Home
Focus Areas
About Us
"I've taken classes throughout, but I never intentionally went to school to be a painter," Mike Weary tells NOLA.com.
But the 36-year-old resident of Baton Rouge, La., has been self-taught since he was 6 years old, and now he's an artist-in-residence at the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, or what he calls "what I refer to as home."
Weary says he started drawing in his mother's Home Depot breakroom at age 6, when there was no one to watch him.
He filled up the time by capturing people's likenesses, and since then, "I realized everyone around here knows how to do something."
Weary says he's coined his style of work as Dorian Gothic, inspired by Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Many of his paintings feature real people, but through a distorted lens.
"When people see it, sometimes they see the bug itself, which is a June Bug," Weary says.
"But a lot of Black people have someone named June Bug in their family."
Weary says the ambiguity of the painting allows for members of the community to connect in specific ways.
He's leading an arts initiative called Arts for Everybody
Selected Grant News Headlines
A customized collection of grant news from foundations and the federal government from around the Web.
"It is a night that shines a light on some of the best and brightest women in business." So reads a press release on the winners of the 2024 IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards in Ireland,...more
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says the Appalachian Community Grant Program represents "a historic, $500 million investment in Ohio's 32 Appalachian counties." The state has allocated $21.9 million in...more
Rumors have been swirling that the Lakeland Cultural Arts Center in Florida is going under, but the organization's president says those rumors are "greatly exaggerated." In a statement released...more
A Silicon Valley-based agtech company is making a difference in the world of soil health and carbon sequestration, Business Insider reports. According to the 2023 Impact Report from Biome Makers,...more
"Abu Dhabi has a track record of excellence and fast-growing, future-forward, data-enabled healthcare services." That's how the Department of Health in the United Arab Emirates is framing its...more
Canada's capital is about to get a major boost in medical research. The University of Ottawa has announced plans to build a new Advanced Medical Research Center in Ottawa, which will be six...more
If you're in the market for a new job, you may want to check out this: There's a huge shortage of entry-level positions in the health care industry, according to a report from Healthcare IT...more
When Jo Harris opened the Henley School of Art in the UK eight years ago, she didn't expect to be teaching online for nearly seven years. But the coronavirus pandemic of 2014 forced her to move...more
Foundation: Gates Foundation
"By embracing innovation, the school leadership team from the North, principal and school administrators, teachers and staff are preparing our students to be the digital citizens the world needs,"...more
Foundation: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have been awarded $82 million over seven years from the National Center for Advancing Digital Sciencea record-breaking amount for the center,...more
Social Entrepreneurship
Spotlight
3 Social Enterprises Earn Honors at Social Enterprise Award
Three social enterprises were recognized at the 2013 President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award for their major contributions to society. SATA CommHealth and Bliss Restaurant landed Social Enterprise of the Year titles, while Bettr Barista Coffee Academy bagged the award for Social Enterprise Start-up of the Year.
