The Plain Dealer | Steve Litt   |  January 27, 2012

Nationally respected artist William Pope.L wins a Joyce Foundation grant to create a major work in Cleveland with SPACES gallery

He crawled across Manhattan in a business suit and attached himself to a New York ATM wearing nothing but a skirt of dollar bills.

William Pope.L, a multidisciplinary artist who has earned international attention for his performances and happenings, has won a prestigious, $50,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation in Chicago to create a work on African-American history in Cleveland.

Pope.L, known best for his endurance-based crawl performances, is one of four winners of the Joyce grant, which is intended to support artists of color in the creation of new works of art in collaboration with specific arts institutions.

In Cleveland, Pope.L will be an artist in residence at Spaces, the citys [sic] artist-run, non-profit gallery.

Entitled "Parade," his new work will involve research in which Pope L. will visit Cleveland and host community workshops. He'll use the gatherings to collect photographs and stories from residents of diverse social, economic and racial backgrounds.

In the spring of 2013, Pope.L will use the images and histories to create a video that will be projected on a screen on the back of a truck, which will be hand-pulled through five neighborhoods. Afterwards, the truck will be displayed at Spaces, said Martha Loughridge, development director at the gallery.

Born in Newark, N.J., in 1955, Pope.L has long taught at Bates College in Lewiston, Me., and is now on a two-year sabbatical at the University of Chicago, Loughridge said.

The other winners of this years Joyce Awards and their collaborating institutions were: Reggie Wilson and the Columbia College Chicago Dance Center; Luis Alfaro and collaborators, working with Teatro del Pueblo and Pangea theaters in Minneapolis; and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer and the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Original Article