The Joyce Foundation is delighted to announce that ATNSC: The Center for Healing & Creative Leadership, founded and directed by M. Carmen Lane, will now be serving as the commissioning arts organization of the “Somebody: Mourning at the Temple” project.
The project, the vision of Lane, which they will execute in collaboration with artist Shaun Leonardo, received a Joyce Award in January 2020 to tell the stories of various communities directly and indirectly impacted by the Jazz Temple and its history. Lane and Leonardo—who will serve as an artist-in-residence at ATNSC for the inaugural “Willis Residency,” named after the founder of the Jazz Temple, Winston Willis—have nimbly adapted the project plan in light of the limitations posed by COVID-19, with a focus on archival storytelling.
The commissioning organization at the time of the award had been moCa Cleveland; the replacement of ATNSC as commissioning organization recognizes Lane’s central role in conceiving the project and that artists of color play more generally in the conceit and execution of Joyce Award commissions. That centrality helped spur the Foundation’s recent decision to increase the amount of each Joyce Award to $75,000, with at least $25,000 going to the artist(s) of color leading the commission.
About The Joyce Foundation
Joyce is a nonpartisan, private foundation that invests in evidence-informed public policies and strategies to advance racial equity and economic mobility for the next generation in the Great Lakes region.