Guild Hall's Artists-In-Residence Program Receives $15,000 From National Endowment For The Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded Guild Hall in East Hampton a $15,000 grant to support the nonprofit’s artists-in-residence program, Guild House AIR, which will begin its spring season in April.

The grant falls under the NEA’s Art Works category—the federal agency’s largest funding category, supporting “projects that focus 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/or the strengthening of communities through the arts,” according to the NEA.

“We are thrilled to have the Guild House AIR program acknowledged by the National Endowment for the Arts,” Guild Hall Executive Director Andrea Grover said in a statement. “The NEA award lends great weight to this mission-driven program which introduces extraordinary artists to our community.”

This year, the program will focus on the physical structure of Guild House, a historic residence adjacent to Guild Hall. It will be used for exhibition, installation, performance and creative interventions, according to Guild Hall, and the artists will be encouraged to work either individually or together to stage environments, readings, or performances.

Five early- to mid-career artists will take part this season. They are:

Simone Bailey, who works with video, performance, sculpture, and photography to explore themes related to violence, agency, and the impulse to grasp the intangible.

Aviva Jaye, a Brooklyn-based artist and performer who is dedicated to empathy and diversity through music.

Siobhan O’Loughlin, a Brooklyn-based writer, performance artist, and activist who tours her work internationally.

Eva Schmidt, an artist working within the culinary, visual and performing art fields to investigate themes of lifespan, vision and alchemy.

Katherine Taylor, the author of the novels “Valley Fever” and “Rules for Saying Goodbye.” Her stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Elle.

This year’s selection committee included Ms. Grover, John Drew Theater Artistic Director Josh Gladstone, Guild Hall Museum Director/Chief Curator Christina Strassfield, visual artist and Guild Hall Academy of the Arts President Eric Fischl, and poet and The Writers Studio founder/director Phillip Shultz.