FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MARCH 7, 2022
The Charlottesville Sister Cities Commission is pleased to announce the winners of its 2022 Sister City Grants Program!
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA -The Charlottesville Sister Commission has chosen Henry Pollard's “Teenage Life During Covid-A Digital Photography Collection as this year's Sister cities Grants Program Award.
“Teenage Life During Covid-A Digital Photography Collection” was proposed by Henry Pollard, a student at St. Anne’s Belfield. Henry cited the challenges faced by many teens during the long Covid pandemic in his idea for connecting Charlottesville young people with their peers in the Tuscan municipality of Poggio a Caiano, our Italian Sister City. His project entails building an interactive website and Instagram account where teens from Poggio a Caiano and Charlottesville can post photographs and exchange reflections, allowing them opportunities to “connect and feel less isolated” during the difficult Covid period.
We congratulate Henry Pollard as we anticipate sharing the presentations and outcomes from last year’s grant awardees. Stay posted for announcements of an exhibition based on Alan Goffinski’s and Christina Ball’s “Face to Face: Portraits of Our Sister Cities” project – a chance to see the talents of eight Charlottesville artists, in their portraits of citizens from all four of our Sister/Friendship cities! Also look forward to learning about the ways to connect via the internet with our Friendship City Huehuetenango, thanks to Elías Alonzo’s “Huehuetenango & Ixtatán Internet & Introductions” grant (in association with the Ixtatán Foundation). Finally, we will be hearing about the enriching exchanges made possible by Libby Edwards-Allbaugh’s “Pen & Paper Make ‘Sisters’ Write” initiative (in association with 100 BWCMA), linking young women from Winneba, Ghana and their counterparts here in Charlottesville!
We thank all the applicants and awardees for their enterprising ideas seeking to better unite the residents of our diverse communities and promote cultural connection and understanding among our Sister and Friendship Cities. For more information on the funded projects, see the “Grants and Projects” tab on the CSCC website at https://www.cvillesistercities.org/
Media Contact
Adrienne Ward
Charlottesville Sister Cities Commissioner
City of Charlottesville
aw7h@virginia.edu
