Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program
The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, a long-time FACT partner has publicly announced a Mellon Foundation grant to support our current on-going project, the Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program. FACT is working artist & carpenter Sean Ward, musicians, sound engineers, mechanical experts, and the Bemis staff to design and realize a performance venue, pre-event bar, performers’ green room, and recording and practice facilities in a wide-ranging collaboration. Phase one will be built in fall 2018 with the rest of the work to be completed in 2019 when the program launches.
From the Bemis announcement:
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts has received a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish a new Sound Art and Experimental Music Residency Program. This funding will support the first three years of a specialized track within Bemis Center’s international Artist-in-Residence program for artists pushing the boundaries of sound, composition, voice, and music of all genres. National and international artists participating in the program will receive the same level of financial, technical, and administrative support as their fellow artists-in-residence at Bemis, along with dedicated facilities for rehearsing, recording, and performing new works that expand the field of sound art and music. The program will officially launch in 2019.
Local sculptor and past Bemis exhibiting artist Sean Ward and local architect Jeff Day of Actual Architecture are collaborating with local sound experts to design the program’s performance venue and rehearsal and recording studio in Bemis Center’s 25,000 square foot basement space. Under the guidance of Day, graduate-level architecture students in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s design-build program, FACT, are developing conceptual designs for the build-out and will begin construction in October 2018 with completion in early 2019.
The fully-equipped artist-designed performance space will offer free live shows to the community. When artists in the program are not utilizing the venue, it will be programmed with local, national, and international sound artists and experimental musicians. Free public access to these performances aims to not only build greater appreciation and new audiences for sound art and experimental music but also to liberate the artists on stage to take risks and present avant-garde work.
Image: Anthony R. Green; Bemis 2017 Artist-in-Residence; Photo: Colin Conces.
