New York, NY (January 12, 2022) — Creative Capital today named 50 new Creative Capital Awards for 2022. The grants will fund the creation of innovative new artists’ projects by 59 individual artists working in the performing arts, visual arts, film, technology, literature, and socially engaged and multidisciplinary practices. Each project will receive varying amounts up to $50,000 in direct funding, supplemented by career development and networking services to foster thriving artistic careers totaling up to $2.5 million in artist support.
In For Ever More—FutureTradition: An XR Opera Garden, Du Yun will bring for the first time ever one of the oldest evolving forms of Chinese opera, known as Kunqu opera, to life using augmented reality, web-based virtual reality, and large-format projection. Shattering traditional borders of programmatic gatekeeping by allowing presenters, professionals, amateurs, and audience alike access to living, breathing culture, the piece blends avant-garde experimentation with Asian culture and heritage. For Ever More will build a public digital space where a series of curated performances and skill-sharing material are shown and freely shared—accessible to anyone in the world with a device and data—creating a new way of learning from and experiencing live performance.
“Creative Capital believes that funding the creation of new work by groundbreaking artists is vital to the vibrancy of our culture, society, and our democracy. We are dedicated to supporting artists who are pushing boundaries and asking challenging questions—especially now when new ideas are critical to imagining our future,” said Christine Kuan, Creative Capital President and Executive Director.
“The selected projects critically and creatively address some of the most pressing issues of our moment, as well as painful historical legacies that continue to shape our present— from abortion, to money laundering in the art world, to the mass graves from the convict leasing program, to the lasting imprint colonization has left on the construct of time zones,” said Aliza Shvarts, Creative Capital Director of Artist Initiatives. “These artists demonstrate, with urgency and power, the many ways creative practice not only engages the world, but endeavors to shape it.”
Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has been deeply committed to diversity in all its forms— artistic disciplines, geographic regions, and artist identities. The 2022 awardee cohort comprises more than 90 percent Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx artists of all abilities and genders from their 20s to their 60s. The 50 projects in the visual arts, performing arts, film, literature, socially engaged and multidisciplinary practices were selected from more than 4,000 applications via Creative Capital’s open call, national application process and through multiple rounds of external review culminating discipline-specific panels composed of experts, curators, arts professionals, and past awardees. The artists are affiliated with all regions of the United States and its territories, including Big Sky Country, the Midwest, New York City, NorCal and the Pacific Northwest, North-East, SoCal and Hawaii, South-East, South West, Texarkana, and Puerto Rico.
