As a performer since childhood, my dream was always to be on stage: creating, breathing, being. As I matured and realized how difficult that life path was and is, many of my decisions were based around what I could afford to do. Moving away from NYC, teaching more than performing, smaller casts, the sacrifices that we all make at some point to realize our dreams.  With the award money we were able to take the show we had created to NYC andperform at Jazz at Lincoln Center and later take the show on a small tour. I cannot express how blessed I feel to be a part of such a wonderful group of people and how this has continued to form who I am as an artist.

I was astonished by the unexpected generosity of the Tanne Foundation award when I received it in 2011. I initially thought the award letter was an elaborate hoax because I had never heard of an artist receiving such great support and recognition out of the blue. When I eventually understood that the award was real, it did more than simply provide financial support -- the award came at a tenuous moment in my development -- it was a deep validation of my creative work that renewed my courage in the studio, fueled my gusto, and propelled me forward. On a practical level, the funds enabled me to tackle several sculptural projects on a much larger scale and level of complexity than I had initially planned, which yielded a body of work that was important in my artistic evolution and extremely helpful for garnering professional recognition in exhibitions. Reflecting on the far-reaching support provided by the Tanne Foundation Award makes me think more broadly of all of the dedicated teachers and kind mentors I’ve had the good fortune to study with over the years. As an educator myself, the help I’ve received inspires me to work harder to empower my own students to achieve more than they thought possible in the studio, and uncover a greater depth of meaning and personal purpose in their creative works.

Thanks so much for your overwhelmingly kind and empowering support!

A few months before I received the Tanne Award I went home to visit my mother. On this trip, she asked me to go through some grade school evaluations and report cards.  I opened the fading yellow cards embossed with GVSD, eagerly anticipating A’s and eloquent depositions on my precocious charms.  To my shock - I kid you not, I was rather surprised - there was a solid period of evaluations that reveled things such as "Brian might need to talk less and focus more" or " Brian is a bit too social" "a bit too talkative" ,"unfocused" , "lost in his imagination" etc, etc, I think you get the idea.  

My Mother was far less surprised than I was.  But, she had read these before.  

So to you I say,  thank you for proving my mother, Ms. Tolucchi and Mrs. Smith wrong.  

More honestly, thank you for making a chatty kid at a loss for words

Also, a side thank you to my mom, Ms. Tolucchi and Mrs. Smith for putting up with me and helping me regardless.

I wanted to spend the Tanne Award in something meaningful for me/my career, so I decided to use it to further develop two projects I cherish. Existential Mapping is one of them. The other is a section of a multimedia installation, The Quest for Joy, that will take me a few years to complete (the installation is composed of 7 interconnected works). The section I will create with part of the Tanne Award is "Book 6. Brother" (working title), and it will take place in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It is very exciting!

I consider myself a playwright above all else, but my life is a myriad of theatrical endeavors which include teaching playwrights; dramaturging, casting, and producing their work; organizing playwriting festivals; and directing an MFA program.  I work for the community, but seldom do I work for myself.  The Tanne Foundation’s encouragement and faith in me gave me the strength to say yes to another commissioned work and the time to actually finish it.  I felt “seen,” and for any artist, that is the bottom line.

Tanne generously supported a socially-aware, collaborative public project - long before these projects were in fashion as they are now under the banner of “social practices."   Tanne’s support illustrated that there are people and organizations that support an artist-centered worldview, artmaking beyond the commercial impulse, and art work that desires multiple lives in and outside of the gallery and across social class.  These values I’ve taken throughout my career - emphasizing authenticity in my own work, curating projects seeking richness of meaning, and imparting a deeper sense of purpose to my students.