UPDATED Dec. 21, 2012. Arcadia University is among the 2010 recipients of $1.1 million in grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI), a record annual total grant award for the program. Arcadia’s grant of $200,000 is for a project with a working title of Tacita Dean: JG.

The funds will support the commission of a new film by Berlin-based, British artist Tacita Dean (b. 1965) inspired by the dystopian landscapes and macrocosmic time scales described in the early science fiction of writer and cult figure J.G. Ballard (1930-2009). The new film (her first to employ 35mm) will be shot at locations in the desert of Utah and will be contextualized by works in other media.

Curated by Arcadia University Gallery Director Richard Torchia, the exhibition will open at Arcadia in 2013. Dean is an internationally recognized figure in the contemporary art world whose 16mm films are esteemed for their poetic and meditative approach. Her large-scale film installation Merce Cunningham Performs Stillness was recently presented at Dia:Beacon, New York. Dean won the Hugo Boss award in 2007 and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1998.

“The $200K grant is the largest sum ever awarded to the gallery for a single project and the fourth of such grants presented to Arcadia by the Philadelphia Exhibitions Initiative (PEI) since the organization was established in 1997,” notes Dr. Steve O. Michael, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.

PEI’s mission is to foster artistic development and excellence in the region’s visual arts community by supporting public visual arts exhibitions and accompanying publications of high artistic caliber and cultural significance. Its grants are awarded annually on a competitive basis and are selected by a panel of internationally recognized visual arts professionals. Read more about the 2010 grants. Read a Philadelphia Inquirer article about the grants.