Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Charlotte Street winners extra lucky in tough times for artists
Posted
by Scott Wilson on
Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 3:48 PM
click to enlarge
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"Arancione Paper Shredder"
The National Endowment for the Arts reports today that working artists are unemployed at twice the rate of professional workers. The NEA's study, titled "Artists in a Year of Recession: Impact on Jobs in 2008," indicates that the economic squeeze is forcing many artists to leave their profession altogether. (The Los Angeles Times has more. A PDF of the full study is here.)
Three local artists have a little breathing room this week, though. Jaimie Warren (a Pitch contributing photographer), Dylan Mortimer and Andrzej Zielenski have been named this year's Charlotte Street Foundation Award winners. Each will receive $10,000. Artspeak and samples of the winners' work here.
UPDATE: Warren responds by e-mail to news of her award: "This comes at an incredible time! I only had $64 in my account when I found out! The new funding is going to allow me to work on projects I really care about and cut back on some waitressing and other random jobs -- even though I love my jobs. But life is short, so I would love to work more on things like my photography and the kids show [
Whoop Dee Doo]."
And Mortimer was already having a big week: "My wife and I just had our first son the day after I realized I got the award!" he writes
The Pitch. "As for what I'm working on next, for now I'm consumed with a baby, but hopefully soon I can start some new work. For my last show at the
Leedy-Voulkos, I made some larger lit signs, kind of marquee-style. They were expensive to make, but with the grant I might be able to explore them further."
Tags: Andrzej Zielenski, artists, Charlotte Street Foundation, Dylan Mortimer, Jaimie Warren, National Endowment for the Arts, NEA
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