Announcing CUE's 2020 Grant Recipients

After a very competitive adjudication process, we are pleased to announce 33 grant recipients who will be producing projects in multiple disciplines.

Check out this year’s supported projects below:

Tam Wagner is supported to create a children’s book called Queen of the Land. The protagonist is a little girl whose parents keep saying “no” to her misguided ideas. She uses imaginary worlds to feel more powerful, make-believing that she is the queen of a series of whimsical kingdoms—but ends up feeling more and more listless.

Alexander Robinson is supported to create Human Nature, a series of paintings that will include a diverse range of Black individuals with flowerpots for heads.

Beerus is supported to create a musical album, detailing the artist’s coming of age. Subjects such as Township Racism, working vs. healing, and parenting while young are discussed from a place of experience.

Christie Carriere is supported to produce a series of three paintings, which feature some of the long-time shop owners of the Chinatown Centre mall. The artist wants to use this project to respond to questions around how artists can contribute to the fight against gentrification and displacement, rather than continue to enable it.

Chantelle C.W. is supported to produced LOVE, a four song EP that takes the listener forward into the unrequited love story that sent the artist on a recovery journey.

Chloe Kirlew-Geddes is supported to create SometimesWe Get to See the Moon; a poetry zine with 8 completed poems that each dip into levels of mysticism, sacrifice and tragic beauty. Visuals are influenced by astronomy, plants, nature and death.

Old Growth Press is supported to create three separate publications, with three artists from different backgrounds. Works will explore how the body exists in space (literally and figuratively), as well as how the body navigates that space and overcomes challenges, eventually finding joy and/or solace in the self.

Dez is supported to create 3 large-scale paintings representing the artist’s life; exploring the past, present, and future as an Indigenous person.

Don Richie is supported to produce a three song EP consisting of two dancehall songs and one reggae song. The EP will fuse the raw dancehall sounds with the multi-faceted sounds of Toronto.

Hannia Cheng is supported to produce Linen & Denim, a music project that will explore the dichotomy of who the artist wants to be and where they are currently are in the process of becoming.

jJ is supported to produce The Raccoon Show—a hip-hop album about story of the artist’s life within the last five years. These stories contain hardships, emotions, love, pain and loss but ultimately, it is the story of a kid that never gave up on his dreams. 

Keisha Erwin is supported to produce Canadian by Default: a 7-10 minute short film where an Indigenous woman gets trapped in a heated discussion with an ignorant Canadian who imposes his understanding of Native identity on her.

Kibra Tsegaye is supported to produce See Me, a collection of three songs that reveal the raw feelings that the artist has experienced while being a Black womxn in a one-parent household.

Misbah Ahmed is supported to produce a series of 25 painted leather tote bags. The paintings will feature womxn of colour, and examine how brown & non-binary bodies exist in liminal space. 

MAJE BLK is supported to create an album called Moods (pt1). This album is about regret and coming to see what life really is.

Mirka Loiselle is supported to explore how the artist’s mental health is shaped by their relationships to others. The work will comprise of 10-12 poems and 10-12 accompanying illustrations, each one tackling a different relationship and the ways in which it impacts their mental health.

Maxhole is supported to create Host Club, an R&B Soul, neo-soul, jazz and hip-hop album with new sounds and textures from video game music (vintage and modern) and chutney/Caribbean music. 

Nova Lush is supported to produce an R&B/soul EP sonic diary that explores encounters of feeling love, giving love and accepting rejection.

Paul-Daniel Torres & Christian Raquel Anderson are supported to produce Jules and Joey—an IGTV comedy web series revolving around best friends, Joey and Jules, as they navigate being P.O.C twenty-somethings trying to find their footing in Toronto.

Roda is supported to create LifeBox, a surrealist conceptual product designed for a dystopian urban future. LifeBox is designed with the idea of a future that is overrun with industrial buildings and industrial spaces, where nature ceases to exist.

Ron Siu is supported to create a series of medium and large-scale prints through monotype processes and silk-screening. The prints will feature young, male and slightly androgynous characters who give off a feeling of Queer Romanticism in the way they're depicted as slightly sensual and dreamy.

Rosie Monday is supported to create Our Monday, an EP made up of seven one-minute songs. The concept of the EP is based on differences in perspective and how they can work together as opposed to against one another.

Shn Shn is supported to produce a 5-track electronic music album through beat making, sampling and DIY production. 

Sancta Maria is supported to create a collage series depicting the archetypes of Las Ruedas. This divinatory system is created with the mind of returning to sacred symbol in order to challenge tarot’s archetypal hierarchies and use of white bodies. 

Sarah Prisma is supported to create a series of seven paintings inspired by the artist’s self-development journey. Visual themes around color and texture will be used to express different phases over the past seven years. 

Soft Honey is supported to create Dipping in Armour, an anthology comprised of personal short stories, poetry, prose and portrait photography.

SKINS is supported to create EXTRACT, an album that will document change through mimetic patterns in relation to yearning, fear, consumption, and production.

Tiara Jade Chutkhan and Yvano Antonio are supported to produce a 10-minute documentary about the fight against the lack of representation of the Indo-Caribbean community in Toronto.

Trevlyn Kennedy is supported to create a multidisciplinary production, utilizing story telling through short film production in combination with spoken word and poetry. This project will explore the experience of migrating and delving into the fears and realities that immigrants face.

Taneikah Anderson is supported to produce a 32-page illustrated comic featuring daily accounts of a 15 year old girl named Zaierra—a young, Black, Indigenous girl observing and analyzing her reality.

Vishwa Bhatt is supported to produce Union of the Elements, a large-scale oil painting depicting the four elements, earth, fire, water, and wind; uniting as an integrated singular form.

Xeynamay Gezahegn is supported to produce Slick! —an immersive & experimental online music experience taking the form of a live music video, and captured in one take.

Zoe Statiris is supported to create a series of five paintings called Hold Me. Painted in an illustrative, graphic, and colourful style; this series will explore mental health and relationships to everyday spaces, relationships with family, as well as queer and multicultural relationships.