FY 2016 Grantees
Artist Initiative
Project grants for artists at all stages of their careers, to support artistic development, nurture artistic creativity, and recognize the contributions individual artists make to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota
Awards grouped below by discipline.
Dance
| Number of grants awarded November 4, 2015 |
9 |
| Total dollars awarded November 4, 2015 |
$ 88,400 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Joe Chvala, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Chvala, a percussive dance choreographer, will work with a filmmaker on location in Duluth to make a short movie of his work. Through this, Chvala will gain a strong promotional tool for his work and reach a broader film audience. The film will be screened for the public in Duluth and the Twin Cities. |
| Tamara Nadel, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Nadel will work with choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy to create and present a solo dance work rooted in Jewish mystical poetry. The new piece will be premiered in the Twin Cities in December 2016. |
| Ranee A. Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ramaswamy will create Six Yards of Memory, a photographic exhibit in collaboration with photographer Ed Bock, screen printed on a sari that is six yards long to chronicle Ramaswamy's 25-year choreographic journey. |
| Chris R. Schlichting, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Schlichting will create an interdisciplinary work to explore the intersection of movement, design, and music to strengthen the overall impact of the work. Workshops and open rehearsals that the public can attend will be held at several Minneapolis locations. |
| April L. Sellers, Minneapolis | $ 8,400 | | Sellers will develop a new work that explores gender and will engage with audience members about her creative process through live performance and a video blog while in residence at Tofte Lake Center in Ely. |
| Karen E. Sherman, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Sherman will create "Soft Goods" a dance/performance created in collaboration with an ensemble of stagehands and dancers. It uses dance, manual labor, and text to examine work, aliveness, death, disappearance, and occupational self-obliteration. The piece will premiere at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in December 2016. |
| Rosy Simas, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Simas' new dance work "Skin(s)" will explore social, political, and identity issues facing Native people today. "Skin(s)" will incorporate dance, film, scenic and sound design, and community engagement activities. |
| Laurie S. Van Wieren, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Van Wieren will choreograph and perform an evening-length dance piece that explores the intersections of memory, history, and aging. Three public performances will take place at a Minneapolis dance venue. |
| Pramila Vasudevan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Vasudevan will explore twenty movement ideas with six performance collaborators of varying experience that represent a wide range of marginalized identities. A public performance will be held at the end of March 2016. |
Media Arts
| Number of grants awarded January 6, 2016 |
12 |
| Total dollars awarded January 6, 2016 |
$ 119,970 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| John M. Akre, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Akre will create Minneapolis Beneath the Asphalt, an animated film about some of the hidden stories of the city's history. A public screening will take place at the 2016 MinnAnimate Festival. |
| Matthew G. Anderson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Anderson will develop The Fringe, a screenplay about artists preparing for a high-profile theater festival. A reading of the screenplay will take place at the Minneapolis Theater Garage. |
| Lyle M. Corbine, Jr., Garrison | $ 10,000 | | Corbine will direct a 12-minute short film exploring the American lifestyle and its commercial idealism. He will screen the finished film at Bryant-Lake Bowl's monthly Cinema Lounge in Minneapolis. |
| Cecilia M. Cornejo, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Cornejo will complete the pre-production on a new film. The work will explore issues of displacement and belonging as experienced by the Latino community of Northfield, Minnesota. Multiple public screenings will be held in Northfield. |
| Will Hommeyer, Saint Paul | $ 9,970 | | Hommeyer will complete Buoyancy, an intimate portrait of a woman with a rare diagnosis, in a film about cancer, courage, and chemotherapy. Screenings will take place at various locations in the Twin Cities. |
| Rini Y. Keagy, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Keagy will complete post-production of Ordinal, a film about the disease called valley fever. Combining literature and ancient myth, the film explores biological and environmental forces affecting humans and Earth. A screening will take place in Northfield and the Twin Cities. |
| Bobby Maher, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Maher will create a series of media-specific promotional tools to better represent his interactive digital installations. He will conduct several public workshops on how to use digital tools to reach new audiences. |
| Kelley A. Meister, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | "Meister will create and present a new hand-drawn animation that explores the historical context and lived realities of the current nuclear age. A screening will take place at
Bryant-Lake Bowl in Minneapolis." |
| Todd Melby, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Melby will produce an audio documentary titled We Don't Talk Like That: "Fargo" and the Midwest Psyche. The documentary will be presented at the public library in downtown Minneapolis and at a location in greater Minnesota. |
| Jesse M. Roesler, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Roesler will create a short, eight- to ten-minute film about native wild rice, highlighting how it is unique to this landscape and the spiritual and cultural significance it holds in the Minnesota Ojibwe communities. |
| Brennan W. Vance, Edina | $ 10,000 | | Vance will complete his first narrative feature film, The Missing Sun. A public screening at the Riverview Theater in Minneapolis is planned. |
| Maya T. Washington, Plymouth | $ 10,000 | | Washington will complete a narrative short film, Clear, about a mother who has been separated from her adolescent daughter due to a wrongful conviction. A screening will take place in the Twin Cities. |
Music
| Number of grants awarded November 4, 2015 |
19 |
| Total dollars awarded November 4, 2015 |
$ 185,161 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Katherine Bergman, New Brighton | $ 10,000 | | Bergman will compose a multimovement work for percussion trio that depicts various landscapes in Minnesota. The work will be performed at MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis and at Bjorling Recital Hall at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter. |
| Adam Conrad, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Conrad will compose and perform the first Electric Bassoon Concerto with the newly formed Vintage Orchestra and Trent Jacobs. Four performances and a workshop open to the public will take place during the summer and fall of 2016 in the Twin Cities. |
| Patti J. Cudd, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Cudd will release her first solo album of seven new compositions for percussion and electronics. Performances of the new work will take place in multiple venues throughout the state. |
| eL.I.Be, Shoreview | $ 10,000 | | eL I. Be will produce Hoping Tomorrow Never Comes a musical reflection of a young Liberian's soul-searching struggle to assimilate to American society. Performances are planned for Minneapolis, Duluth, Mankato, and Saint Cloud. |
| Julie A. Elhard, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Elhard will study the lirone, a 17th-century Italian bowed harp, to expand her professional opportunities. A concert that features music for the lirone will take place at the Friends Meeting House in Saint Paul. |
| Miriam B. Gerberg, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Gerberg will adapt an older work based on stories by Carl Sandburg and create a new music theater piece that utilizes world music, dance, and drama forms. Public showings of the work will take place in Saint Paul. |
| Gao Hong, Eagan | $ 10,000 | | Gao Hong will produce and perform Storytelling in Chinese Music from the Ancient Past to Modern Times, a multimedia comedy inspired by her immigrant experience. |
| Linda M. Kachelmeier, Saint Paul | $ 7,665 | | Kachelmeier will enhance her compositional career through professional recordings, an updated profile, and an expanded online presence. A workshop and recording session open to the public will take place at Concordia College in Saint Paul. |
| Jin Kim, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Kim, a baroque violinist and concert organizer, will present six intimate baroque music concerts by Bach and his contemporaries in a variety of Twin Cities' venues. |
| Brian Laidlaw, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Laidlaw will arrange and record a new album about climate change called The Reckoning Ball. He will also offer a series of twelve songwriting workshops and performances throughout the state. |
| Oleg Levin, Eagan | $ 10,000 | | Levin will advance the awareness of his work through both public performances and the marketing of his first professional solo recording of Russian piano music of the 20th and 21st centuries. |
| Marc Levine, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 |
| Levine will study the art of baroque orchestral leadership with world-class baroque concertmaster, Marc Destrubé. A performance that includes both Destrubé and Levine will take place at the Baroque Room in Saint Paul during the fall of 2016. |
| Doug Little, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Little will compose twenty new works of Latin jazz and modern salsa music that will be performed at venues throughout Minnesota by three separate ensembles. |
| Sarah E. Miller, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Miller will create The Troubadours, a new composition for clarinet trio that is inspired by artwork at the Weisman Art Museum. Performances will take place at the Weisman and MacPhail Center for Music in Minneapolis and at Hamline University in Saint Paul. |
| A Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pavan will create a new tabla ensemble (north Indian classical drum) in Minneapolis, conduct workshops and rehearsals, and hold two public performances. |
| Karen E. Quiroz, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Quiroz will explore Brazilian-roots music to raise the profile of some of Brazil's seminal composer performers. She will bring together professional musicians and dedicated amateurs to create an authentic sound and feel for Minnesota audiences. |
| Nirmala Rajasekar, Plymouth | $ 10,000 | | Rajasekar will create and present a new collaborative work Maithree - the Music of Friendship with three world renowned musicians on the veena, cello, saxophone, clarinet, voice, and percussion. A performance at Como Dockside in Saint Paul is scheduled for the fall of 2016. |
| Justin A. Spenner, Minneapolis | $ 7,500 | | Spenner will present Franz Schubert's Die Winterreise, aided by dance and media artists to give contemporary audiences an intimate look at Schubert's examination of mental illness through music. |
| Tyler C. Tholl, Saint Anthony | $ 9,996 | | Tholl will compose and release a new recording inspired by Minnesota's wilderness and climate. The music will blend field recordings collected from four Minnesota state parks with electronic and acoustic instruments and will be accompanied by video. Screenings will take place in Minneapolis and Waite Park. |
Photography
| Number of grants awarded January 6, 2016 |
14 |
| Total dollars awarded January 6, 2016 |
$ 139,042 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Beth Dow, Minneapolis | $ 9,992 | | Dow will complete The Dynamic Range, a project that looks at how we use photography to explore and depict space. A public program will take place at North House Folk School in Grand Marais. |
| Terry L. Gydesen, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Gydesen will create a multimedia project that documents aging, transition, and loss. Public presentations will take place at various facilities that serve senior citizens. |
| Wing Y. Huie, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Huie will create an interactive Web site titled, "What Do You See?" to begin a series of mini projects in which new photos and photos from his archive explore cultural issues. |
| RJ Kern, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kern will create The Unchosen Ones, by photographing ten to fourteen Minnesota county fair animals in their environments. Exhibitions and artist talks are planned for various locations in Minnesota. |
| David M. Luke, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Luke will photograph Minnesota's north woods and prairie to make visible the ecological changes in Minnesota's landscape due to climate change and invasive species. An exhibition and lecture will take place at the Saint Croix Watershed Research Station. |
| Anthony P. Marchetti, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Marchetti will complete his photographic series titled Paul, based on his maternal grandmother's memories as a refugee at the end of World War II. The work will be shown in Minneapolis. |
| Karen Melvin, Plymouth | $ 10,000 | | Melvin will edit and print Bash, her series of black and white photos of professional wrestling in Minnesota in the 1980s. The exhibition will also contain current photos showing where the "wrastlers" are today. An exhibition is planned for a venue in the Twin Cities. |
| Stefania C. Motta, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Motta will complete her project Fog, which explores the materiality of photography through otherworldly abstractions. She will host a public book release at Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis. |
| Lisa A. Nebenzahl, Richfield | $ 10,000 | | Nebenzahl will research alternative photographic processes and production methods to develop a new body of work for exhibition. An exhibit of the work will take place at the 801 Gallery in Minneapolis. |
| John P. Ratzloff, Ramsey | $ 10,000 | | Ratzloff will create Survivance, a photographic chronicle revealing a year of artist activism and leadership by Native American millennials in the Twin Cities. The work will be shown at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. |
| Areca Roe, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Roe will complete the photography for her project, O Pioneer, a series of fantastical landscapes. She will frame the work and exhibit the series in Minnesota. |
| Laurie Schneider, Stillwater | $ 9,050 | | Schneider will produce a traveling photo essay on sustainable farmers working in Minnesota, to accompany educational programming that will tour throughout the state. |
| Ellen D. Skoro, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Skoro will continue her photographic series Dark Age, which explores themes of femininity, motherhood, and ambivalence. Artist talks about the project will take place at local colleges in the Twin Cities. |
| Lex Thompson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Thompson will complete a series of photographic works based on the life of nineteenth-century naturalist Martha Maxwell. A public program that replicates the project will take place at a family day event in the Twin Cities. |
Poetry
| Number of grants awarded November 4, 2015 |
7 |
| Total dollars awarded November 4, 2015 |
$ 66,640 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Todd Boss, North Oaks |
$ 10,000 | | Boss will work with librettist Mark Campbell to develop and shape his practice as a writer for music. He will share what he learns in a public concert in Minneapolis. |
| Richard J. Broderick, Saint Paul |
$ 10,000 | | Broderick will promote his latest book of poetry Jesus of Walmart throughout Minnesota. Activities will include readings, meetings with book clubs and writing groups, interviews, and online videos. |
| Michael Lee, Hopkins |
$ 10,000 | | Lee will complete his first book of poetry Heaven Face. Lee will also release weekly poetry videos that will culminate in public readings in Minneapolis and Lanesboro. |
| Michelle M. Matthees, Duluth |
$ 7,500 | | Matthees will visit historic poor farm sites and conduct research at the Minnesota History Center to complete a book-length collection of poems about Minnesota's residential institutions at the turn of the last century. She will also lead three poetry writing workshops at residential facilities for youth in Duluth and on the Iron Range. |
| Hieu M. Nguyen, Minneapolis |
$ 9,140 | | Nguyen will complete his second poetry manuscript. He will also curate three public performances that will feature emerging artists from both the performance and written world of poetry. |
| Richard L. Robbins, Mankato |
$ 10,000 | | Robbins will develop two new poetry collections and offer public readings of his work in school and community venues in Rochester and the Twin Cities. |
| Carolyn R. Williams-Noren, Minneapolis |
$ 10,000 |
| Williams-Noren will work with mentors to shape her first full-length poetry manuscript, Pyramid of Lemons, and improve her public reading performance skills. She will present the new work at Dreamland Arts in Saint Paul. |
Prose
| Number of grants awarded November 4, 2015 |
21 |
| Total dollars awarded November 4, 2015 |
$ 193,799 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Mike Alberti, Minneapolis | $ 9,318 | | Alberti will revise his first book First the Flood, Then the Fire, a collection of short stories that focus on the relationship between residents of rural communities and the natural environment. He will present readings in Madelia, Bigfork, and Middle River, where some of the stories take place.
| | Dale Gregory Anderson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Anderson will work with an editor to complete his first collection of short stories. He will give a reading from the manuscript in Minneapolis and lead an open workshop on writing and revising short stories.
| | Kendra L. Atleework, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Atleework will complete a draft of her first book Sweetwater, a work of literary nonfiction about the changing climate of the American West. A reading and workshop that is open to the public will take place in the Twin Cities.
| | Erin S. Downing, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Downing will revise her middle-grade, coming-of-age novel. She will also conduct five school visits to discuss the writing process and the importance of reading with students.
| | Heid E. Erdrich, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Erdrich will develop a manuscript of lyric essays titled It Has Been My Privilege, on looking, but not being, white. She will present the new work at tribal colleges and cultural centers in four Minnesota communities.
| | Anika Fajardo, Minneapolis | $ 5,000 | | Fajardo will complete her memoir about finding family, Magical Realism for Non-Believers. She will conduct a reading of the work on the anniversary of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's birth at a venue in the Twin Cities.
| | Rebecca S. Kanner, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Kanner will present a feminist perspective on history and mythology, exploring issues of identity and empowerment in the lives of women past and present. Readings will take place in the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.
| | N.M. Kelby, Saint Paul | $ 7,714 | | Kelby will complete research into Mark Twain's journey to Minnesota for her new novel A Small History of the Known World. A reading and discussion of the work is planned for the University of Minnesota Duluth.
| | Janna B. Krawczyk, Minneapolis | $ 7,277 | | Krawczyk will work with mentor Megan Atwood to revise her young adult novel Phoenix. She will also host a writing workshop for youth in north Minneapolis.
| | Bronson Lemer, Saint Paul | $ 7,355 | | Lemer will work with mentor B. J. Hollars to revise a collection of essays. A reading from the revised work will take place in the Twin Cities.
| | Alison R. McGhee, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | McGhee will complete the draft of her novel-in-progress And Nothing Hurt: a novel-in-fragments. She will also lead a series of experience-based writing workshops for teens and adults.
| | Sheila M. O'Connor, Edina | $ 8,000 | | O'Connor will complete a multigenre novel Reconstructing V. Public events will include a reading and workshop.
| | Juliet Patterson, Minneapolis | $ 9,550 | | Patterson will work with mentor Patricia Weaver Francisco to prepare her memoir Sinkhole: A Natural History of a Suicide for publication. She will also give readings in four Minnesota cities.
| | Vanessa Ramos, Saint Paul | $ 9,965 | | Ramos will complete her memoir Perhaps the World and offer an interdisciplinary workshop for local Latino youth, in addition to hosting a reading and organizing a panel discussion on Latinos in the arts.
| | Glenda E. Reed, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Reed will revise her memoir about hitchhiking around the world on sailboats. She will present a public reading of the work in the Twin Cities.
| | Erin Kate Ryan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ryan will complete a draft of her first novel Many Deaths of Paula Jean Welden, and organize a literary scavenger hunt and reading from the manuscript at the Central Public Library in Minneapolis.
| | Kathryn D. Savage, Minneapolis | $ 9,700 | | Savage will revise her collection of fifteen short stories. She will also give readings and craft workshops in Grand Marais and the Twin Cities.
| | Katherine Schaefer, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Schaefer will work with a mentor to complete her series of personal essays about a Minnesota farming community in the 1970s. She will also give a public reading and writing workshop in rural Minnesota.
| | Rachel L. Smoka-Richardson, Minneapolis | $ 9,920 |
| Smoka-Richardson will revise her middle-grade novel Ruthie Superstar and work with a mentor and copyeditor to prepare the manuscript for submission. She will present a reading and workshop at a location in the Twin Cities. |
| Sarah L. Stonich, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Stonich will research and complete a first draft of her novel Severance. Readings of the manuscript will take place in Osseo, Lake City, and Red Wing.
|
| Emily S. Strasser, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Strasser will complete a revision of her first book, Nuclear Family, a personal and historical exploration of the intersection of family and nuclear secrets. She will give a reading of the work at a Twin Cities venue.
|
Theater
| Number of grants awarded November 4, 2015 |
7 |
| Total dollars awarded November 4, 2015 |
$ 69,900 |
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Shari Aronson, Minneapolis | $ 9,900 | | Aronson will expand Cellula, a glow-in-the-dark performance of mitosis into a full-length show about cell science, through structured experimentation with collaborators, advisors, and neighborhood youth. |
| Torry R. Bend, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Bend will premier her puppet play If My Feet Have Lost the Ground at Open Eye Figure Theater in Minneapolis. The show will use video and puppetry in a visual narrative of magical realism that shares the story of a woman who finds a beating heart on an airplane. |
| Lloyd W. Brant, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Brant will collaborate with playwright and master storyteller Kevin Kling, on adapting his children's story The Land of Clowns for the stage. The story tells the tale of where clowns came from, why they are here, and why they live in circus tents. The show will be presented at Open Eye Figure Theater in Minneapolis in the spring of 2016. |
| David Darrow, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Darrow will create and workshop a new musical set in Los Angeles during the early 1960s, to explore the explosion of culture that occurred as a response to the conservatism of the 1950's. A public reading will take place at the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis in the fall of 2016. |
| Ifrah Mansour, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Mansour will create and produce How to Have Fun in a Civil War, a solo multimedia production inspired by the grantee's life experiences, telling the story of a little girl's adventures during her family's escape from Somalia. Performances will take place at Bedlam Design Center in Minneapolis. |
| Daniel F. Pinkerton, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pinkerton will workshop Hard Times, a new musical based on Charles Dicken's novel of the same title. The project will conclude with two public performances at Open Eye Figure Theater in Minneapolis in the spring of 2016. |
| Jennifer M. Weir, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Weir will workshop and create Unspoken, a series of vignettes using masks, text, movement, and taiko to explore unsaid and repressed emotions of the Asian American experience through the visceral power of taiko drums. Public performances of the new piece will take place at Dreamland Arts in Saint Paul in late summer 2016. |
Visual Arts
| Number of grants awarded January 6, 2016 |
53 |
| Total dollars awarded January 6, 2016 |
$ 500,632
|
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
| Leslie E. Barlow, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Barlow will complete a series of eight to ten oil paintings featuring interracial families, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United States Supreme Court case of Loving vs. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage in the United States. An exhibition is planned for a venue in Minneapolis. |
| Brenda J. Brousseau, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Brousseau will create Garden of Truth, a new body of work. These beadwork mandalas will focus on the abstract idea of truth and be displayed during the Saint Paul Fall Art Crawl. |
| Keith Christensen, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Christensen will create a playable game about the Minneapolis truckers' strike of 1934 to facilitate an inquiry into social justice issues. The game will be displayed at the East Side Freedom Library in Saint Paul. |
| Heather M. Cole, Saint Paul | $ 9,800 | | Cole will create Bright Idea: Transformation Illumination, a series of illuminated outdoor sculptures made of repurposed items collected within the nine block area of Mears Park in Saint Paul. The work will be displayed in Mears Park during the 2016 concert season. |
| Erik A. Farseth, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Farseth will establish a temporary pop-up gallery to exhibit new woodcuts and screen prints. He will also distribute copies of small press publications (art zines) at various locations throughout the Twin Cities. |
| Kyle L. Fokken, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Fokken will produce three to six figurative pieces that incorporate woodworking techniques into his mixed media sculptures. He will show the work as it progresses during open studio events; a gallery show will follow at the end of the project period. |
| Brian L. Frink, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Frink will create a series of circular, oval, and other organic-shaped paintings to be presented as a cohesive installation at the Art Center of Saint Peter in early 2017. |
| Christi Furnas, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Furnas will develop Crazy Like a Fox, a graphic novel about living with schizophrenia. She will give a reading from the work and host a discussion at Soo Visual Arts Center in Minneapolis. |
| Josette A. Ghiseline, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Ghiseline will create and exhibit nine artworks that are derived from three works she made twenty years ago. She will give a lecture about her approach to abstract art at the Schmidt Lofts in Saint Paul. |
| Ernest R. Gillman, Cottage Grove | $ 10,000 | | Gillman will create a series of twelve to fifteen drawings that capture Minnesotans going about their daily work and routines. The work will be displayed at a Minnesota gallery in late 2016. |
| Bill Gorcica Saint Cloud | $ 9,926 | | Gorcica will create an interactive multimedia piece that brings his work Rowing through the Subconscious to a deeper level. The work will be shown at several public events in the Twin Cities and Saint Cloud. |
| Timothy J. Gorman, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Gorman will increase his capacity for working with new materials while completing two new pieces of fine furniture to be shown at exhibitions in Winona and the Twin Cities. |
| David A. Hamlow, Good Thunder | $ 10,000 | | Hamlow will create 160 "personal reliquaries" created from paperboard and plastic packaging resulting from his own consumer purchases. He will host an open studio and artist talk in Good Thunder. |
| Amara G. Hark-Weber, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Hark-Weber will create a new body of artistic work using traditional shoemaking techniques in the construction of sculptural footwear. The public will be invited to monthly open studio nights that will showcase the work as it progresses. |
| Julie Jao, Minneapolis | $ 4,700 | | Jao will create a series of paintings that evoke primitive drawings but address contemporary themes. She will also teach a two-session public workshop at which she will demonstrate paint mixing techniques, layering, and surface treatment. |
| Benjamin W. Jasmer, Fridley | $ 10,000 | | Jasmer will use discarded furniture to create functional sculptures. He will redesign the objects as newly produced furnishings. The public will be invited to interact with the sculptures at a garage sale like event. |
| E. Eero Johnson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will complete The Outliers, an atmospheric graphic novel that tells the story of a twelve-year-old autistic boy who befriends a woodland giant and flees a captor who endangers them both. An exhibition of the artwork and an artist talk are planned for late 2016. |
| Emily C. Johnson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will create new promotional materials to better engage greater Minnesota galleries and audiences. She will offer a public workshop to share these new strategies with other Minnesota artists. |
| Gail K. Katz-James, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Katz-James will design and fabricate an outdoor metal sculpture to be exhibited at Chicago Avenue Fire Arts Center in Minneapolis. |
| Bart King, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | King will illustrate the forthcoming graphic novel Nobody's Rebellion, by Minnesota author Peter Schilling, Jr. Readings will take place at independent book stores throughout the Twin Cities. |
| Qian Liu, New Brighton | $ 10,000 | | Liu will build a travelling art gallery on a tricycle frame to bring to Open Streets Minneapolis events. |
| Gudrun J. Lock, Minneapolis | $ 7,594 | | Lock will create an artist monograph that will include twenty photographs and scans of her work. She will also make a personal Web site that is launched with a one-night exhibition and artist talk in Minneapolis. |
| Charles V. Matson Lume, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Matson Lume will research and create a new body of work during an artist residency at the Grand Marais Art Colony. The project is about light in northern Minnesota, contrasting with his experience of the midnight sun in Scandanavia. A solo exhibition and artist talk will take place at the conclusion of the residency. |
| Steven J. McCarthy, Falcon Heights | $ 4,800 | | McCarthy will create a limited edition artist's book made of fabric, titled The Fabric Artist's Book: An Intimate Hybrid. An exhibition of the work is planned for a Minnesota gallery. |
| Caroline M. Mecklin, Hastings | $ 10,000 | | Mecklin will create and exhibit a series of twelve large portraits representative of Saint Paul Lowertown's rich and diverse cultural arts community. A solo exhibition at one of the galleries in Lowertown is planned. |
| Sandra Menefee Taylor, Saint Paul | $ 9,998 | | Taylor will use common materials such as dirt and steel to evoke patterns of ancient cultures, inviting audiences to pay attention to our "living arrangement" with the earth. An exhibition at Form+Content Gallery in Minneapolis will take place in late 2016. |
| Jennifer N. Merchant, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Merchant will create a new body of layered acrylic work that explores sculpture and functional objects. She will expand her artistic practice through a public exhibition that will showcase the new work. |
| Ernest L. Miller, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ernest Miller will produce a new body of ceramic work intended to challenge and expand his focus beyond the utilitarian object. The work will be shown at the Grand Hand Gallery in Saint Paul. |
| Liz Miller, Good Thunder | $ 10,000 | | Liz Miller will integrate found and fabricated patterns in a new large-scale installation, heightening optical effects with interludes of pattern and surface design. She will host an open studio event in Good Thunder to engage the community in a dialogue about her work. |
| Katherine M. Mommsen, Saint Louis Park | $ 10,000 | | Mommsen will alter and decorate twelve large ceramic vessels where the form and imagery evoke a specific emotional expression. The finished pieces will be shown at the Northrup King Building. |
| Jennifer A. Nevitt, Minneapolis | $ 9,323 | | Nevitt will make a new body of work that combines sculpture, drawing, and painting. Ten new pieces will be made that explore ideas of permanence and transformation related to the human body. An exhibition in Minneapolis is planned. |
| Mat Ollig, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ollig will create ten paintings about small town culture, to be displayed in ten historic Minnesota diners. The project will be promoted as a statewide "scavenger hunt." Audiences will find one collectable postcard at each location. |
| Marie E. Olofsdotter, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Olofsdotter will create the visual narrative and three pieces of final art for a picture book that juxtaposes the indoor gardens of Como Park Conservatory with the stark Minnesota winter. She will offer two illustration workshops, one for adults in rural Minnesota and one for families in the Twin Cities. |
| Edie J. Overturf, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Overturf will create four large and twenty-five small reductive woodcut prints and etchings to investigate end of the world prophecies. A gallery exhibition is planned for Minneapolis. |
| Neal C. Peterson, Minneapolis | $ 4,599 | | Peterson will create a large photographic mandala of Minneapolis. The kaleidoscope-like map will be installed and displayed for one month at City Center in downtown Minneapolis. |
| Aswar Rahman, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Rahman will produce Soiree, a feature-length film that satirizes the stratified social history of Minnesota by way of a Jazz Age murder mystery. A Minneapolis screening is planned for early 2017. |
| Becka Rahn, Minneapolis | $ 8,353 | | Rahn will produce a collection of wearable art using digital surface design techniques that respond to "forgotten" artwork at the Hennepin History Museum and Minnesota Transportation Museum. An exhibition and workshop will be held at the Hennepin History Museum in January 2017. |
| Donna J. Rice, Delano | $ 10,000 | | Rice will create four new cast glass sculptures for exhibition and present an artist talk at FOCI - Minnesota Center for Glass Arts in early 2017. |
| Kimberlee J. Roth, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Roth will create a new 40-foot-long ceramic installation piece to be shown in a solo exhibition at the Christensen Center Art Gallery at Augsburg College, in Minneapolis. |
| Dave Ryan, Mankato | $ 9,800 | | Ryan will complete two video installations: Vigilants, which investigates the concept of a modern day evil-eye; and Epidemi-gogue, which examines the ideas of infection and human touch in a tightly networked society. The work will be exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, as part of the Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program. |
| Anne Rynearson, Saint Paul | $ 9,169 | | Rynearson will complete and exhibit Scape, a series of abstract paintings inspired by the rural Minnesota landscape. An exhibition will take place at the Soeffker Gallery at Hamline University in Saint Paul. |
| Jim Sannerud, Saint Paul | $ 9,994 | | Sannerud will make tableware and furniture inspired by Scandinavian food, culture, and aesthetics. He will host participatory dinners at the Grand Marais Art Colony, Norway House in Minneapolis, and Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona. |
| Sean A. Smuda, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Smuda will produce sixteen large prints, a live multimedia performance, and an artist talk for an exhibition at the Soap Factory that will explore how current socioeconomics are influenced by past representations. |
| Aaron C. Squadroni, Coleraine | $ 10,000 | | Squadroni will create a series of copper drawn land portraits that record landmarks and sacred spaces on the Mesabi Iron Range. A workshop at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids and exhibit at Artistry in Bloomington are planned. |
| Andrea C. Stanislav, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Stanislav will digitally archive her work using methods that allow for seamless upgrades as technology advances. She will lecture statewide about her experience of creating a digital archive and its relevance to artists. |
| Sarah K. Stengle, Saint Paul | $ 4,005 |
| Stengle will create Inward Music: Defrosted, a sculptural tableau on a frozen lake. Chairs mounted on vintage skis along with sculptural harps will allow participants to make music. Custom mittens with embedded picks will be provided. |
| Maria C. Tavera, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Tavera will produce eight to twelve prints inspired by Latin American legends. Reproductions of the work will be shared with community members and organizations that serve Minnesota's Latino population. In addition, a solo exhibition will take place at Fox Egg Gallery in Minneapolis. |
| John A. Wells, Red Wing | $ 10,000 | | Wells will create large-scale paintings that visually explore the conflict of chaos and control. He will photographically document the completed work and exhibit these paintings at the Red Wing Arts Association. |
| Lyz Wendland, Stillwater | $ 10,000 | | Wendland will complete ten mixed media paintings and two site-specific installations that reflect the linear qualities of her suburban environment. The work will be exhibited at Silverwood Park in Saint Anthony and the MacRostie Center for the Arts in Grand Rapids. |
| Susan D. Westley Seeger, Elk River | $ 10,000 | | Seeger will create a life-size sculpture of a deer made from bicycle parts and stainless steel to be installed on the Hillside Park Bike Trail in Elk River. |
| Jody L. Williams, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Williams will research new materials and processes while exploring the concept of dust. The resulting artist's books, boxes, and mixed media pieces will be featured in a solo show at Form+Content Gallery in Minneapolis. |
| Josh K. Winkler, Mankato | $ 9,226 | | Winkler will create concrete castings of reclaimed ash logs to promote public awareness in Mankato and Rochester about the Emerald ash borer infestation that threatens Minnesota's ash trees. Public events are planned for both cities. |
| Lizabeth D. Wortham, Saint Paul | $ 9,345 | | Wortham will create a series of paintings that translate family photos into abstract content, using the visual language of paint to add meaning and disrupt the original image. Exhibits and open studio events are planned as part of the project. |
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