Creative Support for Individuals is designed to help Minnesota artists and culture bearers adapt to changes in their working environment caused by the global pandemic. Grantees will be able to use funds to sustain their practice and stay relevant and connected to audiences, participants, students, or communities now and in the future. This grant program aims to help Minnesota artists and culture bearers maintain their visibility and financial sustainability by using their creativity and connections to community.
These grant awards were approved by the Minnesota State Arts Board in three rounds, at its November 4, 2020, December 2, 2020, and January 6, 2021, meetings.
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
Mary K. Aalgaard, Baxter | $ 5,650 | | Aalgaard will use the materials she creates to engage students in youth theater workshops (playwriting) and connect with older adults (virtual visit during COVID-19) to do readings and writing workshops. |
Boatemaa Agyeman-Mensah, Waseca | $ 5,840 | | In 2020, Officer Arik Matson was shot and George Floyd's murder sparked worldwide anger. Waseca's POC uniquely possess tragedy on local and global scales; Boatemaa hopes to provide an artistic space for POC to unite amid seemingly clashing truths. |
Kashimana H. Ahua, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Ahua will develop and adapt a concert series of performances for online experiences including interactive performances, improvisational writing and more. Ahua will adapt community songwriting and singing workshops for online experiences. |
Akiem, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Akiem will create a new body of work, securing software and equipment to stay competitive in the field as a teaching artist, composer, and producer. A virtual public showcase will engage Minnesotans with new music and conversation on the work. |
Mike Alberti, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Alberti will read from his debut short story collection, Some People Let You Down, and teach remote writing workshops at ten senior living facilities in rural Minnesota. |
Sara J. Alexander, Virginia | $ 6,000 | | Alexander will record an album of instrumental songs on fiddle and piano. Guest musicians will include accordion, banjo, steel and, finger style guitar. Alexander will perform the songs in an outdoor concert and release the songs online. |
Agnes N. Alsgaard Lien, Rushmore | $ 6,000 | | Lien will prepare at home art kits and art lessons for children in Rushmore, giving students the opportunity to enhance their academic learning through creative projects. |
Eric L. Altenberg, Minneapolis | $ 5,952 | | Altenberg will continue pushing the limits of photography with Parkinson's disease. He will develop new ways of sharing his work through virtual mediums, as well as creating new work to keep his art alive. |
Justin Anderson, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Anderson and John Finkle will engage Duluth area participants in community wooden boat building projects using hand tools and traditional methods and materials–both in person and online. |
Krista J. Anderson-Larson, Saint Paul | $ 2,089 | | Anderson-Larson will create and document her largest sculpture to date, sharing the process with the public both online and in person. |
A. Andrews, Minneapolis | $ 5,949 | | Andrews will explore ways to increase online engagement and accessibility with their graphic narrative work, and create work rooted in community care, health access, and mutual aid for Minnesotans disproportionately affected by COVID-19. |
Michael T. Asmus, Gaylord | $ 6,000 | | Asmus will present three prerecorded/streamed concerts and events in 2021 to continue to provide high quality arts access in Sibley County and continue to build his audience within that community. |
Karlyn Atkinson Berg, Bovey | $ 6,000 | | Berg will produce video art productions and virtual collage workshops as interactive community art events for northern Minnesota communities in lieu of live events originally scheduled, but no longer possible under Covid restrictions. |
Alison J. Aune, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Aune will create new Nordic inspired artworks to preserve ancestral symbolic patterns and designs. Her work will be accessible online with virtual exhibitions and workshops for all to learn about Nordic cultural art traditions in Minnesota. |
Kirsten M. Aune, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Aune will create screen printed and hand stenciled textiles, sewing small batch items to large-scale wall hangings. Opening a storefront in West Duluth, Aune wishes to share her work with the community and develop workshops for at-risk and homeless youth. |
Leilawa Awadallah, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Awadallah will acquire skills and equipment to explore dance film collaborations as choreographic endeavors where shot composition, movement on-screen, and editing choices carve space for witnessing bodies engaged in diasporic ancestries and activism. |
Alyssa E. Baguss, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Baguss will create a series of new postcard sized drawings during a yearlong residency at Cedar Creek Environmental Science Research Center shared with residents of greater Minnesota through monthly mailings called Slow Data Transmission. |
E.G. Bailey, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Bailey will create an online interview show that will feature artists and community members discussing current issues in the arts, particularly filmmaking and the community. |
Allison J. Baker, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Baker will create new large-scale sculptures and installations to be exhibited locally and regionally in Minnesota. As a longtime teacher, she will work directly with her students to assist in the production of large-scale works. |
Joe Baltich, Ely | $ 6,000 | | Baltich will mentor rural Ely art students in the art of making a living and art entreprenuership. |
Zachary J. Baltich, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Baltich will facilitate the collaboration of a remote recording project between himself, Ritika Ganguly, Ilan Blanck, and Mandy Fassett. |
Leslie E. Barlow, Minneapolis | $ 5,000 | | Barlow will create her first artist book for sale and distribution to connect with audiences and communities outside of physical studio or gallery spaces. |
Tom D. Barna, Eagle Lake | $ 6,000 | | Noted Minnesota playwright Tom David Barna will produce and record multiple original stage plays in an audio video format, performed by noteworthy Minnesota actors. Plays will be posted on several social network platforms. |
Jarrelle Barton, Prior Lake | $ 6,000 | | Barton will connect to the Minnesota community by creating new and accessible online guzheng music content. |
Sarah R. Beahan, Center City | $ 5,785 | | Beahan will write a draft of a book of essays on creativity inspired by her creativity workshop, The Deep Dive. She will concurrently explore and develop ways to host the workshop virtually to reach older adults and rural Minnesotans. |
Amy R. Beaulieu, Ponsford | $ 6,000 | | Beaulieu will teach beading to the youth and community. |
MIchael J. Becker, Cloquet | $ 6,000 | | Becker will explore ways to publish and share his original music online through traditional recording methods and live performances. |
Lina F. Belar, Perham | $ 6,000 | | Belar will explore ways to expand access to Poems of Hope and Reassurance, a project featuring the work of regional poets who have created poems to uplift the spirits of those affected by the pandemic. |
Cate Belleveau, Puposky | $ 6,000 | | Belleveau presents a one-person show based on The Year of Magical Thinking exploring loss and grieving. The audience will be invited to submit visual art with themes of loss, and poets will create poetry to display in tandem at Fleur de Lis Gallery. |
Elizabeth J. Belz, Grand Marais | $ 5,992 | | Belz will explore ways of engaging the northern Minnesota communities in the metal arts through the production and distribution of live streams, prerecorded classes, tutorials, and the documentation of student and personal work. |
Bebe Zahara Benet, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Benet will establish the House of Zahara: a cross-disciplinary support network that gathers artists, develops community, and creates arts opportunities for the public. |
Carla M. Benjamin, Pillager | $ 6,000 | | Benjamin will create twelve encaustic and experimental works and share inspiration and showcase the artworks through brief video artist chats, fostering a sense of appreciation and connection with local arts of greater Minnesota. |
Colleen M. Bertsch, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Bertsch will record Ciprian Porumbescu Choir's warm ups and repertoire from the last three years in a video series and publish them on an online streaming platform to be used as a practice tool for choir members during the pandemic. |
Tiffany L. Besonen, Menahga | $ 6,000 | | Besonen will use her sculpture stories to collaborate with local dancers, and to engage rural residents. |
Nikki Bettcher Erickson, Willmar | $ 6,000 | | Erickson's project will put forth a set of or original theater performances that will create space for artistic growth in our community and build multigenerational bridges among our community members. |
Martha Bird, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Bird will purchase high power studio lights to ensure strong photographic images of her work that are shown in the best light possible as well as set up an online shop to sell her artwork through her website. |
Victoria A. Blanco, Minneapolis | $ 5,799 | | Blanco will facilitate the sharing of Latinx place based storytelling in Minnesota through a native pollinator writing and drawing workshop. |
Alice Blessing, Bemidji | $ 5,773 | | Blessing will present a free painting workshop, relaunch a website, and develop a social media presence. |
Little Bobby, Mcintosh | $ 6,000 | | Little Bobby will record new music to be shared with Minnesota listeners. |
Vie Boheme, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Boheme will create a short dance film adaptation of her one woman dance theater show CENTERPLAY and host digital and live film screenings and panel discussions. |
Archie Bongiovanni, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Bongiovanni works in graphic narrative and is creating Doing The Work: a queer coloring book exploring the idea of work being necessary for us to help others (and ourselves) thrive in an anti-capitalistic and community focused world. |
Essence Bonitaz, Maplewood | $ 6,000 | | Contemporary novelist, Bonitaz, will hire a web developer to design a site for communities to experience her stories beyond borders, access exclusive content, interact with characters, and more! |
Chip Borkenhagen, Aitkin | $ 6,000 | | Borkenhagen will create and exhibit a series of paintings focusing on diverse interactions between indigenous and white cultures. His one-person show will encourage viewers to think differently about our history, our future, and our cultural dynamics. |
Cece Boyle, Duluth | $ 3,737 | | Boyle will explore the landscape of the Superior Hiking Trail through her lens. Telling the stories of the people and places she meets along the way. Her images will be shared through an online medium. |
Kassie Bradshaw Kmitch, Saint Paul | $ 5,100 | | Bradshaw Kmitch will 3D scan the plywood murals and anti-racist street art in the Twin Cities as a way to preserve the ephemera from the civil unrest in 2020. |
Aisha Branch, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Branch will showcase new illustration and design products that will support her initiative in creating financial literacy books for kids and schools in her community. |
Priscilla Briggs, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Briggs will create a quarterly zine series and accompanying online platform that explores issues related to capitalism and economic inequity in the United States. |
Kimberly J. Brown, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Brown will write new work that expands her MFA thesis, AFTER THE BRIDGE FELL: PTSD ESSAYS, to book length and will hold a public reading. |
Kehayr M. Brown-Ransaw, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Brown-Ransaw will explore ways of connecting with Black, queer, and male craft persons to expand local discourse and create a new subjectivity into the canon American quilt making. |
Neegonee B. Brunner, Ponsford | $ 6,000 | | Brunner will explore ways to teach surrounding communities about her Native American culture with her artwork. She will set up online and in person classes. |
Julie A. Buffalohead, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Buffalohead is creating work that addresses social, historical, political, and personal themes to participate in several arts projects across the region. |
D.A. Bullock, Minneapolis | $ 5,615 | | Bullock will explore media arts as healing from trauma, community and personal; how we absorb it, how we deflect it, how we redirect trauma. Bullock also will examine how we deal with absence/presence in the Black community. |
Michael Burgraff, Fergus Falls | $ 5,993 | | Burgraff will produce an online presence through a website giving Minnesotans' an opportunity to explore his craft and product while providing a virtual educational component. |
Blayze J. Buseth, Fergus Falls | $ 6,000 | | Buseth will provide direct and virtual access to three-dimensional art education through a central Fergus Falls ceramic and sculpture workshop. |
Shá Cage, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Cage will use funding to develop and grow her brand as an artist, and launch a workshop and training platform to her community. |
Shelley T. Caldwell, Delavan | $ 6,000 | | Caldwell will create a website to increase audience accessibility to and participation in her work. She will collect images of botanical silhouettes volunteered by fellow plant enthusiasts to incorporate into a new series of works on paper. |
Timothy S. Cameron, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Cameron's project will utilize a storefront as a performance space. With the glass window as the theater's fourth wall, activity inside is an invitation to access the sound picture through an app. It is a COVID ready, new form of theater/performance. |
Bullet Bob Carman, Askov | $ 6,000 | | Carman will work with students of all ages, focusing on children at risk, to enrich their lives through online and safe in person teaching using distancing guidelines. |
Mary J. Casanova, International Falls | $ 5,997 | | Casanova will invest in training and technology to better connect online with audiences of all ages; launch her historical novel, WATERFALL, online in spring 2021; and finish writing her latest novel in progress. |
Marina Castillo, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Castillo will work with Latina women and women of color, including youth and children, creating art that promotes community. |
Chantel Sings, Burnsville | $ 6,000 | | Sings will create an inspirational, short length R & B music of hope project that will reflect on the unfortunate events of 2020 in Minnesota with the intent of uplifting and spreading hope for the future of our communities. |
Karen L. Charles, Golden Valley | $ 6,000 | | Charles will reimagine a new work based on the events of September 11th as a dance film. Charles will use film to maintain a connection to her audience. |
Linda N. Chatterton, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Chatterton will video record her music performances and distribute these to greater Minnesota residents and communities in order to maintain and grow previous connections. |
Shirl Chouinard, Cambridge | $ 6,000 | | Chouinard will develop an art felting vlog that will be easily accessible via social media venues targeting east Central rural communities. The production will consist of ten to twelve episodes culminating in a completed collection of ten to twelve pieces. |
Linda Christianson, Lindstrom | $ 6,000 | | Christianson will be afforded time and materials to work in the studio. Her work will be exhibited and available to the public online. |
Adrean E. Clark, Saint Paul | $ 5,325 | | The skyway system of downtown Saint Paul is a unique structure that is built for human connection. Clark's work magnifies the hidden stories of American Sign Language speaking deaf people and brings them into the skyways. |
MaryAnn Cleary, Cambridge | $ 6,000 | | Cleary will explore ways to engage rural Minnesotans with her artwork by incorporating new art products, tutorials, or workshops online. |
Kacie Clement, Aitkin | $ 4,349 | | Clement's parents instilled a passion inside of her for reading. She began storytelling in writing grants. Upon retirement, Clement now takes her art of storytelling and writes fictional mysteries. |
Vernita Clinton, Minneapolis | $ 3,600 | | We have a disparity problem on so many levels. Clinton will teach community members to make beautiful art and furniture with materials that they may recognize as useless at first. |
Carl L. Clomon, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Clomon will present two original compositions that will inspire and bridge community through gospel music. |
Elizabeth M. Coleman, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Coleman will create and exhibit windows, lights, and sculptures made of porcelain and glass at Potek Glass Gallery in Northeast Minneapolis. An opening reception and series of workshops will also be held there. |
Catherine L. Colsrud, Sandstone | $ 5,981 | | Colsrud will explore ways of presenting her painting sessions of folk art in an online medium. Her work will engage indigenous and other marginalized community members in the Sandstone/Hinckley area. |
Nancy L. Cook, Maplewood | $ 5,995 | | Cook will collect poems, messages, and writing prompts to send to congregate living residents, provide poetry postcards and cards for residents' use, organize five poetry serenades, and curate an anthology of works by residents and local poets. |
Cecilia M. Cornejo, Northfield | $ 5,400 | | Expanding on The Wandering House project, Cornejo will invite Lanesboro and Northfield residents to explore how notions of home have transformed in light of the global pandemic and the uprising that followed the killing of George Floyd. |
Martin L. Cozza, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Cozza will draft a synopsis and new chapters of a middle grade novel and engage a sensitivity reader to discuss the representation of children with chronic illness through the lens of a fantasy world. |
Susanne M. Crane, Albert Lea | $ 5,980 | | Crane will present Solitude, a series exploring aloneness, at the Freeborn County Arts Initiative, 2021. Crane is a painter. Her work is dreamlike and storytelling. She uses vibrant color to express emotional and subconscious archetypes. |
Dee Croaker, Bemidji | $ 6,000 | | Croaker will work toward building online access to her artwork through social media. She will provide a close-up look at her process, knowledge, and experiences. |
Kirstin J. Cronn-Mills, North Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Cronn-Mills will create writing/art workshops for neurodivergent teens and adults. She also will edit her YA novel O IS FOR OUTSIDER and work with Erik T. Johnson to add an illustrated "backword" to the book. |
Tony Cuchetti, Red Wing | $ 6,000 | | Cuchetti finalized an album just before COVID-19. A tour was planned with in person promotional performances, but due to circumstances, work will be shared virtually. He will share his music with his followers in a virtual environment. |
Guillermo Cuellar, Shafer | $ 6,000 | | Cuellar will maintain a robust online gallery and adapt his studio showroom to accommodate Minnesota pottery lovers safely during COVID-19. |
Susana M. di Palma, Robbinsdale | $ 5,470 | | di Palma will extend her educational and artistic communication reach through new technologies during a pandemic. |
Mamadou C. Diallo, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Diallo will use funds to be able to continue working with local creatives to create authentic narratives and produce podcast content as well as jewelry. |
Anthony R. Diaz, Nielsville | $ 5,999 | | Diaz will educate and entertain the community with production gear vis-a-vis social media. He'll stream guitar lessons free to public and perform live sets bimonthly for the duration of the pandemic. |
Teresita E. Diaz, Ponsford | $ 6,000 | | Diaz will explore ways to help youth with different forms of art and help them express themselves in a positive way. |
Paul K. Dice, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Dice will create a website and YouTube channel to stay connected with Minnesotans interested in his music despite the lack of live performance opportunities. |
Joy Dolo, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Dolo will create a piece that will initiate conversations about race in rural cities in Minnesota. |
Adrienne V. Doyle, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Doyle will produce the first draft of a Black queer femme road movie and host a COVID safe, outdoor reading and talk back. |
Sarah J. Drake, Sauk Rapids | $ 2,000 | | Drake will work with students from four schools, using art to connect similarities and differences, increase comfort and understanding of immigration, and enhance cross-cultural experiences. |
Annette Drewes, Bemidji | $ 4,869 | | Drewes will develop an online presence for her nature writing and for her upcoming book on wild rice. Woven into our state's history, natural wild rice, an aquatic grass that fills our bellies and feeds our souls, is threatened by anonymity. |
Pete Driessen, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Driessen will engage rural Minnesotans by installing a permanent, abstract, site specific Wing Dam sculpture in Red Wing, created with Minnesota dolomite limestone reflecting the Cannon and Mississippi River confluence. |
Debra B. Dsouza, Austin | $ 6,000 | | DSouza will craft an exhibit of fifty glass mosaic mandalas, created with older adults. The project will start with a mandala design class, followed by a mosaic workshop, capping with a show at 125 Live, Rochester Arts Center, and Austin Artworks. |
Bonnie DuFresne, Virginia | $ 4,387 | | DuFresne will utilize a new website to engage with the public and art venues online. |
Ann M. DuHamel, Morris | $ 6,000 | | DuHamel will create videos of new solo piano works written for her by Minnesotan composers Jocelyn Hagen and Edie Hill. |
Antonio Duke, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Duke will collaborate with a playwriting mentor to rewrite his solo performance piece MISSING MISSISSIPPI MOONS. The culmination will be performing a virtual in-home, ten-minute excerpt of the new draft which will be posted on Facebook via Zoom. |
Shanaya J. Dungey, Brooklyn Park | $ 5,800 | | Dungey (The Foolish Know It All) will explore ways of exhibiting her wearables pieces and showing her work process on an online platform to connect with broader audiences. |
Mara Duvra, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Duvra will create an artist's book on Black interiority that serves as a meditative resource and considers poetic possibilities for Black life to center rest and collective care as tools for liberation. |
Sophea Ek, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ek will update camera equipment to meet the needs of a broader array of photographic projects, for both personal artistic and community projects. |
Carl H. Elsaesser, Northfield | $ 5,830 | | Elsaesser will finish a short film he started last April but had to put on hold because of COVID-19, and will explore different ways to distribute the film in an online manner. |
Anne-Marie Erickson, Grand Rapids | $ 6,000 | | Erickson will establish a website for her memoir in essays, record excerpts for Stay Human Radio (KAXE/KBXE), and work toward the goal of publication. |
Dawn Z. Erickson, Red Wing | $ 6,000 | | Erickson will exhibit Archive of Observations: Looking Local, a completely new and original collection inspired by Red Wing's historic and natural surroundings. These works will be on exhibit in the windows of the Red Wing Public Library. |
Dominic B. Facio, Fergus Falls | $ 6,000 | | Facio will produce a COVID-19 safe, Catwalk Party performance for the residents of rural Minnesota. This performance will uplift and celebrate LGBTQIA+ culture. All public health and safety precautions will be in place. |
Alisha F. Fagan, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Each child will be able to obtain the appropriate skills to help build their confidence, their self-esteem and courage. They will have the ability to explore opportunities on the entire aspect of different dance cultures. |
Julie M. Fakler, Faribault | $ 6,000 | | Fakler will create both virtual art classes and an online gallery where people can purchase her artwork. |
Carson D. Faust, Hopkins | $ 6,000 | | Faust, an Edisto Natchez-Kusso writer, will work with a writing mentor and a language activist to develop his novel about surviving trauma. He will run remote youth workshops, a reading, and panel discussion about indigenous language revitalization. |
Drue A. Fergison, Lanesboro | $ 6,000 | | Fergison will complete a instrument study and prepare for post COVID live interactive performances of hardanger and regular fiddle music from Sogn, Norway, for seniors, youth, and veterans in rural Fillmore and Houston Counties. |
Selma Fernández Richter, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Fernández Richter will develop her ongoing project about recurrent pregnancy loss and will create a book dummy in collaboration with a designer. |
Joelle M. Fernandez, Fridley | $ 6,000 | | Amidst racialized trauma and the scare of the pandemic, Fernandez is offering a path towards mending the hearts and bodies through hip-hop dance. |
Kristi L. Fernholz, Appleton | $ 6,000 | | Fernholz will create and enhance online methods to present and sell her work to audiences. |
Malcolm Fields, Duluth | $ 4,942 | | Fields will help the underrepresented share their stories, explore creative outlets, and gain skills that will show their vision through film. |
Chad A. Filley, Cambridge | $ 5,250 | | Filley will create stories about Minnesota's Scandinavian immigrants and their descendants to be told at storytelling performances. |
Joan M. Finnegan, Lanesboro | $ 6,000 | | Finnegan will explore new ways of presenting her art online and in her studio within a COVID safe environment. |
Sarah M. Flicek, Delano | $ 5,946 | | Flicek will explore creating an intimate artist connection to Minnesota residents and communities through a professional, engaging, interactive online experience via her website and social media. |
Allen Flowers, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Flowers will facilitate a workshop for local musicians over age 50 with disabilities from diverse communities in which participants create original music that reflects their culture and hope for the future. Music will be performed online and live. |
Paul G. Fonfara, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Fonfara will compose and record an album of new works for the Brass Messengers using cell phones in a distanced manner, reflecting life in the times of COVID-19. The record will be available as a mixed album, notated score, and individual tracks. |
Ashawnti S. Ford, Plymouth | $ 5,500 | | Ford will write and produce an improv sketch podcast that discusses current events while exploring authentic reactions and providing comedic relief for herself and other Black Minnesotan artists. |
Susan A. Foss, Sandstone | $ 6,000 | | Foss will produce mosaics depicting flora native to Minnesota, entwined with flora introduced from European origin. |
Silent Fox, Minneapolis | $ 5,750 | | Silent Fox will present B.E.B.A, a series that shows the struggles and challenges POC may or may not overcome, from the perspective of the artist. The series brings awareness to Minnesota and discusses racism, connecting the information to create an understanding of change. |
Penelope A. Freeh, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Freeh will deepen creative relationships through micro commissions coupled with facilitated community conversations oriented toward racial and social justice inside of artistic practice. |
David F. Friddle, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Friddle's textbook about choral music in the 1800s will be enhanced by providing readers with aural recordings. |
Catherine R. Friend, Red Wing | $ 6,000 | | Friend will draft a memoir with three threads running through it: the end of her farm, her father's Alzheimer's, and how reading nonfiction saved her. She will also explore ways to use social media to reengage Minnesotans in her work. |
Britton M. Fuglseth, Fertile | $ 5,513 | | Fuglseth will learn skills in photography and videography to capture and create edited video projects. |
M E Fuller, Montevideo | $ 6,000 | | Fuller will participate in a yearlong mentee/mentor writing relationship and bring this experience to her community in workshops to help other writers build confidence around sharing their process and work. |
Christi Furnas, Minneapolis | $ 5,950 | | Furnas will create an accessible website and online store with weekly updates about art and mental health. |
Aaron Gabriel, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Gabriel will curate and produce an EP of five new pieces created by Twin Cities BIPOC artists/activists responding to the racial injustice and police brutality that sparked international protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder. |
Cléa Galhano, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Galhano will take courses with a professional of technology, social media, recording, and marketing to keep engaged her my career. |
Ritika Ganguly, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ganguly will create an artist website that catalogues her work and her collaborating community's work. It will be a transcribed repertoire of Baul (Sufi Bengali) music, hosting compositions from musicians in Minnesota and South Asia in this genre. |
Marybeth Garmoe, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Garmoe will create classes in traditional craft areas that can easily transition between in person and online formats to ensure class content remains available to Minnesota communities. |
AK Garski, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Garski will continue a series of drawings and paintings on the topic of consent from a trans inclusive lens and develop a "gender nonconforming survival pack" for trans youth. They will also produce anti-racist curriculum on their website. |
Vance Gellert, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Through portraits and conversations, Street Corner Talking will tell the stories of people who find themselves in dire circumstances and come to street corners with signs asking for donations. |
Anne George, Winona | $ 6,000 | | George will complete a new body of work that will be exhibited at the Rochester Art Center in 2021. These works will explore ideas of connection, disruption, fragility, and tension. |
Kalvin George, Saint Cloud | $ 2,000 | | George will continue exploring new ways to raise the profile of Minnesota through film and photography. |
Catherine Glynn, Lanesboro | $ 6,000 | | Glynn will create a series of short films featuring monologues based in the Driftless Region of southeastern Minnesota. This visual exploration will serve as the springboard for developing her new play, The Root River Anthology: Still Flowing. |
Regan Golden, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | The River Constructs, a series of digital photographs of plants along the Mississippi River, will be exhibited online on my website and distributed as an artist book with a book launch event at Hidden Falls Regional Park. |
Miguel E. Gonzalez, Lakeville | $ 6,000 | | Gonzalez will complete and release his Latin-infused progressive rock album Matteria and broaden his listenership to outstate Minnesota by working with a management consultant. |
Leslea Gooden, Kiester | $ 5,500 | | Gooden will continue to find ways to share her art with the public through gallery shows, county fairs, and online. |
Duane L. Goodwin, Bemidji | $ 6,000 | | Goodwin will provide apprentices an in person arts learning experience from his home studio and gallery. Presentation and work shows will also be scheduled. |
Karen E. Goulet, Bemidji | $ 6,000 | | Goulet will explore experiences with culture, land, and history through New Tributaries on My Misiziibi Detour–visual arts and written word. |
Jessica Grams, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Grams will create a series of work that examines intersections within the experiences of Minnesotans of urban, tribal, and rural communities leading up to and during 2020. |
Margo Gray, Side Lake | $ 6,000 | | Gray will explore methods for delivering on demand interactive audio narratives. |
Christopher E. Griffith, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Minneapolis theater artist Griffith will create a family friendly virtual performance about Cherokee language for the Native American Community Development Institute and the Montessori American Indian Childcare Center. |
Guillermo Guardia, Saint Paul | $ 5,990 | | Guardia will design and create a new series of sculptures influenced by COVID-19 and social justice events in 2020. |
Paula M. Gudmundson, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Flutist, Gudmundson, will create ten video performances of works by Black composers. |
Cynthia A. Guernsey, Brainerd | $ 5,429 | | Guernsey will show others how to bead and utilize that talent to keep the culture alive and, with that talent, other artists will also have a means to generate an income. |
Robert G. Gurrola, Woodbury | $ 6,000 | | Gurrola will create a Web portal that serves as both an artistic skills development tool and showcase for Minnesota Hispanic and other Minnesota underserved artists. |
Alexander P. Gutterman, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Gutterman will complete his second full-length narrative art film called The Hunter and establish an alternative distribution model where the film is shown at local theaters and other virtual screenings throughout Minnesota. |
Kathryn J. Haddad, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Haddad will write a script about planting "magical" Lebanese zucchini seeds during COVID-19. This will eventually be turned into an animated short film with input from the local Arab American community. |
Ayub A. HajiOmar, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | HajiOmar's work explores contemporary matters via the Quran, promoting peace and tolerance while giving the viewer an opportunity to learn more. HajiOmar will use funds to create, hang, research, and promote new work including expanding to online. |
Bradley D. Hall, Granite Falls | $ 6,000 | | Hall will continue to grow as an artist and remain connected to audiences through online platforms. |
Lindsy Halleckson, Robbinsdale | $ 6,000 | | Halleckson will create a series of paintings based on atmosphere, wildfires, and ecological intersectionality. Through an online exhibition and virtual public events, she will engage viewers in discussions about art and environment. |
Joanna Hallstrom, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Hallstrom will work with a creative marketing professional to strengthen her online engagement strategy. She will also develop a window gallery at Tin Top Studios to share her portrait paintings face to face. |
Carla D. Hamilton, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Hamilton will expand upon her Minnesota Nice exhibition with new work, development of an online presence and portfolio, and the printing of a small booklet of her work. |
David Hamlow, Good Thunder | $ 6,000 | | Hamlow will develop and expand his social media based group artwork #coronatessellations where participants create upcycled object collages, photograph, and submit them to Instagram to create a vast online collective pattern. |
Kate Hammer, Roseau | $ 6,000 | | Hammer will explore ways of presenting and selling her pottery at rural northern Minnesota events and offer classes to educate people about the ceramic arts creation process. |
Blongsha Hang, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Hang will write, direct, edit, produce, and provide two screenings of a short film titled First Dance. |
Bryan Hansel, Grand Marais | $ 5,988 | | Hansel will develop two online photography courses and a webinar. |
Holly Hansen, Sebeka | $ 6,000 | | Hansen will offer a series of introductory audio workshops and videos for women, non cis and LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color to build self-confidence and skills related to live sound engineering and audio production. |
Ursula Hargens, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Hargens will develop resources for Minnesota K-12 educators, adapted for online learning, highlighting BIPOC and female ceramic artists. She will create a new body of functional ceramics and develop an online store linked to her redesigned website. |
Nelia Harper, Grand Rapids | $ 5,954 | | Harper will use the grant to engage youth of greater Minnesota in a public art project. |
Christopher E. Harrison, Brooklyn Park | $ 3,600 | | Harrison will be creating an exhibition of paintings and sculpture based on the theme of Black trauma through physical restraint. |
Naomi T. Hart, Saint Cloud | $ 6,000 | | Hart will complete the research and production of two new bodies of work, in a mixed media encaustic process, which are scheduled for exhibition in 2021. |
Sahar Hassan, Saint Paul | $ 5,000 | | Hassan will explore ways of presenting her audio/visual recordings in a virtual setting. |
Nicole A. Havekost, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Havekost will continue to explore figurative soft sculpture presented in her exhibition 'Chthonic' and create an online workshop demonstrating her techniques that can be offered instead of in person programming related to the exhibition. |
Mike Hazard, Minneapolis | $ 4,995 | | For the Pandemic Picture Postcard Project, Hazard will write and mail 365 unique postcards to individuals and create a web blog of a year in our life. A ritual of gratitude, the art will praise good people for good works. |
Scott J. Hebert, Duluth | $ 5,999 | | Hebert will utilize professional equipment to capture performances remotely for later production into improvisational storytelling and podcasting. |
Shaunna Heckman, Duluth | $ 5,451 | | Heckman will participate in an advanced music production workshop, gaining the skills and knowledge to independently create a more refined, polished, and professional sound. |
Stephanie E. Henry, Burnsville | $ 5,228 | | Henry will explore ways of teaching, performing, and composing music through in an online medium. |
Pao H. Her, Blaine | $ 6,000 | | Her will revamp her website to include three interactive zines that she will print physically and distribute around the Twin Cities. |
Paul D. Herwig, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Herwig will create a projection bike to enable him to bring his animation/projection art out from the theaters and into the public space, making unique community connections in the safety of the outdoors. |
Carolyn L. Holbrook, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Holbrook with work with consultant Vickie Benson to coalesce her body of knowledge and experience and plan for a continuing future connecting BIPOC artists with communities. |
Jena T. Holliday, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Holliday will create a new collection of illustrations and develop ways to present the work in an online video series. |
Linda Holliday, Pillager | $ 5,500 | | Holliday will explore ways to display and market her artwork through digital platforms, and lead in the creation of a central Minnesota ceramic artist network. |
Joseph Holt, Bemidji | $ 5,900 | | Holt will complete the transition from reaching his audience live to reaching them through video and permanently add video to his artistic delivery. |
Gao Hong, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Gao Hong will compose a pipa concerto that she will premiere in her debut performance with the Minnesota Orchestra and present lecture demonstrations remotely for Minnesotans. |
Keith Hopkins, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Hopkins will juxtapose spooky stories from the greater Minnesota area with spooky stories from around the world to create a feature film that will premiere in Duluth in 2021. |
Kayleen A. Horsma, Menahga | $ 6,000 | | After launching her online gallery, artist Horsma will invite Minnesota residents periodically to a virtual artist meet and greet featuring new originals and affordable reproductions. |
Daryl Hrdlicka, Westbrook | $ 4,050 | | Hrdlicka is planning to adapt a short play, Sicily Street, to a screenplay and then make a finished movie. |
Kelly Huang, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Huang will direct and produce My Borrowed Name, a documentary about how her family's name changed from Chinese to Lao to come to America. A public screening and discussion will conclude the grant period. She will submit the documentary to film festivals. |
Debra L. Huberty, Mora | $ 6,000 | | Huberty will teach art and ceramic classes in her community, continue to produce online content and videos, and build connections and opportunity with other artists in her community. |
Simon Huelsbeck, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Huelsbeck will make three new sculptures and expand what he is able to do with sculpture so that he can exhibit his work outdoors and engage a wider public. |
Jennifer J. Ilse, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ilse will be revising a dance project collaboration with See Change treble choir so it can be created and performed during the pandemic. |
Benji Inniger, North Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Inniger will create a professionally recorded musical album titled "The Transtheoretical Model" for violin, viola, cello, piano, and electronics. |
Janel N. Jacobson, Harris | $ 6,000 | | Jacobson will replace an aging computer and subscribe to photo editing software in order to continue maintaining the Minnesota pottery web sites for which she is responsible. |
Yonci P. Jameson, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Jameson will produce The Twin Cities Black Queer Creative Directory, an online tool to discover and support Black queer creatives in the Twin Cities, connecting artists to opportunities and to each other while encouraging artistic and cultural collaboration. |
Sarah M. Jaszczak, Shafer | $ 5,500 | | Jaszczak will purchase equipment to teach classes and workshops in her studio and update her website to include a web registration process and online store. |
Thomas Jaszczak, Shafer | $ 6,000 | | Jaszczak will build a new website for students to take virtual topical pottery classes. |
Heidi A. Jeub, Saint Joseph | $ 6,000 | | Jeub will create a new body of abstract paintings inspired by conversations with community members that often go unheard. Each painting will have a written essay that will accompany the work in a final book and online format. |
Deborah K. Jiang-Stein, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Jiang-Stein will complete the stage adaptation of her memoir, Prison Baby, and produce it for prison audiences via virtual delivery. Live performances will occur when possible. |
Tahiel Jimenez Medina, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Medina will create a short film series based on Colombian proverbs titled Dichos and distribute the series through various channels. |
Angela Jimenez, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Jimenez will engage the community thorugh The Racing Age project–photographs and oral histories of elders and their caretakers in group care facilities, documenting the important, untold stories of the seniors and the essential workers disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. |
Diona D. Johnson, Duluth | $ 5,840 | | Johnson will seek to provide online opportunities for listening, interpretation, dialogue, and other forms of engagement through a creative music project AfroGeode, and make opportunities accessible to the greater Minnesota population. |
Julie A. Johnson, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Johnson will present a series of online video performances of her original work. |
Christopher M. Juhn, Burnsville | $ 6,000 | | Juhn will use funds to maintain access to equipment needed to continue to create new journalistic photography for the communities he serves. |
Kristen L. Kaas, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Kaas will create engaging digital online content documenting her work as she designs, weaves, and sews a collection of one of a kind apparel pieces establishing a deeper more intimate and personal connection to the work, process, and maker. |
Linda M. Kachelmeier, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Kachelmeier will upgrade her digital presence through new professional recordings and videos and share them widely through an updated website and social media. |
Dory C. Kahale, Richfield | $ 5,925 | | Kahale will produce a livestreaming platform for musicians, venues, DJs, and fans, creating new revenue streams through fan support, artist collaborations, and tickets and merchandise sales while performing and interacting live. |
Abdirizak M. Kahiye, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Kahiye ('Harbi') will create videos to document the style of Somali music he learned in Mogadishu before the war. The videos will educate future generations and replace some of many records lost in the war. |
Mina Kaiser, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Kaiser would use funds to create a new composition, ideally for symphony orchestra but may also be suitable for a smaller ensemble if there are prolonged effects of COVID-19. |
Patti Kameya, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Kameya will explore ways of engaging readers through an artist website as she writes and researches The Kimono Shop Off Nicollet, creative nonfiction about Japanese Americans in Minnesota. |
Rebecca Kanner, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Kanner will use her writing to explore how Minnesotans suffering from addiction and mental illness are navigating these difficult times. |
Lee R. Kanten, Ortonville | $ 4,732 | | Kanten will acquire the equipment necessary to become a nexus for local musicians to collaborate in a virtual band and grow as musicians and songwriters. |
Lance T. Karasti, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Lance Karasti will vlog or live stream the making of his next two Duluth based feature films during a pandemic and their drive-in theater releases. |
Lissa Karpeh, Coon Rapids | $ 6,000 | | Karpeh will provide creative programs to youth of color that stimulate personal and social development skills during COVID-19 restrictions and social distancing. |
N. M. Kelby, Saint Paul | $ 4,800 | | Kelby will work with underserved communities to create designs and a prototype for a new installation for Landmark Center plaza, Breathing Room. |
John D. Kellen, Willmar | $ 6,000 | | Kellen will archive over 40 years of photographic work spanning the globe. He intends to produce a solo exhibition and create live and online presentations showcasing our shared humanity in spite of real and perceived differences. |
R. J. Kern, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Kern will edit and share a series of documentary vignettes, highlighting life skills learned by youth raising animals for county fair contests in Minnesota. Videos will be released monthly, promoted on social media and the project website. |
Sophia E. Kim, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Kim will engage with readers and writers online in close readings and discussion of The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison, rewrite a manuscript about her early immigrant childhood, and hold a reading. |
Ann Klefstad, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Exploring the relationship between human beings and our place on the planet, creating spaces where animals and humans live together, are key to Klefstad's embedded practice. Klefstad will enable people to both view and make art. |
Janna Knittel, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Knittel will record and post a series of solo readings online and will plan and present an online, public reading at Saint Cloud State University with a diverse lineup of poets. |
Naomi E. Ko, Savage | $ 6,000 | | Ko will create two to three comedic short films and find ways to enhance virtual engagement with the Asian Pacific Islander Desi American community. |
Emily G. Koehler, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Koehler will develop and host virtual workshops and demonstration videos so that all Minnesotans will have the opportunity to learn basic printmaking techniques regardless of geographic location within the state. |
Teresa L. Konechne, Henderson | $ 6,000 | | Konechne will continue learning storytelling for gaming, investigate how stories written from a social change lens can be transformative, and create/present game story workshops in rural Minnesota. |
Matthew Koshmrl, Chisholm | $ 6,000 | | Koshmrl will provide documentary film education to a diverse, rural population on the Iron Range in northeastern Minnesota. |
Chris Koza, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Koza will improve his online streaming capabilities to more effectively engage in workshops and collaboration with students, community members, and senior communities throughout Minnesota. |
Chanda Kraft, Alexandria | $ 6,000 | | Kraft will develop visual arts classes to teach school-age children in Alexandria in safe and engaging ways. Outdoor and online art classes will introduce the community to new visual art learning experiences. |
Jennifer A. Kramer, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Kramer will host a series of virtual screenings of her films that include discussion forums and create a strong social media presence of her films. |
Nyssa J. Krause, Minneapolis | $ 4,950 | | Krause will debut her solo musical project River Widow using various virtual platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Jesse R. Kretsinger, Little Falls | $ 4,782 | | Kretsinger will assemble a documentary about a rural theater company's struggle to safely produce a musical during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Keren Kroul, Plymouth | $ 6,000 | | Kroul will create new works of art and a series of videos and tutorials documenting the studio process. At the end of the grant year, a virtual event will be livestreamed with a display of the finished works, an artist talk, and a Q and A session. |
Amoké Kubat, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Write. Move. Frame: Aging in the times of COVID-19, Protest, and Global UNREST. Kubat presents three new works that explores aging (mind, body, and spirit) in the significant year of 2020 in the genres of writing, dance and movement, and frameable art. |
Ashley A. Kunz, Moorhead | $ 6,000 | | Kunz will explore ways to connect with her community through art installations, classes, and online platforms. |
Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Kwon Dobbs will research the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s Minnesota and write new poems for a book on transracial adoptive kinship and white supremacy. She will organize an online reading and life writing workshop based on her research and writing. |
Bethany Lacktorin, Brooten | $ 6,000 | | Lacktorin will develop site specific, immersive arts experiences for audiences of one or two. These will be open to the public by appointment on an ongoing basis. |
Brook LaFloe, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | LaFloe will create two statement fancy shawl outfits incorporating family and tribal heritage; a teenage regalia honoring missing and murdered indigenous women and adult regalia sharing the origin story of the fancy shawl and relations among Ojibwa people. |
Kate Langlais, Faribault | $ 6,000 | | Langlais will teach online painting and drawing classes from January to May through the Paradise Center for the Arts. |
John G. Larson, Milan | $ 6,000 | | Larson will create and share video content about the creation of new ceramic works through live streaming events and short videos. He will purchase a computer to facilitate the growth of his webpage and the creation of content. |
Sydney V. Latimer, Woodbury | $ 6,000 | | Divinewords (she/they) is a creepy, queer interdisciplinary artist whose macabre art playfully explores death, grief, consumerism, and gender politics. Her postapocalyptic surrealism embraces dark beauty and questions our collective reality. |
Kimberly A. Laudert, Minneapolis | $ 5,930 | | Laudert will collaborate with people living with mental illness to explore and uncover layers of mental health stigma through discussion and culminating in a group felted wall hanging. |
Ashley Lauren, Minneapolis | $ 5,500 | | Artist and photographer from Minneapolis, Lauren's goal is to develop an online publication in an effort to support artists and businesses whose livelihood has been negatively impacted by COVID-19 and the George Floyd tragedy. |
Andrea Leap, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Leap will record new piano and vocal transcriptions of works by Marianna Martines and Maria Teresa Agnesi Pinottini, and present a livestreamed performance/release party with an educational video presentation exploring these works. |
Rita R. LeDuc, Fountain | $ 6,000 | | Using her southeast Minnesota scenic artworks, LeDuc will encourage people to create their own artworks identifying regional environmental jewels and publicize why such jewels matter and how they can be preserved. |
Annette S. Lee, Maple Grove | $ 6,000 | | Lee will create indigenous based mixed media night sky paintings that weave together mind, body, heart, spirit and will come alive through narrative digital art animation. Four seasonal virtual presentations will be designed and delivered. |
Paula J. Littlewolf, Mahnomen | $ 6,000 | | Littlewolf will create a series of twelve large paintings depicting the twelve months using the Ojibwe names and symbols for each month. |
Lydia Liza, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Hoglund will upgrade her personal recording set up in order to allow for relevancy, collaboration, and adaptability within the current climate of the music industry. |
Michael J. Loeffler, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Loeffler will create craft educational resources available in an online format. |
Dodie Logue, Delano | $ 6,000 | | Logue will complete a body of thirty paintings, and research and apply to exhibition opportunities in greater Minnesota, with a focus on healing arts opportunities and rural art centers and museums. |
Jimmy Longoria, Oak Park Heights | $ 6,000 | | Longoria will produce murals for loan to public spaces where people of color wait to receive services. A digital template will be created for ease in informing the recipients of the art, and legal contracts for the loan will be created. |
Longshot, Minneapolis | $ 5,901 | | Longshot will produce a new hip-hop album plus four distinct live performances in historic venues across Minnesota, while giving unique public access to the creation process via online streaming. |
A.P. Looze, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Looze will explore dynamic ways of adapting live performances into film to be showcased online. |
Krystl Louwagie, Marshall | $ 5,988 | | Louwagie will create thirty-five gallery ready pieces, documenting mask wearing, for physical exhibits in Minnesota, as well as an online show space to professionally present the finished project. The space will also serve for her portfolio as a whole. |
Shannon J. Lucas Westrum, Bemidji | $ 5,996 | | Westrum will combine video and live feed social media to create a four-month long virtual basketry and fiber arts exhibition titled All in a Day's Work. |
Oskar Ly, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Ly will develop Hmong indigo batik online workshop content paired with home kits where community members will have the rare opportunity to explore and practice the traditional art form. |
Andrea Lyn, New Ulm | $ 5,918 | | Lyn will develop distanced ways to bring music to Minnesotans in partnership with senior living, veterans service, and other support organizations. |
Tom Maakestad, Marine on Saint Croix | $ 6,000 | | Maakestad will present an exhibition of his new work and a curated collection of works from his father John Maakestad's archives. Maakestad's exploration will include abstract concepts in his father's work and the period from which it evolved. |
Andrew J. MacGuffie, Lindstrom | $ 6,000 | | MacGuffie will create Joy Gardens, a living sculpture installation in the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul. |
Annie M. Mack, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Mack will continue to deliver her brand of original music with honesty, encouragement, and a genuine desire to connect with her audience. |
Laura A. MacKenzie, Saint Paul | $ 5,985 | | MacKenzie will develop and produce programs of traditional music and song for greater Minnesota communities through live and virtual programming. |
Marie K. MacPherson, Mankato | $ 5,910 | | MacPherson, a photographer, will modernize to connect with her current audience, reach new demographics, explore digital techniques, and integrate skills to solicit audience and community feedback through her art. |
Mary B. Magyar, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Magyar will produce and place Smallärt Galleries–mini solar lit, freestanding art galleries-throughout the Rochester area. She will include an equity plan and website to engage neighbors and provide a way for Smallärt facilitators to communicate with one another. |
Shakun Maheshwari, Orono | $ 6,000 | | Maheshwar will create and share her folk art, using video to connect with her students and community and learn, create, and share her art. |
Michael Maiorana, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Maiorana will compose new music for the 10th Wave Chamber Collective to perform live over the Internet from their own homes. |
Brian J. Malloy, Minneapolis | $ 5,890 | | Malloy will read from his new novel, AFTER FRANCESCO, including a discussion of the early years of HIV/AIDS and a craft session on incorporating real events into fiction, at a diverse range of Minnesota arts and service organizations. |
April L. Malphurs, Saint Peter | $ 6,000 | | Malphurs will create glass sculptures and mixed media art. Exploring film, photography, and online platforms she will present her process and art on social media and through virtual artist workshops for students and at risk youth and women. |
Paula L. Mann, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Contemporary choreographer Mann, will create the first half of Toward Utopia, a new evening length work in collaboration with six cross-cultural dancers, composer Asuka Kakitani and a jazz trio, and visual/media artist Steve Paul. |
Avigail Manneberg, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Manneberg will continue to research, create, and exhibit work with themes of home and identity that asks whether ideology and political shifts change meaning for what is called home. |
Roosevelt Mansfield, Minneapolis | $ 5,101 | | Mansfield of DigieMade LLC will ensure high quality and affordable services. He will use his art to continue to teach and reach the youth in his community with special attention to the community members with the least access to funds. |
Sharon F. Mansur, Winona | $ 5,950 | | Winona/Keoxa artist Sharon Mansur will continue curating SHIFT~ performance salons, reimagining artist, audience relationships and event contexts, and offering a creative platform for local artists. |
Anthony P. Marchetti, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Marchetti will complete his photographic project focusing on Morrison County and share the work through physical and virtual exhibitions in Little Falls and Minneapolis. |
Eva Margaret, Willmar | $ 6,000 | | Margaret will create new works that she will exhibit in the rural community of Willmar. |
Elisha A. Marin, Albert Lea | $ 6,000 | | Marin will perform his new folk Americana album, Shining Out, in a digitally broadcast concert at the Paramount in Austin, with notable recording artists including Matt Patrick of Library Studio, Zach Miller, and Aaron Fabbrini. |
Bobby Marines, Rochester | $ 5,505 | | Marines will create several interdisciplinary works exploring Latinx cultural identity and crises, followed by a week-long online exhibition, capstone artist talk, and discussion open to all Minnesota residents. |
Natalie R. Martell, Mankato | $ 5,150 | | Martell will teach online creative writing courses for diverse communities. She also will work on an LGBTQIA+ young adult novel set in southern Minnesota, where she currently lives. |
John M. Matsunaga, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Matsunaga will create a website that will present and address the experiences of Asian American Minnesotans during the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Canaan H. Mattson, Minneapolis | $ 4,100 | | Mattson will continue to document the stories and lives of Minneapolis community members in the wake of brother George Floyd's murder. He plans to continue to partner with small BIPOC businesses to increase their digital presence. |
Claudia R. May, Arden Hills | $ 6,000 | | May will complete her poetry book Birthing Butterflies which examines Black mothers' experiences of love, pregnancy, labor, traumatic surgery, parenting, and nature. May will teach online poetry workshops and perform poems on these subjects. |
Andrea Mazzariello, Northfield | $ 5,535 | | "War Footing", a set of elaborately orchestrated song-poems, adopts a cocreative, collaborative response to crisis times. This project creates space for communication, exploration, and play, and shares that sense of possibility with a wider community. |
Demetrius McClendon, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | McClendon will organize and collaborate with others to facilitate heART healing and empowerment sessions focused on BIPOC participants. |
Chris McCormick, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | McCormick will work toward the completion of his third book, a novel set in southern Minnesota. |
Angela McDowell, Minneapolis | $ 5,050 | | McDowell will present Matter is Black, a virtual album that allows community to record a two-minute dubplate using the music and lyrics. |
Phillip M. McGraw, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | The purpose of this project is to replace the acceptance of unhealthy living in communities of color. This project will promote the definition of what healthy living means and how to remove toxicity that plagues the health of communities of color. |
Shirley A. McGregor, Callaway | $ 5,967 | | McGregor will rent space for studio and classroom for art classes. She will create a Facebook and Instagram following. She will utilize Pinterest, Etsy, eBay, online marketplaces, local art shows and pow-wows to sell her art. |
Cody M. McKinney, Minneapolis | $ 5,855 | | McKinney will finish production on his latest composition, no. 7, to then be pressed on vinyl and distributed to stay connected to audiences and presenting organizations during COVID. |
Kelley Meister, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Meister will adapt ongoing and current participatory art projects to virtual, distant, and at-home versions. |
Benjamin T. Merritt, Minneapolis | $ 5,700 | | Merritt will handprint an edition of poetry books featuring braille translations and audio transcription. These books will be given to adults with disabilities who express interest in the book. |
Andy Messerschmidt, Ely | $ 6,000 | | Messerschmidt will exhibit forty paintings from his "Agroccult" landscape series at the Minneapolis Saint Paul International Airport. |
Jeremy Messersmith, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Messersmith will livestream songwriting workshops in six communities in greater Minnesota. |
Jessica Miller, Braham | $ 5,599 | | Miller will purchase a pugmill to experiment with new clay bodies and create a new series of altered work, engaging the public with this new series through shows and social media. |
Scott L. Miller, Otsego | $ 6,000 | | Miller will create SonAR: Fergus Falls, a soundwalk that emphasizes appreciation for a community's sonic environment, along with an augmented reality smartphone app, delivering an artwork uniquely connected to a location and the listener's place in it. |
Samuel P. Miltich, Grand Rapids | $ 5,600 | | Miltich, a jazz guitarist, will collaborate with vocalist Charmin Michelle on a remote recording project and virtual album release featuring the tradition of protest music. |
Stephanie Mirocha, Aitkin | $ 4,400 | | Mirocha will complete a group of art works and prepare for both online and in person presentation to the public beginning in 2021. |
Michael Monroe, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Monroe will perform four winter live, online streams of his Log Cabin Concerts featuring original music from his log home in Grand Marais. |
Samantha Moon, Saint Cloud | $ 5,449 | | Moon's goal is to keep motivating and staying engaged with my Minnesota audience. |
Briand M. Morrison, Grand Portage | $ 6,000 | | Morrison will write, arrange, produce, and perform original jazz music. |
Alanna Morris-Van Tassel, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Morris-Van Tassel will conduct research for a new piece of choreography; share their dance work virtually; and engage in conversations about the creative process with live and virtual audiences. |
Tami Morse, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Morse will create a personal website designed for community engagement and reach out to communities through creation of videos exploring the harpsichord and solo repertoire. |
Ger Moua, Saint Paul | $ 5,900 | | Moua will write, direct, and edit his short film project called, Sun and Moon to be released in 2021. Moua will explore ways to bring communities together and create a new kind of film worth preserving as a part of Hmong cinema and culture. |
Yeej Moua, Maplewood | $ 5,950 | | Moua will direct and act in a visual album that connects four original songs into one cohesive narrative about depression: the battle of coexistence between culture and the stigma of mental health within the Hmong community. |
Greg Mueller, Lutsen | $ 5,700 | | Mueller will create a sculptural bike rack for the biking community of the new Gitchi-Gami State Trail. |
Patrick M. Mulcahy, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Mulcahy will share his knowledge of architecture and cultural heritage through the art of building and decorating gingerbread in an online format. He will also explore options of creating a digital version of Pepperkakebyen (Gingerbread City). |
Gorinka Music, Blaine | $ 5,990 | | Gorinka will plan, create, and record a collection of six original compositions of ghazals (Urdu poetry) transformed into Hindustani classical raag based romantic songs which she will perform for the Minnesota community. |
Nancy M. Musinguzi, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Visual artist Musinguzi will publish an art book of curated portraits and interviews gathered from local residents originally from Cameroon, India, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Kenya for their second installment of The Letter Formally Known As Q. |
Rita M. Mustaphi, Crystal | $ 6,000 | | Mustaphi will choreograph, create, and produce an original Kathak dance work on a theme of social justice, MASK, that is designed to stream via the Internet to diverse audiences throughout the state of Minnesota. |
Wil Natzel, Owatonna | $ 6,000 | | Natzel will develop a 360 virtual reality exhibition of architectural space exploration devices and incorporate specialized pixel control LED lights and control systems. |
Nathaniel L. Nelson, Winona | $ 6,000 | | Nelson will continue to use filmmaking to help young artists reach new audiences and communities. |
Andy Ness, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Ness will create a series of paintings and drawings inspired by Ojibwe objects and patterns found in the Heritage Visitors Center Museum in Grand Portage. An exhibition of works will be shown complete with discussion and demonstration. |
Thomas P. Newman, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Newman will direct and produce a short film working with other creatives of color in the Twin Cities. |
Aliza Novacek-Olson, Roseau | $ 6,000 | | Novacek-Olson will investigate ways to promote and make accessible the traditional fiber arts in the rural communities of northwest Minnesota and surrounding areas. |
Geno Okok, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Okok will explore creative ways of teaching standard techniques of visual art creation to the youths of his local community via an online medium. |
Valerie Oliveiro, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Southeast Asian choreographer Oliveiro will develop a new work exploring live and virtual performance. |
Kyle D. Ollah, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Ollah will produce high quality instructional videos for students seeking virtual opportunities in the Arrowhead Region which will double as online content available to the greater public. |
Carolyn S. Olson, Duluth | $ 3,500 | | Olson's pastel drawing series began during the COVID-19 pandemic Stay at Home order. Inspired by family members working as essential workers, Olson tells their stories through pastel narrative portraits. |
Eric Olson, Welch | $ 5,788 | | Olson will make more and better artwork for show, sale, or donation, and in the process of those creations learn many more techniques and skills to be able to pass on to others. |
Jennifer L. Olson, Bemidji | $ 3,000 | | Olson and Ana María Otamendi will connect the greater Minnesota community with classical art song by publishing a recorded album of Latin American composers in CD and digital platforms. |
Daniel O. Oyinloye, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | See Me Project empowers photography as a tool for socioeconomic power. This project will photograph professional portraits of BIPOC Duluthians for free to advance our community's access to opportunities. |
Dougie Padilla, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Padilla will upgrade his websites and create a monthly arts newsletter, make visual and literary art, and coproduce a Grupo Soap del Corazon museum tour. He will also publish a new book of poetry and will do readings, if possible to do so safely. |
Lara Palmqvist, Faribault | $ 6,000 | | Palmqvist will stay connected to Minnesota communities and sustain her arts practice by creating a monthly newsletter with craft talks and prompts designed to guide participants in a regular writing practice, and completing and sharing new work. |
Maggie Panetta, Winona | $ 6,000 | | Panetta will continue to pursue her printmaking practice and incorporate additional mural work into southeastern Minnesota. |
Yan Pang, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Pang will produce a video performance blending opera with street dance, creating opportunities for Minnesota performers to work remotely. |
Charlie Parr, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Parr would like to create a new full-length album that centers around the initial impressions of the places through which he traveling. Much of this would be written on the road when traveling. |
John C. Paulson, Winona | $ 5,900 | | Paulson will collaborate online and in person with other artists to compose music for a new jazz CD. He will also produce and record a livestreamed version of his "What Is Jazz?" lecture demonstration. |
A Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Pavan will work with an experienced video editor to produce new instructional videos and a show reel on the art of tabla playing. With this, Pavan will gain a strong promotional tool allowing him to reach new audiences, students, and collaborators. |
Pooja G. Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Pavan will work with an experienced video editor to produce new show reels and edited videos from raw footage of her earlier live performances. Through this, she will gain a strong promotional tool allowing her to reach new audiences. |
Antoine Perkins, Brooklyn Park | $ 4,400 | | Perkins has a history of bringing high level art to the creative community in Minnesota with events that have supported black creatives and provided stakeholders with a quality platform to display their modes of expression. Perkins will continue this effort through the recording and releasing of new music. |
Cole B. Perry, Bovey | $ 5,880 | | Perry will create a Web based exhibition of new work exploring the impact of the pandemic on rural northern Minnesota communities. |
Rosetta M. Peters, Marine on Saint Croix | $ 6,000 | | Peters will record a collection of her original poetry with original musical accompaniment and release it online with an outdoor, distanced release performance event in 2021. |
Lois K. Peterson, Dakota | $ 6,000 | | Peterson will deliver and install rescheduled exhibitions, keeping connected to a community in a rural area and developing new ways to network with opportunities, audiences, artists, and the community. |
Miirah Petrus-Raaum, Minneapolis | $ 3,690 | | Raaum will use fabrication to create space for black healing. |
Kevin J. Phillips, Bloomington | $ 6,000 | | Phillips will educate others on the effects of profiling through his book Driving While Black; A Memoir of Profiling. |
Niphone Phommaras, Saint Paul Park | $ 6,000 | | Phommaras will engage learners in Laotian traditional dance. |
Nell Pierce, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Pierce will interview people in their queer community about how they are taking care of themselves and each other during COVID-19 and the uprising, codevelop a virtual workshop, and create a collage on themes of resilience that arise. |
Viviana Pintado, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Pintado will engage and connect with her audience via frequent online posts of current and past creative content. |
Wendy S. Placko, Northfield | $ 5,800 | | Placko will continue to create original scripts and films locally. She will share her artistic process through stories and virtual discussions with an expanded online audience to build her community of art appreciators and collaborators. |
Mary Plaster, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Transdisciplinary artist Plaster will explore ways of presenting her creative projects in an online medium and purchase necessary equipment and training in order to continue connecting with Minnesotans. |
Zachary S. Ploeger, Pipestone | $ 6,000 | | Ploeger and Miriam Hickman will present a classical trumpet and piano recital tour while adhering to necessary safety measures during the coronavirus pandemic. |
Ocean C. Poet, Saint Paul | $ 4,441 | | Poet will teach an online poetry class to give the community the opportunity to step away from the chaos in our world, and to focus on being creative poetically. |
Lynette R. Power, Winona | $ 6,000 | | Power will reopen Rivertown Pottery and Sculpture with the help of paid supporting artists. |
Mary Prescott, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Prescott will connect with Minnesota audiences through virtual community engagement events, work in progress showings, and artist discussions. She shares her own art, art making process, and social influences and their impacts on her work. |
Nghia Quach, Prior Lake | $ 6,000 | | Quach will complete a new body of work, explore new venues of exhibition regionally, and establish an online presence. |
Shruthi Rajasekar, Plymouth | $ 6,000 | | Rajasekar will create a cross-cultural composition for Maithree and share the process publicly. |
Preeti K. Rajpal, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Rajpal will present her poetry on an online medium. |
Aparna Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ramaswamy will create a project of word, music, movement, and film that brings to life the immediacy of South Indian Tamil poetry through the performing arts, drawing equally from the musicality of each word and the embodiment of each phrase. |
Ashwini Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ramaswamy will create a dynamic educational series that combines live online classes and prerecorded three hundred and sixty degree video tutorials to bring her thirty-plus years of Bharatanatyam experience to people throughout Minnesota. |
Ranee A. Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ramaswamy will acquire tools needed to maintain her dance practice during the pandemic, as well as work to translate and make her notes available for future use. |
Aegor Ray, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ray will complete the manuscript of his trans speculative fiction short story collection and create a series of online workshops for and by queer/trans, BIPOC writers in Minnesota to learn generative skills outside of their genre or medium. |
Raymond Rea, Moorhead | $ 5,120 | | Rea plans to provide S8 cameras and film to transgender people in rural areas as a way of adapting creative work on rural transgender experiences to the changing environment. |
Andrea E. Reed, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | The Streets Are Talkin' is a multisensory project comprised of audio interviews and portraits of Black Twin Cities residents fighting for the liberation of Black people in the wake of police shooting deaths of unarmed Black men in the Twin Cities. |
Randy Reyes, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | ESSENTIAL is a theatrical experience in a live drive-in space, about two people meeting face to face for the first time during a global pandemic and extreme social unrest, told dynamically through language, movement, and music. |
Connor K. Rice, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Rice (CRICE) will lead a team of artists of color on a collaborative series of projects exploring intersectionality. The programs will be unique in both subject matter and how they react to the challenges of showing art post COVID. |
Donna J. Rice, Delano | $ 6,000 | | Rice will upgrade her glass studio photography equipment and some essential glass grinding tool components. |
Ashley Richardson, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Richardson will complete new poems and micro essays for an in progress collection. She will host two virtual or in person readings and work with emerging Minnesota artists of color to create broadsides of select poems. Artwork will be shown in local storefronts. |
Deneane Richburg, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Richburg will deepen her connection with Minnesota Black communities by strengthening her creative practice and her artistic work. |
Alexander Richter, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Richter will explore ways of presenting his work through music videos. The songs and videos he makes will contain influence from Latin culture aimed at engaging more Latino Minnesotans in music. |
Kylie A. Rieke, Fairfax | $ 6,000 | | Ceramic artist and muralist, Rieke will hire Lime Valley Advertising Inc. to design a logo and develop a website that will advertise her new pottery studio, market her pottery and murals, and virtually connect her to the community. |
Rachel Ries, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Ries will adapt to reach audiences through live streamed performances, and will explore ways to modify rehearsals with her sixty-plus member community choir, Kith + Kin using digital tools to serve the choir and their wider community throughout Minnesota. |
Richard L. Robbins, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Robbins will connect with greater Minnesota readers through online readings, workshops, and a new audio/visual archive at his website. |
Jamie Robertson, Wadena | $ 6,000 | | Using landscape photographs called "inscapes" Robertson will build a connection between residents of rural Minnesota and their environment through gallery and online exhibitions, social media, newspapers, and television. |
Gabriel B. Rodreick, Minneapolis | $ 5,900 | | Rodreick will create and record music that will be performed and filmed live, then posted online. |
Carla A. Rodriguez, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Rodriguez will make a book collecting all of the portraits she made using the wet plate or tintype technique at the George Floyd memorial site. |
Damian Rodriguez, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Rodriguez will increase his creative profile by developing an artist website. He will further engage with audiences by creating and posting new content onto social media as well as releasing never before seen concert footage and images. |
Maribeth Romslo, Edina | $ 6,000 | | Romslo will produce an audio storytelling series about how the pandemic is impacting youth in Minnesota. She will share the stories on a website that is dedicated to the project and available to the public for listening and engagement. |
Valerie Rose, Eagan | $ 6,000 | | To facilitate healing and understanding, Rose gives an online voice to the community. The art of storytelling is amplified in THE LISTENING SESSION Web series, which invites the community to share their stories and discuss their experiences. |
Laura E. Ruprecht, Saint Cloud | $ 5,950 | | Ruprecht will create a new body of work to be presented through an artist website, social media platforms, and exhibitions to gain a wider audience. |
Patti J. Ruskey, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Ruskey will create small artworks to be printed and distributed for free public access. These works will be about our current conditions and the hope we can share. |
Peyton Scott Russell, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Russell will develop online lesson plans for three components of his graffiti arts education program, SPRAYFINGER, to foster opportunities for continued engagement with communities, schools, and students throughout Minnesota. |
Patrick M. Ryan, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Ryan will offer several links to the video production of the show, The Humor of Pat Ryan and Parkinson's. |
Megan Rye, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Rye will develop the public art project Foundling, an unwavering statement in support of America as a nation of immigrants. Foundling bears witness to immigration history, proves the potential of democracy, and questions our uneven system of granting citizenship. |
Zak Sally, Minneapolis | $ 5,086 | | Sally will use his Risograph printer and studio on a monthly basis as a free resource for underrepresented voices and creators in the metro community. |
Robyn Sand Anderson, Redwood Falls | $ 6,000 | | Anderson will create short art videos on how to use paint to heal, vent and express during this pandemic, as well as build a body of original 12 x 12' paintings, to be priced affordably for those with lower incomes or those who have lost income. |
Dave Sandersfeld, North Mankato | $ 5,825 | | Sandersfeld will utilize music industry professionals to promote his newly released album, gain notoriety in the Minnesota music culture, and connect his art to the community. |
JC Sanford, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Trombonist, Sanford will produce a CD and digital jazz recording with his Imminent Standards Trio to take the place of their usual monthly performances at Imminent Brewing in Northfield which has been halted by COVID-19. |
Betsy D. Saurdiff, Grygla | $ 5,794 | | Saurdiff will launch a website that will provide a single destination where people can engage with her pottery. The website will act as a hub to Facebook, Instagram, and Shopify. |
Kathryn D. Savage, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Savage will continue meaningful community conversations and sustained research about industrial pollution in Minnesota, remotely and online, in the service of final drafting and building an audience for her first lyric essay collection. |
Judith A. Saye-Willis, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Saye-Willis will identify and implement methods to engage with students, clients, and area residents that have interest in learning how to use materials from nature for dyes, paint, and ink colorants. |
Fatawu Sayibu, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Sayibu will invest in equipment and studio space to ensure affordable, safe, and quality in person and online access to African drum, dance, and culture for K-12 students, community members, and members of Tiyumba African Drum and Dance Company. |
Colin S. Scharf, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Scharf will purchase sound recording equipment to produce his first solo album of original songs. |
Cecilia M. Schiller, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Schiller will purchase computer and photography equipment, and hire a consultant to help her create promotional videos and coordinate her online presence to maximize artist and audience connection. |
Nicholas D. Schleif, Milroy | $ 6,000 | | Schleif will use the grant to create a body of work related to Minnesota, its culture, and its people. |
Naomi R. Schliesman, Fergus Falls | $ 4,656 | | Schliesman will build a website that will host her portfolio, achievements, videos, collaborations, and exhibitions, along with exploring new mediums to create a new body of work that can be posted on her website for 2021. |
Serenity Schoonover, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Schoonover will engage marginalized Minnesotans during the grant season in the arts through a weekly ceramics workshop at the Damiano Center in Duluth. |
Teresa M. Schumaker, Winona | $ 5,963 | | Schumaker will advance her understanding of the micro crystalline formation in sprayed glazes developed in the slow cooling of the kiln on porcelain clay. |
Patrick E. Scully, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Scully will produce Patrick's Pandemic Cabaret to serve artists and audiences and lay the groundwork for once again touring Leaves of Grass - Illuminated to greater Minnesota. |
Luverne G. Seifert, Saint Anthony | $ 6,000 | | Seifert will collaborate with two artists to create site specific performances on two female run family farms in greater Minnesota. |
Christopher M. Selleck, Robbinsdale | $ 6,000 | | Selleck will create a small, full color catalog of his artwork which will include critical essays from regional writers. This will be distributed to libraries, galleries, and nonprofits throughout the state. |
April L. Sellers, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Funding will support final development, performances, and audience engagement activities of choreographer April Sellers' Rumble Strips, an outdoor performance and video blog premiering in Minnesota at Tofte Lake Center in Ely in June 2021. |
Laura M. Sellner, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Sellner will work with Minnesota based artists and businesses to release the third album by Superior Siren; a solo EP featuring Sellner's original songwriting, vocals, and instrumentation. Following the release, she will perform throughout Minnesota. |
Andrea R. Shaker, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Shaker will connect and engage with Minnesota audiences through aligning her studio's presence on multiple online platforms, including creating and promoting virtual artist talks and interviews. |
Meggan D. Shepard, Nisswa | $ 5,690 | | Shepard will explore bringing dance and movement to her community and beyond with online dance and meditation classes. |
Crown Shepherd, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Shephard, an emerging Black writer, will finish her second children's book, continue to donate both books, set up free author visits for underserved schools, and expand her book club. |
Susan M. Shields, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Shields will use virtual technology and art kits to teach those currently living in Minneapolis parks to draw and paint and discuss how art history is changing. |
Sun Yung Shin, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Shin will complete a new poetry manuscript based on her immigration and citizenship history and documents in the larger context of U. S. nation making. |
Mehdi Shokoueinejad Maragheh, New Brighton | $ 6,000 | | Maragheh will edit and present a series of videos highlighting natural spaces and lifestyles in the Middle East for the general public to learn about nature and culture beyond negative stereotypes in the media. |
Sima Arts, Marshall | $ 6,000 | | After Wewetzer completes her project in her studio and gallery, her art will be connected to our community by providing art exhibitions and art classes. |
Rosy Simas, Minneapolis | $ 5,985 | | yödoishëndahgwa' (a place for rest) is a month-long installation by Native artist Simas at Hair and Nails Contemporary Art Gallery in Minneapolis that includes performance and dialogue for audiences online and in person. |
Jessica Smith, Cloquet | $ 6,000 | | Smith will create "Dreamcatchers for Hope and Healing" for families and survivors of missing and murdered indigenous people. |
MR. Smith, Eagan | $ 6,000 | | Smith will exhibit artwork inspired by the Rondo community and donate a sculpture to the City of Saint Paul that represents the first black community in Minnesota. |
Pamela J. Smith, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Smith will explore online artistic connection with Minnesota communities by developing her writer's website, creating a monthly blog, and offering virtual readings from her two books in progress titled Edgewalker and Memoir of a Female Academic. |
Rose J. Smith, Eagan | $ 6,000 | | Smith will create a series of large-scale oil paintings of black men inspired by the men in her life. |
Wilhelmina W. Smith, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Smith will perform and video record outdoor concerts in greater Minnesota, making them available online, and will distribute to long-term care and assisted living facilities throughout Minnesota. |
Sue Smith-Grier, Brainerd | $ 5,970 | | Smith-Grier is an emerging children's author, using her experiences as a person of color living in greater Minnesota to inform her stories. With roots in storytelling, she will create entertaining and educational stories for school-age children. |
Moheb Soliman, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Soliman will take his new book of poems, HOMES, on the road for outdoor readings on the North Shore, engaging communities safely in the COVID-19 era and connecting with them right where his book dwells, in Great Lakes natural and cultural spaces. |
Adama Sow, Hopkins | $ 6,000 | | Sow will work to bring more communities of color into the ceramic arts as he strives to maintain his studio during this unprecedented time with COVID-19. As an African artist, he wants to see more people of color working with clay. |
Jovan Speller, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Speller will adapt her studio space and practice to allow for live, virtual streaming of studio activities and implement protocols for safe in studio experiences. |
Steffan A. Spencer, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Spencer will produce multimedia projects such as documentaries and photo-essays to share with Minnesotans, allowing him to stay engaged by shifting his work online via Zoom, YouTube, and other online platforms, and eventually share his work in person. |
Dylon D. Starr, Rochester | $ 5,476 | | Starr will produce a soundtrack for an original musical that he cowrote and musically arranged so that Minnesotans may enjoy a theatrical experience without attending a live event during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Michele M. Steffen, Spicer | $ 6,000 | | Steffen will create a series of figurative paintings and corresponding narrative for live or virtual public presentation. |
Sarah Stonich, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Stonich will collaborate with a professional videographer to produce a one-minute video to accompany the virtual launch of her novel, Reeling, in autumn 2021. She'll also improve her home video studio. |
Ryan Stopera, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Filmmaker Stopera seeks to evolve his practice in the pandemic by developing new skills in livestream, mixed media production to create new collaborative work, and create safe and accessible livestreamed events for community engagement. |
Kevin L. Strauss, Rochester | $ 6,000 | | Strauss will research, plan, and present writing workshop series and storytelling performances online. Workshop participants will receive online group instruction and individual e-mail or video feedback on their writing. |
Joko Sutrisno, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Sutrisno will develop ways to continue gamelan music program through video lessons and reduced capacity rehearsals. |
Adam P. Swanson, Cloquet | $ 6,000 | | In the Lake Superior watershed, people are acutely concerned about our relationship with water and the environment. Swanson's mural and corresponding work is based on recent collaborations with scientists in the region. |
Will Swanson, Harris | $ 6,000 | | Swanson will digitally present useful pottery to a widening, online audience. |
Kaysone Syonesa, Brooklyn Park | $ 6,000 | | Syonesa will engage and increase theater arts access for the Southeast Asian communities using mobile street theater. |
Zahra N. Tafarrodi, Plymouth | $ 5,500 | | Tafarrodi will conduct research for a book proposal, collecting the experiences of immigrants to the U. S. who left their country under force, and learn how they coped by making art. |
Timothy C. Takach, Big Lake | $ 5,040 | | Takach will provide Minnesota schools with music composition distance learning content. He will present online lectures to school-age students throughout Minnesota and will provide materials and post lecture assessments for further engagement. |
Maria C. Tavera, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Tavera will purchase supplies and equipment necessary to sustain her creative practice and to organize a Minnesota Latinx artistic community event. |
Gino Terrell, Maple Grove | $ 6,000 | | Terrell will direct, produce, and edit a thought-provoking short film submitted to local film festivals. The film will touch on social injustice and systemic racism to ignite conversations relevant to issues the local community faces. |
Bryan D. Thao Worra, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Worra will use funds to explore innovative audience connection and engagement strategies for poets among Minnesotan refugees. |
Kao Lee Thao, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Lee Thao will explore a new body of work inspired by Hmong folktales and textiles to create the first Hmong themed virtual online gallery space. The gallery will debut a Hmong artist group exhibition, in a social distance free gallery. |
Law Thao, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Thao will create a cultural multimedia installation presenting the importance of Southeast Asian Hmong identities through personal narratives, revisiting one's own self-discovery process and how to hold on to cultural roots. |
Mary Therese, Bemidji | $ 6,000 | | Therese will engage members of group homes and nursing facilities in drawing their visions, hopes and dreams. These pieces will be incorporated into a community collage and serve as inspiration to the artist in the painting of a public mural. |
Rene Thompson, Andover | $ 6,000 | | Thompson will create 52 videos on Afro-Cuban dance to be shared weekly online. Additionally, he will engage audiences online via an updated website and a new Facebook artist page. |
Morgan Thorson, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Thorson will research solo dancing with livestreaming technology and end capture, creating a new movement language that reflects our times and offering a public sharing to the community based on her findings. |
Yuki Tokuda, Minneapolis | $ 3,857 | | Tokuda will create a live performance at Peavey Plaza to celebrate dance, music, and culture in Minnesota. |
Joshua S. Tolkan, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Tolkan will document the designs and stories of historic boats from around Minnesota. He will publish these designs in an accessible format to educate the public about the history of boatbuilding in the area and inspire builders to recreate history. |
Gaelynn Tressler, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Tressler will provide real time captioning for all of her weekly YouTube shows to ensure they are accessible to deaf, hard-of-hearing, and neurodiverse audience members in Minnesota and beyond. |
Solomon J. Trimble, Proctor | $ 6,000 | | Trimble, in partnership with Minnesota tribal artists will create a 10-episode Ojibwe language show, reminiscent of Sesame Street, for intermediate language learners. |
Lisa S. Truax, Winona | $ 6,000 | | Truax will create and exhibit ceramic sculptures based on abstractions of the local environment, incorporating local and recycled materials. She will hold two greater Minnesota exhibitions and at least one online artist talk. |
Joshua James Benjamin Truelove, Pequot Lakes | $ 6,000 | | Truelove will build a kiln in order to explore and create ceramics. |
Kelli Rae Tubbs, Chisago City | $ 6,000 | | Tubbs will interact with drummers through public events in rural communities and engage with students and learners of all ages online. |
Chitra Vairavan, Minneapolis | $ 5,500 | | Vairavan will focus on artistic residencies, research and development, website development, and marketing in the areas of dance and interdisciplinary embodiment. |
Mar Valdecantos, Northfield | $ 6,000 | | Anti-racist work is also writing. Valdecantos will use her own writing on southern Minnesota prairie farms to work with emerging immigrant and refugee talent. She will mentor and support them with public performances as a goal. |
Claudia A. Valentino Cid, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Valentino will collaborate with Latinx artists and community leaders to create large-scale, publicly accessible artwork that explores and documents the Latinx community's response to challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. |
Mimi Van Ausdall, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Iimuro Van Ausdall will revise her essay manuscript and query agents. |
Fue Vang, Woodbury | $ 5,950 | | Vang will branch into content creation through recording process and tutorial videos. |
Kazua M. Vang, Cottage Grove | $ 6,000 | | Vang will write and direct a short film about a Hmong American teen who has to chaperone her older sister around men. Vang will host a virtual screening to the public with a Q & A session. |
Adan M. Varela, Minneapolis | $ 5,986 | | Varela will connect communities via uniting two Minnesota artists who do not know each other to talk about their craft, inspirations, and projects in a monthly webisode. |
Pramila Vasudevan, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Vasudevan will pursue a community engaged artistic research process by hosting a series of conversations with six Minnesota based Asian American artists/culture bearers, unpacking complex questions around ethical cultural production. |
Moira I. Villiard, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | Villiard will hire apprentices to assist her in a wide range of public art projects in the coming year, including the implementation of the community murals dedicated to Chief Buffalo in Duluth. |
Saymoukda D. Vongsay, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Vongsay will interview Southeast Asiamericans who identify as "motherland orphans" and work with a dramaturg to develop a new full-length play, culminating in a public online conversation and table reading with Southeast Asian actors. |
Oanh Vu, Minneapolis | $ 5,300 | | Vu will create a full-length puppet show and perform excerpts of it for a live audience. |
Dan Wahl, Walnut Grove | $ 6,000 | | Wahl will create a virtual version of a public participatory art exhibit that encourages people to draw horse pictures. Engagement will be made via social media which will also serve as a virtual art gallery. |
Rory E. Wakemup, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Wakemup will do research for a visual art project through community listening sessions engaging Native American elders from AIM, Old Soul Patrol, and members of Native Lives Matter on the topic of experiences with law enforcement and community led alternatives to policing. |
Cortney M. Walbridge, Princeton | $ 5,992 | | Walbridge will document her experience learning the art and history of stonecutting. She will share this experience with the residents of greater Minnesota to create access to the instruction and rich cultural history of this art form. |
Chris Walla, Moorhead | $ 6,000 | | Walla will utilize grant funds to purchase material for new work and for the creation of a new website. |
Lindsey Waller, Red Wing | $ 6,000 | | Waller seeks to make a historically queer archival artifact for the queer community as a queer artist. |
Chamindika K. Wanduragala, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Wanduragala will share on social media her explorations in modular synthesis as sound design for her shadow puppet stop-motion. |
Sarah E. Warren, Minneapolis | $ 5,982 | | Warren will host virtual community story times with diverse guest readers. Prerecorded interviews will promote guest events. Interviewees will highlight mentor texts and Minnesota spaces and artists that inspire their work. |
Maya Washington, Plymouth | $ 6,000 | | Washington will explore avenues for digital and broadcast presentation of her films to continue engagement of Minnesota audiences. |
Stephanie E. Watson, Minneapolis | $ 5,990 | | Children's book author Watson will volunteer in 826 MSP's virtual writing support programs for kids, create a promotion strategy for the 2021 launch of her book Pencilvania, and revise a 30,000-word middle-grade novel in progress. |
Miriam E. Webber, Bemidji | $ 4,000 | | As part of a larger project aimed at supporting emerging women composers, Webber will perform and record recent and commissioned chamber music by women composers. |
Brad Wegscheid, Wadena | $ 6,000 | | Wegscheid will research and build a hunt style series of outdoor sculptures that encourage travel and art via an interactive map. The use of technology, travel, art appreciation, and adventure will encourage creative family fun. |
John A. Wells, Red Wing | $ 6,000 | | Wells will make and exhibit a new series of nine smaller paintings focused on geometric forms, lines, and materials. This exhibition will be presented at Red Wing Arts and online through its website, and through multiple other online sites. |
Paul B. Wenell Jr, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Wenell Jr will utilize storytelling and hip-hop performance as vehicles for engaging all ages on financial literacy during online events in indigenous communities. |
Tony Wentersdorf, Minneapolis | $ 2,970 | | Wentersdorf will publish a memoir detailing his two-and-a-half year stay in a residential treatment center for mentally ill adults, which will be made available via mail through virtual events with mental health organizations and bookstores. |
Chuck Weygand, Akeley | $ 6,000 | | Weygand will make and exhibit wooden bowls that reflect his rural Minnesota roots. He will use sustainable resources and draw on experiences of many generations to engage people of outstate Minnesota in this rustic art via in person and virtual art shows. |
Delina L. White, Walker | $ 6,000 | | White, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, will explore the seven Anishinaabe values through her wearable art designs inspired by the Great Lakes Woodlands culture in a video featuring the breathtaking seasonal landscape of Minnesota. |
Melissa R. Wickwire, Grand Marais | $ 6,000 | | Wickwire will purchase equipment to enable her to continue her community engagement work while adapting to the unknown and unexpected. |
Gregory T. Wilkins, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Wilkins will create and exhibit six new mixed media works which will be part of a larger solo exhibition of thirty-plus pieces at the Mankato History Center in Mankato. |
BriiNoir Williams, Robbinsdale | $ 6,000 | | Williams is a self-taught artist giving back to urban community and low-income youth, continuing to make healing the center of her work, and constantly pushing the boundaries of creativity while placing a lens upon black and brown struggles and ways to be celebrated. |
Maia Williams, Winona | $ 5,888 | | Williams will explore innovative ways of presenting multimedia installations to a rural Minnesota audience. |
Mark A. Wilmes, Tyler | $ 6,000 | | Wilmes will work to create a play bringing to light the danger of losing small-town newspapers throughout the state and country. |
Bennie Wilson, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Wilson will create meaningful video content that celebrates the Twin Cities diversity by highlighting the journey of BIPOC business owners and their significant impact on the community. |
Diane E. Wilson, Shafer | $ 6,000 | | Wilson will create online companion projects and a compelling presentation to support her new novel, The Seed Keeper. |
Amanda M. Wirig, Mankato | $ 6,000 | | Wirig will create a large-scale mural on the Mahowald Building in Old Town Mankato. |
Aby Wolf, Minneapolis | $ 6,000 | | Wolf will explore new ways to share her music to stay connected with audiences during COVID, and develop necessary relationships in the music industry through the promotion of her new record, Champagne Confetti. |
D. Helene Woods, Monticello | $ 6,000 | | Woods will explore methods for expanding audience engagement in online and digital formats in support of her work documenting the experiences of COVID-19 patients and medical workers. |
Randy K. Xiong, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Xiong will create and showcase a short film, Hmoob Soul, online. The short film is about Xiong and his family's dwindling food truck business, searching for someone to either revitalize it or to buy out the business altogether during rough times. |
Bee X. Yang, Cannon Falls | $ 6,000 | | Yang will secure time to compose original Hmong song poetry in the pandemic, record, and post the songs on YouTube so the Hmong community and other Minnesotans can access his songs and learn of the form. |
Dan Yang, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Yang, a local Twin Cities filmmaker, will develop and finalize a script based on the 2006 case of Fong Lee, followed by a public reading. |
Kao Yang, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Yang will engage with Minnesotans by focusing on arts and arts access and arts education. She will work on a new book and provide three accessible virtual events to diverse Minnesotans. |
Leah H. Yellowbird, Grand Rapids | $ 5,966 | | Yellowbird will strengthen her ability to engage and build relationships with Minnesota audiences through the creation of a custom website. |
Stephen J. Zapf, Sauk Rapids | $ 5,746 | | Zapf will pass on his knowledge of creating a stand up paddle board for the first time to an individual and his family for future class instruction. |
Ehkhudah S. Zar, Saint Paul | $ 6,000 | | Zar will write a play based on an ancestry folk tale of the Karen people. |
Samuel J. Zimmerman, Duluth | $ 6,000 | | In collaboration with a native owned publisher, Zimmerman will publish a bilingual book featuring 60 paintings accompanied with Ojibwe stories in order to preserve and share oral histories of Minnesota north shore communities. |
Christopher R. Zlatic, Rice | $ 5,886 | | Zlatic will broadcast his and fellow artists' studio practices via live streaming online platforms. |
