Anya Ulinich (2008 Goldberg Prize), author of 'Petropolis'

Foundation for Jewish Culture

Attention young New York Jewish fiction writers, visual artists, musicians and other performing artists: local foundations want to give you money! Six Points, a collaboration of Avoda Arts, Foundation for Jewish Culture, and JDub Records, that receives significant support from UJA-Federation of New York is offering local visual artists, performing artists, and musicians whose work has Jewish themes a two year fellowship that pays a $12,500 stipend plus $10,000 for materials and equipment to create the work per year for two years (in other words receipiants can quit one of their multible part-time day jobs and devote the time to their art). One of the above named funding collaborators, Foundation for Jewish Culture is also offering a $2500 prize for emerging Jewish fiction writers. When I interviewed FJC's President and CEO Elise Bernhardt last March she expressed optimism that arts funding would continue despite the recession.

Six Points Fellowship supports individual artists in the New York area who want to develop new projects with a Jewish focus, theme or element. We believe that creative expression is essential to Jewish community, identity, and meaning and the Six Points Fellowship was created to support the artists who contribute to that process. The fellowship will accept artists working in visual arts, music, and performing arts.

During the 2-year fellowship, artists (ages 22-38) will create and present their diverse projects to young audiences in the New York area, through programs such as live performances, concerts, and gallery events. The fellowship will create a supportive, nurturing environment that encourages creative interactions between artists, artworks, and the public, and creates a space for personal and professional development and growth.

The Six Points Fellowship supports 12 artists in the areas of Music, Performing Arts, and Visual Arts. The Six Points Fellows are working on diverse and innovative projects that tackle significant Jewish issues, and we are pleased to be working with such an outstanding group of artists.

The two-year fellowship will provide 12 New York based artists with:
* Stipend ($25,000 over 2 years)

* Project Grant (up to $20,000 over 2 years)

* Monthly Salons

* Retreats

* Coaching/Mentorship

Fellows are selected via a two step juried review to select projects that reflect or embody a thoughtful engagement with Jewish history, values, and issues and that resonate with a broad range of audiences. Separate juries judge each of the three disciplines.

Six Points seeks to support work with the potential for significant artistic, cultural and audience impact. We are looking for projects that reflect or embody a thoughtful engagement with Jewish experience, history, values, issues or concerns and that will resonate with a broad range of audiences but with particular emphasis on the artist's peers.

Six Points past fellows include David Griffin of the rock band Hebrew School (whose gig I plugged in this column in articles last March and April) and Jeremiah Lockwood of the band Sway Machinery (whose gig I plugged in this column back in October).

Foundation for Jewish Culture is accepting entries for the 2010 Samuel Goldberg & Sons Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers.

Supported through a grant from the Samuel Goldberg & Sons Foundation, the Goldberg Prize for Jewish Fiction by Emerging Writers seeks to highlight new works by contemporary writers exploring Jewish themes. The prize spotlights promising new talent and is awarded to an American fiction writer for a first or second full-length work that was published in the previous calendar year. Submissions must be made by the publisher.

Applicants must be citizens or permanent residents of the United States. International students cannot be granted fellowships at this time. Previous grantees of the Goldberg Prize may not reapply.

Applications must be submitted directly by publishers. Submissions from individual authors are not accepted.

The award includes a prize of $2,500 as well as a one-week residency at Ledig House International Writers Colony in New York's Hudson Valley.

The 2008 prize was awarded to Anya Ulinich for her debut novel Petropolis. Ulinich was also chosen by the National Book Award foundation as a "5 Under 35" awardee. The book is about Sasha Goldberg, a biracial, Jewish, socially maladjusted "child of the intelligentsia" from the Siberian town Asbestos 2. When following her heart gets her into trouble at home, Sasha leaves Russia as a mail-order bride and, with the help of the Kupid's Korner Agency, lands in suburban Arizona. Soon, she escapes her fiance and embarks on a misadventure-filled journey across America in search of her father.

The 2007 prize was awarded to Scott Nadelson for his story collection The Cantor’s Daughter (Hawthorne Books, June 2006). The book captures Jewish New Jersey suburbanites in moments of crucial transition, when they have the opportunity to connect with those closest to them or forever miss their chance for true intimacy. Nadelson’s stories are sympathetic, heartbreaking, and funny as they investigate the characters’ fragile emotional bonds and the fears that often cause those bonds to falter or fail.

Visit the Foundation for Jewish Culture Goldberg Prize web site for complete program information.

For other NY Jewish Culture events see my previous article and the links in the right margin of this page under New York Jewish Culture Events Listings.

For more info: David Cooper