Meet The 2024 Artist Innovation Grantees
Meet The 2024 Artist Innovation Grantees
Broward Cultural Division’s Artist Innovation grant provides direct funds to professional and established artists of all disciplines for new and experimental art projects.
The program is designed to encourage risk-taking, exploration of artistic pursuits, career advancement, interactivity, and sustained commitment to artistic work.
Selected artists are required to produce an event that is free and accessible for the community. Learn more about the 2024 selected grant recipients and their projects below.
Awards are provided in partnership with the Community Foundation of Broward. To learn more about the Artist Innovation grant and the upcoming cycle application workshops and deadline, visit Broward.org/Arts/Funding.
Christina Lihan
Christina Lihan, a Florida-based sculptor, creates intricate artworks using paper as her medium. She hand-cuts, folds, scores, and carves layers of paper, exploring the interplay of white, shadow, and light in her pieces. Through her work, she engages in an aesthetic and conceptual discussion, demonstrating an understanding of elements and raising questions from an environmental justice perspective. Her work has been exhibited internationally and awarded site-specific installations at prestigious locations such as the Flatiron building in NYC, downtown Chicago, and internationally.
Image of a City: Fort Lauderdale’s Architecture and Ocean
An immersive installation of suspended hand-cut paper sculptures to raise awareness of the impact of sea level rise on our fragile environment. Highlighting threats to beaches and marine ecosystems, the project will also highlight Fort Lauderdale’s architectural heritage and include collaborations with several environmental organizations.
Michele Del Campo
Michele Del Campo, an Italian artist born in 1976, is known for his global artistic journey and visual style that integrates elements from various places. His portraits capture personal moments and a universal sense of humanity. Del Campo’s works include large-scale oil paintings and intimate charcoal drawings, and he received the BMW Painting Prize in 2006.
Immigration Stories of Florida Artists
An exhibition of 40 portrait drawings accompanied by extraordinary stories of immigration in South Florida. Through in-depth interviews with the subjects in their daily environments, such as homes and workplaces, Del Campo will gain insight into their diverse backgrounds and inspiring experiences.
Damaris Ferrer
Damaris Ferrer is a multidisciplinary dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She has a diverse background in classical ballet, Graham technique, Spanish dance, and world folk dances. She has performed with various dance companies and is currently on the adjunct faculty of Broward College and Nova Southeastern University. She holds an M.F.A. in choreographic research from Jacksonville University.
The Crossings: A Global Movement Act
The Crossings is a multidisciplinary work that explores the movement of bodies, communities, and collective responsibility. The communal experience is conveyed through materials collected via multiple technologies, such as phones, computers, iPads, video cameras, and modes of transportation.
Pablo Matute
Pablo Francisco Matute is a visual artist living and working in South Florida. Pablo uses his work to dissect his environment, creating surreal charcoal drawings and collages that speak about the reflections on navigating a diverse cultural terrain, exploring the nuanced duality inherent in different cultures, and pondering the profound significance of space. Matute’s work has been exhibited throughout South Florida in galleries and art spaces. He received a B.A. from Florida International University.
Connecting the Divide, con chicle
An exhibition of new works on wood exploring traditional aspects of drawing as well as new ideas on surfaces and materials that challenge the tradition of drawing on paper. Also featured will be a series of abstract collages on wood created with palm leaves from the local environment that reflect the surrounding community.
Nathalie Alfonso
Natalie Alfonso’s LineScape series showcases her shift to incorporating colored drawings, inspired by her experiences in the Florida Everglades. This change stems from encountering complex floral systems during her bike rides in nature, prompting introspection on life sustainability across species. Alfonso’s work has been exhibited at various notable venues, and she has received accolades such as the South Florida Cultural Consortium award. She holds an M.F.A. from Southern Methodist University and a B.F.A. from Florida International University.
Ephemeral Construct “Linescape Deconstruction”
A 100 x 20-foot pastel and charcoal artwork that blends city landscapes and Everglades wildflowers, celebrating the harmonious connection between urban perception and unseen natural landscapes and urging ecosystem preservation.
RW BaBs
RW BaBs (short for Red, White, Black and Blue state) is an anonymous social engagement artist who uses art to bring people together and stimulate dialogue. They create installations and activations to investigate the relationship between social and political culture, capitalism, power, and influence in the United States.
Unity House
Unity House, an interactive sculpture designed for grownup play, is a one-of-a-kind, fantastical bounce house where visitors entering via a looping pathway will discover a climbing tower, bubble ball domes, and slide ramp. Decorated with symbols of patriotism and happiness, the work is both a participatory social sculpture and voter registration event. Newly registered voters will receive a limited-edition artwork.
Claudine Julien
Claudine Julien is a trailblazing Haitian-American Multimedia Artist and South Florida Native.
Fueled by an insatiable curiosity and a deep passion for creativity, Claudine harnesses her skills and knowledge to captivate hearts and minds with her creations. Her work is an artful blend of imaginative illustrations, awe-inspiring murals, and many more creative mediums.
Pages From Our Youth, The Selfie Museum: A Journey Through Imagination in Books
Together, 16 unique installations bring iconic scenes from timeless children’s books to life and invite visitors to immerse themselves in a world of imagination and nostalgia, where they can not only capture the perfect selfie, but also experience the stories they cherished in their childhoods in an entirely new way.
Edison Peñafiel
Edison Peñafiel is a South Florida artist whose work explores the experiences of those affected by major global conflicts. Through multimedia installations using sculpture, photography, animation, video, and space, he creates thought-provoking reflections of the harsh realities we face each day. Peñafiel, who migrated from Ecuador, has completed large-scale projects at various venues and has received several awards for his work.
Barrio Alto [Uptown Neighborhood]
A photographic series that presents a narrative through meticulously crafted dioramas, assembled from the medium of cardboard that portray disparities in the construction and cost of housing, and prompt viewers to challenge preconceived notions about social and economic status.
Todd Addison Wolf
Todd Addison Wolff’s explores self-identity, sexuality, and interiority through non-objective compositions of broken color, collage, layering, erasure, and optical effects on canvas and ceramic forms. Wolf’s group exhibitions include the South Florida Cultural Consortium Exhibition, the “Juried National VII,” and “Mes del Orgullo Gay.” Wolff holds a B.S. in Architecture from Ball State University.
A Streak of Lavender, Spots as Soft as May Violets
An immersive art installation exploring the codifying, pejorative usage, and symbolism of oral botany across the histories of the queer community to disseminate histories, reclaim language, and rejoice in nature’s beauty. Utilizing hand-built ceramic sculptures, paintings, and drawings, viewers will enter an imagined, luxuriant “garden”.
Painting Life in Pictures
Yochi Yakir-Avin is a multidisciplinary artist primarily focused on representation. Born in Poland and raised in Israel, she pursued her fine arts education in both Israel and Italy. Yakir-Avin’s work focuses on the evolution of memories and their influence on our perception of the world, blending personal and collective recollections where fact and narrative intersect.
Her ongoing project, “The Memory Project,” has been showcased in various exhibitions, including those at the Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art in Wisconsin, the Catharine Lorillard Wolf Art Club and Salmagundi Art Club in New York, and several local galleries in Florida and New York.
Painting Life in Pictures
A collaborative project that seamlessly intertwines visual arts and theater to create an immersive experience evoking nostalgia and introspection. A Docu-Play, crafted by playwright, Lisa Yves will allow the audience to immerse in the essence of the artwork through visual and auditory stimulation.
