NSF Awards

[Baghdad Jim]

I was going to point out one particular recent award but I looked into it and found a few $1.00 awards.

http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0439708 Where Kaiser was allotted 4 more days in McMurdo than his research team in 2004 to finish music he hadn’t finished on a previous grant in 2001.– $1.00

and this one http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0440665 to Sarah Andrew. From what I can tell, she’s a successful novel writer (9 as of 2005). A book for young readers and was there last year.–$1.00

I think there were 4 or 5 more.

Thats got to be the best way to get on the Ice…receive logistical support from the government, get to have helicopter tours, vacation length stay…and being able to put ” funded by the NSF” on the cover sure won’t hurt book sales.

now…if I could only convince someone that I can write… 😀

[Baghdad Jim]

I completely forgot the grant that caused me to post this: http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0537948.–$1.00

McMurdo–get ready, Lita’s coming to town this December.

Now, I’ve had some serious moments of self-scale and introspect in my day but there were always some people that, when they went on about the cosmos, I tended to just nod and utter monosyllabl agreement. In the grant notice, we find this:

“… a glimpse of the realities of time and space on a human scale, to develop a visual language that brings the stars to Earth and celebrate our connection to the cosmos”.

“…symbolically link the terrestrial with the celestial” …

huh? oh, I do get what it means but the last time I heard something like that said outloud, it was at showing in Houston where the host was advocating a return to nature while charging $500/person for entrance and serving beluga.

but then again, I was always fuzzy on the whole NSF funding and facilities for projects that’re easily NEA. They had initially wanted to use polystyrene, but that got nixed. She’s going to use people from the station to pick up the spheres and move in a counterclockwise spiral, mirroring the pattern of the stars.

“I suddenly felt I wanted to do a project at both poles, North and South.”

Here’s a more informative article: http://www.calendarlive.com/galleriesandmuseums/cl-et-albuquerque19jul19,0,1267494.story?coll=cl-art-top-right where it mentions that she has to raise $750,000 afterwards per terms of the award…(the $1.00 award). I dunno about you but that seems an awful lot.

[Sciencetech]

Yaaaaa.

I’m reluctant to be too critical because, well, I’d like to get an Artists and Writers grant myself. Although I’d plan to do something that highlights the continent and people, and is more accessible to the general public, rather than something symbolic and intellectually remote.

We’ve done equally looney things, although we didn’t get the $1. But then we didn’t have to raise $750K, either. What I find amusing is how often we hear the phrase, “first time ever in Antarctica”, whether it’s artwork, recorded music, performances, distance swimming, you-name-it. Believe me, whatever it is, it’s probably been done already.

One of my many alter-egos on the web is to chronical some of the contemporary art happening on the Ice at http://60south.com, “The Art of Antarctica”. Much of it is my own small projects, but the MAAG pages have some great examples from the yearly McMurdo Alternative Art Gallery. The MAAG has presented many outstanding exhibits — often with a satirical or poignant aspect — all created by station personnel.

g

[Baghdad Jim]

ahh…so thats YOUR site…

theres a

90south.net
70south.com
60south.com

and the ‘almost but not quite’…

simonc.f2o.org/south “75 degrees south”~title

Tell ya what Glenn, next time you do something off the wall and take a picture of it, I’ll mail you a dollar and a Baghdad Endowment for the Arts and Other Interesting Things certificate. Then you can say it’s officially funded and sell it on eBay. 😀

[skua77]

Jim,
Thanks for the link to the Halley (75 south) site. One place I wouldn’t mind visiting someday is the Falklands. Been there, Glenn?

As for the Artists and Writers grants, I hadn’t found that corner of the NSF web site before either, thanks for the link. I too have considered applying for a grant, but my desire to return to the ice was nurtured at least temporarily by my job at Pole last winter. But we’ll see. Not all of the grantees need to invest $750k; as Glenn says, there are cheaper ways…but there is no glamour these days in being a historian.

Here’s a fairly complete list of the grantees; the earliest folks were actually funded and sponsored by the Navy although the tab for their support probably was booked to science/NSF.

http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/aawr.jsp

(Hmm, I note that Bob Reiss, who visited Palmer while I was there in 1988, isn’t listed. Maybe he was considered “media” since he then was writing a feature for the Smithsonian. He later wrote some Antarctic fiction obviously based in part on his Palmer Station experience. He also happened to be on station during one of our Greenpeace visits.)

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