Fine Arts major Catherine McConnell '10 served on the grant committee for the 2010 Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Arts. The committee awarded $4,800 worth of grants to students to subsidize various creative projects to be performed or displayed during the festival, which will take place from April 28 to May 2.JustArts: How did you and the other people on the committee choose [grant recipients]?

Catherine McConnell: Everyone on the committee was given the applications a week ahead of time to review them, with a rubric of specific things to keep in mind as we were reviewing them. Then each committee member ranked all of the projects on a 1-5 scale and the scores of all the jurors were then averaged. We then looked at all the grants based on the average ranking that they were given. The projects were all discussed and looked at based on their ability to engage the Brandeis community, feasibility of completing the project, how well thought out the project was as well as other criteria.

The process was difficult, for there were many wonderful projects proposed, yet I greatly enjoyed getting to take part in the process. As a group, we would discuss each of the projects, everyone getting to weigh in their opinion of it, and then were able to come to a consensus in terms of if we believed the project should be funded, and if so, how much money they should be awarded.

JA: Would you say that the types of submissions you got were varied, or was there a trend among the types of submissions?

CM: The types of submissions that we received greatly varied, both across disciplines (visual arts, performing arts, and music) with some incorporating multiple types, as well as ideas and subject matter.

JA: Do you expect a lot of people who didn't win any money or people who didn't even ask for money will be participating in the Festival of the Arts?

CM: You do not need to receive a grant to participate in the festival. I hope and expect that a lot more people will take part in the festival, not just those that received money or applied and did not receive any.

JA: Are there any specific grant applications that really stood out to you, that you look forward to seeing in April?

CM: I am really excited about a lot of the projects this year. There are several projects that collaborate different art forms that I am excited to see come together. Also, there were some really innovating sculptures that I look forward to see the final product, but overall was really impressed by all of the applicants and can't wait for the festival to see them all become reality.

JA: Are you doing a project, and if so, did you get any money for it?

CM: I am doing a project that we were fortunate enough to get money for. Being that I was also on the committee, I did not take part in the deliberation of my own grant.

I am going to be working with Hannah Richman '10 whom I collaborated with last year on a festival project. We are going to make a series of three paintings that look at the connection between the issues of poverty and environmental degradation. We are also going to use it as an opportunity to have two painters work on the same surface, hopefully having the art itself be a representation of a collaboration of two different peoples marks. The goal is to have the process of creating the paintings echo the need for large social issues that we study in other classes to come together and be looked at holistically.