Gymnopedie is proud to offer to the public two monthly Art Magick grants.
We’re inspired by the work created by our renters since we opened in 2019. Our aim is to help cultivate more of the art that we love.
Art Magick grants provide artists with free time at our location. Rather than spending money on the venue, artists can pay their collaborators, buy costumes, rent cameras, and cover all the other expenses that goes into a production.
Our two grants are:
16 hour Full Venue Art Magick Grant - One artist each month will be given 16 consecutive hours with access to the Gymnasium, Locker Room, and Classroom, our entire 5800 sq ft venue. For example, a team might enter at 8am and wrap at 2am. This time must be booked on a weekday (Monday through Friday).
8 hour Partial Venue Art Magick Grant - One artist each month will be given 8 consecutive hours with access to the Gymnasium plus one other space (either the Locker Room or the Classroom). This time must be booked on a weekday (Monday through Friday).
The factors we consider in directing the grants are concept, talent, identity, and financial need.
Concept - Are you about to make something that blows our minds? We provide our grants toward unique and powerful visions.
Talent - Send us links to your portfolio (Instagram, Youtube, your website…). If you have a record of making great work, we’ll be excited to help you make more at Gymnopedie.
Identity - We love to help tell untold stories. Some groups have less resources and less channels through which to tell their story. We’re here for that. Tell us about the country you’re from, your race, your gender, and everything that makes you you. If you’re a unique voice, that’s a good reason for us to provide you with free access to our venue.
Financial need - If you have a big idea but a small budget, maybe our free location will allow you that extra room to be ambitious. That’s one intention for the grant. We’re also here to find sizable projects and amplify them further. Maybe you’re only funded enough to do a one day shoot. Our grant can help double it into a more thorough two day effort.
You don’t need to tick every box in order to receive the grant. If you have an impressive Instagram and tell us you just wanna shoot some photos at Gymnopedie, that alone might be enough to get you the grant. If you’re a unique voice with an amazing idea, you might not need to have a huge portfolio of past work to get the grant.
Here are some examples of past work we love:
Music - Haydee killed it with her video for Magia. You might notice that we use three images from her music video in our video trailer for the Locker Room. She made our rooms look lit, and we love her for it.
Dance - Tiffany Rae received praise from the New York Times about her piece, “Unearth Birmingham”, and it’s well deserved. The four girls who were murdered in the 1963 church bombing are resurrected here as dancers. It will make you cry.
Film - 99 Cent Dreams transformed our basement into a surreal VHS rental were patrons rent their memories. The result is beautifully, succinct, polished, and imaginative.
Fashion - Menyelek has staged three fashion shows at Gymnopedie. He’s master of making a lot from a little, and then multiplying 10x every few months. He stays on top of big, ambitious projects with a ton of moving parts. One of our favorite designers.
Event - It was already tricky enough to have events underneath an active church, which gives us strict no smoking rules. Then covid came along and gave us another tall hurdle. But Aisha and Waller leaped over both of those challenges to deliver this dinner evening inspired by Kanye’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.” We are jealous of the guests who got to experience this intimate, indulgent party.