Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Martha Boschen Porter Fund for Artists Awards $30K in Grants

October 23, 2012

SHEFFIELD, MA—Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation today announced that the Martha Bochen Porter Fund awarded $30,000 to 10 local artists, selected from 47 applications. The Boschen Fund for Artists supports emerging artists or artists experiencing a significant change of direction in their work. Funding supports individual artists or collaborations in the creation of new work. The Fund supports artists as they advance to the next level of their development. The fund accepts applications from visual artists, writers, craftspeople, as well as new media, installation and performance artists, and interpretive artists working in dance, music and other areas of performance.

Local artists that received grants are:

David Anderegg, Stockbridge, MA: to support a workshop/reading production to record and document his original opera, “The Beasts”.

Laura Didyk, Great Barrington, MA: to work on a collection of poems titled ARGUMENTS AGAINST PARTING.

Danielle Mailer, Cornwall, CT: to create an outdoor public art mural.

Karen LeSage, Lakeville, CT: to work on and document a series of paintings of the moon.

Lakeville-based painter Karen LeSage said, “This award has many layers of meaning for me. Martha Porter showed a profound reverence for the arts by designating funds to help artists. I am deeply honored to have been chosen as a grant recipient. My “Supermoon” series will be bigger and brighter because of it.”

Melanie Mowinski, Cheshire, MA: to purchase materials and tools for PRESS: Letterpress as a Public Art Project, which is a hybrid art and printmaking center designed for learning, exhibition, inspiration and practice of letterpress printing.

Melanie Mowinski said, “I jumped out of my chair when I read the contents of the email saying I received a grant, thrilled that I now had the resources to go ahead and purchase some major equipment as well as supplies to take PRESS: Letterpress as a Public Art Project to the next level of professionalism. I am so thankful and honored and it also gives another layer of validation to the work that I am doing.”

Kathleen Oliver, Williamstown, MA: to work with teenage dancers in the community and in Dakar, Senegal on the development of three dance compositions that fuse traditional West African, Afro-Caribbean and modern dance styles.

Karina Thomas, Glendale, MA: to support “Rooms of Her Own” (working title); a multi-media theatre performance that celebrates and honors the unique developmental stages of women’s lives.

Lee Rogers, Great Barrington, MA: to continue his Black and White Landscape Photography Project, which is centered on creating unique representations of the natural landscapes of the Northeastern and Southwestern United States.

Kristen Van Ginhoven, Lee, MA: to help direct and produce the World Premiere Production of The Old Mezzo, a new play by Berkshire playwright Susan Dworkin.

Colleen Williams, North Adams, MA: to make large, life-sized forms with colored clay bodies that work as a grouping, interacting with one another, especially to be exhibited as public art work. Martha Boschen Porter lived a long and creative life as an artist, fashion designer and photographer/journalist. Her creativity was accompanied by a deep interest in helping other artistic people. Martha believed the world is made a better place if artists are given the resources they need to create work, have it made available to the public, and are given the chance to imagine their future.

In 2006, Martha dissolved her private foundation and established the Boschen Fund, an endowment at Berkshire Taconic, allowing her the joy of supporting artists in the region while BTCF handled all the legal and administrative work. She and the original board continued as advisors to the fund. Upon her death in 2011, Martha left a portion of her estate to the fund so that its work will continue in her name long into the future.

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation celebrates 25 years of building stronger communities and helping donors make a difference through charitable giving in northwest Litchfield County, CT; Berkshire County, MA; and Columbia County and northeast Dutchess County, NY. Each year, the foundation distributes over $7 million through grants and scholarships to nonprofits and individuals in the arts and education, health and human services and environmental protection. Berkshire Taconic is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity. You can make a difference. We can help.

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