2021 Grant Awards

In its fourth annual round of grantmaking, The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation is providing $177,000 to support 25 ambitious and creative projects in the arts and humanities at Penn. Since its launch in 2017, the Sachs Program has funded over 200 projects and distributed approximately $1.1 Million in artistic and creative support. The Sachs Program’s grantmaking is part of its larger efforts to support and advance the arts across the University and the 2021 grants support a broad range of projects in the visual arts, opera, theater, film, writing, music, translation, and cultural planning. These 25 grants are in addition to 10 Student Grants and 4 First-Year Seminar Grants awarded in the fall, as well as the grants awarded through our Ben Art Bucks program.

LGBTQuarantine
- Alexandra Lenihan
- School of Social Policy and Practice
Jallalla! – Healing and Reclaiming Indigeneity Through the Arts
- Américo Mendoza-Mori and Catherine Bartch
- Latin American and Latinx Studies Program (LALS), School of Arts & Sciences
Philadelphia Media Arts Collective
- Amrita Stützl and Arely Peña
- Graduate Fine Arts Department, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Through the Doors – An Opera for Chamber Ensemble, Multimedia, and Electronics
- Ania Vu
- Department of Music, School of Arts & Sciences
Odos Non Grata
- Asima Samanta
The Fossils We Live Amongst
- Claire Conklin Sabel
- Department of History and Sociology of Science, School of Arts & Sciences
Designing Critical Futures
- Clayton Colmon
- The College of Liberal and Professional Studies (LPS)
Archiving Lived Experiences Through Film
- Debra Harner
- Center for Carceral Communities, School of Social Policy and Practice
Ga(u)ze
- Dixon Li
- School of Arts & Sciences
Non-Conceptual Concepts
- Emmet Foley
- Undergraduate Program in Fine Arts and Design, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Community Based City Planning
- Enrique Morales
- Graduate Fine Arts Department, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
New Mixed Chamber Piece with Dance and Film
- Erin Busch
- Department of Music, School of Arts & Sciences
With My Own Hands
- Farrah Rahaman
- Annenberg School for Communication
Public Library Mural
- Gracelynn Wan
- College of Arts & Sciences
Jamal Batts: Curator-in-Residence
- Graduate Fine Arts
- Graduate Fine Arts Department, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Seeing Is Believing: the American Musical Bio-pic and Documentary
- Guthrie Ramsey
- College of Arts & Sciences
The Masks We Wear
- Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and Memory Studio
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Slought
Children’s Book of Indigenous Philippine Tales
- Jo Tiongson-Perez
- Penn Museum
Towards a Black Trans*lational Praxis: Archiving Black Queer Atlantic Performance Art
- Joshua K Reason
- Department of Africana Studies, School of Arts & Sciences
Unfolding Indigenous Archives of the Colombian Amazon
- Juan Castrillon
- Department of Music, School of Arts & Sciences
Duality
- Julian Hunter
- Wharton School
Moonflower
- Karen Kim
Asian Experiences Reconstructed (2021)
- Kathy Tang
Hell Mural
- Kay Seohyung Lee
- Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Millennial Black Muslim Writers
- Kelly Writers House
- Kelly Writers House
Behind the Iron Curtain: Art & Culture in Eastern Europe
- Ksenia Nouril
- College of Arts & Sciences
Thread & Needle
- Kyuri Jeon
throwntogetherness
- Lino Kino
- Undergraduate Program in Fine Arts and Design, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Houses of Domestic Memory
- Lisa Marie Patzer
- Stavros Niarchos Foundation Paideia Program
Rx/Museum: Art & Reflection in Medicine
- Lyndsay M. Hoy, M.D. 
- Perelman School of Medicine, School of Arts & Sciences, Slought
The Serpent Will Eat Whatever is in the Belly of the Beast
- Marc Anthony Richardson
- Department of English, School of Arts & Sciences
Music in Urban Spaces
- Molly McGlone
- College of Arts & Sciences
Shuttle Service
- Music Practica/Elettronica Viva
- Department of Music, School of Arts & Sciences
“from”
- Nikki Brake-Sillá
- Perelman School of Medicine
Grown For Her
- Nikki Thomas
- Graduate School of Education
Designing Motherhood
- Orkan Telhan
- Undergraduate Program in Fine Arts and Design, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Dumplings, Bows, & Fermented Milk: The Silk Roads in 10 Objects
- Oscar Aguirre-Mandujano
- College of Arts & Sciences
Fighting the Night: My Father in World War II
- Paul Hendrickson
- Department of English, School of Arts & Sciences
A Digital Series of Theatrical Performances Created from Conversations with Frontline Workers
- Penn Nursing
- Penn Nursing
2021 Ben Art Bucks Grants
- Penn Undergraduate and Graduate Students
Caged Swans
- Penn Vietnamese Student Association (VSA)
Ethiopia’s Last Jews
- Peter Decherney
- Cinema and Media Studies Program, School of Arts & Sciences
The Chen Lok Lee Legacy Project
- Romana Lee-Akiyama and Cliff Akiyama
Death of the Sirens
- Rongxuan (Roxanne) Zhou
- Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Faith and Resilience of Asian/American Small Business Owners
- Rupa Pillai
- School of Arts & Sciences
Li Delun in Philadelphia Planning
- Shelley Zhang
- Penn Libraries, School of Arts & Sciences
t-art Magazine
- T’art
- College of Arts & Sciences, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Indigenous Arts in Focus
- The History of Art department’s Living Land Acknowledgment Group
- History of Art Department, School of Arts & Sciences
Expanded Impact: Diversifying Modes of Engagement with Trans Youth Poets
- Transcribez
- Kelly Writers House
Scrimmage
- Will Owen
- Graduate Fine Arts Department, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Untitled Sculpture
- Xiaoxiang (Nathan) Li
- Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)
Translating Bhed (The Secret) by Muhammad Asim Butt
- Zain Mian
- Program for Comparative Literature and Literary Theory, School of Arts & Sciences
Calling Home
- Zoe Penina Baker
- Graduate Fine Arts Department, Weitzman School of Design (PennDesign)

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