pepe álvarez-colón

PRAI is a two years-long residency and mentorship program for Puerto Rican artists to create, teach, and research on both the island and the mainland, with Northwestern University as one of the program’s pedagogical nuclei. The grant consisted in offering a two-year commission to develop an artistic project and a professional development training process to ten early-to mid-career performance artists with ten established artists working as mentors for each artist.

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In order to assist Puerto Rican artists in the aftermath of two devastating hurricanes, this project included professionalization trainings on such tasks as writing artists’ statements and grant proposals, facilitating workshops and lectures, and communicating with a broader audience about their works.  Each of these artists traveled twice, first to Northwestern University and later to another public or private academic institution across the U.S. that have expressed interest in the program for a weeklong residency to present an artist talk, lead a workshop, and meet with arts stakeholders. The closing events and the project's final presentations will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico during the month of August, 2020.