Twice a year RISCA awards grants in a number of categories. Over the next few months, we will be profiling the amazing artists and organizations that received grants at our April 1, 2017 deadline, two at a time.
Project Grants for Individuals
Artist: Cathren Lee Housley
Project: Multidisciplinary artist and writer Cathren Housley has created the Maker’s Box Workshop series, designed to kick start young imaginations with a variety of art mediums. Each week a different mystery box is provided with raw materials where kids can explore drawing, sculpting, writing and more! While the fun doesn’t stop there, they will develop solid problem solving skills as they take their ideas from thought to form.
For each session, Housley will bring a mystery Maker’s Box, along with a variety of adhesives and tools that kids may need to complete their project. We will have a different theme to start from every week. How they decide to express their ideas is up to them.
In addition to license to create at will, kids will also get instruction on how to use age appropriate tools and materials. At the beginning of each session, students will each be asked to decide what they make, and then follow through. Their ideas can change as they work- but they must complete them. At the end of each workshop, we will talk about the projects. Did the end result differ from what they intended? Why? What were some of the difficulties they encountered and how did they solve the problems? Would they do things differently next time?
Folk Arts Apprenticeship
Project: Traditional Native American Regalia
Master: Nancy Brown-Garcia
Apprentice: Misheshau Garcia-Perry
Artist Bio: Nancy Brown-Garcia is a Mishawomett/Meshanticut Narragansett of the Pawtuxet Falls Band in Warwick, Rhode Island. Nancy learned 
traditional arts at an early age and continued her interests in leather, feathers, beads, wampum, weaving, and print making. Nancy can bead with the smallest beads in the world. Her work has been exhibited in Europe. Nancy has shared her skills with schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States and Europe. Nancy enjoys beading when she is not protecting ancient ancestral graves as the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s, Chief Deputy Historic Preservation Officer.
