FYI

Arts Alliance donates $160K to 13 art groups 

 The Houston Arts Alliance, a nonprofit agency established by the city of Houston to advance the arts on its behalf, recently donated $160,000 in grants to 13 art groups, according to a press release.

According to the release, “Each of these 13 beneficiaries will receive a one-year grant of up to $20,000 to enhance the administrative infrastructure needed to achieve artistic excellence, underscoring HAA’s commitment to advance the creative sector by empowering art organizations through capacity building. This year’s beneficiaries were selected from more than 50 arts and cultural organizations.”

Recipients of the awards are as follows:

• Aperio, Music of the Americas: toward part-time staff management and administrative systems.

• BooTown: toward part-time staff management and administrative systems.

• Mildred’s Umbrella Theater Company: toward part-time staff management, administrative systems, and program related expenses.

• NobleMotion Dance: toward staff management and program related expenses.

• Stark Naked Theatre Company: toward financial resources, administrative systems, and program related expenses.

• WindSync: toward staff management, administrative systems and program related expenses.

• Aurora Picture Show: toward strengthening financial resources and board governance.

• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum: toward the creation of a multi-year strategic plan.

• FrenetiCore: toward the creation of a multi-year strategic plan.

• Musiqa Inc.: toward strengthening staff management.

• River Oaks Chamber Orchestra: toward strengthening financial resources, board governance, and staff management.

• Mercury: toward the creation of a multi-year strategic plan.

• The Rothko Chapel: toward strengthening financial resources.

Houston Arts Alliance is at 3201 Allen Parkway No. 250, Houston.

For more information, visit www.houstonartsalliance.com

Curator receives  Menil’s Walter Hopps Award

Independent curator Cuauhtemoc Medina has been named the recipient of Houston’s Menil Collection’s Walter Hopps Award for Curatorial Achievement.

Established in 2001 in honor of Menil Founding Director Walter Hopps (1932–2005), the award recognizes curators who have made significant contributions to the field of contemporary art and includes a stipend of $15,000.

Medina has organized both large survey exhibitions and projects developed with individual artists and was head curator this year of the Manifesta 9 Biennial in Belgium.

The Menil Collection’s Director Josef Helfenstein presented Medina with the award.

“Whether working in an institutional setting, as he did with notable success at Tate Modern, or collaborating with artists with whom he has developed longstanding relationships, such as Francis Alys, Cuauhtemoc Medina has consistently and innovatively advanced our understanding of a broad spectrum of contemporary art. On behalf of all of us at the Menil Collection, I congratulate him on this richly deserved award,” Helfenstein said.

Medina has been a full-time researcher since 1992 at the Instituto de Investigaciones Esteticas at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Between 2002 and 2008, he was the first associate curator of art, Latin American collections, at Tate Modern in London. He has written extensively on contemporary art. He holds a doctorate in history and theory of art from the University of Essex in Britain and a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

For more information, call 713-535-3170, visit www.menil.org.