Tag: initiative

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Entertainment

Mentors Named for Subsequent Class in Rolex Arts Initiative

Mentors Named for Next Class in Rolex Arts Initiative

Ghanaian-born visual artist El Anatsui, British writer Bernardine Evaristo, Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke, French architect Anne Lacaton and American jazz singer Dianne Reeves are the new mentors in the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, a program launched by Rolex was established in 2002 to nurture new generations of outstanding talent.

The names of the new mentors and their protégés, who will work together for two years, were announced Friday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the Arts Initiative is celebrating the culmination of its current program cycle. This cycle featured Lin-Manuel Miranda, the first mentor in a recently added open category that includes multidisciplinary artists.

The protégés are architect Arine Aprahamian, writer Ayesha Harruna Attah, visual artist Bronwyn Katz, filmmaker Rafael Manuel and singer-songwriter Song Yi Jeon. In addition to travel and expenses, the protégés each receive a grant of around 41,000 US dollars.

The new group of mentors and protégés hail “from nine different countries in Asia, Africa, North America, Europe and the Middle East,” said Rebecca Irvin, Rolex’s head of philanthropy, in an email. “And her artistic work reflects many of the most pressing issues of our time, including sustainability, diversity and social change.”

Evaristo, who wrote in a statement that she had mentored the program “since Toni Morrison 20 years ago,” said that the “very close and personal attention” the mentee receives was very different from attending workshops or the writing courses. “It could also include career advice and personal development, as well as opening up conversations about creativity and society, and drawing inspiration from other art forms,” ​​she said.

Twenty years after its inception, the Arts Initiative, which uses influential advisors to select mentors and protégés, now has a bold list of alumni including David Adjaye, Alfonso Cuarón, Brian Eno, Lara Foot, Stephen Frears, Nicholas Hlobo, David Hockney , Joan Jonas, Anish Kapoor, Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Crystal Pite, and Tracy K Smith.

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Health

Ford and Mellon Foundations Increase Initiative for Disabled Artists

Ford and Mellon Foundations Expand Initiative for Disabled Artists

The Disability Futures initiative, a fellowship established by the Ford and Andrew W. Mellon Foundations last fall to support disabled artists, is expanding. The foundations announced on Friday that they will commit an additional $5 million to support the initiative through 2025, which will include support for two more cohorts of 20 fellows.

The fellowship, which was created by and for disabled individuals, was conceived as an 18-month initiative. It provided 20 disabled artists, filmmakers and journalists, selected from across the United States, with unrestricted $50,000 grants administered by the arts funding group United States Artists.

But Margaret Morton, the director of creativity and free expression at the Ford Foundation, said it was clear from the beginning that it couldn’t just be a one-off venture.

Projects undertaken by members of the first cohort will be showcased at the first Disability Futures virtual festival, on Monday and Tuesday, with programming from some of the country’s leading disabled artists, writers, thinkers and designers. It is free and open to the public.

Among the highlights: A session on disability portraiture with the filmmakers Jim LeBrecht and Rodney Evans, the painter Riva Lehrer and the journalist Alice Wong; a conversation exploring the connections between climate justice and disability justice led by Patty Berne; and a virtual dance party hosted by the garment maker Sky Cubacub, with music by DJ Who Girl (Kevin Gotkin). Evening runway performances from models wearing items from Cubacub’s Rebirth Garments and a meditation experience with the initiative Black Power Naps, featuring Navild Acosta and Fannie Sosa, are also on tap.

“It’s been really profound for me to see how much the fellows chosen in the first cohort were interested in elevating others in the community,” Emil J. Kang, the program director for arts and culture at the Mellon Foundation, said in an interview on Thursday.

The next class of fellows will be announced in 2022. They are chosen by peer advisers who are themselves disabled artists.

But the feedback from the first class, Morton said, was frank: Do even better in the selection process.

“One of the fellows challenged us,” she said, about there being only one Native American fellow. “And we appreciated that and were challenged to get it right and make sure we have a deeper pool.”

The grants offer flexible compensation options. The money can be distributed in a lump sum, in payments or even be deferred, depending on what works best for the artist.

The fellowship “has made an incredible difference in my life and career,” the writer and photographer Jen Deerinwater said in an email. “It’s allowed me more financial freedom, without the risk of losing my disability and health care services, to pursue more artistic pursuits such as music.”

The pandemic has made foundation leaders “deeply aware” of the challenges disabled professionals face, Morton said. About one in four adults in the United States has a disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We gained a deeper impression and perspective about what it’s like to navigate through the world,” she said.

The program’s overarching goal is to help the artists make connections, Morton said.

“Our biggest dream is visibility,” she said. For audiences to see the artists and for funders to see that “they should start investing in disabled practitioners.”

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Health

The C.D.C. and N.I.H. launch a fast, at-home testing initiative in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The C.D.C. and N.I.H. launch a rapid, at-home testing initiative in Tennessee and North Carolina.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health announced a new initiative on Wednesday to see if the frequent and widespread use of rapid coronavirus tests is slowing the spread of the virus.

The program will provide free antigen testing at home to everyone in two communities, Pitt County, NC, and Hamilton County, Tennessee, for free, bringing a total of 160,000 people to test for the coronavirus three times a week for a while a month.

“This is exactly what I and others have been calling for almost a year – widespread, accessible, rapid testing to contain transmission,” said Michael Mina, Harvard University epidemiologist who advocated rapid rapid testing at home programs.

He added, “It’s something anyone can do if they take 30 seconds out of the day three times a week to do the test.”

Antigen tests are cheaper and faster than PCR tests, which are the gold standard for diagnosing Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. However, they are less sensitive and more prone to false negative results. Mathematical models have shown that if these tests are used frequently, they can still reduce the transmission of the virus.

The tests can help identify people who may not realize they are infectious and cause them to self-isolate before they can transmit the virus to others. Real world data is limited, however, and with virus cases still high across the country, testing is still essential, according to public health experts.

“We have all hypothesized that large-scale home testing could stop the chain of transmission of the virus and allow communities to discover many more cases,” said Bruce Tromberg, who heads the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and its rapid acceleration directs the diagnostic program that provides the tests for the initiative. “All mathematical models predict that. But this is an example from the real world, real life. “

Residents who choose to participate in the program can have the tests brought to their home or collect them from local distribution locations. An online tool guides participants through the testing process and helps them interpret their results. Residents can also volunteer to take surveys to see if frequent tests have changed their behavior, knowledge of Covid-19, or their minds about vaccination.

Researchers from the University of North Carolina and Duke University will compare the positivity, case, and hospitalization rates in these two communities with those in other similar communities that are not in the program.

A. David Paltiel, Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Yale School of Public Health, described the start of a real-world study of the effectiveness of rapid home screening as “simply good news.” However, he cautioned that the results need to be interpreted carefully, especially if residents who choose to participate in the initiative are not representative of the entire community.

“We know that self-selection tends to bring out the concerned and a disproportionate number of people who are already Covid-aware or Covid-conscientious,” he said.

“It will be great to see how it works when it’s in the hands of people who really care,” he added. However, he said the results may not be broadly applicable to screening programs that require participation, as may be the case with some workplace and school programs.