TJG FELLOWSHIP COMMISSION

The Jazz Gallery has long supported the youngest generation of jazz musicians through various programming initiatives and now seeks to address the relative scarcity of resources dedicated to established artists and advanced professionals, who often balance the professional demands of performing, touring, and teaching with additional obligations related to their families (e.g., parenting), which are less likely to affect younger or older artists.In our years of nurturing young, emerging artists, it has come to our attention that established artists and advanced professionals often struggle to sustain the momentum of their creative output and career trajectory. 

The Jazz Gallery Fellowship comprises of a cash award as well as a two-week residency at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Fellows also have access to The Jazz Gallery space during its off-hours for 12-month period. The Fellowship aims to provide the financial support and logistical freedom to its recipients to focus their energy for a brief but substantial period on new compositional projects. The Jazz Gallery will present formal premieres of completed works. We believe that this opportunity will enable the fellowship recipients to develop potentially career-transforming new works that would otherwise not be possible.

With the Fellowship program, we hope to strengthen our holistic approach to supporting artists and the art form. Many grant programs, competitions, contests, and journalistic awards explicitly feature "emerging" improvisers and composers, while high-visibility cultural awards are generally reserved for much older figures in jazz. The Jazz Gallery hopes to address a gap in allocating funds and resources for established artists and advanced professionals, who, unfortunately, are sometimes taken for granted by the jazz audience and press. Although this program would be a small step toward redressing the relative lack of opportunities for those who fit neither the profiles of rising star nor jazz legend, as favored in the jazz business, the Gallery hopes that such a program will draw attention to this deficiency, setting a precedent to inspire other organizations to devote greater resources for established artists and advanced professionals.

The Jazz Gallery Fellowship is supported in part by New York State Council of The Arts, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and Howard Gilman Foundation.

TJG PROGRAMS

MENTOR SERIES

DIRECTIONS IN 21st CENTURY JAZZ

WOODSHED

JAZZ COMPOSERS SHOWCASE

MARGARET WHITTON AWARD

TJG FELLOWSHIP