Frances "Bitsie" Clark | Arts & Culture | Arts & Anti-racism
Frances "Bitsie" Clark, who turned 93 on Oct. 30 of last year. Lucy Gellman File Photo.
The Bitsie Clark Fund for Artists, dedicated to enriching Greater New Haven by investing in its artists, is excited to announce applications for its 2025 award.
In solidarity with the cultural organizations continuing to honor DEl (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) efforts, members of the fund'd advisory committee are again designating one grant for a Black artist while the second remains open to all artists.
Both grants are open to artists from all art disciplines (visual, performing, literary arts and video and film) who seek to either tackle a major goal in their artistic development, take a risk on a new direction in their work or advance their career as an artist.
Previous awardees have included poet and playwright Aaron Jafferis, musician and composer Adam Matlock puppeteer Isaac Bloodworth, photographer Alexandra Diaz, playwright Steve Driffin, composer and bassoonist Damali Willingham and sculptor Linda Mickens among others (read more about them here, here, and here; a full list of awardees is available here).
The Bitsie Fund was founded in 2018 in honor of Frances "Bitsie" Clark, the Executive Director of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven for 20 years, who helped launch the Audubon Arts District and helped establish the arts as a driving economic force in Greater New Haven. Read more about Clark's extraordinary life and work here.
The mission of the Fund is to continue Bitsie's commitment to artists in the region. The Fund offers grants for individual artists, allowing them to pursue a significant goal at a turning point in their development.
Guidelines for 2025 grant applications, due on June 21st, are posted on the website.
Advisory committee members include Frances "Bitsie" Clark, Mimsie Coleman, Kim Futrell, Robin Golden, Stacy Graham-Hunt, Betty Monz and Maryann Ott.