POET DAVID MASON RECEIVES $40,000 CREATIVITY IN MOTION PRIZE FOR OPERA
6-02-09
NORMAN – While he was walking down a street in Colorado on a spring afternoon, David Mason received a phone call from Jeanne Smith with news that would change his future plans. Mason, a professor of English at Colorado College, had been named the 2009 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize recipient.
The $40,000 will allow Mason to focus more time on creating the libretto for the opera adaptation of his verse novel Ludlow.
Mason previously teamed with composer Lori Laitman for the 2008 opera Scarlet Letter, her first full-length opera. This will be their second project together.
Opera is a new addition to Mason’s already successful career as a poet. With nine books written and edited, and poems published in The New Yorker, Poetry, The New Republic, The Nation, etc., Mason was inspired to adapt Ludlow after his experience with the “intensely lyrical and dramatically charged” libretto for Laitman’s Scarlet Letter.
Mason writes, “Voted the best new poetry book by Contemporary Poetry Review, Ludlow received rave reviews and has proved an unlikely hit in the poetry world for the way it enlarges the contemporary range of the art.
“It tells the searing story of a handful of immigrants – Greek, Italian, Scottish, Mexican – caught up in a labor struggle in southern Colorado, culminating in the Ludlow Massacre of April 1914.
“For years, I have been wishing to enlarge what poets could do by creating bigger dramas than are usually found in our poetry. Opera may be the perfect arena in which to accomplish this task.”
Mason will be honored at an event to be held in September.
AVANT-GARDE FILMMAKER RECIEVES CREATIVITY IN MOTION AWARD
8-14-07
Filmmaker and professor of film studies Philip S. Solomon has been named the 2007 Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion recipient. Solomon will receive a piece of sculpture and a check for $40,000 to use at his discretion, based on his entry titled “American Falls.” The presentation will take place at a ceremony to be held Wednesday, Sept. 5, on the University of Oklahoma Norman campus.
“American Falls” is a six-channel, surround-sound digital video installation to be projected on the walls of the rotunda at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Solomon, who is known for his experimentation with film emulsion, calls it “a Sistine Chapel for the American Dream” and plans to open the exhibit in early fall of 2008.
Among the many influences of the installation are Frederick Church’s painting “Niagara Falls,” from the Corcoran’s collection; Diego Rivera’s Works Progress Administration Arts Project murals; various war memorials in the Washington, D.C., area; and an episode of “Star Trek” titled “The City on the Edge of Forever;” in which images are “history as a river of time.”
“My project is ultimately one of great hope, stemming from a lifelong love for this American experiment of ours that seemed so vivid to me during my (television-infused) childhood; but it is also necessitated by my deepest concern for its present and future directions,” Solomon writes in his proposal.
A professor of film studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Solomon earned his bachelor of arts degree in filmmaking at State University of New York at Binghamton and his master of fine arts degree at Massachusetts College of Art. He is the recipient of the first prize in the Onion City Film Festival for his work with the late Mark LaPore, Untitled (For David Gatten); a Juror’s Award at the Thomas Edison Black Maria Film Festival for his film Psalm III: “Night of the Meek”; a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship; and the University of Colorado-Boulder Marinus G. Smith Parents Association Teaching Recognition Award. Along with his many honors, he has screened his work in the RedCat Cinema in Los Angeles, Tama Arts University in Japan, Whitney Biennial and Museum of Modern Art.
In his letter of support for the project, Paul Roth, curator of photography and media arts at the Corcoran Museum of Art, writes, “I was thrilled when Phil Solomon proposed this extraordinary idea to me. Walking in our Rotunda, it is easy to envision how unusual and marvelous this multi-channel film will be. It is rare to be able to mount a cutting-edge contemporary art project that will have widespread appeal to a diverse audience, including children. We at the Corcoran enthusiastically commissioned him to realize this piece.
“Phil Solomon is precisely the type of artist who most benefits from the financial and career support of an important arts award like the Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize. In a very real sense, I can attest that this award would make a substantial difference in his work, in the realization of his project here at the Corcoran, and in the public awareness and reception of his work.”
About the Prize:
The Thatcher Hoffman Smith Creativity in Motion Prize, established in 2002, is a biennial prize honoring the creative process given by the University of Oklahoma College of Arts and Sciences. The prize celebrates a visionary creative work in process, recognizing the power of original thought and expression in possibly enriching the world around us. The work or project must be under way at the time of application, and is open to all fields of creativity, including, but not limited to, the arts, cultural affairs, education and science. The $40,000 award is available to U.S. citizens and can be used in any way the recipient chooses. This year’s submissions included more than 300 applicants from disciplines as diverse as archaeology, sculpture, community outreach programs and operas. Past recipients include Elizabeth Ingraham, artist, and Steven C. Levi, educator. For more information, visit the Web site at cim.ou.edu.
About Jeanne Hoffman Smith:
The prize is supported generously by Jeanne Hoffman Smith, Oklahoma City resident and social worker, and is named after her parents. Smith is a great supporter of local film programs and serves the community is several ways, including as a member of the Inasmuch Foundation Advisory Committee, Oklahoma State Film and Music Commission; trustee, Oklahoma City Art Museum; trustee and founder, Oklahoma City University Center for Interpersonal Studies through Film and Literature; board member, Oklahoma Humanities Council; and trustee, Kirkpatrick Foundation.