Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator (DVCAI) is pleased to announce the selection of awardees for the 2024 Artist Catalyst Awards. At the core of the organization’s mission as an incubator, it supports the diverse talent of emerging artists from the Caribbean, Africa, and Latin Diasporas. DVCAI’s Board of Directors and Curator selected the winners, who will each receive $5,000 through an artist-support campaign on Give Miami Day, a city-wide, annual philanthropic platform by the Miami Foundation, on November 13-16, 2023. #DVCAI #GiveMiamiDay. DVCAI leverages these awards with its funded residency support as a multi-year (2023-2027 Pérez) CreARTE partner. Awarded from The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at the Miami Foundation, CreARTE significantly supports artist residencies and Catalyst Award Fellowships that expand DVCAI’s capacity to support contemporary artists of the diaspora.
DVCAI 2024 Artist Catalyst Awardees have shown an exemplary commitment to their practice and have maintained ongoing engagement with DVCAI through its International Cultural Exchange trips (Jamaica, Cuba, Suriname, Belize, Panama, Bermuda), Miami-based Artist in Residence Program, workshops, and national exhibitions. Congratulations to awardees Amanda Bradley, Michael Elliott, Chris Friday, Kurt Nahar, and Asser St-Val.
About the DVCAI Artist Catalyst Awards
As there is no requirement for how the artists may use their awards, DVCAI hopes it helps to support artistic practice, achievement, and experimentation. From the program’s first cycle in 2015, DVCAI found that artists have used the award to realize projects, cover studio and supply costs, create artist catalogs, fabricate artworks, and travel for artistic research. Guidelines include that the funds should be used between January 2024 and December 2024. Awardees are asked to produce a project summary with work samples for DVCAI’s Living Archive, held at the University of Miami Special Collections Department and at the Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC) at Florida International University and the University of Florida. DVCAI’s ongoing collaborations with organizations like YoungArts, National Performance Network Partner, IPC Art Space, Oolite Arts, local funding agencies, and established residency partners bring extraordinary development opportunities to this cohort of artists. Thanks to CreARTE support, Catalyst awardees can attend the DVCAI AIR program in Paramaribo, Suriname, in partnership with Atelier Kurt Nahar and Readytex Art Gallery.
Awardee Links:
https://amandabradley.studio/about
http://www.studiomichaelelliott.com
https://dvcai.org/portfolio_page/kurt-nahar/
About CreARTE
The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the prominent Pérez family, supported this third edition of the Pérez CreARTE Grant Program. Following an open call that saw hundreds of high-quality applicants, The Foundation selected 25 cultural organizations across Miami Dade County, including Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.
First established in 2019, Pérez CreARTE is dedicated to identifying and supporting exemplary cultural organizations that cultivate a vibrant, connected, and culturally stimulating ecosystem in Greater Miami. The program fulfills the Pérez family and The Miami Foundation’s joint vision of making South Florida an equitable, culturally prosperous global hub. The funding will help bridge gaps in key areas impacting the creative community, including access to affordable workspaces, cultural equity, and arts education.
About Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Inc.
Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Inc. (DVCAI) is a Miami-based 501(c)3 organization. The mission of DVCAI is to promote, nurture, and cultivate the vision and diverse talent of emerging artists from the Caribbean and Latin Diaspora through our exhibition programs, artist-in-residence programs, international exchange programs, and educational and outreach activities that celebrate Miami-Dade’s rich cultural and social fabric. For more information, please visit www.dvcai.org and follow our activities at https://www.facebook.com/DVCAI/, https://twitter.com/DiasporaVibe, https://www.instagram.com/dvcai/.
DVCAI is generously supported by The Mellon Foundation, with support from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners. DVCAI’s work is partly sponsored by the State of Florida, the Department of State, the Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with support from The Ford Foundation, South Arts, Alice L. Walton Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, CreARTE, The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation, The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Digital Library of the Caribbean (dLOC), Garner Foundation, National Performance Network (NPN), Alternate ROOTS, Readytex Art Gallery, Garner Foundation, The Rhythm Foundation, and the Betsy Hotel.
Special thanks to community members who graciously donated to DVCAI’s Artist Catalyst Awards campaign on Miami Foundation’s 2023 Give Miami Day.
DVCAI awardees will participate in a month – long residency. During that time, they will take time to think, create and mature their practice and conduct community conversations and events. Objectives: An accelerated maturation of the work of four mid-career, Miami-based visual artists that will allow them to compete on a global arts market. A heightened regional, national, and global profile of Miami artists, particularly those of the Caribbean diaspora. The creation of site – specific, socially engaging, and community – minded artworks. The grant amount is $5000.00 for each artist.
