Project Grants for Individuals
Artist: Ellie Brown
Project: This grant supports, in part, an exhibition of artworks about Alzheimer’s produced by people impacted by Alzheimer’s: both caretakers/family members and patients. The exhibit will draw attention to the illness as well a provide a therapeutic outlet for patients. The work will be displayed at New Hope Art Gallery, housed at the Cranston Senior Enrichment Center, from 11/17-3/18. The opening reception is Tuesday 11/14 from 4:00-7:30pm.
I am the daughter of a 66 year old man, who in his prime was brilliant, steadfast, fascinating and my rock. This man, my father, now has early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Since the moment he was officially diagnosed two years ago, I was called into artist action by creating a limited edition print benefiting the Alzheimer’s Association and engaging in other fundraising opportunities for the organization. In all of my research and time spent with my father in his day groups, I see very clearly how making art is so very important for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Additionally, the needs of caretakers/family members are often overlooked.
I have curated an exhibition using caretaker’s work about Alzheimer’s paired with art from their loved one afflicted by the disease. Accepted caretaker artists submitted work in collaboration, representing the deceased or made work in reflection of their loved one. There will be three art making workshops through Cranston Senior Enrichment Center’s memory care unit to pair with the previously accepted work. The allotted space will have work created at the workshops from the memory care unit and work submitted through the curatorial process.
Artist Bio: Ellie Brown is a native of Boston, MA where she attended Massachusetts 
College of Art. She received her B.F.A. in Media Arts in 1997 and her M.F.A. in Pictorial Arts from San Jose State University in 2002. Ellie has received numerous awards including: a 2008 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, a Leeway Foundation grant, first prize from the Fraser Gallery’s International photo competition, a featured artist from women in photography international, the Calumet Award from the Print Center’s 2006 and 2008 International Photography Competition. In addition, Ellie has attended artist in residencies in Iceland at the NES Artist Residency, at the Santa Fe Art Institute on a full fellowship, Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL with acclaimed photographer Graciela Iturbide and a residency in Costa Rica at the David and Julia White Artist Colony. Both her bookwork and photographs have been exhibited extensively nationally and internationally including Mexico, England, Switzerland, Romania, Greece, with a solo exhibition at the Galeria Nacional in Costa Rica. The Center for the Book Arts in NYC exhibited a solo show entitled A Chronicle of Lovers in 2009. From 2000- to the present, Ellie has taught as a part-time and full-time lecturer in photography, digital media and 2D at many Colleges and Universities. Ellie served as a Visiting Professor position of Digital Information at the University of Ulsan, South Korea in 2008. Ellie has been photographing girls’ issues since 1996 and making altered bookwork since 2002. She has curated and coordinated exhibitions such as Family Ties at UPenn and “Body, Soul and Hair” at Rowan University. The BAG project was funded through USA Projects, an initiative of United States Artists, with numerous solo exhibitions of the work in PA, IL, ID, MT and MI. She is the founder and president of POP!sicle Artist Marketing. She is the playwright and producer for Dear Diary, Bye. Which had its world premiere at Plays and Players Theater, Philadelphia in April 2014. In April 2016 RISCA and the Woonsocket Mayor funded Ellie’s public art Faces of Woonsocket, featuring 100 portraits of Woonsocket residents wheat pasted around the city. She is founder of POP!sicle Artist Marketing. She is currently a resident of Providence, RI. She works as a teaching artist at UCAP School. Her current work is a mixed media project called “Drawing Dad is Dizzy” about her father’s early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Project Grants in Education
Applicant Organization: Smart Test, Inc.
Lead Teacher: Qiuping Xia
Participating Artists: Edgar Viloria
Project: Fifty two fifth students from Pleasant View School will learn basic scientific concepts of motion and apply Newton’s Laws of Motion and Gravitation to the Hip Hop genre, using their bodies to show concrete examples of scientific laws.
The project is a collaborative educational approach in which our artist will join with a classroom teacher to provide students with a forum in which they will learn some basic scientific principles of motion through the use of dance. Students will discover how to apply Newton’s Three Laws of Motion and Law of Gravitation to the Hip Hop dance form. Through experimentation and exploration of these principles, students will understand how forces affect the body in motion. By using their own bodies to demonstrate concrete examples of scientific law, the concepts will become more relevant to them. In addition, as students learn how to 
apply Newton’s Law of Motion and the Law of Gravity to their choreography, a bridge is formed between the Arts and Science. Finding this connection is crucial to learners who may otherwise shy away from science. By using a popular dance form to teach science, our program will enlighten students about the applications of science in our everyday lives and will make them feel confident that they can learn science easily if they approach it in a way that makes sense to them.
About the artist: Edgar Viloria, has been teaching Hop Hop Healthy and Hip Hop Science for Smart Test, Inc. for the past 4 years. His other experience includes working for City Arts and the PASA AfterZone program and has taught Hip Hop classes in middle schools all over New England. Edgar has also performed Educational Entertainments through New England teaching “The Marriage of Art and Science” and also “Breaking Down Science”, in which teaches science through breakdancing.