Assistant professor of jazz percussion Clarence Penn was awarded a $40,000 Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant from South Arts. South Arts is a nonprofit regional arts organization dedicated to empowering artists and communities and increasing access to arts and culture in the South.
The Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant will support Penn’s American Patchwork Quartet in engaging 60 students at an Asheville, North Caroline high school for master classes and rehearsals. The quartet will also perform for an audience of 6,000 at the Lake Eden Arts Festival in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and record an album.
“South Arts believes in the power of the arts crossing borders,” the organization’s website states. “Our region birthed jazz, cultivated the traditional arts of Appalachia, and is home to some of today’s most innovative, boundary-pushing artists. South Artists supports and celebrates the artistry of our region with grants and fellowships for artists, communities, and organizations.”