“As far as I can tell, the function of art is to remind us that we have an imagination. This is the gift, the provocation, the mission and the invitation of an artist to others. Without imagination, empathy is not possible, nor the envisioning of solutions or dreams for a better life. Thus art is essential.” To Lie in the Sky will be my 104th dance but the eighth one using a new…

What are you currently reading, and what’s next on your list? I just finished Rule of the Bone by Russell Banks, and waiting for me at the bookstore is Maureen McHugh’s After the Apocalypse. Those are only two passing titles, though, from a swiftly flowing river. It might be more revealing if I told you about the happiest discoveries I’ve made this year. First is the Israeli writer Alex…

Kathy Lee Crane, Fellow in Film-Video, 2013: Houston Cinema Arts Festival and Aurora Picture Show partner to present a night of film and live cinema performance inspired by renowned Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Sarah Ruden studied at the University of Michigan, Harvard University, and the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars. Her scholarship has concentrated on literary translation of the Greek and Roman classics. On the 4th and 5th of July, Sarah Ruden visited the University of Birmingham for a series of events organized by Dr. Elena Theodorakopoulos, a specialist in Reception Studies in…

In the electronic version of my bottom desk drawer sits an almost finished novel, three years in the researching and writing, which will never see the light of day. It is the only novel I have written, and rewritten, and rewritten again, on which I have given up entirely. Ironically, it is also the novel I won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009 to finish. The novel was enticing as an idea. That…

For more than 25 years, Anne Makepeace has written, directed, and produced independent films. We Still Live Here: Âs Nutayuneân is her most recent film, a project initiated during her 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship term. The documentary chronicles the revival of Wôpanâak, the Algonquian language of the southeastern Massachusetts Wampanoag community, after more than a century of disuse. Led by…

From working with federal law enforcement agencies on digital forensics, to the digital reconstruction of Ancient Egyptian tombs, Hany Farid works and plays with digital media at the crossroads of computer science, engineering, mathematics, optics, and psychology. Did computer scientist Hany Farid’s digital forensics cast new light on the assassination of United States President John F….

What are some of the most significant transformations, in your opinion, that the Foundation has undergone in its grant-making history since 1925? The Guggenheim Foundation began as a wonderfully novel experiment.  In its first few years, the Foundation supported maybe a dozen Fellows in a few key fields.  Over the years, its size and impact have grown tremendously.  The initial 2 ½ million…

Renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988) is celebrated for works that transcend the traditional boundaries between artistic mediums, and whose forms continually evoke the beauty of nature.  The impact of his 1927 Guggenheim Fellowship is underlined in an important exhibition at the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York.  Titled “On Becoming an Artist: Isamu Noguchi and his…

The 2009-2010 Guggenheim Fellowship was going to be – in my plans – a peaceful respite from everyday worries. Since I live in a forest ravine in the mountains near Caracas, an hour’s drive from the nearest store or gas station, my perspective on composing music and living off the proceeds of this wayward profession is not typical. I’ve designed my lifestyle to cater to a particular need…

When Greg Miller set out this past July for a photo shoot at the Asser Levy Pool in New York City, he invited some Guggenheim Foundation staff members to come along.  The result of that day’s work, using an exceptional camera and a full crew of assistants, is Miller’s Asser Levy Pool Revisited. The original Asser Levy Pool series, featuring black-and-white portraits taken at the pool in…

Thanks to the continued generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation, some Fellows with no academic or institutional affiliation receive supplemental funding as part of their Guggenheim Fellowship to help cover the costs of their research or artistic endeavors, and their living expenses. Mr. Levy, a pioneer in the creation of both mutual funds and hedge funds, was a humanist with a passion for…

After years of traveling, studying many different aspects of art, and working himself in various genres, Pablo Helguera is offering his hard-won insights into what he terms “the sociology of contemporary art outside of the realm of the art market,” in his newly published collection of essays entitled Art Scenes: The Social Scripts of the Art World (New York: Jorge Pinto Books).