The Community Artist-in-Residence (CAIR) supports the creative economy, imagination, and civic life on the East End by commissioning regionally based artists to develop socially engaged or participatory work. Artists are provided with creative mentorships, administrative support, a commissioning fee, and a shared studio/work space on the Guild Hall campus.
Artists collaboratively work with Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works staff to realize and produce their projects. This includes aiding in the concept of the work/project, connecting to community groups, and the final presentation of work on the Guild Hall Campus.
2022-2024
COMMUNITY ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE
Wunetu Wequai Tarrant & Christian Scheider
The 2022-24 CAIR has been awarded to Linguist and Member of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Wunetu Wequai Tarrant, and Filmmaker, Christian Scheider. With support from the competitive Creatives Rebuild New York grant, Tarrant and Scheider will spend the next two years developing the First Literature Project (FLP). The project proposes to support the language reclamation efforts through the preservation of Indigenous stories, culture, and language by utilizing immersive 3D, virtual reality, and holographic technology to create two immersive orations, one which will be the first media produced in the Shinnecock Language.
Additionally, Wunetu Wequai Tarrant will form and lead Ayím Kutoowonk (She Speaks), a collective of four Indigenous Shinnecock women working toward the reclamation and revitalization of the Shinnecock language. Supported through the Library Of Congress’ Connecting Communities Digital Initiatives Grant, Ayím Kutoowonk, will conduct Shinnecock language research utilizing historical texts, including the Library’s collection of digitized books from the 17th through the 20th centuries, and create a centralized online database. The online database will include interviews and stories shared by Shinnecock Tribal members, a compilation of materials utilized to help with Shinnecock language research and education, and a community-generated video archive for the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge.
Program Sponsors
The exhibition First Literature Project is supported by The Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation.
Guild Hall’s Community Artist-in-Residence Program and collaboration with Wunetu Wequai Tarrant, Christian Scheider, and the Padoquohan Medicine Lodge was made possible through support from CRNY’s Artist Employment Program. Creatives Rebuild New York (CRNY), a project of the Tides Center, is a three-year, $125 million investment in the financial stability of New York State artists and the organizations that employ them.
Additional project support was provided by the Long Island Community Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and an anonymous donor.
The formation of Ayim Kutoowonk was made possible through the Library of Congress’s Connecting Communities Digital Initiative, part of the Library’s Mellon-funded program Of the People: Widening the Path. The program provides funds to projects that offer creative approaches to the Library’s digital collections and center Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic or Latino studies.
First Literature Project’s VR installation was developed by Khora, a leading Scandinavian virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) production studio, creating cutting-edge content within multiple application areas.
Guild Hall’s Learning + New Works programs are made possible through The Patti Kenner Arts Education Fellowship, Vital Projects Fund, the Glickberg/Abrahams S. Kutler Foundation, Stephanie Joyce and Jim Vos, the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Endowment Fund, and The Melville Straus Family Endowment.
