Songwriter Melanie Curran recognized with $5,000 City Artists Corps Grant From New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department Of Cultural Affairs (DCLA)

Melanie Curran Will Present People’s Beach Day on September 25th, 2021 as Part of Award Program

New York, NY – Songwriter Melanie Curran is one of 500 New York City-based artists to receive $5,000 through the City Artist Corps Grants program, presented by The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA), with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre.

Melanie Curran was recognized for People’s Beach Day, which will bring a live performance of her upcoming album, San Benedito Beach to the Clinton Hill/Fort Green neighborhood of New York in Brooklyn on September 25th.

People’s Beach Day is a live-music performance experience that channels the power of the people to create paradise no matter where they are.

The beach is a space where people can start anew after dark times. Melanie Curran’s album, San Benedito Beach, which will be released on American Standard Time Records in September of 2021, tells stories of people coming through hardship and finding new reasons to hope.

People’s Beach Day is a celebration for the public to experience a similar transformation. It is an event where visitors come together to collectively feel and dream. Instead of a real beach, the performance takes place in a park, parking lot, community garden or otherwise non-beach location in Brooklyn. This exemplifies that it is us, as people, who create that magical transformational quality the beach offers, through our will to collectively dream.

People’s Beach Day will happen around sunset. There will be a live performance of the album, and screenings of music videos through a projector. There will be a map and diorama making station on site where visitors can create their own visions of paradise. We can create the future as we move through the darkness out of the pandemic era.

Over the course of three award cycles, more than 3,000 artists will receive $5,000 grants to engage the public with artist activities across New York City’s five boroughs this summer and fall. Artists can use the grant to create new work or phase of a work, or restage preexisting creative activities across any discipline.

Members of the public can participate in City Artist Corps Grants programming by following the hashtag #CityArtistCorps on social media.

City Artist Corps Grants was launched in June 2021 by NYFA and DCLA with support from the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) as well as Queens Theatre. The program is funded by the $25 million New York City Artist Corps recovery initiative announced by Mayor de Blasio and DCLA earlier this year. The grants are intended to support NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. It is strongly recommended that a portion of the grant be used to support artist fees, both for the applying artist and any other artist that are engaged to support the project.

The Cycle 2 application will open on Tuesday, July 6 at 10:00 AM EDT and will close on Tuesday, July 20 at 10:00 AM EDT. The Cycle 3 application will open on Tuesday, July 27 at 10:00 AM EDT and close on Tuesday, August 10 at 10:00 AM EDT. Please visit NYFA’s website for full details and eligibility requirements.