Courtesy Bitsie Fund
Clark.
The Bitsie Clark Fund for Artists, established in 2018, is now accepting applications from New Haven-area artists for 2020. The deadline to apply is May 1.
The Bitsie Fund was established in honor of Frances “Bitsie” Clark, a New Haven arts maven who served as executive director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven for 20 years, helped found the Audubon arts district, and played a major role in making the arts a vital part of the city’s economy.
“Many of Bitsie’s most meaningful actions at the Arts Council stemmed from her everyday interactions with artists who sought her advice,” wrote Mimsie Coleman in a press release. “She counseled them, nurtured their talents, and helped them realize their dreams.” Coleman, Robin Golden, Barbara Lamb, Betty Monz and Maryann Ott — who refer to themselves as the Bitsie Chicks — manage the fund together under the auspices of the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.
The Bitsie Fund seeks to cement Clark’s legacy by carrying on her work as a supporter and mentor. Artists from any art discipline — visual arts, performance, music, literature, or film — can apply. Artists must work with a nonrprofit organization who can be a fiscal sponsor to the grant. “The Fund encourages applications from artists who are seeking to either tackle a major goal in their artistic development, take a risk on a new direction in their work, or advance their career as an artist,” Coleman wrote.
Daniel Eugene Photo
Clark, center, flanked by Adam Matlock (l.) and Harold Shapiro (r.). From left to right, four of the Bitsie Chicks: Robin Golden, Maryann Ott, Mimsie Coleman, Barbara Lamb.
Since 2018, the Bitsie Fund has awarded three grants. Artist and printmaker Barbara Harder received $2,500 in 2018 to study Japanese papermaking. By 2019 the Fund had grown, and it awarded two grants of $5,000 eadh to photographer Harold Shapiro and composer Adam Matlock. Shapiro used his grant to produce “Luminous Instruments,” an approach to photography that let Shapiro tap into his twin passions of photography and music. Matlock used his grant to begin work on an opera about the 1921 massacre of African-Americans in Tulsa, Ok. at the hands of a white mob, who killed hundreds and destroyed the city’s Greenwood neighborhood, once called “Black Wall Street.”
For more information about how to apply to the Bitsie Clark Fund for Artists, visit its website.