documentation of an interactive visual arts project.
Paul Murray. $2,500. Music ‘n Arts Aid Live! Funding for artist fees and promotion of a multi-genre arts event.
Kamryn Cusumano. $2,350. Uma Loft Sessions. Funding for artist fees, video production and technical fees for an online video series highlighting local artists.
Windsor Classic Chorale. $2,300. Windsor Choral Festival. Funding for artist fees for a music festival.
Brodie MacPhail and Andrew Pardy. $2,000. Drawslaw. Funding for artist fees for an online artist spotlight series.
Filipino Community Centre of Windsor Essex County, Inc. $2,000. Funding for artist and performer fees for a culture, heritage and art festival celebrating diversity and inclusion.
Ashley Crawford. $2,000. Community Concert Series. Funding for artist fees and promotion of a community concert showcasing local artists.
Jamie Greer. $2,000. The History of Pro Wrestling in Windsor, Ontario. Funding for artist fees, photo and artifact licensing for creation of a book on local history.
Mike Hargreaves. $2,000. Mike Hargreaves 2023 EP. Funding for artist fees, session musicians, mixing and mastering, photography, production and video content for creation of an album of original music.
Rami Alsharak. $1,500. ClosetMetics. Funding for artist fees, production costs, editing, and materials for a storytelling project connected to the 2SLGBTQIA+ community.
Windsor Feminist Theatre / Waawiiyaatanong Feminist Theatre. $1,450. Untitled Edele Winnie Play. Funding for artist fees and set design for a theatre production of an original play.
Michael Grainger Harris. $1,200. Huron Lines ‘Live in Windsor’ Performance Film Project. Funding for artist fees, film and audio production costs for a film project merging music and film across Windsor.
Jacob McLean. $1,200. Mellowdraw. Funding for artist fees, production and promotion of an original music video from an upcoming album.
Trans Wellness Ontario. $1,050. Queer and Trans Community Poetry Project. Funding for artist fees and printing costs for poetry workshops and corresponding chapbook sharing stories of the queer and trans communities in Windsor.
Walter Sviatoslav Petricyn. $1,000. Ojibway. Funding for artist fees, cinematography, sound, score, festival fees and more to begin work on a feature-length documentary on the company town of Ojibway.
Karen Morand. $900. Art Kitchen. Funding for artist fees, production and post-production costs for a podcast focusing on local music and poetry.
The Greater Windsor Concert Band. $800. Funding for venue rental for a special anniversary concert.
Laura Becker. $750. Compendium. Funding for gallery rental, material costs and promotion of a visual art exhibition.
Sarah Jane Baggio. $750. Noctuary Retrograde. Funding for materials and costs associated with creating and exhibiting a new series of paintings.
Of their collective experience working as part of the ACHF Jury for the 2022 funding year, the jurors said:
“I feel so honoured and proud to have been a part of the 2022 ACHF jury. Each round of funding provides us with a clear illustration of the importance and need for arts and culture in our community. Being able to play a role in giving both emerging and established artists the opportunity to continue to work in Windsor is a wonderful feeling and a great way to give back to our community.”
“Being a juror on the ACHF was an exciting learning opportunity. Hearing the other jurors’ thoughts broadened my own understanding of grant applications, and reviewing the applications reminded me of how much talent and diversity there is in Windsor’s arts community.”
“I’m so grateful to have been provided the opportunity to sit on the jury of ACHF. It’s been a great learning experience about the breadth and quality of the arts, cultural and heritage imagination in Windsor. As Albert Einstein once said, ‘Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.’ And I truly believe that we enable many ‘coming attractions’ through this fund.”
The City extends thanks to the ACHF jury members who participated in the evaluation of the 2022 ACHF funding rounds. The jury consisted of the following:
David Burrows – returning juror; theatre and performing artist, arts board member, and teacher.
Kaitlyn Karns – returning juror; former administrative and outreach coordinator (Arts Council Windsor & Region), arts educator, community artist, dance/movement artist, musician, theatre and performing artist, arts administrator, arts board member, and arts programmer.
Madelyn Della Valle – Museum Windsor Curator with extensive experience in heritage and literature; administrator, programmer, educator, community board member; connected to many local heritage and cultural communities including the French and Italian communities.
Moya McAlister – arts education, community arts, media arts, theatre/performing arts, cultural activist, administrator, arts board member, programmer, educator, community board member, works closely with artists and creatives identifying as Black Indigenous and People of Colour.
Alexei Ungurenaşu – Windsor’s current Youth Poet Laureate; visual artist, arts administrator, integrated arts, curator, programmer, cultural activist; identifies closely with the LGBTQ2S+ community around gender expression and arts expression.
The ACHF, approved by City Council, awards grants to individuals and cultural organizations to help stimulate creative and economic growth. Each project could be funded to a maximum of $5,000 in a given round. $118,000 in project funding is available each year, administered through two rounds of $59,000 each.
Quotes:
“Since the launch of the City’s ACHF grant program, close to four hundred innovative projects have received nearly $850,000 in funding. This program has a significant impact on the creative community while helping to celebrate and share the best of Windsor’s arts, culture and heritage sectors with the broader community. I am proud of Council’s recent increase to the available funding in the program, which helps us to continue investing in Windsor’s quality of life through arts, culture and heritage initiatives.” – Mayor Drew Dilkens
“We remain proud of the ACHF program, and grateful for Council’s ongoing support and investment into this important initiative for our creative community. We are grateful to our volunteer jurors who step up to help us support arts, culture and heritage projects through this fund, and we are so very excited to see this latest batch of projects come to life in our community.” – Michelle Staadegaard, Manager of Culture & Events, City of Windsor
Further details on the program guidelines and objectives, application process, eligibility requirements, success stories from previous recipients, and deadline dates for funding rounds as available are posted at www.ACHFWindsor.ca online.
To learn more about arts, culture and heritage services at the City of Windsor, visit www.CityWindsor.ca or call 311.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
