Romanian Immigrant who Calls Toledo Home Receives the Toledo - Lucas County Rescue Plan Grant for Individual Artists
Ruxandra Nagy is a self-taught emerging artist who found her passion for traditional arts and crafts while serving as a historical interpreter at the Seven Eagles Center in Grand Rapids, Ohio. Ruxandra was born in Romania at the threshold between two regimes in a family of geologists with no artistic interests or skills.
While visiting the U.S. as a Legislative Fellow on a government program, Ruxandra met her husband, an accomplished weaver, arts innovator, and educator. He gave her a backstrap loom, tied it to the fireplace and made her believe in her hands, feel the yarn, and see the colors, and the intertwining of body and loom. Ruxandra made her first woven bookmark, crooked, bumpy, imperfect. It was the first time she made something with her hands, and she was not told it was bad. Ruxandra wanted to learn more and make more things. She read books on creativity and textile arts, pottery and anything arts that got her attention. She attended art classes her husband was teaching to children and learned along with them all basic concepts related to ceramics, textiles, painting.
About the grant: Ruxandra Nagy is pleased to announce the receipt of a grant administered by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo through the Toledo and Lucas County Rescue Plan Grants to artists within Lucas County and the City of Toledo. Grants are funded through American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds from Lucas County and the City of Toledo. The Arts Commission’s Toledo Lucas County Rescue Plan Grant for Individual Artists offers financial support for local artists whose creative practices have been impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Applications were reviewed by a committee comprised of an Arts Commission board member and representatives from the performing, literary, and visual arts communities, along with The Arts Commission’s Chief Executive and Operating Officers serving as ex-officio members.
Funds from the grant will be used to cover facility costs: access to a personal studio at Common Space Center for Creativity will enable Ruxandra Nagy to experiment and create a body of work inspired by various traditional arts of the Great Lakes indigenous people, as well as other art forms reflecting her native culture. The financial support from the City of Toledo and the Lucas County Commissioners and administered by The Arts Commission will cover the studio rent for several months; the artist looks at this opportunity as a way to continue supporting and giving back to the Common Space Center which has supported her since she came to the U.S., and which is home for so many Toledo artists, and to further develop her crafts without the financial pressure of studio rent.
About The Arts Commission: The Arts Commission is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded in 1959 to foster Toledo’s heritage in the arts. The organization is the longest-standing arts commission in the state of Ohio, serving youth, artists, arts organizations, and the general public. Since 1977, The Arts Commission has managed the City of Toledo’s One Percent for Art program, the first in the state of Ohio and among the first in the nation, and maintains Toledo’s impressive collection of public art.
Press Release Contact Name:Ruxandra Nagy
Press Release Contact Email:[email protected]