Holmes Endowment
About the benefactors, Charles and Miriam Holmes
The Miriam and Charles Holmes Performing Arts Fund was established in 1998 following the death of Miriam Holmes. The fund was established to assure the production and presentation of new or unusual performances in drama, music, or dance which would not otherwise be economically feasible. Charles Holmes was a professor in the English department at Pomona College from 1941 to 1975. In 1974, Professor Holmes won the Wig Award – The Wig Distinguished Professor award for excellence in teaching, the highest honor bestowed on Pomona faculty. The Wig Award recognizes exceptional teaching, concern for students, and service to the College and community. The recipients of the Award are elected by the junior and senior classes and then confirmed by a committee of trustees, faculty, and students.
The Holmes Performing Arts Fund committee is calling for applications to receive funding for the 2022-2023 academic year. Applications for funding are being accepted at this time. Please contact Mary.Hall@claremont.edu with any questions.
Proposals
Applicants should complete the online form describing the event and providing detailed information regarding event planning and budgeting. Proposals must address each of the items below, which will serve as evaluation criteria for the award committee.
Application Materials
The online application form will ask for the following items:
Event Description
Include a description of the event including proposed date, time and venue. Please indicate if the event is already confirmed or still in the planning stages. Please describe in detail how your event will be released to the audience. For example, will this event be in person, pre-recorded, edited? Will it be a live streamed event, webinar, etc.? Any applications for in-person events are subject to Los Angeles County public health requirements and the guidelines established by the host campus. Documentation of approval by campus leadership must be included.
Theme
The past few years have been like few others: political polarity, global conflict, continued racial violence, and a virus that has redefined almost every facet of our daily lives have challenged us in innumerable ways. We are resilient; we persevere. As we head to FY 2023, The Holmes Fund invites applicants to create and present work that celebrates the spirit of possibility, the courage of resistance, and the creativity of our collective imagination through innovative content and production modes.
Collaboration
Describe how the proposed event utilizes collaboration between planning groups. Collaboration is encouraged between groups within a college, across colleges, with the general public and/or with additional external groups.
Relevance
Describe how the proposed event is topically relevant to the missions of The Claremont Colleges and/or to issues of importance to TCC’s community.
Diversity/Inclusion
Describe how the proposed event reflects TCC’s values of diversity and inclusion. This section should address issues such as access, representation and/or accessibility in planning and/or implementation.
Impact
Describe the proposed event’s anticipated impact on The Claremont Colleges. Impact may be described in terms of the uniqueness of the experience, the number of people participating and/or the personal value for participants.
Planning Documentation
In addition to evidence related to the items above, proposals must include:
Itemized Event Budget
Please use the budget document as a template for submitting your detailed event budget. Don’t forget to include any costs associated with presenting your event through a virtual platform. For example, will there be video editing costs, live stream webinar license costs, etc.
Communications Plan/Timeline
This should include any planned marketing collateral (posters, printed programs, etc.), advertising, and publicity (e-blasts, social media, etc.) associated with your event.
Other funding sources
This should include other entities within the Claremont Colleges or beyond to whom you have applied and/or received funding for your project.
Questions
Questions regarding the Holmes Fund, applications and the selection process should be directed to Mary Hall at Mary.Hall@claremont.edu.
The past few years have been like few others: political polarity, global conflict, continued racial violence, and a virus that has redefined almost every facet of our daily lives have challenged us in innumerable ways. We are resilient; we persevere. As we head to FY 2023, The Holmes Fund invites applicants to create and present work that celebrates the spirit of possibility, the courage of resistance, and the creativity of our collective imagination through innovative content and production modes.
Shakespeare Festival – 2022
The 16th century world may feel leagues away from modern life, but Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” shows that the two may not be as different as they seem — crushes, love, drinking and pranks are features of both college life and the play. Building on this idea, the Sontag Greek Theatre Shakespeare Festival was an afternoon full of sun, fun and the Bard, developed around a student production of “Twelfth Night.”
Read more about the Shakespeare Festival here.
The Kinderszenen Project – 2021
A virtual performance of Robert Schumann’s cycle of piano pieces titled Kinderszenen paired with Andrew’s recording of the pieces with visual art and animation created by studio art majors at Pomona College.
Blood on Gold Mountain – 2021
Beyoncé Mass – 2020
Martin Luther King Jr. Worship Service featuring Beyoncé Music requested by The Claremont Colleges Office of Black Student Affairs. Mass is a womanist worship service that uses the music and personal life of Beyoncé as a tool to foster an empowering conversation about Black women—their lives, their bodies, and their voices.
True Witness – 2020
The Joint Music Program of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges, and the Scripps College Department of Music, had a special performance of True Witness: A Civil Rights Cantata and other works in Garrison Theater on the Scripps campus with a pre-concert talk by the composer and Professors Rita Roberts and Anne Harley.
A Concert of Music from China – 2019
A Concert of Music from China features musical selections from the Jiangnan region of China (presented by our distinguished guests above) as well as a variety of musical selections performed by students from the Pomona Music of China course (MUS 89E). The genre of music featured prominently on this program is called Jiangnan sizhu (江南丝竹¨†literally “silk and bamboo music of the Jiangnan region”), a style associated with informal teahouse contexts and amateur music clubs that are still active today in Shanghai. Musicians in this tradition usually learn melodies by ear and then freely elaborate those melodies according to conventions for each instrument.
1871 LA Chinatown Massacre Commemoration – 2019
Professor of Music and Bessie and Cecil Frankel Endowed Chair in Music Hao Huang spoke to KPCC about his curation of the commemorative L.A. Chinatown Massacre performance, the first in a three-year series leading up to the massacre’s 150th anniversary. The Daily Bulletin also highlighted the performance in its list of weekly cultural events.
I am so grateful to have received the HolmesEndowment and to have been able to do this recital. It was one of the most meaningful things I have ever been able to do for my communities, and the way it resonated with audience members more remarkable than I even thought it would be. – Singing Into the Lines: A Journey of Music, Stories, and Identity 2019
The event was an amazing success!! The ability to host professional musicians from the Chinese community went a long way in making the performance professional, educational, and elevated at a high artistic level! Thank you for your help in making this possible. – A Concert of Music from China 2019
While we were certainly grateful for the Holmes Fund grant to provide financial support, one of the unexpected results was the legitimacy it gave the project, especially when it came to finding collaborators. The students who ended up working on project felt the project was something more than just an assignment for class, and that pride and energy encouraged them to work hard. – Chai, A Playwright 2019
Students in particular were captivated and had emotional responses to seeing themselves reflected in the dancers’ races and ethnicities; they loved the energy, youthfulness and athleticism of the dancers and during the talkback were challenged and inspired by the thematic elements explored onstage. – The Black Intersections Conference MasterClass and Keynote Performance with The LulaWashington Dance Theatre