February 2012
2 posts
Announcing February’s grant winner: Lacy...
Wordless, but no longer silent. Our February grant will go towards the composition and recording of an original score for the wordless play The Story Story. Convinced that language divides people more than it connects them, theatre artist Lacy Campbell has devised a new theatre piece that uses puppets, projected images, and now original music to tell a tale of story telling. The premiere will be...
The life of urban youths seen through a pinhole
AF Chicago is proud to introduce its newest grantee: Paco Barba.
Paco is a photographer who plans to use handmade images of urban life in a cultural exchange between youths in the the US and Brazil. Collaborating with local youth centers, Paco will offer workshops that teach kids in underprivileged neighborhoods, how to make pinhole cameras out of recycled materials (cans, matchboxes, soap boxes,...
December 2011
1 post
Felix Jung receives grant for poetic QR codes
Behold the latest addition to our rapidly growing collection of awkward pictures of Chris handing out money to grantees.
November Grant Goes to QR Code Poetry
Felix Jung, poet and tech geek, plans to make boring QR codes so much more awesome. His idea: ask people to record videos of themselves reading a favorite poem and upload them to YouTube. Felix will then distribute QR codes around Chicago, which will randomly call up one of the submitted poetry readings when scanned. Instead of square barcodes: poetry on every street corner! Viewers will be...
November 2011
2 posts
Second October Grant Announced!
Due to some turnover among trustees in the Chicago Chapter, we found ourselves with some extra cash in our piggy bank after paying out our October grant. Instead of letting the money gather dust in our bank account, we decided to put it to good use and give out a second grant for the month of October! Due to the unusual circumstances of this grant, we decided to fund a project proposed by our very...
October 2011
6 posts
Get your applications in for November!
Time flies here at Awesome Chicago! Just days after announcing our October grant winner, we’re already getting excited about next month’s submissions. Click here to apply online and don’t forget to select ‘Chicago’ from the dropdown menu. The deadline for November grant applications is 10/31.
October winner announced
Let’s say you’re an average Joe evil genius trying to make a sentient nanoswarm in your underground lair. How do you see the little guys to prove you’ve succeeded …or troubleshoot in the unlikely case of failure? Traditionally, you’d need a $30,000 microscope to accomplish that task. Enter the Chicago Awesome Foundation’s October grantee, Sacha De’Angeli,...
September Grant
We’ve fallen a bit behind with our award announcements, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t been busy handing out grants to awesome people for awesome projects!
The winner of our September grant is Melanie Kahl, who will be hosting a series of “Possibility Potlucks” in vacant storefronts in her neighborhood in Ravenswood/Lincoln Square.
Stay tuned for more...
September 2011
1 post
October is on its way.
AF Chicago will be announcing the winner of its September grant shortly.
And you know what that means? Thats right, time to get your proposals in for October! Submit your proposals online by midnight tonight!
July 2011
6 posts
August Submissions - Get Them In!
Hot on the heels of our July grant award, we’re looking for proposals for an August grant. We’ll be accepting proposals through the 10th, and announcing the winners around the 15th or so. Apply here, don’t forget to choose Chicago from the drop-down. Questions? Email chicago@awesomefoundation.org.
We're turning this up to 20!
What’s better than a monthly $1000 award to make Chicago more awesome? 2 monthly $1000 awards to make Chicago more awesome! After the announcement of our last award, we had a bunch of interest in expanding the trustee pool to 20, so that we could award two groups per month. We’re super excited that more people want to contribute $100 of their own money towards making Chicago a...
Our First Grant!
After much hand-wringing and consternation, we - the trustees of the Chicago Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, would like to award $1000 (in cash, in a brown paper bag) to our friends at Little Free Library!
Little Free Library sets up adorable homemade library boxes around town that let anyone borrow books, donate books, and share their love of reading with the rest of the people in their...
May 2011
1 post
May 15th deadline passed! Submit your proposals...
Okay folks, May 15th is done, long live June 15th! While the Awes-Chi trustees debate which lucky proposal should be awarded the April-May grant, we’re now accepting proposals for the May-June award! Submit your awesomeness here by June 15th. Don’t forget to choose Chicago from the drop-down.
We’ll announce the winning proposal on this blog within the next two weeks, with...
April 2011
2 posts
Who are we?
We’re a group of normal folks who want to see Chicago be a little more awesome. Here’s some details:
Chris McAvoy is the VP of Technology at Threadless.
Derek Sherman is a Creative Director whose work has been honored by the top awards in advertising, and the founder of Middle Child, a public service agency.
Sean Donohue is a designer, art director, husband, father and the creative...
1 tag
We're Open For May Submissions!
The Chicago Chapter of the Awesome Foundation is open for business. We put out our sign, dusted off our guest book and set out a plate of delicious appetizers we got from Costco. We’re excited you’re here, reading this post, as it means you’re at least a little interested in seeing more Awesome in Chicago.
What’s this all about?
Chicago is the newest chapter of The...