OZ ARTS NASHVILLE NAMES JAKOB LEWIS FIRST RECIPIENT OF NEW ARTISTIC FELLOWSHIP
Nashville’s nonprofit contemporary arts center adds additional program to support local artists
NASHVILLE, TENN. – SEPT. 12, 2018 – OZ Arts Nashville is pleased to name Jakob Lewis, founder of the Neighbors podcast featured on WPLN/Nashville Public Radio, as the first recipient of its new OZ Arts Artistic Fellowship.
The fellowship broadens OZ Arts’ commitment to local artists by supporting an emerging creative voice who is actively contributing to the Nashville cultural landscape.
“OZ Arts is thrilled to welcome Jakob Lewis as our first Artistic Fellow,” said OZ Arts President and CEO Tim Ozgener. “We are enormous admirers of his work and proud to give him a platform to continue developing his art.”
OZ Arts has featured local artists as part of its TNT Local Artist Spotlight Series in all of its seasons, including four such performances in the current 2018-19 season. Lewis will curate The Heard Live!, a collaborative effort of indie podcasters who met online as fans of one another’s work at OZ Arts in June 2019. The Heard Live! will be the final TNT performance of the season.
“Every performance at OZ Arts is unique and intimate,” said Lewis. “Their approach to art marries perfectly with how I want to give listeners an intimate pass into someone’s world to hear about the moments that transformed them. I am grateful to OZ Arts for this opportunity.”
Initially self-taught in the art of podcasting, Jakob Lewis’s varied background inspires him to mine the stories that live all around us. His interest in storytelling and sound led him to secure a seat at the notable Transom Story Workshop—a nine-week radio storytelling intensive on Cape Cod—where he studied with legendary storytelling greats from This American Life and Radiolab. Perhaps best known for his podcast, Neighbors, produced in partnership with Nashville Public Radio, he received the 2016 Best Society and Culture Podcast award from Podcast Movement.
This fall he will travel to Magdeburg, Germany to create two audio documentaries as part of Wunderbar Together: The Year of German-American Friendship 2018/19 – an initiative funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, implemented by the Goethe-Institut, and supported by the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Lewis lives in Nashville with his wife Catherine and their two mutts Hobbes and Bagheera.
About OZ Arts Nashville
Since opening in 2014, OZ Arts Nashville, a 501(c)(3) contemporary arts center, has changed the cultural landscape of the city. Housed in the former C.A.O. cigar warehouse owned by Nashville’s Ozgener family, OZ Arts, under the artistic leadership of Lauren Snelling, brings world-class performances and art installations to the city, and gives ambitious local artists opportunities to work on a grand scale. The flexible 10,000 square-foot, column-free venue, nestled amidst five acres of artfully landscaped grounds, is continually reconfigured to serve artists’ imaginations, and to challenge and inspire a diverse range of curious audiences. OZ Arts is supported in part by Metro Arts – Nashville Office of Arts + Culture.
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Media Contact
Amy A. Atkinson at Amy Atkinson Communications, call/text at 615-305-8118, or email amy@amyacommunications.com. Photos are available upon request.
Photo by Michael Trebing, Cage Free Visual