Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham 2008 GIA Award Winner

I'm pleased to announce that I am one (of eight) individuals who has been selected to receive a 2008 Grants to Individual Artists (GIA) funding award. There were two teams. My $5000 grant is awarded in the name of a GIA donor Mrs. Gloria Narramore Moody. 61 proposals were presented to the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham team; 60 proposals were reviewed.

A summary of all of the Grants to Individual Artists Awards can be read here. My project is to "create a series of linoleum block relief prints documenting the migration of an African-American sharecropper family from Alabama's Black Belt region to the industrial city of Birmingham and settling in the company town of Sloss Furnaces."

My proposal has a number of components. In addition to creating the lino block prints, I will document my one year process digitally, publish the prints, exhibit the prints, take a caste iron class at Sloss Furnaces, collaborate with Sloss Furnaces to create a caste iron panel of one of the blocks, teach the linoleum block printing process to a select group of children (possibly students in the Birmingham City Schools) and finally to exhibit the entire series of prints. If you would like to read my entire proposal email me at: debra.riffe@gmail.com make your request and I'll mail a hard copy via USPS to your mailing address.

Kudos to all of the talented artists who participated in the process and congratulations to the 2008 GIA Grantees.