The board of directors of the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency (CAHA) has announced the award of 11 community grants.
For fiscal year 2022, through financial support from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), CAHA through its community grant program was able to award $86,000 in grants to various organizations and individuals from Guam’s creative community across 5 different program areas; folk arts, media arts, special projects, visual arts, and the underserved.
Grants awarded were:
- $10,000 to Hilary Larry Raigetal for his project entitled “Reviving the art cultural weaving and carving” in which a master carver and weaver will teach apprentices the Yapese traditions of carving a canoe and building a loom and weaving traditional lava lavas.
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$10,000 to Elizabeth Abuan for her project “Pictures and Frames”, through which underserved adults and children will be taught to create picture frames from recycled cardboard boxes.
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$8,100 to Carlos Paulino to conduct a “Traditional Hut Building Apprenticeship Program” at Gef Pa’go in Inalahan. Apprentices will be taught how to select materials, conservation practices, and proper construction methods to build traditional huts.
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$9,000 to Ulitao Inc. to refurbish two traditional sailing canoes, perpetuate seafaring traditions and to teach proper sailing practices in preparation for their maiden voyage from Guam to Rota and back.
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$2,700 to Justin Green, a fellowship, to learn and expand his skills in the art of coconut carving.
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$ 3,990 to Hagåtna Restoration and Redevelopment Authority, for their “First Annual Hagåtña Sirena Festival’, a festival to celebrate the legends of CHamoru culture, Guam’s connection to the ocean and Famalao’an in Guam’s Matriarchal society.
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$ 9,000 to Natalie Bejado for her project entitled “Seafaring to the Past & Future”, to create paintings depicting CHamoru sailing, each paired with a locally produced sound clip to immerse the viewer and provide a unique experience that touches on elements of the past, present, and future that will be exhibited.
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$9,000 to University of Guam for their project to create a mural that will be painted on a wall at UOG Calvo Field House in commemoration of the University’s 70th Anniversary in 2022.
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$8,010 to Micronesia Climate Change Alliance for the project called “Second Life Project – Telling Tales with Trash”. The project will involve k-12 students island-wide which will connect to the waste crisis by giving trash a second life and retelling local stories in new creative/artistic ways. The project will culminate with a photo exhibit at GPO of the sculptures created during Earth Month 2022.
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$7,200 to Ruzelle Judicpa for her project “The Halo Halo Project”, to produce a short film that focuses on the complex Filipino identity in Guam. The film will focus on 4 Filipino students with varying backgrounds as they go through their first day of senior year in high school. These four Filipinas have different backgrounds (3rd generation) which is to demonstrate the complex and unique identities of Filipinos through their decades of residence in Guam.
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$9,000 to Kyle Mandapat for his project entitled “Icons of Guam.” The project will be a unique presentation spread across various platforms (podcasts, social media and on demand video viewing) to help bring the stories of modern-day ICONS, who have helped perpetuate our culture in these trying times to the community. This unique presentation will include never before seen footage and photos that will give our people a look at what it takes to be an ICON and hopefully encourage them to accept the challenge to continue our cultural preservation and artistic evolution.
CAHA’S grant programs are administered through a multistep, public process. Following an open call for applications, submissions are adjudicated by peer review panels made up of experts from the arts and cultural fields. Based on panel recommendations and availability of funds, the Council voted on and approved the grant awards.
“The Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency is proud to support the work of each of these organizations and artists within our community, and to recognize the resilience and dedication of every applicant during this unprecedented time,” said CAHA Acting Director Jackie Balbas. “Furthermore, through funding support from the NEA through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021, CAHA has additional monies available to assist nonprofit organizations and individuals with arts/culturally based programming and projects that were impacted by the pandemic and I encourage them to apply for the CAHA ARP Act Grants for the Community. Deadline to apply is October 31, 2021” stated Balbas.
CAHA is Guam’s State Arts Agency that exists to encourage and promote the artistic practice of our artisans and create opportunities for Guam residents to learn, experience, express, and appreciate art and artistic talent in all its forms.
For further information about the ARP grants, visit the CAHA website at https://www.guamcaha.org/ or contact CAHA at (671) 300-1206 to 300-1208/ 300-7584 or via email at info@caha.guam.gov .
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