2005 Grant Recipients List

Artist Initiative

Dance

Risa E. Cohen, Minneapolis
$5,400; to further develop her work as a choreographer and strengthen the techniques and skills used in creating an aerial dance

Gerry H. Girouard, Minneapolis
$6,000; to research the content and forms of social dancing and tango in Argentina, and create a performance incorporating these dance forms

Matthew J. Janczewski, Minneapolis
$6,000; for research, development, space, and expenses during the rehearsal period of a multigenre piece titled Bankrupt City Ballad

Matthew P. Jenson, Minneapolis
$6,000; to create the dance aspects of the medieval mystery play, “Visititio Sepulchre,” that will combine modern dance with early music

Paula L. Mann, Saint Louis Park
$4,600; to create, complete, and rehearse work for “The Train Wreck is Proceeding Nicely,” a piece that will explore the relationship between live performers and the projected image

Dinita Nicole, Minneapolis
$4,900; to study the songs and dance of Oxira, and observe the traditions and social structure in which this form exists in Brazil

Margo Abdo O’Dell, Edina
$4,028; for travel expenses to Lebanon to research and study Middle Eastern dance, and develop a new work based on turath, which means heritage in Arabic

Otto W. Ramstad, Minneapolis
$3,000; to support the research for a series of site based multimedia performances in abandoned military installations and historical battlefields across the Pacific

Uri Sands, Saint Paul
$6,000; to create and present a new full-length performance breaking down the walls between various dance forms, and interweaving the elements of different dance genres

Cynthia D. Stevens, Saint Paul
$3,000; to rechoreograph her work “Leonaora’s Dream” to be performed in two new locations — the Kroeller-Muller Sculpture Garden and Muir Woods in Golden Gate National Park

Theater

Sonya M. Berlovitz, Minneapolis
$2,000; to attend the World Stage Design Expo and Conference, an international conference of costume designers that will be held in Toronto, Ontario.

Noah D. Bremer, Minneapolis
$6,000; to work with a mentor, Jon Ferguson, an experienced clown and physical theater director from England, to create, direct, and perform a clown show.

Carlyle J. Brown, Minneapolis
$6,000; to research and develop a new historical/fictional multimedia theater piece about the dilemmas Langston Hughes faced while attempting to write a poem on the night before his appearance before the United States Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Shá Cage, Minneapolis
$5,900; for travel and networking to establish contacts with producers, directors, and other theater artists, and create visibility for her solo play Famous Amos.

Jeanne E Calvit, Minneapolis
$4,400; to collaborate with Pat Rix, an Australian composer and director, to cocreate a new piece of musical theater that will explore the contrasts and similarities between Australia and the United States.

JAO, Minneapolis
$5,000; to travel the country speed painting in the back of her pick up truck, the JAO Art Mobile II. JAO plans to attend ten art car events nationwide, showcasing her performance piece.

Kari Margolis, Minneapolis
$6,000; to complete the postproduction of a Margolis Method introductory DVD (the Margolis Method is an in-depth actor training technique) that will enable Margolis to attract more national students to her workshops.

Kimberly J. Morgan, Minneapolis
$6,000; to conduct interviews and ethnographic research with women of African descent that will be used to improve her one woman show, Hot Comb: Bradin’ One Mark of Oppression; the show will be presented at Pillsbury House Theatre.

Diane E. Mountford, Minneapolis
$6,000; to direct a production called T+C: a riff on Shakespeare, Troy and the War on Love, under the auspices of the Minnesota Shakespeare Project. The production will explore the timely idea of what it means to fall in love during a time of war.

Dipankar Mukherjee, Minneapolis
$6,000; to work with practitioner Shaji John from Southern India to explore Kalaripayattu (an ancient martial art form). This martial art form will aid in Mukherjee’s choreography of a new piece of work.

Meena Natarajan, Minneapolis
$4,000; to research and conduct interviews for her play, The Partition Project, set during the anti Sikh riots immediately after Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination. Pangea World Theater will host the workshop and performance when the script is completed.

Leslye Orr, Minneapolis
$6,000; to research, develop a strategy, and acquire a tool kit that will allow Orr to create a national disability awareness theater outreach program for her artistic work and bring it to a national audience.

Beth M. Peterson, Minneapolis
$6,000; to research, design, and create puppets and masks for a family puppet theater piece titled The Pink Dress. The work — the story of a young girl in a Japanese American internment camp during WW II — will be performed at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Anne E. Sawyer-Aitch, Minneapolis
$5,000; to create a shadow puppet piece incorporating layered video. The show will retell the story of Aladdin’s lamp, based loosely on author Barbara G. Walker’s revision of that story.

Maren E. Ward, Minneapolis
$6,000; to conduct a six-week research and development period, followed by a workshop performance of Ward’s script that satirizes reinforced gender roles across several different genres.

Visual Arts

Phillip S. Ahnen, Rochester
$4,800; to design and build a wood fired kiln that is tailored for firing the large scale sculptures he creates

Hend A. Al-Mansour, Saint Paul
$6,000; to create a multimedia installation exploring how being a Muslim colors lives and influences choices by capturing ideas, dreams, struggles, and self-images of Minnesota Muslim women; the work will be exhibited at the Hillstrom Museum of Art and at the Weisman Art Museum

John W. Baird, Saint Paul
$4,000; to purchase a printer and transparent stock to use in experimental silkscreen processes

Michael Banning, Minneapolis
$5,400; for a larger studio space, to create large scale works involving more elaborate groupings of models, more directed and dramatic lighting, and ornamental patterning

Libertad, Waconia
$6,000; for six landscape paintings of Minneapolis and six of Saint Paul that aim to capture not only places, but the heart of the cities, through a nonconventional perspective

Tiffany Besonen, Menahga
$6,000; for organizational and creative time to produce mixed-media sculpture using recycled and found materials and relating to her identity and experiences as a mother

Matthew J. Bindert, Minneapolis
$6,000; for time and materials to create work for his first solo exhibition of large scale woodcut prints, inspired by his travels and volunteer work

Liz Bucheit, Lanesboro
$6,000; for materials, creative time, and travel to Norway to research and create a series of crowns celebrating the roles of Norwegian women

Margaret B. Bussey, Minneapolis
$5,600; to create print work using color and combined print techniques, to professionally document that work, to join the Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and to cover the cost of framing and shipping a solo exhibition

Mark E. Carlson, Minneapolis
$5,000; to research and experiment with various techniques to create a new series of oil paintings inspired by real hate crimes that will attempt to develop compassion and understanding between disparate social groups

Mary B. Carroll, Minneapolis
$6,000; to acquire and install a large scale “car kiln” with an adequate firing chamber that will allow her to experiment with imagery and scale

Amy P. DiGennaro, Minneapolis
$6,000; for travel, research, and creative time to complete works on paper that look at childhood and the creation of subjectivity through family and cultural mythology

Patricia Debevec Dillon, Woodbury
$6,000; for materials, photography, travel, and seminars that will help her explore different ways of attaining good skin tones for her new series of paintings that will reflect the diverse population in the Twin Cities

Gregory L. Euclide, Minneapolis
$6,000; for research, materials, creation, and presentation of new work inspired by Chinese landscape painting, the theories of modern science, and the evolution of the space around us

John S. Grider, Minneapolis
$6,000; for supplies and studio time needed to create a series of life-size animal stencils for use in large scale murals throughout the state of Minnesota

Karin I. Jacobson, Minneapolis
$5,400; to create a professionally produced catalog of her jewelry in an effort to secure further print exposure and gallery presence

Brad J. Kaspari, Minneapolis
$6,000; for creative time and speculative studio work exploring a wide variety of materials and fabrication techniques to create work through a range of ideas

Maren A. Kloppmann, Minneapolis
$5,000; for the partial reconstruction of a ceramic glass kiln that will allow more quality control in the soda glaze firing process, a signature of her porcelain work

Melinda Kordich, Shakopee
$1,700; for time and materials needed to create a series of paintings inspired by memories of her grandmother and the women in her small town

Suzanne Kosmalski, Saint Paul
$3,000; to complete a multimedia installation titled “Blue Angels of History,” and present the work to potential exhibition sites in Los Angeles

Cynthia R. Levine, Minneapolis
$6,000; for materials, expenses, and time to develop a new palette of surface treatments for her work as she shifts from gas firing in a soda kiln to firing electrically

Janet F. Lofquist, Minneapolis
$6,000; to research new materials and fabrication methods to use in future public art projects

Dean J. Lucker, Saint Paul
$6,000; to research and create new mechanical dome sculptures inspired by the Victorian age, a time when machines began to transform our relationship to nature, and display the sculpture in public areas

Robert R. Marbury, Minneapolis
$5,000; to develop his technique in the art of casting, specifically running foam latex, in order to create more realistic “urban beasts,” and exhibit his work during the Art-A-Whirl studio tour

Cheryle M. Melander, Minneapolis
$6,000; for expenses related to her research with the language and fabrication of cast multiples, and for casting in resin, rubber, and glass related to a new body of work

Ron Merchant, Minneapolis
$6,000; for travel, documentation, materials, and promotion of a series of 32 paintings depicting scenes from river towns

Guy A. Nelson, Minneapolis
$6,000; for materials and studio rental to develop two large sculptural installations that address the issues of innocence, harm, and humanity

Grace A. Park, Saint Paul
$4,700; to attend a brushwork retreat at the American School of Japanese Arts in Santa Rosa, CA, to learn the creative process of calligraphy and painting from East Asia

Mara V. Pelecis, Minneapolis
$6,000; to present “Souvenirs,” an exhibition of her work that addresses issues of post-traumatic stress disorder in families of war veterans

Margaret R. Pezalla-Granlund, Minneapolis
$5,900; to conceptualize, research, and create a new body of work for an installation of drawings, photographs, and sculpture at Franklin Art Works in the fall of 2005

Jane E. Powers, Minneapolis
$5,900; for materials, equipment, and time to create work relating to the integration of biology and technology; to complete a residency; and upgrade her video editing software

Kari A. Reardon, Minneapolis
$6,000; to participate in a residency at the Vermont Studio Center and create a new body of work

David B. Rich, Saint Paul
$6,000; for time and materials to complete a series of abstract paintings that are rooted in the urban landscape and explore a sense of organic structure

Nancy E. Robinson, Saint Paul
$2,400; for time to create and develop new ways of producing large, high impact oil paintings—part of her current body of work “psychological portraits”—that can be taken apart and easily transported

Thomas R. Schrunk, Saint Anthony
$4,100; for a pilot project that seeks to create a piece of lustrous surface concrete large enough to clearly illustrate its properties and potential for other projects

Monica C. Sheets, Minneapolis
$4,300; for time, materials, Web site development, and promotion of a large scale project, visualizing social, cultural, and political institutions

Brett B. Smith, Saint Paul
$3,131; for time, research, and materials to create an interactive sound maze that will require the use of unique and isolated senses

Kenneth A. Steinbach, Shoreview
$6,000; for equipment, materials, and travel to India to develop new work that explores various cultural influences on the idea of site and the non-Western understanding of time

Scott A. Stulen, Saint Louis Park
$5,000; for time and materials for his first major solo exhibition that will be part of the Third Floor Visiting Artist Series at the Rochester Art Center

Sandra Menefee Taylor, Saint Paul
$5,000; to document her work addressing the ephemeral qualities of life, and to create an artist book from the documentation process

Aaron C. Van Dyke, Saint Paul
$5,400; for travel and time needed to complete a new body of paintings for a solo exhibition at Western Exhibitions in Chicago

Rebecca J. Wandersee, Springfield
$4,400; for time, equipment, and supplies needed to expand and document her new body of paintings, and also to pursue exhibition venues

Chamindika K. Wanduragala, Roseville
$6,000; to create large scale work that involves collaborative elements with poets, musicians, and dancers in a fusion of exhibition and performance

Christine L. Willcox, Minneapolis
$5,000; for time, supplies, and travel to the Smithsonian Museum of History and Culture to explore painting from images with painting from life

Jay L. Wittenberg, Saint Paul
$5,800; to create and document a series of portraits in oil in response to the passive depictions of women throughout history

Jo Wood, Grand Marais
$5,000; to attend workshops and develop skills in acrylic painting

Cameron A. Zebrun, Minneapolis
$5,400; to travel to several national parks and create new work based on observations of a specific place, and exhibit the work at the Bloomington Art Center

Chris Zerendow, Saint Paul
$6,000; for time, supplies, studio space to work on his paintings; and to hire a professional photographer to document his work