In Conversation: Artists-in-Residence

Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation Announces
a Free Panel Conversation with Recipients of
the Joyce C. Willis Artist-in-Residence Grant
A Funding Initiative That Elevates Black Artists

Theatre Director Christopher D. Betts,
Photographer Merik Goma, and Composer Quinn Mason
Join Lucy Nalpathanchil on March 22 at Hartford Stage

Hartford - The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation announced today a panel conversation with the three recipients of the Inaugural Joyce C. Willis Artists-in-Residence Grant. This free event, moderated by Lucy Nalpathanchil, the former host of WNPR's Where We Live, be held on Wednesday, March 22 at 7pm at Hartford Stage (50 Church Street in downtown Hartford).

The 2022-2023 Joyce C. Willis grant recipients participating in the panel will be Christopher D. Betts, director-in-residence Hartford Stage; photographer Merik Goma, the artist-in-residence for The Amistad Center for Art & Culture; and Quinn Mason, the composer-in-residence for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

The artists will discuss their current projects including Betts' directing of Alice Childress's classic play Trouble in Mind at Hartford Stage (May 25-June 18), Goma's exhibition My Heart is Light in the Void at The Amistad Center for Art & Culture (on view now through July at the Wadsworth Atheneum), and the premiere of Mason's She Dreams of Flying with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra (June 9-11 at The Bushnell).

In late 2020, The Roberts Foundation announced a $500,000 initiative to support excellence and equity in the arts that also included gifts to The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Hartford Stage and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. The program is named in honor of Joyce C. Willis, a former Roberts Foundation board member, founding member and past board president of The Amistad Center, board member of The Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and ardent supporter of Hartford Stage. Willis, who retired from The Hartford Financial Services Group as Vice President of Corporate Communications in 2005, died of COVID-19 in June 2020.

This event is free and open to the public. To register to attend, please visit https://www.hartfordstage.org/willis-panel-dicussion.

The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation is a private, special purpose foundation founded in 1964 by Ned and Sunny Roberts. In accordance with its founders’ wishes, the foundation is dedicated to supporting and encouraging excellence in the arts throughout the Capital Region. Since its establishment, the foundation has awarded more than $10 million to nearly 200 area non-profit organizations.