Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists Announces Call for Inaugural Los Angeles Fellows

LOS ANGELES, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Six Points Fellowship for Emerging Jewish Artists (http://sixpointsfellowship.org/) is pleased to announce its launch in Los Angeles. The 5-year-old Fellowship program will incubate the as-yet untapped potential of Jewish artists in LA to engage young adults in Jewish life through the arts.

The Fellowship application process opens April 4, 2011, and closes June 1, 2011. Performing artists, musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers between the ages of 22 and 38 are invited to apply for funding and support of a new work that engages with Jewish ideas, themes, or elements. Nine artists will be selected to receive up to $40,000 each to develop and present their projects in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. Six Points will also provide the artists with ongoing professional development workshops, retreats and a variety of Jewish learning opportunities.

The only Jewish arts fellowship of its kind, Six Points is a collaboration of Avoda Arts, JDub, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture, and is made possible with significant support from The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles and the Righteous Persons Foundation. "Six Points believes in artists' integral role in mining Jewish tradition for modern relevancy. We are incredibly proud to be joined by these forward thinking supporters who also understand artists' ability to create works that will engage the next generation of Angelinos in new and creative ways." said Six Points Fellowship director Rebecca Guber. "We look forward to working with a diverse group of artists from a cross section of Los Angeles' neighborhoods and communities."

Founded in 2006, the Six Points Fellowship grew out of research in Cultural Events & Jewish Identities (Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman, 2005), commissioned by the Foundation for Jewish Culture and funded by UJA-Federation of New York. This important study explored how culture is a powerful connector in the lives of young Jewish adults as well as a primary mechanism for creating a common language and furthering identity development. Recognizing the need and potential to reach young Jewish adults through long-term support of outstanding artists, three leading non-profit Jewish arts organizations - Avoda Arts, JDub, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture - together envisioned Six Points. The fellowship is currently working with its second New York cohort, which began its term in October 2010. The Los Angeles cohort will begin in November 2011.

The projects developed by the pilot cohort of Fellows in New York reached an extraordinary number of young Jewish cultural consumers. The combination of the high quality of the artistic work produced and the emphasis on marketing and outreach led to a significant level of engagement through event attendance, media coverage, on-line conversations, and awards. The fellows presented 87 programs, in New York City, attended by over 10,000 people. Their work was featured in hundreds of media outlets, including in The New York Times, The Village Voice, and The Jewish Week, and on NPR and Last Call with Carson Daly. The artists' websites received over 250,000 visits during the fellowship term.

Application workshops, led by the Six Points' staff will be held on May 15th & 17th, 2011.

For more information, please contact Rebecca Guber: 917.588.9013 or [email protected]  or see past fellows artists' work at www.sixpointsfellowship.org .

SOURCE Six Points Fellowship