National Endowment for the Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts award grants to Wilmington’s Cucalorus Film Foundation
August 10, 2022 – The Wilmington-based non-profit Cucalorus Film Foundation has been awarded grants from two national arts funders. The funds support artist residencies that bring a wide range of filmmakers and visual artists to Wilmington each year for deep creative exchange through expanded cinema experiences that emphasize both humor and humanity. Jackie Olive, Rebecca Kenyon, and Matt Hulse were the first three resident artists, coming to Wilmington in 2009 and spending three months living on the Jengo’s Playhouse campus. Since then, Cucalorus has hosted hundreds of artists who come and discover the unique history and geography of Southeastern North Carolina. Resident artists from the recent IMMERSION 4.0 Virtual Reality lab joined Cedric Harrison for the WilmingtoNColor tour and hosted a private screening of Wilmington on Fire with director Christopher Everett.
In accordance with Andy Warhol’s will, the mission of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts is the advancement of the visual arts. The foundation manages an innovative and flexible grants program while also preserving Warhol’s legacy. Cucalorus has been awarded a multi-year grant totalling $80,000 to support the foundation’s programs. To date, the foundation has given over $260 million in cash grants to over 1,000 arts organizations in 49 states and abroad and has donated 52,786 works of art to 322 institutions worldwide.
Cucalorus Film Foundation has also been approved for a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the 2022 Works-in-Progress Lab, an immersive residency for the development of social justice documentaries, especially those directed by Black filmmakers. The Cucalorus Works-in-Progress Lab is among 1,125 projects across America totaling more than $26.6 million that were selected during this second round of Grants for Arts Projects fiscal year 2022 funding.
Five projects have been selected for this year’s Works-in-Progress Lab: Salsa, Un Tumbao’ Caribeño by Beni Marquez, Raza Rap Project by Camilo Hannibal Smith, Tribal Strands by Suzette Burton, Black Strings by Marquise Mays and I Believe in our Power by Siwatu-Salama Ra and Kimberly Mitchell.
For more info about Cucalorus programs, visit https://www.cucalorus.org/