The Six Point Fellowship Announces Inagural Los Angeles Fellows

The Six Points Fellowship (www.sixpointsfellowship.org) has announced its inaugural Los Angeles cohort. Each fellow is being provided $40,000 to develop new works engaging with Jewish themes and content over a two-year period. Six Points will also provide the artists with ongoing professional development workshops, retreats and a variety of Jewish learning opportunities. The Fellows will act as a catalyst to engage large audiences in their 20's and 30's, many of whom would not otherwise be exposed to Jewish arts and culture.

Collectively, the artists represent a snapshot of burgeoning Jewish culture in Los Angeles. We are delighted to introduce Fellows: Nina T. Becker (Jonas), Will Deutsch, Jessie Kahnweiler, Sasha Perry, Paul Ratner, Corrie Siegel, Kristen Smiarowski, Tali Tadmor and Yelena Zhelezov.

The nine emerging artists selected - born in the United States, Israel and the Former Soviet Union - are as diverse in background as they are in their chosen medium. The Fellows are between the ages of 22 and 38. Their projects range from a film exploring the true story of a Jewish Indian Chief, to a dance about historic memory of the Holocaust, to a Yiddish Swing Cabaret entitled "Ella Fitzgeraldberg."

The Fellowship officially begins in November 2011. Over the course of the two-year Fellowship, the artists will present their work through exhibitions, concerts, performances and public installations throughout Los Angeles.

The Fellows were selected after an intensive three-month review process and two-stage jury selection that evaluated over 120 applications. Jury panels included distinguished artists, cultural professionals and scholars from throughout the Los Angeles art community.

The only Jewish arts fellowship of its kind, Six Points is a partnership of Avoda Arts, JDub and the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and is made possible with significant support from The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles and the Righteous Persons Foundation.

"Six Points believes in artists' integral role in mining Jewish tradition for modern relevancy. With financial support, skill-building and the artistic community of the Six Points Fellowship, artists create powerful work of the highest caliber, taking them to new places in their careers and artistic practice. We are excited about working with our New Group of artists who show tremendous talent, originality and vision," said Six Points Fellowship director Rebecca Guber.

The 2011 Los Angeles Six Points Fellows follow the incredibly successful cohorts of Fellows in New York City. Their work has been attended by over 20,000 people throughout the US and Europe and has been featured in hundreds of media outlets, including The New York Times, the New Yorker, the Village Voice and on NPR and Last Call with Carson Daly. The artists' websites received over 250,000 visits during the fellowship term.

The Los Angeles Six Points Fellowship: Project Descriptions

MEDIA ARTS
Jessie Kahnweiler - Dude, Where's my Chutzpah?
A comedic web series chronicling a young woman who searches the Los Angeles Jewish community in an effort to discover her inner Chutzpah.

Sasha Perry - Unknown
A series of documentary shorts and live events examining the connections between feminism, gender and Judaism.

Paul Ratner- Sky City: The Ballad of Don Solomono
A short fiction film focusing on the real-life tale of Don Solomono, a Jewish German immigrant who became chief of a Native American tribe.

VISUAL ARTS
Nina T. Becker (Jonas) - 2x12
A video installation investigating the Jewish narrative of annihilation and exodus through the lens of contemporary myths and experiences of the apocalypse.

Will Deutsch - Notes from the Tribe
A series of illustrations depicting various Jewish traditions and biblical characters, inspired by the golden age of cartooning.

Corrie Siegel - Cadastral Masorah
An exploration of Jewish identity through the visual language of cartography and micrography.

PERFORMING ARTS
Kristen Smiarowski - Sleep, Staring, Well
A site-adaptive dance-theater event examining the cultural construction of memory of historical events, referencing Holocaust survivor Ida Fink's story "The Key Game."

Yelena Zhelezov - PED XING
A series of participatory explorations of pedestrian Los Angeles, as walked by immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

MUSIC
Tali Tadmor - Ella Fitzgeraldberg
A cabaret show-turned-dance party exploring the Yiddish Swing culture in Los Angeles in the 1940's.

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