Notes From The Field

Afterimage, Sept, 2001

The J. Paul Getty Museum has announced an important gift of 256 Brett Weston photographs. Weston (1911-93), the son of Edward Weston, forged his own photographic career after starting off as an apprentice to his father in Santa Monica during the 1930s. After early forays into documentary photography, covering metropoles on both coasts, Weston turned his attention to the natural landscape.

He has been credited with leading his more famous father in the direction of the sand dunes, boulders and plants that comprise much of the elder Weston's later work. These 256 prints are of special importance because, in a dramatic gesture on his eightieth birthday, Brett Weston burnt most of his negatives to express his belief that a negative should only be printed by the photographer. The photographs are a gift from Christian Keese, an art collector and chairman of American Bancorp of Oklahoma. . . . The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) has awarded over $1 million, in the form of $7000 individual grants, to 161 New York State artists in the following fields: Computer Arts, Crafts, Film, Nonfiction Literature, Poetry, Performance Art/ Multidisciplinary Work, Printmaking/Drawing/Artists Books and Sculpture. NYFA is New York's largest grant provider to individual artists, providing nearly $8 million in grants and services annually. Since 1985, NYFA has awarded nearly 3000 artists with more than $18 million dollars. This year saw the first award of the NYFA Prize, a $25,000 unrestricted additional award to the $7000 Fellowship. Monteith McCollum, a Fellow in Film, received this new award after being selected by NYFA's Artist Advisory Committee from six finalists chosen from the NYFA Fellowship recipients. The following eight categories will be included in the 2002 Fellowships: architecture/environmental structures, choreography, fiction, music composition, painting, photography, playwriting/screenwriting and video. For more information on the 2001 Fellows, or to obtain an application for 2002 Fellowships, visit www.nyfa.o rg/artists_fellwships/index.html. . . . The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) announced the acquisition of 66 photographs from the "Myths, Dreams and Realities: Contemporary Argentine Photography" exhibition, giving the MFAH the largest holding of Argentine photographs in the U.S. Eleven prominent Argentine photographers are represented in this collection, including Becquer Casaballe, Gabriel Diaz, Cristina Fraire, Adriana Lestido, Marcos Zimmermann and Helen Zout. This collection is a gift from the Pan American Cultural Exchange with funds from The Brown Foundation, Inc and The Wortham Foundation. . . . The Pew Fellowships announced the 12 artists awarded $50,000 fellowship awards for 2001. Established in 1991, The Pew Fellowships are administered by The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and are aimed to provide artists with support during: the crucial time in their careers, allowing them to dedicate themselves solely to their work at a time when concentration on artistic growth and exploration will greatly impact their long-term personal and professional development. This year's fellowships were awarded to Tanya Barrientos, Yane Calovski [Ed. note: see Afterimage 28, no. 5 for more on this artist], Justin Cronin, Vincent Feldman, William Larson, Enid Mark, Gabriel Martinez, Maria Rodriquez, Laurence Salzmann, William Smith, Ron Tarver and Shanti Thakur, artists who work in the categories of Fiction and Creative Nonfiction, Media Arts and Works on Paper. The Pew Fellowships awards artists working in 12 different disciplines that rotate on a four-year cycle; 2002 round fellowships will be Poetry, Performance Art and Sculpture. This year marks its tenth year with a total of 136 artists and $6.8 million dollars awarded in this highly competitive fellowship. For more information visit www. pewtrusts.com. . . . Robert Sidney Martin, Ph.D. was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to be the Director of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an independent federal grantmaking agency that supports the natio n's libraries and museums. A Professor and Interim Director of the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University, Martin is also a librarian, archivist and administrator. His areas of interest include the history of American libraries and librarianship and the history of the exploration and mapping of the American southwest. . . . The Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize was awarded to photographer Paola Ferrarlo and writer Mary Cappello. This $10,000 annual award is given to encourage documentary work in the tradition of American photographer Lange and social scientist Taylor. Ferrario and Cappello's project "Pane Amaro/ Bitter Bread: The Struggle of New Immigrants to Italy" will document new immigrants' arrivals in rural areas-the areas where immigrants lives usually go unrecorded. For a copy of the guidelines and an application for next year's Lange-Taylor prize, send SASE to Lange-Taylor Prize Committee, Center for Documentary Studies, 1317 W. Pettigrew St., Durham, NC 27705 The Fri ends of Photography in San Francisco has announced a major new award for emerging photographers. The Bucksbaum Family Award for American photography includes a cash prize of $10 000 as Nell as a solo exhibition at the Ansel Adams enter, the museum of the Friends of Photography, and it will be given annually to an emerging American photographer. Fifteen photography experts around the country will be asked for nominations and a panel of five judges will select: he final recipient from nominees that have not previously received national or international recognition. The first winner of this award will be announced in August this year and the accompanying exhibition is scheduled for October 9 through November 11.