FY 2020 Grantees

Artist Initiative

Project grants for artists at all stages of their careers, to support artistic development, nurture artistic creativity, and recognize the contributions individual artists make to the creative environment of the state of Minnesota

Awards grouped below by discipline.

Dance

Number of grants awarded:	5
Total dollars awarded:	$ 49,990

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Jennifer J. Ilse, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Ilse will create a workshop performance in collaboration with See Change Treble Choir about aging women in western culture.
Rita M. Mustaphi, Crystal	$ 10,000
Mustaphi will choreograph and perform "Ganga to Mississippi" A Confluence of Waters, a new dance work about her relationship with these magnificent rivers from her childhood in India to her adult life in Minnesota.
Ashwini Ramaswamy, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
This project will allow Ramaswamy to innovate with choreographic methods, open new avenues to create work for nonBharatanatyam dancers and companies, and show the vast creative potential of an ancient, culturally rooted art form.
Scott E. Stafford, Minneapolis	$ 9,990
Stafford presents BUBBLEGUM: an exploration of transcendence via disco poetry. Gallery space as dance floor, dance floor as sacred spectacle, BUBBLEGUM chews on pop artifice to caulk the dissonances that divide us.
Taja Will, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Development and research for Blood Language, a new dance directed by queer, Chilean choreographer Will.

Media Arts

Number of grants awarded:	18
Total dollars awarded:	$ 171,676

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
John M. Akre, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Akre will create My Northeast and Yours, a film essay combining documentary and community created collage animation about the making and remaking of place in Northeast Minneapolis.
E.G. Bailey, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Filmmaker E.G. Bailey will complete a feature film about this return home to Liberia after twenty years in the U. S.
Daniel P. Bergin, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Bergin will create short, place based histories and share them in community through interactive, immersive, live documentary screenings.
Shá Cage, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Cage will direct Ms. Freda, a short film about an African American elderly homeless woman who finds a smart respite from the torments of winter.
Falcon, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Sakr will make a short film that reflects gender segregation in mosques with a story that takes place in a mosque in Minnesota when a family must be separated for Friday prayers.
Tahiel Jimenez Medina, Minneapolis	$ 9,830
Medina will direct a short film titled My Mama Can't Swim. At a pond, a mother and her son try to coexist amidst the mother's trauma of water, their deep love for each other, and the histories that led to now.
David Kang, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Film director and producer Kang begins the production phase (collect interviews and archival material) for the upcoming documentary film about Hmong veterans who fought a "secret war" for the CIA during the Vietnam War.
Naomi E. Ko, Savage	$ 10,000
Ko will write, edit, polish, and provide two public readings of her new feature film, Good Genes.
Julie A. Koehnen, Crystal	$ 10,000
Koehnen will write, direct, and edit the short film AWAKENING; a nineteenth-century social elite unknowingly discourages a marriage proposal from the love of her life by her obsession with the modern women's movement.
Ben Moren, Eden Prairie	$ 6,955
Moren will create a series of images and video using a custom artificial intelligence GAN trained on images of the Lost 40 old-growth pine forest; a gesture to virtually grow new trees and digitally revive what was lost.
Ger Moua, Saint Paul	$ 9,950
Moua will direct and edit Sun and Moon, a short film that highlights a unique Hmong folktale and culture. The film will explore social issues, while preserving history and educating others about the Hmong people.
Ellen Mueller, Minneapolis	$ 5,750
Mueller will produce an experimental short film examining the idea of leisure as resistance. She will screen the film in the Twin Cities and pair it with a discussion of the making and influences.
Kevin G. Obsatz, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Obsatz will complete Bomb Pop: A Short Film about Ice Cream and Gentrification. He will organize a workshop for students on the subject of directing actors, and a screening of short narrative films.
Beth A. Peloff, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Peloff will create a five-minute stop-motion animated video that combines sand animation with other two-dimensional stop-motion techniques to explore themes of transformation and the passage of time.
Jon D. Steinhorst, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Crafted from the text of online user agreements, Steinhorst's Terms and Conditions chronicles seven characters' day through a series of short, stylized videos. Steinhorst will direct and screen the series at multiple venues.
Anna Stitt, Minneapolis	$ 9,990
Stitt will produce an audio documentary on the rise of Anti-Racist Action, an organization that started in the Twin Cities punk scene in 1987 and grew to challenge Ku Klux Klan expansion in towns across North America.
Kaonam Ya-Vang, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Kaonam will write and direct a five- to ten-minute short film called Seek, about a woman who has to choose between moving on with her life or losing herself to despair from the loss of her late husband.
Jake S. Yuzna, Minneapolis	$ 9,201
Collaborating with Minnesotan queer seniors, Yuzna will create the short immersive cinema video that documents these seniors' true stories, to create a portrait of Minnesota's unique place in American queer history.

Music

Number of grants awarded:	21
Total dollars awarded:	$ 208,348

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Pinar Başgöze, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Pinar Başgöze will commission pieces for piano duet and narrator based on Minnesotan, Portuguese, and Turkish folk tales. Composers from three different countries will write music to be performed in December 2020.
Colleen M. Bertsch, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Bertsch will create new arrangements of traditional Romanian Colinde (carols) for advanced singers and instrumentalists and present a public performance of this repertoire. The performance will be recorded and released on CD.
Ernesto Chongo, Saint Paul	$ 9,997
Chongo (Nyttu) will record and launch his first complete album of original work, titled Libandzuwa The Power of the Sun. Nyttu's music features traditional Mozambican and Rwandan instruments.
Renée Copeland, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Copeland will compose music for a series of short experimental films in collaboration with dance company Hiponymous and filmmaker Leila Awadallah. A public screening will be held at Thirdspace in Minneapolis.
Maud Hixson, Mendota Heights	$ 9,906
Hixson will collaborate with a director to adapt an existing musical cabaret act for presentation in larger theatrical venues. A public performance will be recorded for documentation, booking, and promotion.
Gao Hong, Northfield	$ 10,000
Hong will write the first double concerto for pipa (Chinese lute) and bassoon with symphony orchestra that will be performed by Hong on pipa, Ye Yu on bassoon, and the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Ivan.
Soojung Hong, Minnetonka	$ 9,730
Hong will professionally record and release a solo piano CD. Three live concerts featuring the music on the CD, accompanied by paintings and poems related to the music, will be performed.
Pavel Jany, North Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Jany will record and produce an album featuring exclusively his new original compositions. Once released, he will organize five local public performances to promote and to present his new music to Minnesota audiences.
Asuka Kakitani, Northfield	$ 9,715
Kakitani will compose 30 minutes of vocal music, based on texts by female writers/poets, for Quince, a four-woman ensemble. The work will premiere at Kracum Concert Hall in Northfield and Studio Z in Saint Paul, November 2020.
Rachael E. Kilgour, Duluth	$ 10,000
Kilgour will develop a series of compositions on the subject of her father's life and death. The completed work will be performed across the state, fostering intimate connection with Minnesotan audiences.
Kerry Lambertson, Finland	$ 10,000
Lambertson will construct a five string violin. This violin will be used in the composition and performance of new music, to be shared with the greater Duluth community.
Sarah B. Larsson, Excelsior	$ 10,000
Larsson will research and arrange eight original songs based on Jewish folk songs from the Balkans, and use performances and workshops in Minneapolis and northern Minnesota to build conversation around community and identity.
Doug Little, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Little will create genre bending new works for string quartet with orchestra and quartet with salsa ensemble. Pieces would advance the artist's skill as composer, and would be performed many times, helping bring different audiences together.
Sarah E. Miller, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
"Musicians in Motion at Mia", a new composition by Miller of pieces for chamber ensemble inspired by works of art at Mia will be presented at Mia as part of one of its Family Days and a Third Thursday.
Natalia Moiseeva, Saint Paul	$ 9,000
Moiseeva will professionally record and release a CD of violin pieces from Russian method books. The series of CD promotion concert lectures will follow at various concert venues.
Sara Pajunen, Duluth	$ 10,000
Mine Songs is a multimedia performance for violin, sampled sound, and video that inhabits the altered landscape of Minnesota's Mesabi Iron Range, Pajunen's ancestral and childhood home.
Mary Prescott, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Thai-American artist Prescott will create an evening length performance about motherhood and female identity involving music, word, movement, and installation, to be performed at Public Functionary in Minneapolis.
Laura A. Sewell, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Sewell will record a CD of works for cello and piano by Stephan Paulus, Paul Schoenfield, and David Evan Thomas. All three distinguished composers have strong Minnesota ties and two of the works were written for Sewell.
Tufawon, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Gonzalez aka Tufawon will release four music videos, a collection of visuals that reflect his artistic vision. Themes include Indigenous resilience, social justice, protecting Mother Earth, and interpersonal relationships.
Aby Wolf, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Wolf will record her new contemporary music work for eleven person chamber ensemble, Champagne Confetti, featuring vocal harmonies, electronic elements, strings and mallet percussion, to be shared in a public listening event.
Michael J. Wolter, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Wolter will curate a twice-monthly concert series aimed at collaborative exploration of his original jazz compositions. The twelve-concert series will be open to the public at a Twin Cities venue.

Photography

Number of grants awarded:	17
Total dollars awarded:	$ 166,761

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Jenn Ackerman, Minneapolis	$ 9,800
Jenn Ackerman will finish Where the Wild Rice Grows, a project about the native wild rice harvest through portraiture of the harvesters and documentary photographs, and produce an exhibit of the work in northern Minnesota.
Silvana Agostoni, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Agostoni will create a photographic installation about immigration and identity. By giving voice to stories of immigrants, the work will engage viewers in an emotional dialogue about memory, home, and social justice.
Eric Carroll, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Carroll will publish a limited edition artist book titled A Light Year of Lead. The book explores the underlying humor and humanity of scientific research through photography and will be released at a public event.
Sophia Chai, Rochester	$ 10,000
Chai will create a new body of photographs that explores perception in photography and architecture for an exhibition at the Castle Community in Rochester. A public workshop on perception will be held concurrently.
Peter Happel Christian, Saint Cloud	$ 9,980
10,001 is a series of photographic works that examine an unnamed body of water located within the granite walls of a historic prison in central Minnesota.
Gina L. Dabrowski, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Dabrowski will publish a book of photographic portraits from women's music festivals. A book launch, signing, and reception will be held at Smart Set in Northeast Minneapolis.
Regina M. Flanagan, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Photographer Flanagan complements her series about Minnesota landscape types experiencing the effects of local and global climate change with evocative videos that encourage understanding, empathy, and action.
Linda K. Gammell, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
The artist will create and self-publish an artist's book about the Mississippi River that integrates the artist's photographs and narrative text.
Brett C. Kallusky, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Kallusky will produce and self-publish five hundred copies of Overlook/Sugar Street, a project documenting the landscape and environmental issues.
RJ Kern, Minneapolis	$ 8,000
Kern will create new work for his project, The Unchosen Ones, documenting adolescent subjects. A traveling exhibition of these subjects photographed four years prior will introduce the project to Minnesota county fair audiences.
Marla O. Klein, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Klein will create The Metamorphosis Project, a black and white portrait series documenting transgender journeys and experiences. An exhibition and book release will be held in the ACVR Artist Warehouse in October 2020.
Su Legatt, Moorhead	$ 9,120
Collected from potluck style events, Legatt will combine photography of community dishes with conversation excerpts and critical essays to create an art cookbook highlighting the complexity of contemporary Minnesota culture.
Laura E. Migliorino, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Migliorino will create a series of photographs exploring the University of Minnesota Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies, to engage a broader audience about GLBTQ history.
Chris Mortenson, Moorhead	$ 9,861
Mortenson will continue working on his project Tumulus, a contemporary look at the landscape, culture, and complexities of the Iron Range in Minnesota.
Lisa A. Nebenzahl, Richfield	$ 10,000
Nebenzahl will work with historic photographic processes to develop a new body of work that she will exhibit, and she will give a public presentation.
Andy Richter, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Richter will complete his series Walking with Julien. He will create an exhibition of the work for the community and offer an artist talk and photography workshop in Northeast Minneapolis.
Carla A. Rodriguez, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Rodriguez will finish work on her photo project There Is Room To Hold Everything That You Are, and create a well designed artist book that explores masculinity through the vulnerability of Shibari rope art.

Poetry

Number of grants awarded:	10
Total dollars awarded:	$ 96,365

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Mary Moore Easter, Minneapolis	$ 9,000
Moore Easter will research the life of Eliza Winston, an enslaved woman who escaped to freedom in Minnesota in 1860 for a poem sequence. In progress performance and discussion will be held at East Side Freedom Library, Saint Paul.
Lara Mimosa Montes, Brooklyn Center	$ 8,310
Mimosa Montes will research the ways chronic illness informs contemporary writing practices. She also will lead a series of writing workshops in Minneapolis and Saint Paul that focuses on literatures of chronic illness.
Anh-Hoa T. Nguyen, Maplewood	$ 10,000
Nguyen will create poems for This War, My Body: A Poemoir that explores intersections of war and abuse and narrative for a children's book, Where Are You From? about a child of refugee parents in Minnesota.
Sheila J. Packa, Duluth	$ 10,000
Packa will develop poems for a new manuscript, Surface Displacements, and present four readings and workshops focused on individual stories that reflect on local history and current tensions in the landscape.
Casey L. Patrick, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Patrick will complete an erasure series and write new poems to complete her first manuscript, which focuses on complications of female desire, silence, and voice. She will give two readings and host an erasure workshop.
William Reichard, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Reichard will research the history of LGBTQ people in Minnesota, then write lyric, narrative poems about their lives. He will read and discuss the new work in Saint Paul, Minneapolis, and if possible, greater Minnesota venues.
Jaya Stenquist, Minneapolis	$ 9,750
Stenquist will complete a poetry manuscript on the changing human animal relationship, biodiversity, and climate grief. She will hold a workshop on experimental environmental writing.
Joyce A. Sutphen, Chaska	$ 9,700
Sutphen will give three readings/conversations in Little Falls, Chaska, and Red Wing on the loss of small farms in rural Minnesota, reading her poems and then engaging the audience to tell their own related stories.
Bryan Thao Worra, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Thao Worra will strengthen and diversify the audience for Lao Minnesotan literary arts, particularly speculative poetry, in underserved communities in North Minneapolis and Warroad.
Jasmin R. Ziegler, Minneapolis	$ 9,605
Ziegler will complete new poems toward the completion of her manuscript of poetry. She will revise the final ordering of poems to present for publication, and present one public reading and one writing workshop.

Prose

Number of grants awarded:	29
Total dollars awarded:	$ 283,815

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Swati Avasthi, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Avasthi will revise her third novel, The Art of Secret-Keeping, for submission. Along with other female writers of color, she will perform readings in the Twin Cities and hold a panel to discuss intersectionality.
Timothy Bellanger, Bemidji	$ 10,000
Bellanger, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is working with a mentor on a book based on letters written while incarcerated. Presentations will show others the continuing consequences of their actions.
Kristin J. Boldon, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Boldon will work with a mentor to complete a new draft of her first memoir, Brokedown. A panel of readings and information on parenting and mental health will be held at The Coffee Shop Northeast in Minneapolis.
Frank Bures, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Bures will research and write the first chapters of One of Us, on the use of narratives (family, ethnic, political, national, etc.) to divide in groups and out groups, and the ways these influence our perception of others.
John A. Colburn, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Colburn will complete a manuscript of short stories set in a patch of woods in southeastern Minnesota, adapt the stories for performance using multiple voices, and perform the new work at venues around Minnesota.
Heidi Czerwiec, Saint Louis Park	$ 7,810
From editor feedback, Czerwiec will revise, pitch, and market her memoir Real Mother which explores social and economic issues around open adoption. She will share insights and techniques at an artist talk/workshop.
Kelsey C. Daly, Minneapolis	$ 9,735
Daly will complete her first young adult novel and work with a mentor to revise her manuscript. She will organize an open mic night for women and queer outdoor explorers and run a teen wilderness writing workshop.
James David, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
David will complete and revise a memoir manuscript with the help of a writing mentor. He will host public readings and discussions in partnership with mental health organizations.
Katharine J. DeCelle, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
DeCelle will set up a mobile recording booth to record stories of people with disabilities for the Hear I Am podcast at three events: Minnesota Special Olympic Winter and Summer 2020 games and a literary event with Cow Tipping Press.
Erin S. Downing, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Downing will complete a fully revised draft of her next middle grade novel, The Great Peach Experiment. She will also conduct three school visits around the state of Minnesota to discuss the writing process with kids.
Lorissa Gottschalk, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Gottschalk will edit an anthology of Minnesota women's stories of recovery and host two writing workshops for women in all stages of recovery.
Carolyn L. Holbrook, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Holbrook launches her new book in May 2020 with a reading and community conversation at a Twin Cities venue, followed by another Twin Cities and two greater Minnesota events, including guest writers from those communities.
Anessa M. Ibrahim, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Ibrahim will complete a full draft of her first novel and will lead an open workshop on writing immigration and transplant narratives.
Welcome Jerde, Minneapolis	$ 9,975
Jerde, an emerging writer, will work with mentors to complete a memoir. She will give two readings in the Twin Cities–one public reading and one with medical students at the University of Minnesota.
Ember Johnson, Center City	$ 10,000
Johnson will complete a collection of essays that explore the Iraq War as the spouse left behind on the home front. There will be a public reading to showcase the diversity of voices that have been impacted by war.
Diana Joseph, Mankato	$ 10,000
Joseph will work on her nonfiction book about family estrangement and disenfranchised grief, receive feedback from a mentor, and give a reading and two workshops.
Sophia E. Kim, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Kim will write a collection of short stories about a Korean immigrant family's experience in Minnesota. She will hold a writing workshop and a public reading at the East Side Freedom Library.
Rachel C. Marston, Sauk Rapids	$ 10,000
Marston will complete her novel, How to Speak to God, which examines the mythological, religious, and political narratives about nuclear testing in Nevada, and give a public reading and talk in the Saint Cloud area.
Nicole A. Montana, Minneapolis	$ 9,725
Montana will complete her nonfiction book about her family of women, exploring issues of immigration, identity, and memory. She will offer a writing workshop on the use of memory in nonfiction writing and a public reading.
Juliet Patterson, Minneapolis	$ 8,520
Patterson will conceive, write, and produce a six-part podcast provisionally titled, I am Here to Tell You.
Anna C. Peterson, Medicine Lake	$ 10,000
Peterson will complete her memoir, a story of a bird migration phenomenon under threat and her own journey to survive chronic pain and suppression of voice. She will hold two readings in conjunction with journaling workshops.
Christina H. Schmid, Minneapolis	$ 8,400
Schmid will work with a mentor to revise her manuscript and organize a three-part public program that engages the ideas in her work.
Mairead Small Staid, Mankato	$ 10,000
Small Staid, an award winning essayist, will complete her debut book of nonfiction. She will deliver a reading and craft talk at the 410 Project, a community arts space in Mankato, Minnesota.
Danielle Sosin, Duluth	$ 10,000
Sosin will study, write, and seek to publish essays. She will teach workshops with disadvantaged youth through the Duluth Community School Collaborative, and read new work at Duluth's Open Mic Reading Series.
Connor Unger, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Unger will revise his manuscript of This Profound Engine and host a public reading that invites audiences to explore how fantasy fiction and mythic language help us address questions of culture, power, and humanity.
Gao Vang, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Vang will complete a revision of her first book, The Path of Men, a Hmong-American family memoir. She will organize a writing workshop and conduct a reading within the Twin Cities.
Erin O. White, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
White will complete the second draft of a novel and work with a mentor on plans for further revision. She'll facilitate a four-part workshop for queer writers focused on both writing and publishing queer narratives.
Teresa Whitman, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Whitman will complete It's Called Rape, an account of the aftermath of the sexual abuse of her grandchildren and her family's search for safety and healing.
Alexis P. Zanghi, Minneapolis	$ 9,650
Zanghi will complete revisions to her novel in progress and work with an editor to prepare that manuscript for submission to agents. She'll organize two readings and lead two workshops on money, social class, and culture.

Theater

Number of grants awarded:	10
Total dollars awarded:	$ 100,000

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Eric F. Avery, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
The Pla[y/n] for Reparations is an interactive workshop series designed to gather public feedback, share stories, build solidarity, strategize, and advance equity, healing, and justice in Minneapolis.
Bart Buch, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Buch will create a small-scale solo puppet performance to be performed on Minnesota beaches.
Paul D. Herwig, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Herwig will make digital design the core tools of his practice, transforming his artistic process, deepening his artistic vision, broadening his audience's experience, and carving out a unique niche in the local community.
Kymani Kahlil, Saint Louis Park	$ 10,000
Kahlil will research, rework, and complete parts one and three of her musical triptych Peaches and Pickles: Perspective is Suspect in collaboration with composer Aaron Gabriel.
Stephanie A. Lein Walseth, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Walseth will create The Empathy Project, a new play based on interviews of Minnesotans, exploring empathy across lines of geographic, political, and racial divides, culminating in staged readings in urban and rural Minnesota.
A.P. Looze, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Looze will create and produce their first musical: a semifictional rock opera musical about the first professional transgender tennis player. An in progress performance and talk back will be held in Minneapolis.
Suzy Messerole, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Messerole will create Love a Silver Water, a synchronized swimming inspired theatrical piece based on love poems by queer writers. A work in progress public presentation will occur at a pool in Minneapolis.
Teresa P. Mock, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Mock will write and perform The Uncertainty Principle, a play about the working class struggle of her father, a Vietnam Veteran, his relationship with his daughter, and the experience of transgenerational trauma.
Lindsey C. Samples, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Samples will experiment with a new play development process that engages children ages 0-5 as active participants in the creation of a nature based piece of theater for the very young.
Patrick E. Scully, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Scully will create and perform The 3rd Act, a one-person performance art work exploring trying to embrace entering old age. An in progress performance and talk back will be held at The Open Space in Minneapolis.

2- and 3-Dimensional

Number of grants awarded:	74
Total dollars awarded:	$ 703,532

Grantee, City	Grant Amount
Kelly A. Abeln, Minneapolis	$ 8,970
Abeln will develop her graphic memoir based on her experience of coming-of-age while caring for her disabled mom. She will also host a Teen Lab: Comics class at a local library.
Karlyn Atkinson Berg, Bovey	$ 10,000
Berg will produce an iconographic, abstract depiction of a wilderness landscape made of sixteen two size panels visually connected by collage images, color, shape, and texture and displayed as large abstract mural landscape.
Chase C. Barney, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Barney will create and exhibit a new body of work combining objects and images that explore ideas of masculinity and how culture influences gender binaries.
Kimberly A. Benson, Minneapolis	$ 8,050
Benson will create a series of oil paintings while looking at the life and work of seventeenth-century Dutch painter Maria van Oosterwijck. She will host a public exhibition with an opening reception and artist talk.
Melissa C. Benson, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Cooke Benson will create a series of large-scale graphite drawings that will be exhibited at Saint John's University in Collegeville. The artist also will host an open studio event in Minneapolis.
Lisa M. Bergh, New London	$ 10,000
Bergh will create a new body of work exploring the cerebral and aesthetic weight of our internal emotional worlds. The work will be presented in a solo exhibition at Lord Grizzly Gallery (Luverne) in July 2020.
Keith Christensen, Minneapolis	$ 7,420
Christensen will create Past Present, an exhibition of paintings on local history's relevancy to social justice issues. It will be presented at the East Side Freedom Library in Saint Paul, and will be documented in a book.
Gabrielle R. Cordes, Buffalo	$ 10,000
Cordes will reengineer a white picket fence into a public sculpture, redefining the idea of the American dream. Delano city members' responses to what they love about their community will be etched onto its surface.
Amilcar M. Davis, Minneapolis	$ 5,360
Davis will make a picture book that shows the Chippewa National Forest through the eyes of Cleo, an African-American girl visiting the park with her family. Logging, communal lands, and representation are themes.
Andy Delany, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Delany will create a new body of sculptures for a solo exhibition in the Twin Cities. In addition, he will renovate and improve his studio and host two open studio events.
Casey Deming, Minneapolis	$ 7,051
Deming will create Land Being, an exhibition and publication at The White Page gallery in Minneapolis. It will explore themes of representation, inspired from local landscapes in the Twin Cities.
Cathy A. Durso, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Durso will create and edition a new audiovisual artist's book inspired by a trip to Iceland, and will hold an exhibition and public talk demonstrating the finished work.
Katharine Eksuzian, Victoria	$ 10,000
Eksuzian will develop ceramics influenced by nature. Exhibitions in Minnesota will feature these works and reflect the relationship between nature and humans, inspiring a more peaceful spirit and appreciation of art.
Torey Erin, Minneapolis	$ 9,953
Erin will create willows/thresholds, an architectural environment of sixteen-millimeter film of willow trees in Minnesota. The installation and events will raise awareness of trees as ecosystems and cultural sites of memory.
Cory N. Favre, Roseville	$ 10,000
Favre will create a large installation of small paintings that will address the emotional labor used by women in planning for their personal safety.
Marjorie A. Fedyszyn, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Fedyszyn will learn new techniques in draping, pattern drafting, and sewing for a new installation on the theme of aging; and will lead elderly memory care residents in the exploration of self through self portraiture.
Guillermo Guardia, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Guardia, originally from Peru, will create new sculptures inspired by the meaning of home, memories, and immigration. The work will be displayed in different locations in the metro area.
Ian Hanesworth, Minneapolis	$ 7,400
Hanesworth will engage topics of herbal medicine and ecological stewardship through a series of printed textiles, culminating in a solo exhibition at Silverwood Park that includes a medicinal garden and public workshops.
Luisa Hansel, Minneapolis	$ 8,200
Cabello Hansel will expand her mosaic practice by developing skills in design, figure drawing, and sculpture. Workshops and exhibition of her work will take place in Minneapolis and at least one greater Minnesota community.
Nicole A. Havekost, Rochester	$ 9,500
Havekost will create limited edition machine embroideries offered for sale at a holiday pop-up shop event. She will collaborate with Rochester Alternative Learning Center students to produce a series of merit badges using this technique.
Annie Hejny, Saint Paul	$ 7,420
Hejny will become certified in forest therapy and apply the scientific impact of stress reduction in nature to create a new body of artwork. She will host an artist talk and plan for future community engagement with youth.
Nancy Julia Hicks, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Hicks will create textile and print based sculptural works that provide marginalized bodies with comfort in institutional architectural spaces.
Autumn R. Higgins, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Higgins will create a new body of large-scale ceramic vessels that are illustrated, layered, and stacked to show visual depth in both two-dimensional and three-dimensional space.
Summer J. Hills-Bonczyk, Columbia Heights	$ 10,000
Hills-Bonczyk will present a performance art piece followed by a workshop. Three strong women silently and courageously dismantle an eighteen-foot clay wall with bare hands, allowing a human form to emerge, experience rebirth, and become whole.
Ashley Hise, Duluth	$ 10,000
Hise will exhibit work that explores the relationship between ceramics and light at the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork, and hold a workshop to provide an opportunity to explore the medium of clay.
Markus Hoeckner, Minneapolis	$ 9,972
With the guidance of advisor Andrew Peterson, executive director of FilmNorth, Markus will direct TUNTE, a short film that explores the subtle yet damaging effects that social pressures to appear masculine have on boys.
Christopher Houltberg, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Houltberg will create a public, multifaceted art installation titled Extensive Alterations that reimagines the patterns and rhythms from his own chronic illness and organ transplant.
James B. Johnson, Mankato	$ 10,000
Johnson will create a large new sculpture intended to express the vitality and resilience of the human spirit. This work will be exhibited at the Carnegie Art Center in Mankato, with a lecture about the artist's work.
Tia S. Keobounpheng, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Keobounpheng will create her first outdoor public art installation, UNWEAVING, addressing blood memory and the potential of art to heal ancestral trauma.
Fawzia Khan, Hopkins	$ 10,000
Khan will address the invisibility of women's contributions to society by creating an installation about 40 women citizens of Minnesota.
Ann Klefstad, Duluth	$ 10,000
Klefstad will do life-sized and larger wood carvings of wild animals, finished using shou sugi ban. The animals that live in the city surreptitiously will take their places openly, in a show at 315 Gallery and then in outdoor sites.
Rebecca Krinke, Saint Paul	$ 7,800
Krinke will create a large-scale installation focused on investigating the mystery of dreams. An exhibition will be at Rosalux Gallery in 2020.
Gregory E. Lecker, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Lecker will create portraits of our state's three watersheds while engaging Minnesotans in conversation and painting demonstrations offered within each waterscape. Lecker will exhibit Watersheds at Waseca Art Center.
Camila S. Leiva, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Leiva will complete the first part of her graphic memoir, Consecuencia, an intimate story of growing up in the struggle for democracy in Chile. She will lead comic workshops for Latinx immigrants in Minneapolis.
Steven Lemke, Saint Cloud	$ 10,000
Lemke will create and exhibit Deconstructed Paradise, an installation of sculpture using digital fabrication to explore suburban sprawl. The exhibit and artist talk will be held at a gallery in central Minnesota.
Qian Liu, New Brighton	$ 10,000
The artist will construct a participatory installation Home Remedy with multiple interactive sculptures mimicking therapeutic devices.
Dennis Lo, Columbia Heights	$ 10,000
Lo will complete and publish the third volume of his graphic novel series Strange Symmetry for a book launch at the Third Place Gallery.
Jeremy W. Lundquist, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Lundquist will create and exhibit a new series of large-scale etchings based on the minimal media coverage of the end and subsequent continuation of combat operations in Afghanistan.
Presley Martin, Minneapolis	$ 8,000
Martin will exhibit conversation generating works from The Foam Project at Squirrel Haus in Minneapolis. In conjunction with the show, he will lead a public tour of the river to gather foam to be used in the exhibit.
Charles V. Matson Lume, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Matson Lume will make new art for a solo exhibition at St. Catherine University, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its art department. He will work with two Minnesota poets to create a free artist book as a catalyst for the show.
Joshua D. McGarvey, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
McGarvey will create an interactive video installation and exhibit it at the Minnesota Museum of American Art in Saint Paul.
Brad Menninga, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Menninga will create an installation in the format of an eighteenth-century period room addressing issues of racism, resistance, complicity, and responsibility across generations.
Morgan E. Mercer, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
To connect with new audiences and cultivate a larger presence in greater Minnesota, Mercer will develop a new body of abstract paintings that will exhibit in a gallery outside of the Twin Cities.
Liz Miller, Good Thunder	$ 10,000
Miller will create fifteen new wall based/suspended rope works exploring scale, materiality, and conceptual connections to knotting. They will be featured in a two-person exhibition at Hutchinson Center for the Arts.
Kathy Mommsen, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Mommsen will create a ceramic wall while observing dancers from TU Dance Company as models. The wall will be installed at TU Dance studio in Saint Paul and will be unveiled at an art/dance event and talk back.
Sarah J. Nassif, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Over a year of mentored learning, Nassif will create a new body of work for her first solo show engaging the public in tracing buried city waterways and creating a series of indigo dyed weavings exploring the theme–undercurrents.
Mika Negishi Laidlaw, Mankato	$ 10,000
Laidlaw will hold an exhibition of recent ceramic art in a Mankato gallery, showcasing work that focuses on the relationship between Japanese ceramics and the art of ikebana.
Sharon K. Nordrum, Laporte	$ 9,886
Fibers held the Ojibwe world together. Anishinaabe artist Nordrum will harvest, prepare, dye, and weave fibers in a series of woven creations reflecting the seasonal lifestyle of Ojibwe and reconnect with tradition.
Mat Ollig, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Following a severe hand injury, Ollig will create a series of large oil portraits based on 3-D printed maquettes to be publicly exhibited in a gallery and two open studio viewings with an artist talk at each event.
Anna Orbovich, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Orbovich will create a limited edition artist book of prints that document her exploration of mapping the Superior Hiking Trail landscape through walking, and lead workshops about observing and documenting the outdoors.
Melanie Pankau, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Pankau will create a large-scale installation of paintings to be exhibited at the TuckUnder Pavillon and participate in a series of contemplative studies workshops to support the artist's research.
Erin Paradis, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Paradis's project will supply her with complete ceramic glaze material knowledge which will be represented in her new body work exhibited in the fall of 2020.
Drew R. Peterson, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Peterson will create two new bodies of work for a solo exhibition at the Burnet Gallery in the summer of 2020.
Anne Rynearson, Northfield	$ 10,000
Rynearson will create a painting series exploring nature as an enigmatic experience intersecting time, space, and perception. An exhibition and artist talk will be presented at the Northfield Arts Guild.
Ellen B. Sandbeck, Duluth	$ 8,200
Sandbeck, an accomplished paper cut artist, will exhibit her work and present a slideshow and workshop on Paper Cut Art Around the World, at the American Indian Community Housing Organization in Duluth.
Amy M. Sands, Golden Valley	$ 10,000
Sands will research historical Scandinavian handwork as sources for a new body of artworks. These artworks will be exhibited at American Swedish Institute in February 2021.
John-Mark T. Schlink, Northfield	$ 7,200
Schlink will create a new series of prints about place that intersects sacred and secular influences of culture, memory, and imagination. An exhibition and artist talk will be held at Concordia University in Saint Paul.
Juliane B. Shibata, Northfield	$ 10,000
Shibata will display temporary site specific ceramics installations at the University of Minnesota Conservatory and outdoors in Northfield. She will interact with the public and discuss ideas of plant life, ephemerality, and environmentalism.
Corrie E. Steckelberg, Hovland	$ 10,000
Steckelberg's sculptures explore the reality of habitat loss while also speaking about the beauty of change and regrowth. Landscape, weather, and visitors around Grand Marais will impact and push the pieces forward.
Mic Stowell, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Stowell will create a body of new multifired ceramic sculpture to be shown at the Hutchinson Center for the Arts in August and early September 2020.
Adam P. Swanson, Cloquet	$ 10,000
Swanson will research and create a series of ten paintings featuring federally listed endangered species in Minnesota and exhibit the paintings at the Great Lakes Aquarium (Duluth) and the Science Museum of Minnesota (Saint Paul).
Carolyn J. Swiszcz, West St Paul	$ 3,150
Swiszcz will create three zines about people and places in West Saint Paul, the semisuburban city where she lives. The project will culminate with a public reading and zine making workshop at a venue in West Saint Paul.
Judy Symalla, Stillwater	$ 10,000
Symalla will hold an exhibit at ArtReach St. Croix of three newly created Nativity themed Byzantine icons, showcasing the technique of egg tempera and twenty-four carat gold gilding.
Brad Thomas, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Thomas will present a public exhibition and interactive creative workspace that examines how knowledge and wisdom inform personal guidance in an era of post truth; both will be presented at Vandalia Tower in Saint Paul.
Brooks Turner, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Turner will create and present an immersive installation and abstract newspaper, communicating the dark history of fascism in Minnesota from 1930 to 1960 as a local reminder of the danger of hate and the power of protest.
Kieran Tverbakk, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
For their first solo exhibition, Kieran Myles-Andrés Tverbakk will create a series of multimedia objects exploring physical and figurative borders.
Amy Usdin, Mendota Heights	$ 10,000
Usdin will build upon her practice of manipulating existing fiber structures through weaving and knotting by pushing current boundaries of scale and sculptural form, exhibiting work at Artistry in Bloomington.
Lynn E. Wadsworth, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Wadsworth will create and produce a book of her collages. The book will be distributed free of charge to libraries and collections in Minnesota. She will host a public discussion of her collage work and book.
Chris Walla, Moorhead	$ 10,000
Sculptor Walla will complete a new body of work that continues his exploration of the poetic interplay of text and physical form.
Mary Welke, Burnsville	$ 10,000
Welke will create new, mixed media paintings about prairie, farmland burns, and land renewal. An exhibition, public conversation, and intergenerational painting workshop will be at the Northfield Arts Guild.
Reed D. White, North Mankato	$ 10,000
White will paint five large-scale paintings of people in his community and create videos to document his process. The videos and the paintings will be shown in an exhibition at the Arts Center of Saint Peter.
Russ White, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
White will create a series of large-scale mixed media drawings of the human form, visualizing energy and emotion in abstracted portraiture and figure study.
Jacob Yeates, Minneapolis	$ 10,000
Yeates will illustrate and exhibit two complete chapters of the nonfiction graphic novel, Violent Orders, Lawful Harm, a new work on the fraught histories and consequences of United States' law enforcement and policing.
Judith A. Yourman, Saint Paul	$ 10,000
Yourman will complete and exhibit a body of ceramic sculpture inspired by the early drawings of her daughters, accompanied by hands-on multigenerational ceramic workshops at 801 Gallery and the Rondo Library.