FRONT to Receive Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of Jacolby Satterwhite’s project for FRONT 2022, Dawn.

Cleveland—FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art has been approved for a $10,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support this summer’s installation of Jacolby Satterwhite’s ambitious multimedia collaborative film, Dawn. As a key part of FRONT’s 2022 triennial, Oh Gods of Dust and Rainbows, Satterwhite’s project will be exhibited at Cleveland Institute of Art, a leading college of art and design and FRONT Presenting Partner. FRONT’s project was selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.

“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from FRONT that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “FRONT in Cleveland is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”

Jacolby Satterwhite's ambitious new project, Dawn, was initiated in 2021 with a commission by Cleveland Clinic for the site of its BioRepository in collaboration with FRONT and Fairfax neighborhood residents. The project began by asking Clevelanders, What does utopia look like to you?

Multidisciplinary Cleveland-based artists RA Washington and LaToya Kent connected with over one hundred Fairfax residents who contributed drawings to the project. Reflecting on her experience, Kent writes: “I was full in my heart after the time spent in this neighborhood. Looking over the drawings and remembering each face. Connecting to the stories of this predominantly black section of town. I felt survival and love. Trust and beauty. Pride and striving to be seen.”

Satterwhite’s resulting CGI fantasy film explores the visions of Clevelanders who contributed drawings and images to the project. An extension of this film will anchor a virtual reality arcade at the Cleveland Institute of Art’s Reinberger Gallery, transforming a didactic gallery space into a site of interaction and play. In its collaborative approach, focus on healing, and multifaceted distribution, Satterwhite’s immersive installation will expand the boundaries of virtual reality applications and instantiate FRONT 2022’s explorations of art as an agent of healing and transformation.

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Launched in 2018, FRONT International: Cleveland Triennial for Contemporary Art is a free, public, contemporary art exhibition. Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows, the second iteration of FRONT International, will run from July 16 through October 2, 2022. Building on the success of FRONT’s first edition, FRONT 2022 furthers the Triennial’s commitment to the belief that by supporting creative communities and stimulating new cultural encounters in the region, contemporary art can be an important catalyst for positive social change.

The Cleveland Institute of Art has been the training ground for countless students who have gone on to make important contributions to the fields of art and design since it opened in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women. Its students have designed internationally recognized products and their work is displayed in major museums and private collections around the world. It enrolls approximately 600 students from across the country and internationally, and has a faculty of nearly 50 full-time and 60 adjunct faculty members, all of whom are practicing artists, designers and scholars.

Press inquiries: Dushko Petrovich Córdova, FRONT Director of Communications, dushko@frontart.org.