Five Local Artists Honored with Awards from CAP

Five Local Artists Honored with Awards from CAP

ITHACA, NY - The Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County (CAP) is pleased to announce the 2012 distribution of five “CAP Fellowships” to local artists.  The CAP Fellowship program is funded through local fundraising efforts and is an annual program open to Tompkins County artists of all disciplines. Unlike a grant, a fellowship is a monetary award not attached to a particular project.   The Fellowship recognizes professional and dedicated artists who have been active on a regular basis through presenting, exhibiting, or performing their craft.  

This year, CAP received 37 applications which were reviewed by an independent jury.  The five awardees represent a broad cross-section of Tompkins County’s arts community and include artists working in several disciplines. 

Rob Licht typically works in welded steel. He also works in wood, cement, bronze and other mediums.  His sculptures range in scale from small intimate pieces to large outdoor works. Most recently, however, he has created new work that uses the landscape itself as the medium, with photography documenting the work that takes the form of site specific temporary interventions or semi-permanent installations. Rob says that “community based funding like the CAP Fellowship gives me the tools I need to sustain my commitment to making new work and the confidence that the path I am on is the right one.”  Licht exhibits his work throughout the Northeast and has earned several grants and awards. He has taught sculpture, design and drawing at Ithaca College, BOCES Continuing Education program, Maine College of Art Summer College program, and at Cornell University.  

Cuba Ray is a visual artist living in Lansing who has exhibited in this area since 1990.  Her recent project, started two years ago, incorporates images of people in the process of leaping, falling, waiting, and diving in tonal watercolors on paper.  Originally inspired by her own collection of family photographs that spanned several generations.  Over time she has also gained inspiration from images found in antique stores and garage sales.  The photos are stripped of any contextual information that places them in a specific location and time. Part of Cuba’s engagement with these materials is to reconstruct or invent a narrative.  This ongoing project will culminate in a large installation. 

Carol Rubenstein, once a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, has received numerous poetry grants and awards.  For several years at a time between 1971 and 1989, she collected and translated oral poetry in Borneo among the Dayaks of Sarawak, East Malaysia. The work resulted in several publications.  During 2004-2005 she made three trips to visit Auschwitz and sites of the Holocaust in Poland.  Her ongoing project is to develop the many poems related to these visits. When the collection, titled "Vanished Number:  Four Seasons at Blank," is completed, she looks forward to presenting it in a reading to the community.

John D. Scott is an independent filmmaker living in Ithaca.  He has won several awards and distinctions. Recent work includes the widely reviewed feature-length documentary Scouts Are Cancelled and Notes on Liberty, which was chosen to represent the United States abroad in The American Documentary Showcase program. Scott is now developing a long form project on poet Elizabeth Bishop and is adapting a few of her poems en route. So far, these short film adaptations have found their way to dozens of festival screenings, websites, conferences, and galleries all across North America, Europe and Asia. John cheekily adds, “If you're a millionaire who loves Elizabeth Bishop, please feel free to get in touch!”

Sylvia Taylor is a local printmaker whose prints are exhibited widely in the USA and internationally. Her pieces can be found in numerous private and public collections.  She works primarily in relief printmaking.  Taylor has been awarded Artist’s Residency status in Ireland and is currently a member of Cork Printmakers in Cork, Ireland.  As an artist, Sylvia says she is “drawn to narratives and sentiments that are paradoxical, bewildering and a little bit absurd.” She adds, “I often use animal characters in my prints to explore these themes. Not only do they serve as ideal metaphors for human instincts and emotions, but they often ‘collaborate’ with me on an intuitive level, taking the work in a direction I wouldn’t have originally considered.” 

The Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County (CAP) was founded in 1990 to serve as the arts council of Tompkins County, providing technical assistance, grant opportunities, and professional services and information to artists and arts organizations, as well as public programs that celebrate and support the arts community in the county.  To date, CAP has helped to distribute more than $2.5 million in grants and fellowships to artists and arts organizations in the community.  Public programs include Ticket Center Ithaca, the CAP ArtSpace, the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, IthacaEvents.com, semi-annual Artists Markets, and the online Member Artist Registry at ArtsPartner.org.  For more information on the Community Arts Partnership and its programs and services, visit www.artspartner.org or call Program Director, Robin Schwartz at  (607) 273-5072.