Sundance Institute Names 2022 Uprise Grant Recipients

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: The Sundance Institute has named Briana “Bree” Nieves (Arise! My Beloved), Naveen Chaubal (Pinball), Dillon Chitto (Pigeon), Kyle Casey Chu (Go Back Home), Kristine Gerolaga (Lamok), Osinachi Ibe (Tales From Under the Sun), Arielle Knight (Counting Down), J Mase III (The Black Trans Prayer Book), April Maxey (Work) and Phumi Morare (There Is Salt In The Water) as the fellows and projects for its 2022 Uprise Grant Fund.The grant supporting the livelihood and career sustainability of BIPOC emerging artists was founded in 2021 to help storytellers disproportionately harmed by the Covid pandemic.

Those selected this year will receive $10,000 each, along with access to community-building artist development activities such as peer mentorship through monthly fellow meetings, as they develop their projects.

Participants will be supported year-round so they can sustain a creative practice, helping to amplify critical stories and intersectional voices during a time when they are most needed.“The Institute has a responsibility and ongoing commitment to support artists of color and our Uprise Grant Fund has been one of the ways in which we’ve celebrated BIPOC artists while they are in their state of becoming and discovery,” said the Sundance Institute’s Manager of Outreach and Inclusion, Amber Espinosa-Jones. “Providing funding for projects in development plays an important role in empowering these vibrant and inspiring storytellers to continue putting their work forward.

It is so rewarding and a pleasure to uplift this incoming group.”More than half of the 2022 fellows identity as  Queer/LGBTQ+, with Northern California, Seattle, Hawai’i, Kentucky, New Mexico, Los Angeles and New York represented as areas of residence