Expedition filmmaker, Daniel DeLaVergne

Grant Program Honors Filmmaker While Encouraging Innovation

The Media Arts Project (MAP) and AdvantageWest are pleased to announce The Daniel DeLaVergne Media Arts Advantage Fund 2008 grant cycle.

In 2006, the Media Arts Project and AdvantageWest created an innovative program to provide direct funding support to media artists working in or based out of Western North Carolina called the Media Arts Advantage Fund (MAAF).

The Media Arts Advantage Fund’s primary goal is to foster regional talent to enhance visibility and interest in all forms of media art, attract new talent to the region, and serve as a sustainable catalyst for the creative economy.

“The grant program is available to all MAP members and we really want to encourage artists to contact us. We are giving away up to $6,000 for each grant recipient,” said Alison Watson, Executive Director of the Media Arts Project.

The MAAF added to its name, after losing a well-respected and renowned MAP supporter. The loss of expedition filmmaker Daniel DeLaVergne impacted much of the community of WNC. This March was the two-year anniversary of his death.

As one of the world’s most successful extreme sports videographers, DeLaVergne is best known for his joint role in founding Lunch Video Magazine (LVM) www.lvmvideo.com and had become an international leader in whitewater cinematography.

DeLaVergne brought technology to outdoor sports by enthusiastically developing content for pod-casting, blogging, video streaming and quarterly DVD magazines. This mix of art and technology with the outdoors is what attracted MAP to him in the first place.

The Daniel DeLaVergne Media Arts Advantage Fund has successfully funded many creative projects including: Moon Europa, a full-length science fiction film shot entirely in WNC, which was chosen by the Independent Film Project (IFP) for their IFP Labs, a Three-Dimensional Zoetrope, a multi-media installation similar to the projects from Graffiti Research Lab; a documentary film about Mountain top removal; Allegory of A Cave with live performance, puppets and projections, and several educational workshops.

The Fund is administered by AdvantageWest and was designed to enable experimentation with video, film, animation, interactive work, and even scientific visualization. To learn more, visit the MAP website and become a member. Applications are available online and will be accepted until May 1st at 5 p.m. Awards will be announced by the first week of June.

The Daniel DeLaVergne Media Arts Advantage Fund

The MAAF program is open to all Media Arts Project members. Guidelines and an application are available at www.themap.org. After reading the guidelines, you may contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it with any questions.

Projects may fit into, but are not limited to, the following categories. These categories are by no means proscriptive. They are simply meant to suggest and encourage a broad array of submissions:

•    Video & Film Productions
•    Animations & Mixed Digital Media
•    Live Performance Integrating Multimedia Technology
•    Generative Art & Gaming
•    Curatorial Efforts Presenting

Media Art

•    Variable Media Installations