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Children’s Museum of Manhattan to Receive $15,000 Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts

New York, NY — Dec. 14, 2016 — National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $30 million in grants as part of the NEA’s first major funding announcement for fiscal year 2017, including an Art Works grant of $15,000 to the Children’s Museum of Manhattan for “Collage Collaborations.” The Art Works category focuses on the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts.

“The arts are for all of us, and by supporting organizations such as the Children’s Museum of Manhattan, the National Endowment for the Arts is providing more opportunities for the public to engage with the arts,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “Whether in a theater, a town square, a museum, or a hospital, the arts are everywhere and make our lives richer.”

“This NEA Art Works grant will help us to provide children under age five and their adult caregivers with the unique opportunity to interact directly with working artists,” noted Andrew Ackerman, Executive Director, Children’s Museum. “This is something that is generally reserved for older children so, we are thrilled to be able to offer it to our youngest museum visitors. ‘Collage Collaborations’ will also expose children to the artistic process and support our commitment at the Children’s Museum to exhibit artworks by contemporary emerging artists.”

“Collage Collaborations” will take place between April 2017 and January 2018. Participating artists will include Tai Hwa Goh, Naomi Reis, and Alexandria Smith.

Naomi Reis— Collage Collaborations: April 2017

Naomi Reis was born in Shiga, Japan, and received an MFA from the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA in Transcultural Identity at Hamilton College. She has participated in residencies at Wave Hill, the Lower East Side Printshop, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and has shown at venues such as Mixed Greens, TSA New York, Susan Inglett, Field Projects, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Exit Art, AIA Center for Architecture + Design Gallery (San Francisco), Little Berlin and Vox Populi (Philadelphia). She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Alexandria Smith— Collage Collaborations: August 2017

Alexandria Smith earned her MA in Art Education from New York University, and MFA in Painting and Drawing from Parsons The New School for Design. Smith is the recipient of numerous awards and residencies including, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Virginia A. Myers Fellowship at the University of Iowa, A.I.R. Gallery Fellowship, the Fountainhead Residency and the Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibit at Scaramouche Gallery and group exhibitions at The Schomburg Center, Thierry Goldberg Gallery and Rush Arts Gallery. Smith lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Tai Hwa Goh— Collage Collaborations: December 2017

Tai Hwa Goh received her MFA at the University of Maryland specializing in printmaking and sculpture and an MFA in printmaking at Seoul National University in Korea. Goh has exhibited in galleries and museums such as the International Print Center, the DUMBO Art Festival, Islip Museum, AIR Gallery, as well as at William Paterson University Gallery and Gallery Aferro in New Jersey. Recent exhibitions include her site specific installations at Wave Hill in the Bronx as part of their Sun Room Project Space, and BRIC House in Brooklyn.

Each artist will lead a series of weekend workshops at the Children’s Museum in April, August and December, respectively. Workshops will explore each artist’s creative process, the practice of collage, and collage’s impact on early childhood development through collaborative artmaking.

Children will work with each artist on a large-scale collaborative artwork. At the end of the series, Museum arts educators, under the direction of David Rios, the Museum’s Director of Public Programs, will continue the collaborative process with families to complete the artworks. The final works will be on view at the museum alongside existing works by each artist.

For more information on this and other projects included in the NEA grant announcement, visit arts.gov/news. For information on the Children’s Museum, visit www.cmom.org.

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About Children’s Museum of Manhattan

The Children’s Museum of Manhattan – a citywide resource for children, families and educators – creates experiences at the intersection of the arts, sciences and humanities to help children thrive at home, at school and in the community. Based on West 83rd Street, the Museum creates hands-on learning environments, programs, and curricula built on evidence-based early research and the museum sciences. In addition to its commitment to delight and educate visitors, the Museum offers resources and strategies for parents, caregivers and educators to help children become lifelong learners. Thousands more New Yorkers also benefit from the Museum’s offerings through its outreach programs at schools, Head Start centers, shelters, libraries and hospitals. www.cmom.org