The Delores Gallo fund

Request for Proposals

Awards

Cartoons are a unique combination of word, image, and thinking. As a cartoonist I have approached critical and creative thinking through the art of editorial cartoons and comics. During Spring 2007 and Summer 2008 the Afghan Consulate granted me two visits to Afghanistan (Kabul and Jalalabad respectively). While there, I recorded drawings and sketches of contemporary Afghan life. The experience inspired the project, "The First Cup of Tea: Afghanistan c. 1930" a graphic novel comic book in the genre of historical fiction. The story of First Cup tells the tale of the complex relationship between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and about the deceptive art of Nation building in the early 20th century. Through the telling of this story I hope to promote critical investigation into the meaning of a war and nation building in Afghanistan today.
The Gallo Award would in part, fund further research into the complex history of Afghanistan, its culture, and people. With part one of First Cup near completion, I am beginning to draft outlines for following books. Funds will be used in several ways to further the project: To purchase access to historical news articles from the period. These articles provide a telling of events from the perspective of the people who lived them. The fund will also be used to have an expert on the region fact-check the forthcoming manuscripts parts 2 and 3. The Fund may also be used to promote the book series to publishers and in the printing of materials for submission or exhibition. This research will support a richer telling of this story through the art of words and pictures.

I have been creating collage art for more than ten years, and I am requesting funds to make high-quality digital scans of my posters, so I can make a website and sell both originals and prints of my work. I will also submit these scans to art organizations in hopes that I may be able to present my work at community art events. Once I have electronic files of my posters, I can use the images to make a website, submit my work to local art galleries, and make prints of my work to sell both online and at community art events such as Dorchester Open Studios.
My personal relationship with and understanding of collage has grown with my formal education. For my undergraduate thesis I studied the Impressionist and Dada art movements. As humans think in new and different ways and change the world, the human experience is transformed and also needs to be expressed in different ways, as exemplified by Impressionism, Dada, and my own collage work. Developing this paper helped me appreciate my collage work as a critical reflection of the culture and time in which I live, and this now internalized insight continues to keep my creations focused and pointed in re-shaping the symbolic meanings of mass media.
My experience in the CCT Graduate program has created a second evolution in my relationship and understanding of my work, one that is much more personal than the first. I have been working with this art form for over a decade, but I have never understood my compulsion to create, and I have always struggled with the idea that I create "art" or that I might be considered an "artist." I have now come to appreciate that whatever the product of my work might be called, an "expression," a piece of "art," or something else, it is the process of creating that product that I most value.

I am currently a public school instrumental music specialist in the Scituate, MA Public School system. In this past year, I have formed an after school grade 5 honor band to serve all students in our district who would like to have an additional after school instrumental music experience. This group has provided an enthusiastic outlet for creativity in our district, and next year we plan on expanding the program to serve students from grades 5 and 6.
As this concert season and school year draws to a close, I have searched for a special capstone project for next year's ensemble. Rather than go the traditional route of taking them to a competition or theme park-based festival, I wanted to help them to participate in a project of long-lasting musical value. I have approached Composer Thomas C. Duffy (Yale University) to commission a work for elementary band, to be completed in spring 2008. If we are able to raise the funds, he will compose a three minute work for the ensemble, and then visit with the group to rehearse the piece and introduce the students to the work of a living composer. I have selected Mr. Duffy as a composer for his extensive use of innovative compositional techniques within his works for students - musicians are often asked to clap or tap or vocalize various sounds as part of their performance. His works represent a level of creativity that helps students at an early age to "break out of the box" and experience music in a different, more personal way. He also is a likable person who is interested in the input of young students, and makes music and his "job" accessible to them.

The Jade Plant Project
I request funding to conduct a small art project at a family shelter in Boston. I would have children in these shelters paint, draw, or decorate small square panels with the arts and crafts supplies I buy with this micro-investment, and through art supply donations. I would document the work and if the participants were willing, I would post them on line & for sale to raise money to do the program again. Once I secure support, I plan to put the images on tote bags, t-shirts and baby onesies that would also be for sale to raise money for a project I call the Jade Plant Project, which uses art to raise money for poor and homeless women and children in Boston.

for her study and certification in Creative Movement and Yoga for Children.
"I have been working towards a career change for some time. The opportunity to work at a school that provides martial arts, movement classes, and healing arts services for a population ranging from the ages of 4-89 really motivated me to increase my skills and tools. Within the past year, I have been able to access a lot of my dormant and hidden talents which has been a transformative experience. In order to engage with the population and share my talents, it is important for me to participate as a movement instructor, the predominant activity at the school. It is through these classes that I can best demonstrate my commitments and create a client-base for tutoring, acupressure, and homeopathy."

for her project to develop a workshop on "Humorous Paths to Creating Positive Organizational Change".
I am currently working on my proposal outlining a workshop as part of my synthesis presentation. I would attend a workshop on training the trainer to provide me with a comprehensive manual with tips, practical guidelines, etc. as well as a resource guide of best books and web sites for quotations, energizers, and puzzles I could use in developing my own presentation for an organization. This training would jump start my own training career. I truly feel the Critical and Creative Thinking program has helped awaken a spirit inside of me to become a change agent and a risk taker. My plan is to segue out of my current professional path into becoming a consultant and trainer specializing in using humor to encourage creativity for positive organizational changes.

to offer the weaving unit to a downtown New York afterschool Program.
The "Human Loom" is a multiple-part arts activity for primary school that teaches weaving through the construction of a loom made of children-warps and wefts--and hand weaving. In 2004, a pilot lesson was designed that included the loom (see below) and several weeks of individual work, first on paper looms, then on desk top looms. The activity was engaging. It taught about the handmade object, recycling of textiles, color theory, culture, cooperation and math.

for Sparhawk School Gallery Display Project
At Sparhawk School, where I am currently the Dean of Studies, we value authentic learning and hope to provide a greater audience for our student work. We have a remarkably strong creativity and arts program here, and we require the same amount of arts credits for graduation as we do science credits or math credits. At the end of each thematic semester at our high school, we hold a Synthesis Festival where all of our students have the opportunity to present a work of significance that relates to our semester theme.
The award will fund the building and finishing of five display boards for hanging artistic works. Each board is created by purchasing hollow core doors, hinging them together with hardware, installing screws at the top from which to hang framed art works on wire, and wrapping each panel in a rich fabric to provide a backdrop for the works to be displayed. We would use these gallery displays again and again. They would lend an air of professionalism to our students' gallery experience, and they would allow the students to display their work with confidence for the greater community.
While Sparhawk is an independent school, we are quite young (the high school is three years old!), and we do not have an endowment of any sort. Our mission is to keep our tuition as affordable as possible (currently about 1/2 the price of other area college preparatory day school tuitions), and we invest strongly in our faculty.

for copies of a story book to show to potential publishers. The story is for children learning to read and to children learning to play the game of soccer. The design of the story book design was inspired from my understanding of George Russell's Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization as taught by CCT adjunct, musician and composer, Ben Schwendener.
(Excerpt from story book)