Young and Starving

Some of the descriptions of recent grants given under the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Young Artist's Program.

Grantee Ryan Carroll Nelson $2,500.00

Once completed, the record will be distributed by Dischord Records, a DC based record label created in 1980 to document the music coming out of the DC underground music company

The original grant was for the band Beauty Pill but Nelson has since left the band (apparently due in part to a newspaper article about this very grant) and plans to rework the grant although he is vague about whether it will still go towards Beauty Pill's studio bill at Inner Ear.

Grantee Jane Jerardi - $2,500.00

The work and its creative process intends to capture an aspect of current life here in DC and connect audience members everyday experience of DC to my own thought dance in unexpected ways

.
Huh? How about just connecting me with 20 bucks instead?

Here's a young lady that's going to do some interior decorating with her booty:

Grantee Amanda Jean Sauer $1,841.00 5

I propose to seek out and photograph the signs and symbols of everyday life in DC. At the end of my project I will choose the best ten images to include in a show that I will host at my house.

Grantee Ginger Wagg $2,500.00 1

The Privates will be series of three performance, interdisciplinary art events in February, March and April of 2005 in separate non-traditional performance venues.

The "non-traditional performance venues" included Warehouse Next Door, which is basically a nightclub.

Next, I'm going to acting school and you're paying for it!

Grantee Anupama Yadav $2,500.00 1

To support ongoing acting development.

Now don't get me wrong - I think grants for artists is a tried and true tradition of enriching city life. It's just that one can come to the conclusion from reading these summary descriptions that the grantee really doesn't much more in mind than personal enrichment - and, while there's nothing wrong with that, is it the City's duty to help them in their careers? And while its apples and oranges, when I was starting out as an engineer, I could have used a Sun Workstation at home to do some work and help in my studies. All of my music and art has been not just DIY but PFIY (Pay For It Yourself). The last thing I thought about was a grant (although I did once work up a proposal for a theater play about the life of Syd Barrett) - instead I took a second job.

Full PDF file is here