VOX Femina Los Angeles has been approved for a $15,000 Grants for Arts Projects award to support a new commission by composer Christina Whitten Thomas. The piece, titled ‘Resilient Voices,’ will be performed as part of VOX’s February concert Music They Wrote. VOX Femina’s project is among 1,248 projects across America totaling $28,840,000 that were selected to receive this first round of fiscal year 2022 funding in the Grants for Arts Projects category.
“The National Endowment for the Arts is proud to support arts projects like this one from VOX Femina that help support the community’s creative economy,” said NEA Acting Chair Ann Eilers. “VOX Femina is among the arts organizations nationwide that are using the arts as a source of strength, a path to well-being, and providing access and opportunity for people to connect and find joy through the arts.”
The new commission pairs composer Christina Whitten Thomas with writer Marian Partee, whose previous collaborations include “And I Shall Sing” and “Mother’s Word.” The multi-movement piece focuses on women artists of the past, present, and future, across different artistic genres and will include both a multi-media piece and a collaboration with CONTRA Tiempo Activist Dance Theatre choreographer and dancer Janett Galdamez. VOX Femina has previously premiered work composed by Whitten Thomas, most recently during the 20th anniversary season in 2016-2017 when the choir commissioned her piece “Kindness.”
“We are so grateful for the renewed support of the National Endowment for the Arts in our 25th anniversary season,” said VOX Femina Executive Director Rebecca Wink. “This grant will allow VOX to continue pursuing our mission to ‘give women voice’ and to work with distinguished artists like Christina Whitten Thomas. To incorporate her new piece in our concert dedicated to all of the commissioning work VOX has done in the past 25 years is a privilege that is only possible thanks to the NEA.”