Guerillas Awarded a $15,000 Live Arts Boston Grant from The Boston Foundation

Guerilla Opera has been selected to participate in the 2021 Live Arts Boston cohort. This award will support "I Give You My Home: The Rose Standish Nichols Story", a site specific chamber opera inspired by the life of Rose Standish Nichols and in collaboration with the Nichols House Museum in Boston. This world premiere opera paints a portrait of a strong-willed, intelligent, and professional woman and highlights her efforts to affect change through the Women's Peace Movement, Women's Suffrage and in her professional work.

This project's creative team includes composer and librettist, Beth Wiemann, film and stage director, Cara Consilvio, associate director and multimedia designer, Nuozhou Wang. The opera is for three Guerilla performers: Artistic Director and soprano, Aliana de la Guardia singing the role of Rose Standish Nichols and ensemble members Mike Williams, percussion and Philipp Stäudlin, saxophone.

Aliana recently appeared on the "Great Estates" episode of WCVB's Chronicle, ABC's Boston Channel 5, with the museum's Executive Director, Linda Marshall talking about this collaboration. This creative partnership aims to bring the house back to life through an immersive musical experience. Watch the episode online.

Since 2017, Live Arts Boston funding has made it possible for recipients to provide millions of dollars in direct payments to artists working on their projects. In addition, the 310 grants since the beginning of the program have created a network of shared and peer resources for local artists across all performing arts disciplines and genres. A review of the first three years of LAB by Animating Democracy found LAB funds supported over 1,100 performances of new works, and that more than half of LAB funds were spent to pay artists and creatives who support their work - in commissions, collaborations and rehearsal and performance compensation.

The Boston Foundation and Barr Foundation have announced that this year is the largest slate of grantees and most significant support for artists in the history of the Live Arts Boston (LAB) program. In 2021, sixty-five artists, groups, and small organizations will share $975,000 in grants to create, produce, and present new performing works in the fifth year of the program. The artist partners, representing a cross-section of performing arts styles and genres, were chosen from more than 300 applicants, using an open community review process that included nearly 50 national and local artists and arts administrators.

For more information on Live Arts Boston, visit their website. For more information on "I Give You My Home: The Rose Standish Nichols Story," visit Guerilla Opera's website.