The Artists Respond grant program awards funds to Connecticut artists for community-based projects that range from large audience events to small group activities. Artist-led projects use the arts to inspire, empower, educate, and transform Connecticut communities.

NWCT Grantees:

Karann Schaller - Whiting Mills Creative Day

Creative Day 2024 is a free/low-cost event of community arts enrichment including workshops, demonstrations, and make-and-take classes in the historic Whiting Mills in Winsted, CT. The schedule will include 30 to 90 minute rotating art sessions, taught by resident and guest Whiting Mills artists, with exposure to a broad range of artistic mediums and crafts. The target audience is adults and teens, 16 years and up. Whiting Mills is home to working studios for 30+ fine artists, crafts people, and makers. 

 Funding will go toward marketing, artist materials, and artists teaching stipends, as described in the proposed budget. Creative Day at Whiting Mills is an opportunity for members of the community to access a diverse range of artistic expression in the visual arts by engaging directly with artists and craftspeople in their studios with hands-on classes, workshops, and demonstrations.

Kimiye Corwin - GROUNDED by George Brant

A one-woman play, GROUNDED, by George Brant. This project will offer performances of the play to communities that have less access to live theater, in nontraditional theater spaces -- community centers, senior centers, libraries, classrooms, churches, etc. The heart of the project is in exploring the life of a female air force pilot who, because she has a baby, is reassigned to working in a drone unit. Her experiences as a soldier in an important role in the US military are radically unfamiliar to most Americans.

The purpose of performing this piece is to bring awareness to the important topics of 21st-century warfare, women in the military, women in male-dominant work places, women's mental health, the mental health protocols of the US military, and military motherhood.

Dan Morrison - Plessy's Train

The production of an original song about Homer Plessy (of Plessy vs. Ferguson fame), the gentleman who bought a first-class ticket on a train in Louisiana when Black people were not allowed in the First Class section. The song will play a substantial role in the documentary film, "On The Origin of Systems," about systemic racism—exactly what Homer Plessy battled on that train.

Effie Mwando - It's my time now

A one hour story about a woman who creates a vision for the future. This vision includes storytelling, overcoming challenges as a woman of color and promoting social justice. The performance will travel to several locations throughout the state of Connecticut.

Leslie Elias - Fostering Community Engagement and Environmental Stewardship through the Arts for Earth Day 2024

This project will bring people of all ages together to celebrate Earth Day through the Arts.  Visual artists, musicians, actors and environmentalists will work in collaboration on the project. There will be multiple pre-performance workshops, with several culminating performances in area towns. Students from area elementary schools as well as public and private high schools will be invited to submit poems, essays & artwork to contribute to the Earth Day performances and gatherings. Several short theater pieces will be developed with different groups to be performed with pageantry and music. Giant puppets created by various local artists will be central in the pageantry. Local musicians will be invited to provide music for each of the