BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn has been awarded a grant of $200,000 from the Rockefeller Foundation’s New York City Cultural Innovation Fund, which recognizes and supports cultural and artistic innovation and opportunities in New York City. With this grant, BRIC is able to further its mission of nurturing the arts, artists and audiences in Brooklyn and across New York City with the launch of a new initiative: Probable Fireworks | Crossing Borders, BRIC’s first cross-disciplinary commissioning and residency program for artists.

Probable Fireworks | Crossing Borders will offer an unprecedented new opportunity for artists to work collaboratively with other artists on large-scale projects that traverse the disciplines of visual art, performance and media while engaging the diverse communities of Brooklyn. The program will begin in the first half of 2011 to help launch BRIC Arts | Media | House – BRIC’s newly renovated state-of-the-art facility that will include exhibition and performances spaces and a media center. BRIC House will be both a vibrant working space for artists and a public gathering place, where audiences will also be able to explore new artistic territory.

Executive Director Leslie Schultz commented “BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is entering an important new stage in its growth and development as a multi-disciplinary cultural institution. We are thrilled to receive the Rockefeller grant. Probable Fireworks | Crossing Borders will take our existing programs and services for artists to the next level, and it will inaugurate an important new public cultural space in Brooklyn.”

As part of the program supported by the grant, five residencies will be awarded to teams of artists working collaboratively with one or more artists of their choice working within a different medium. Each residency must include one Brooklyn-based artist. Artists will work in residence at BRIC House over three to six months, supported by BRIC’s creative, production and marketing staff. They will receive stipends ranging from $10-$25K, and in-kind production support up to $75K. The first residency will be a pilot where artists will be selected by an advisory committee working our curatorial staff. Future residencies will be awarded through an open-call competitive application process guided by an Artist Advisory Committee.

Probable Fireworks | Crossing Borders is also designed to further BRIC’s goals to engage the public. It will include thought-provoking and engaging programs that will bring audiences to BRIC House to learn about the creative process and interact with artists.

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BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn is a multi-disciplinary arts and media non-profit dedicated to presenting contemporary art, performing arts, and community media programs that are reflective of Brooklyn’s diverse communities, and to providing resources and platforms to support the creative process. All of our offerings are free or low cost, to enhance the public’s access to and understanding of arts and media. Each year, upwards of a million people in Brooklyn and citywide are served through our programs. www.bricartsmedia.org