2011 Artpace Travel Grant recipients

Since 2001, Artpace has offered working artists who are residents in Bexar County the opportunity to apply for our annual Travel Grant. In an effort to foster the growth and vision of an artist’s career and encourage an ongoing dialogue between local and international art communities, the $5,000 award assists the recipient (or recipients—the grant may be divided between multiple proposals each year) with travel related to creative growth. Applicant proposals have included research or project-specific travel to visit an exhibition, collection, institution, or geographic location.

Over 10 years, Artpace has awarded grants to 35 San Antonio artists, including Hills Snyder (2001), Vincent Valdez (2005), Mimi Kato (2007), Thomas Cummins (2009), and Ruth Buentello (2010). After reviewing many compelling submissions from area artists, three 2011 award recipients were announced this summer: Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Cathy Cunningham-Little, and Bryson Brooks.

Datchuk, an accomplished ceramic artist and adjunct instructor at the Southwest School of Art, recently visited Jingdezhen, China, for a month-long Pottery Workshop in the country’s acclaimed “Porcelain Capital.” She shares her experiences on her travel blog here.

Cunningham-Little, whose mesmerizing artistic abstractions are comprised primarily of neon, glass, light, and mixed media, will travel to Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst in Unna, Germany, in March 2012 to view the work of 12 renowned light artists. She has an upcoming exhibition, String Theory, at Cactus Bra Space. The exhibit, an installation of planes and forms in three-dimensional space, continues her explorations of space and perception in a more tangible form and opens Thursday, September 1 and runs through September 23.

And last but not least… Brooks. The charismatic painter, performance artist, and musician hosts an informal discussion at FL!GHT Gallery from 8 to 9pm this evening—also the final night of his 50$ MAKE YA HOLLA! exhibition, the proceeds of which will supplement his Bryson Brooks ’n Berlin fund. The self-proclaimed “art rapper” journeys to Germany this October to record with Gordon Raphael (producer of The Strokes’s critically acclaimed 2001 debut album, Is This It). Make us proud, Bryson. Eins, zwei, drei, vier. Get that girl a Lone Star beer.