ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY —The Fisher Center at Bard (Gideon Lester, Artistic Director and Chief Executive; Aaron Mattocks, Chief Operating Officer) today announces that, in partnership with the OSUN Center for Human Rights and the Arts at Bard (CHRA), it has received a $2,000,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation to support the work and livelihood of Tania El Khoury, a commissioned artist and guest co-curator at the Fisher Center, Founding Director of CHRA, and a Distinguished Artist in Residence at Bard’s Theater & Performance Program. El Khoury’s live art engages the audience in close encounters with narratives drawn from the political realities of borders, displacement, and state violence. The grant will support her live art production and touring, her scholarly and artistic research, and her curatorial work at the Fisher Center and CHRA.
With no prior motorsport experience, now celebrated racing driver Jann Mardenborough received a once in a life time opportunity to hone in on his Gran Turismo no-how and gain the skills needed to pursue a successful racing career. Scoring a place on the coveted GT Academy/Nissan PlayStation GT Academy in 2011, and beating 90,000 other entrants to go on to win the competition, the tv show propelled Mardenborough into a fast paced world, resulting in him participating in the Dubai 24 Hour Race courtesy of Nissan. Since then, going from strength to strength having competed in various competitions since 2012 including British GT Championship, Blancpain Endurance Series, Toyota Racing Series, FIA European Formula Three Championship, 2014 GP3 Series, Super Formula Series and Super GT – where he scored a podium position in 2017. Dramatising the racing star’s inspirational story, Sony Pictures present summer blockbuster Gran Turismo this August at participating cinemas. Starring as one of the film’s mechanics, and with a cast including Orlando Bloom, Darren Barnet and David Harbour – ex-Hollyoaks star Richard Cambridge tells us more about his role as Felix, learning the skills needed to play a convincing mechanic and the arts led businesses he co-owns!