November 5, 1999

Electronic Arts Groups Get $50,000 Grants

By MATTHEW MIRAPAUL

Three Internet-oriented arts organizations were awarded $50,000 each on Thursday, the first grants made under an unusual new program designed to foster business venture that mix technology and art.

Rhizome.org of New York, the Creative Connection Network in Detroit and ArtAngels.org in San Francisco will receive financial backing from the new Absolut Angel program, sponsored by the Seagram Company's Absolut Vodka brand.

"We're on the launchingpad," said Mark Tribe, founder and executive director of Rhizome.org. "Absolut Angel will be a booster rocket that will help lift us into orbit."

The grants are substantial for the nascent field of the digital arts, where funding is scarce, commissions are rare and most projects are developed as labors of love. They also mark one of the first instances of direct corporate support for digital-arts programs.

"We're on the launching pad," said Mark Tribe, founder and executive director of Rhizome.org. "For the last 18 months, we've been depending on volunteers to lay the groundwork for our financial viability, but now we need to make the move from volunteers to paid staff in order to keep pace with demand [for the organization's services]. Absolut Angel will be a booster rocket that will help lift us into orbit."

Rhizome.org already exists as an online arts resource with a lively e-mail discussion list. Tribe said the organization would use the funds to hire staff members for a number of new projects, including the Rhizome ArtBase, a Web-based archive of historically significant digital art works that is scheduled to open Nov. 11.

The Creative Connection Network and ArtAngels.com are still under development. The first project, as conceived by Paul Horton and Steve Tennent, would be a multimedia studio and performance space for visual artists, musicians and other performers who use technology in their work. ArtAngels.org, under the guidance of Cate Riegner, wants to use the Internet to encourage arts-related philanthropy.

Absolut received about 450 grant applications. Judges selected the winners after hearing presentations by six semifinalists on Thursday morning.

Jerry Colonna, managing partner of Flatiron Partners, an Internet-oriented venture capital firm in New York, served as a judge. "The quality varied fairly significantly," he said, but after hearing the pitches, he was confident that half the proposals were capable of becoming "self-perpetuating [business] entities."

Jim Schleifer, marketing director for the Absolut brands in the United States, said his firm decided to start the Absolut Angel program because "we're trying to support new and emerging talent [in the arts], and this is happening in the form of technology."

Although Schleifer could not yet say whether Seagram would give similar grants next year, it has shown a long-term commitment to the arts. It also has a kinetic interactive-music Web site, Absolut DJ, one of the few corporate-sponsored sites featuring original digital work.