Announcing the 2010 Six Points Fellowships

Today, The Six Points Fellowship for emerging Jewish artists announced it’s newest fellows.  Nine artists were named, who are all working on an original project that explores the connection between artistic disciplines and Jewish cultural expression, and best represent flourishing Jewish culture in New York.

Fellows will be provided with up to $40,000 to develop their projects over a two-year period.   The nine emerging artists selected – born in the United States and Israel -are as diverse in background as they are in their chosen medium.

The 2010 NYC Six Points Fellows follow the incredibly successful pilot cohort, whose projects were critically lauded and presented at venues such as Joe’s Pub, The Black and White Project Space in Williamsburg, and the Kennedy Center, and with fellows receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, Drama Desk Award nomination, Innovative Theater Award, and Puppet Lab Fellowship, as well as exhibited at major museums including the Israel Museum and the Museum of Art and Design.  Three fellows, Jeremiah Lockwood, Clare Burson and Galeet Dardashti also secured record deals for albums written during the fellowship and will be touring to support those projects this fall.

"Arts and Culture is a deeply important part of the Jewish community, and Jewish artists and ideas are a crucial part of the New York cultural world," said Rebecca Guber, Director of the Six Points Fellowship.  "Our first group demonstrated that with the financial support, skill-building, and artistic community of the Six Points Fellowship, artists create powerful work of the highest caliber, taking them to new places in their careers and artistic practice.  We look forward to working with our new group of artists who show tremendous talent, originality and vision. We are excited about the conversations about Jewish identity and life that they will spark in New York City and beyond for years to come." 

2010 Six Point Fellows 

MUSIC

Judith Berkson – Storm and Stress A chamber opera about Salomon Sulzer’s life and intrigues within 19th century Viennese society, drawing from classical sources and Judith’s experimental rock band Platz Machen.

Judd Greenstein – The Yehudim: Shlomo "Shlomo" is an evening-length exploration of the life of King Solomon, written for Judd’s 14-person band / contemporary music ensemble, The Yehudim.

Alicia Jo Rabins – A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff An experimental rock opera about the spiritual implications of the current financial crisis, examining the figure of Bernard Madoff (and the system he represents) through the lens of rabbinic Jewish texts about financial ethics, the meaning of wealth, and the inevitability of cycles.

VISUAL ARTS

Liana Finck – A Bintel Brief A graphic novel and monthly zine based on the "Bintel Brief" section of The Yiddish Forward, including interactive online elements, workshops, and exhibits at Lower East Side landmarks.

Hadassa Goldvicht – Rites of Passage A multi-channel video composition drawing from Hassidic lingual rites of passage ceremonies, and revolving around the embossment of ritual in our bodies and daily gestures.

Oded Hirsch – There is Nothing New (EnKhadash) An epic video that explores biblical narratives while reconstructing the pioneering spirit of the Zionist movement, using hundreds of kibbutz members to enact and create the video.

PERFORMING ARTS

Hannah Bos – The Untitled Blood Play This new play will translate anti-Semitic medieval perceptions that Jewish men menstruated into a provocative, 20th century thriller.

Sylvan Oswald – Profanity Profanity will explore Jewish identity and ethics through the stories of three interwoven characters, each in a different time period, who lose grasp of the difference between right and wrong, to darkly comic effect.

Netta Yerushalmy – Makom By examining the notion of makom ("place" in Hebrew, but also one of God’s names), and evoking the ideas of dwelling and displacement, this dance project explores the relation between different locations and the moving body, specifically in New York and Tel Aviv.