Brooklyn, NY – National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $80 million in grants as part of the NEA’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018. Included in this announcement is an Art Works grant of $22,000 to Roulette Intermedium for the Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project. The Art Works category is the NEA’s largest funding category and supports projects that focus on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and/or the strengthening of communities through the arts.
“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Through the work of organizations such as Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn, New York, NEA funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”
Roulette Co-founder and Director of Special Projects David Weinstein stated: “The Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project makes available musical treasures reflecting both the organization’s 40-year history with adventurous and influential artists—often during their formative years—and the uniquely personal relationship that Roulette cultivates with artists. The blossoming of ideas, the technical discoveries, and the surprising collaborations are all captured in restored, quality recordings made in Roulette’s early performance spaces in Manhattan lofts and galleries, as well as the 400-seat Brooklyn concert hall that Roulette has called home since 2011. Releasing highlights from the collection will illuminate the challenges, potential, and triumphs of American creative life and its resonating impact on us all.”
The Roulette Concert Archive Radio Project is a professionally produced radio series curated from nearly 3,000 sound art and music performances recorded and preserved by Roulette since 1980. The programs will include historic and educational narratives, artist interviews, and musical illustrations to be distributed through Roulette’s radio partners, as a podcast, and as an offering on PRX (Public Radio Exchange), the online marketplace for public radio programming. Roulette is internationally recognized for its support of new and innovative work across all media and its quality of presentation. This project will support the creation of 26 radio segments, each 57 minutes long, as well as the promotional support and permissions clearances necessary to produce the shows. The programs will be available for free on Roulette’s website and will feature exploration of new techniques and technologies, interactive and kinetic work, new instruments and inventions, installation and interdisciplinary projects, hybrid and expanded ensembles, and spatial experiments.