Queens paid homage to the borough’s artistic talents last Thursday, doling out hundreds of thousands of dollars to individuals and organizations that have made significant creative strides and impacted local communities. The Queens Community Arts Fund this year is distributing $220,000 in grants to more than 40 arts organizations, including eight Queens schools, and to 17 individual artists.
“In these hard times, I have the pleasure of saying that it is my job to give artists money,” Hong Yee Lee Krakauer, executive director of Queens Council on Arts, said at the awards ceremony in Jamaica. Many donors have scaled back contributions this year due to the recession, but with more than $106,400 from the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs, $88,000 from the state Council on the Arts and $30,000 from JP Morgan Chase, the total grant money is down just $10,500 from last year.
Among the recipients of the individual grants is Mana Hashimoto, a blind ballet dancer from Forest Hills, who moved to New York from Japan at age 17. “My first performance was as a frog in ‘Thumbelina,’” she laughed, recalling her role in the children’s classic. “It took a lot of time playing animals and plants before finally stepping into my first tutu.”
Then tragedy struck. Hashimoto was diagnosed with optic nerve dystrophy, a condition that would eventually render her blind. Dancing helped comfort her, though. “Blind people are constrained by their bodies,” explained Hashimoto.”Dance helps release [that] tension. Also, blind people are very imaginative. Dance helps connect with that.”
Sharing Hashimoto’s table at the awards ceremony was Korean dancer Song Hee Lee, who received a grant for her work exploring nirvana in Buddhism through dance. Trained in both traditional and contemporary Korean dance, Lee developed her own style of choreography, which mixes folk styles and contemporary moves. In addition to being a full-time dancer, the Sunnyside resident is artistic director, choreographer and instructor for the Song Hee Lee Dance Company.
Other individual grants were awarded to artists for their work in opera, theater and classical Indian dance. Notable works recognized included a 20-minute art documentary on window air conditioner units in the city and a multi-media work entitled “Street Cleaning and Fashion Recovery: Using discarded umbrellas in Sunnyside to create something new.”
Among the arts organizations that took home awards were the Adhikaar for Human Rights and Social Justice, which initiated a multi-media storytelling project to develop young, female Nepali leaders; Bo Ban Chinese Music Society, which held five concerts featuring ancient Chinese instruments; and Ballet for Young Audiences.
Other grant winners included the Jackson Heights Beautification Group for its summer park concerts, and the Astoria Performing Arts Center and Queens Media Arts Development for their monthly film program presenting free screenings of independent lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender films. As QCA President Barbara Pryor put it, “The winners are so diverse, like Queens itself.”
This piece originally appeared in Queens Chronicle
Image: Flickr/Creative Commons
