Creative Individuals is designed to help individual artists and culture bearers develop or sustain their creative practices and meaningfully engage with Minnesotans. Grantees may use funds to support their creative practice and meaningfully connect to and engage with audiences, participants, students, and/or communities during the grant period.
| Grantee, City |
Grant Amount |
Abdifatah Abdi, Burnsville | $ 10,000 | | Abdifatah will engage collaborators in the production of a documentary film sharing the stories of the Somali and Muslim communities in Minnesota, and organize a work in progress screening. |
Vanessa B. Agnes, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Agnes will continue the development of her new play, which will include a writing retreat, workshop, mentor meetings, and a reading. |
Mike Alberti, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Alberti will research his second book and engage underserved residents of rural communities through four place based writing workshops. |
Terri Allred, Rochester | $ 9,376 | | Allred will offer workshops for community members in transition, particularly those furthest from opportunities for artistic expression, to create art and vision an empowered future through clay. |
Hend A. Al-Mansour, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Al-Mansour will make an animation film depicting the psychological consequences of a young woman daring a staring contest with an older man. She will submit it to film venues and exhibit it in galleries in Minnesota and online. |
Nieya Amezquita, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Amezquita will create an evening-length work exploring the complexities and nuanced experience of the family unit in the African American community. |
Katayoun Amjadi, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Amjadi will engage local Iranian women and other communities living in diaspora in Minnesota in a storytelling project exploring how the objects we bring when moving as an immigrant are signifiers of culture, ethnicity, or history. |
Angie Anderson, New Ulm | $ 10,000 | | Anderson will share her original songs through live performances in greater Minnesota and create professional recordings of her music. |
Lucas K. Anderson, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Anderson will create a large-scale ceramic sculpture that will be publicly presented at Craft Connections in Duluth, an art event with free food, art sales, ceramic demos, and live music. |
Steph Anderson, Fosston | $ 10,000 | | Anderson will make a men's Norwegian bunad to be used for display, demonstrations, and teaching about textiles and life in Norway from the 1700s to 1800s. |
Sandra A. Andress, Longville | $ 9,984 | | Andress will offer private piano or guitar lessons to five students on scholarships who live on or near the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. |
Antonia R. Angress, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Angress will complete a final revision of her second novel, House of the Monarchs. |
Anthony F. Anselmo, Isle | $ 10,000 | | Anselmo will write and move toward the publication of his upcoming book, which will focus on captivating moments of life in Minnesota, and will attend local book signings and other literary events. |
Drew Arrieta, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Arrieta will utilize portraiture, interviews, and love letters to create multidimensional narratives as part of his "Infinite Bonds" photo project exploring diverse forms of love within families, friendships, and partnerships in Minnesota communities. |
Karlyn Atkinson Berg, Bovey | $ 10,000 | | Berg will fuse oil and acrylic paints, collage shapes, and images to create large abstract paintings. She will also launch interactive workshops for artists and nonartists to create collages and learn about collage's impact on modern art. |
Alison J. Aune, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Aune will create, exhibit, and teach about her new Minnesota-Swedish folk paintings that are rooted in the cultural traditions of her immigrant Swedish ancestors. |
Noelle Awadallah, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Awadallah will choreograph and produce a new performance as Body Watani Dance Project in collaboration with Leila Awadallah, accompanied by live and original music by Lyla Abukhodair and Tarek Abdelqader at the Southern Theater in fall 2024. |
Andrea L. Bagdon, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Bagdon will amplify her research and create a body of work for a solo exhibition, "Fracturing the Symbolic," at Saint Paul's Northern Warehouse, focusing on fluid perspectives on the visual language of femininity through experimental video and painting. |
Alyssa E. Baguss, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Baguss will create the Minnesota Artist Penny Press Machine: Community College Edition and tour it through four Minnesota community college campuses sharing contemporary art pressed on a penny with local students. |
Racquel Banaszak, Minneapolis | $ 9,520 | | Banaszak will create a series of images combining beadwork, embroidery, and collage with a focus on urban Native identities. She will also purchase the tools necessary to create a publicly accessible piece about Indigenous placemaking. |
Karl J. Bardon, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Bardon's paintings of birds inspire others to have the same fascination for not just birds, but all of nature, and in turn want to both cherish and help protect the natural world. |
Alicia Bayer, Westbrook | $ 9,550 | | Bayer will publish a children's book on creating art materials with foraged wild materials and will lead community events where kids and adults can create their own wild art. |
Alexandra Beaumont, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Beaumont will host a public conversation on social dance and community building, and a workshop of teachers from different traditions sharing such dance forms with participants. These events will inform the development of Dancing with Friends, a body of large-scale textile collages. |
Vicki J. Beckendorf, Odin | $ 7,250 | | Beckendorf will produce four oil paintings combining images found in nature. They will be part of local exhibits where Beckendorf will answer questions about her work, offer advice on how to get started oil painting, and describe techniques she uses. |
Julie Berg-Linville, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Berg-Linville, a professional ceramicist, will open a community clay workshop offering daily classes in wheel throwing, hand building, and mosaics with a focus on thoughtfully engaging the public in an inclusive and creative space. |
Darin M. Bergsven, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Bergsven will produce new episodes of his weekly "Coffee & Guitar" YouTube series, featuring guest guitar players from across the north woods. |
Nikki L. Besser, Mizpah | $ 10,000 | | Besser will create a new children's book for underprivileged children using her visual artistic skills to bring to life an original story by a northern Minnesota author. Their collaboration includes local live readings for kids. |
Vie Boheme, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Boheme will host a series of creative, wellness based interactive film screenings and discussions for Black women and femmes in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. |
Archie Bongiovanni, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Bongiovanni will develop their next graphic novel and organize a queer comics reading event where they'll partner with other local cartoonists to showcase new work to new audiences. |
Stephani M. Booker, Minneapolis | $ 7,869 | | Booker will complete a sci-fi manuscript, Strange Inequalities, and read from it at two public events with guest writers/artists in her north Minneapolis neighborhood. The events will be video recorded and posted on YouTube. |
Maura Bosch, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Bosch will compose and perform "Music for Recollections and Dreams," a work created for the residents of five memory care facilities, featuring solo piano and video comprised of photos from the audience members' own collections. |
Emily Boyajian, Minneapolis | $ 5,300 | | Boyajian will organize several concerts in underserved Twin Cities communities of her song cycle "Transition," about the experience of being transgender and pursuing a gender transition. |
Dhana M. Branton, Minneapolis | $ 9,800 | | Branton, a playwright and Navy veteran, will engage a group of veteran poets and writers in a choral reading performance of Tim O'Brien's seminal Vietnam novella, The Things They Carried. |
Foxy Brass, Rochester | $ 7,610 | | Brass will develop skills in using a laser cutter/engraver to produce her own wood blanks and burn in outlines, and teach public classes on how to paint pets by patch in acrylic paints on wood burned blanks. |
Kaleb M. Braun-Schulz, North Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Braun-Schulz will record a new album of original music at Gold Mine Studios in Mankato and release the album with a concert and Q&A at the Capital Room in Saint Peter. |
LM Brimmer, Minneapolis | $ 9,700 | | Brimmer will advance work about, and for, adoptee and foster + queer folks exploring belonging in nature. They hope to bring to audiences into an interdisciplinary experience. |
Artemis Brown, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Brown will direct a collaboratively generated performance piece exploring lived queer identity and shared community, then present it to a Minnesota audience. |
Mark R. Brown, Roseville | $ 10,000 | | Brown is a filmmaker that will work with incarcerated people and staff at Stillwater prison to create a short documentary about a tattoo apprenticeship program inside the prison. The resulting film will be screened for prison populations across the state. |
Kehayr M. Brown-Ransaw, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Brown-Ransaw will explore the history of legal and familial documentation of BIPOC peoples and the keeping of such archives through quilting and printmaking. |
Sheletta Brundidge, Cottage Grove | $ 10,000 | | Brundidge will write and share a book about a warm, lively Black family (much like her own) with kids on the autism spectrum, using literature to broaden awareness of Minnesota children of color with special needs. |
Alsa Bruno, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Bruno will develop, perform, and record his show Black People Win with musicians and ASL interpretation for live audiences, complete with prizes and community building. |
Bart Buch, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Buch will reach new Spanish speaking audiences, and engage LGBTQ elders and youth through his performance, "Ode to Walt Whitman." |
Anton Butler, Saint Paul | $ 9,723 | | Butler will create a podcast series highlighting a variety of early to mid career Native artists from varying fields of artistic expressions. |
Gisell I. Calderón, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Calderón will complete a new short film, titled "and then it happens". In the film, Calderón interviews her father and explores his reasons for leaving his home country. |
Shelley T. Caldwell, Delavan | $ 10,000 | | Caldwell will produce a new series of works on paper to engage and inform the audience about vegetable gardening: growing food crops, plant lifecycles, sustainability, and self-sufficiency. She will also exhibit artwork and maintain a website. |
Sayge M. Carroll, Minneapolis | $ 9,990 | | Carroll will create a durational sound and movement performance piece in November 2024. |
Oliver Casillas, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Casillas will create an art portfolio that showcases new work and inspires community members to conserve wildlife. He will also have an open house of his studio, Tinta Sagrada Sacred Ink. |
Laurine Chang, Maplewood | $ 10,000 | | Chang will work on their artist development plan to build their professional artist portfolio, and revise and create new work for their chapbook Stable Foundations for print and performance. |
Lisa E. Channer, Saint Anthony | $ 10,000 | | Channer will complete a short documentary film called "Eileen in '60" about the cultural forces that led her mother Eileen to surrender a baby in 1960 and what that particular year has to teach us now about fights over bodily autonomy. |
Khadija Charif, Saint Louis Park | $ 9,929 | | Charif will expand on her solo project exhibition highlighting Muslim Somali women, as well as continue her book printing and short film projects. |
Elizabeth M. Chatelain, Hibbing | $ 10,000 | | Chatelain will complete the preparation and development necessary to go into production on the feature film, LØVSET'S MANOEUVRE. |
Xiaohong Chen, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | To promote the goal of building a bridge connecting the East and West, Chen will continue the creative process by teaching, performing, choreographing, and collaborating with other artists to engage Minnesotans in the intricacies of Chinese dancing. |
Nyttu Chongo, Fridley | $ 10,000 | | Chongo will develop, design, market, and deliver his debut series of Ancestral Connections workshops, which awaken the connections of Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous youth, adult, and elder Minnesotans to their ancestral roots. |
Brian L. Christensen, Fergus Falls | $ 9,997 | | Christensen will purchase equipment, build workbenches, and develop a curriculum to allow him to teach woodworking classes within the community. |
Keith Christensen, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Christensen will organize and create an exhibition of paintings that explores the connections between the historical events of the Minneapolis truckers' strike of 1934 with current conditions. It will be shown on the strike's 90th anniversary. |
Zach Christensen, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Christensen will bring Shakespeare to nontraditional audiences across Minnesota through productions of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). |
James Christenson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Christenson will complete a documentary short about chef Gustavo Romero's efforts to adapt heirloom Mexican corn for Minnesotan farms and host screenings for Latino and Indigenous people whose health outcomes will benefit from accessible masa. |
Adrean E. Clark, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Clark will create Loop Fruit, a memoir of her experience growing into an ASL Deaf identity out of hearing and Deaf schools, and host a local event illuminating the complex process of putting the ASL Deaf experiences to paper. |
Mary Ann Cleary, Cambridge | $ 10,000 | | Cleary will create a series of artwork of Minnesota's prairie grasses and engage Minnesotans with an art exhibition, artist talk, and workshop. |
Christopher T. Clouser, Wayzata | $ 10,000 | | Clouser will compose, record, and present a new suite of music titled Flowerchildren, inspired by the experience of LGBTQIA composers in the jazz field. |
Basil K. Considine, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Considine will create a high quality, low noise, staged for camera video recording of his new opera Meow and Forever, cowritten with Jodi Goble, filmed without audience at Waconia High School's new auditorium, for a one-month free broadcast online. |
Clare Cooley, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Cooley will complete her third nonfiction book, livestream readings of her books, and create an online multimedia curriculum demonstrating how to promote one's book using short vertical videos to help give voice to older adults in greater MN. |
Sheila M. Coughlin, Kettle River | $ 10,000 | | Coughlin will develop her skills as a Finnish kantele artist through a mentorship with culture bearer Diane Jarvi, and engage seniors at Villa Vista assisted living center and people in greater Minnesota with kantele music, tradition, and creative work. |
Art Coulson, Apple Valley | $ 10,000 | | Coulson, a children's book writer, will engage with audiences around the state for feedback as he expands his writing practice to include works for adults. |
Teresa M. Cox, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Cox will expand upon her current painting inspired by drawing outside. She will broaden her connection with audiences in Minnesota through social media, her website, and through leading drawing workshops in greater Minnesota. |
Rachel Coyne, Lindstrom | $ 4,050 | | Coyne will create twenty pieces of art on the theme of missing and disappeared women for display at multiple venues in greater Minnesota. |
Susanne M. Crane, Albert Lea | $ 10,000 | | Crane will create an exhibition of original work utilizing upcycled and recycled materials, presenting it to communities in rural southeastern Minnesota and beyond. |
Starrla G. Cray, Winsted | $ 10,000 | | Cray will engage McLeod County residents as an author, illustrator, and presenter by completing three picture books and conducting interactive classroom visits for children from rural and low-income families. |
Jonathan Crowl, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Crowl will create new work and host two literary readings in communities outside of the Twin Cities. He will also lead a one-day workshop on taking a character centered approach to writing about economic, environmental, and other systemic issues. |
Crown, Brooklyn Park | $ 10,000 | | Crown will complete the third issue of her comic series and set up free author visits for underserved schools, as well as continue work curating, donating, and selling diverse local books. |
Joy B. Davis Ripley, Winona | $ 10,000 | | Ripley will engage community and collaborators in creating a documentary film on mental health that explores practices of resilience and hope. |
Cuauhtli Day, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Day is engaging students at the High School for Recording Arts in the creation of a music video, building upon collaborations with students established on his new album Prelude to a New Dream. |
Paul Dice, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Dice will compose new musical works and revise older compositions that will be performed live in concert and recorded by Minnesota musicians for an upcoming CD and YouTube video. |
Lucas A. Dietsche, Mankato | $ 8,600 | | Dietsche will research and document through photographs/poems in a book on potters graves and abandoned cemeteries in Minnesota. |
Kevin R. Dobbe, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Dobbe will create an original new media opera Tempus Fugit. Original music and new media projections will be created. After a six-month rehearsal process, the project will be performed at Rochester Civic Theatre. |
Aria Dominguez, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Dominguez will work on completing the manuscript of their memoir about growing up in Saint Paul. They will also offer two free workshops to participants living with chronic physical or mental health issues and/or their caregivers. |
Pat 'Doc' Dougherty, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 |
| Doc will partner with three nonmale musicians and recording artists on a new theyself album. To help support this work, there will be five release shows: one celebration in the Twin Cities and four in greater Minnesota. |
Sara A. Dovre Wudali, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Dovre Wudali will continue her work on a poetry book manuscript, create an author website, and do a series of readings to create online and in person access to her work for Minnesota audiences. |
Annette Drewes, Bemidji | $ 3,938 | | Drewes will use nature experiences and a practice of writing in community to support and uplift women's voices in northern Minnesota. |
Ron Duffy, Roseville | $ 9,700 | | Duffy will produce an audio documentary about the USS Indianapolis tragedy; presented as a "History Revealed" public program by the Ramsey County Historical Society and offered as a podcast to Minnesota audiences via Duffy's website. |
Alexandra M. Eady, Saint Paul | $ 9,000 | | Eady will create a contemporary dance work in collaboration with six other dancing artists and one musical artist that explores emotional articulation, physical connection, and the rhythms of our hearts coming together. |
Celena R. Eamiguel, Coon Rapids | $ 10,000 | | Eamiguel will begin a three-month music and social media content campaign to encourage, equip, and empower women and minorities, which will include new training, a single music video, and social content. |
Seth M. Eberle, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Eberle will remount The Box King for five performances, with puppet making workshops after each performance meant to encourage conversation about what it means to be LGBTQ+ or to be put into a box. |
Karlyn Eckman, Saint Paul | $ 8,964 | | Eckman will provide materials and hands-on instruction in silverpoint drawing to Minnesotans with disabilities in assisted living at Chandler Place in Saint Anthony and at Bourne to Create, a senior drawing co-op in Saint Paul. |
Alejandro C. Eduarte, Minneapolis | $ 9,500 | | Eduarte will make a film about closed theatrical venues in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, using footage from "Artifacts," Hennepin Library's 1990s arts TV series, and interviewing theater makers of color, pairing their voices with the footage. |
Michelle Elliott, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Elliott will complete the first full draft of the new musical, Country Radio. |
Sannia Elzia, Mendota Heights | $ 9,210 | | Elzia will begin producing her documentary film project Protect Me Too, which explores the aftereffects of sexual assault from the Black woman's perspective. She will cast, shoot, and produce a sample reel of this project for viewing. |
Kurt R. Engh, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Engh will produce, write, and perform an original romantic comedy play called Only Ugly Guys. |
Carlisle Evans Peck, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Evans Peck will showcase their music/theater performance, Iconoclasm, in three performances in greater Minnesota and two performances in Minneapolis. |
Dominic B. Facio, Fergus Falls | $ 10,000 | | Facio, a creative placemaking artist, will obtain equipment to expand their connection to rural Minnesota communities with their immersive music and performance productions. |
Alisha N. Fagan, Blaine | $ 10,000 | | Fagan will teach, mentor, and coach community youth in the art of dance and African culture, offering classes and public performance opportunities. |
Kehinde Famule, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Famule will enhance his filmmaking skills and engage collaborators in the postproduction of his docufiction, "This Isn't Working." Free public screenings of the film, as well as short films by five other BIPOC creatives, will be organized. |
Olivia M. Fantini, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Fantini will complete a third draft of her novel, facilitate and participate in a reading of LGBTQ+ authors, and host an open mic for queer community members on National Day of Silence. |
E.A. Farro, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Farro will do a book tour in greater Minnesota with fifteen public art events. She will reach new audiences, provide creative learning experiences to communities, and create new literary work. |
Sherrie L. Fernandez-Williams, West Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Fernandez-Williams will revise her manuscript, Here Before, and hold a public reading and a public workshop for writers working across genres. |
Sean Ferris, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ferris will explore themes of shame and acceptance surrounding identity and sexuality through a sequential series of sketch-like ink paintings inspired by cartoons from his childhood. These paintings will be compilled in a 128-page book. |
Nisa R. Fiin, Prior Lake | $ 10,000 | | Fiin will photograph abandoned farmsteads and collaborate with rural residents to curate historical narratives for an exhibition sharing the stories of Minnesota family farms. She will present these narratives and photographs in greater Minnesota galleries. |
Elizabeth M. Flinsch, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Flinsch will choreograph and present a new dance/movement work in collaboration with other queer and nonbinary choreographers based on the Mississippi River. |
Sabrina D. Ford, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ford will continue the production of the bimonthly public access television series and workshop, Dream Chambers. |
Susan A. Foss, Sandstone | $ 10,000 | | Foss will produce two life-sized sculptures of Maiingans The Younger, when he was nine years old and as an adult. |
Stacey E. Foster, Pine City | $ 10,000 | | Foster will edit and revise her memoir and begin to seek publication; research and build an online teaching platform; and research, design, and facilitate a "writing as healing" workshop in east central Minnesota, with an online version for a larger Minnesota audience. |
Xenia Franck, Chisholm | $ 9,800 | | Franck will receive 250 hours of training from a master of Byzantine art to serve the Eastern immigrant community. She will display her pieces in communal gathering places and share the historical context of Byzantine art with the community. |
Catherine R. Friend, Red Wing | $ 10,000 | | Friend will restart her career by beginning a new memoir, then teaching two workshops for rural Minnesotans on writing memoir. Participants will join her in two public readings to engage more Minnesotans in the memoir genre. |
Brian L. Frink, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Frink will present new artwork at the Carnegie Art Center in Mankato, created using an iPad in addition to other painting and drawing processes. |
Aaron A. Gabriel, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Gabriel will master, release, and promote their theatrical concept album for an original musical celebrating genderqueer stories and characters. |
Emily Gastineau, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Gastineau will assemble a group of collaborators to collectively research concepts in a contemporary dance process, with workshops and a public showing. |
Parker Genné, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Genné will record and produce an EP of her original folk opera, Pool Party, about access to water and its power to heal trauma and isolation, transforming pain into peace for oneself and for the community of people with disabilities. |
Willow Gentile, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Gentile will create eight plein air paintings of historic Minnesota public libraries and engage communities in the process. |
Gary A. Gingery, Prior Lake | $ 10,000 | | Gingery will lead jazz concerts and percussion clinics for residential and day programs serving low-income seniors and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. |
Catherine Glynn, Lanesboro | $ 10,000 | | Glynn will research and develop materials for a theater performance titled, There is a Field, focusing on parenthood, procreation, and reproductive justice. |
Candida J. González, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | González will create their first solo gallery show, Blood Memory, at Public Functionary in March 2024. The show will explore connection to diasporic roots through mixed media installations. |
Duane L. Goodwin, Bemidji | $ 10,000 | | Goodwin will create a series of traditional and contemporary artworks, while serving the local and Native American community through teaching art. |
Falcon Gott, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Gott will write and direct a narrative short film that will focus on issues that affect the possible outcomes for Native youth as they transition into becoming young adults. |
Christy M. Goulet, Dilworth | $ 10,000 | | Goulet will engage elders in creating a literary work that archives knowledge and history from the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe jingle dress tradition. |
Joua L. Grande, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Grande will finalize learning materials supplementing her documentary film "Spirited," and share the curriculum with schools and organizations serving the Hmong community. |
Lori Greene, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Greene will focus on joy and human connection through a collaborative project that combines adaptive mosaic classes and a multidimensional exhibit that is fun, playful, and accessible for Minnesotans of all abilities. |
Sarah M. Greer, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Greer will compose five new improvised works for solo voice and small voice and instrument ensembles, focused on the themes of transmutation and sonic healing, documenting the works with other Minnesota improvisers. |
Christopher E. Griffith, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Griffith, an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation living in Minneapolis, will write and record three original songs to engage Minnesota youth in basic concepts of Native American culture and history. |
Kathryn J. Haddad, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Haddad will hold workshops and dialogues with the local Dominican and Lebanese community to explore connections between the two groups for a play on Arab/Latino immigration. |
Jocelyn Hagen, Big Lake | $ 10,000 | | Hagen will compose a new multimovement work for symphonic orchestra and workshop it with four underserved orchestras across the state of Minnesota, who will each give the piece a regional premiere. |
Kaamil A. Haider, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Haider will research and organize the concept of his new book, KX, KX: Orality, Visuality and the Colonial Archive of Somalia, 1885-1960. |
Carla Hall, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Hall will engage four youth in a blacksmithing workshop series. Hall and the youth will develop projects based on their queer identity and experience, and will exhibit the work during Minneapolis Pride. |
Lindsy Halleckson, Robbinsdale | $ 10,000 | | Halleckson will create a series of paintings incorporating natural materials based on Arctic atmosphere, wildfires, and ecological intersectionality. |
David Hamlow, Good Thunder | $ 10,000 | | Hamlow will create recycled object reliquaries exploring personally and culturally significant objects, and facilitate greater Minnesota students in creating their own personally and culturally significant reliquaries. |
Kathryn H. Hammer, Roseau | $ 10,000 | | Hammer, of Pretty Dirt Pottery, will explore the techniques of screen printing her designs used in the production of mono printed images on clay. |
Sara L. Hanson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Hanson will partner with the Hormel Institute to create an interactive public sculpture that will be exhibited in the community and permanently at the Institute. |
Jeffrey W. Harper, Cass Lake | $ 10,000 | | Harper will undertake a traditional deer hide brain tanning apprenticeship with master tanner Nate Johnson. Upon completion, he will offer a free brain tanning workshop in his home community, the Leech Lake Ojibwe Reservation. |
Sequoia Hauck, Champlin | $ 10,000 | | Hauck will create a public installation about top surgery that celebrates queer, trans, and two spirit identity. |
Nicole A. Havekost, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Havekost will produce a series of wall based and sculptural felt, hand-stitched works for her exhibition Bewitch at Dreamsong in Minneapolis. |
Scott J. Hebert, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Hebert will produce four live Dungeons & Dragons podcast episodes in greater Minnesota. These live events will be free to the public, continuing a five-year storyline. Hebert will also begin the transition from creating purely audio content to monthly video distribution on YouTube. |
Annie Hejny, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Hejny will create a series of winter inspired abstract paintings to be publicly exhibited as a celebration and a call for awareness of Minnesota's winters and waterways; community educational experiences will occur in Lanesboro. |
Stephanie E. Henry, Princeton | $ 10,000 | | Henry will work with experienced musicians to produce a demo album for her original musical Willow Storm and the Lightning Bolts, gaining a strong promotional tool to reach new audiences and collaborators. |
Cadex Herrera, White Bear Lake | $ 10,000 | | Herrera will interview ten individuals or families who have immigrated to the United States and made the White Bear area their home. He will paint their portraits for public display and produce video interviews for online viewing. |
Paul D. Herwig, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Herwig will create Rising from the Ruins, a projection art and live music installation to be performed within the walls of the Ruin Courtyard of the Mill City Museum, an artistic event to express resilience, recovery, and renewal. |
A. Eric Heukeshoven, Winona | $ 9,700 | | Heukeshoven will create a composition which combines concert band and music technology that is educational, accessible, and fun for performers and audiences, to be premiered at the annual Winona State University High School Honor Band Festival. |
Linda Hibbard, Apple Valley | $ 10,000 | | Hibbard will facilitate interactive music, movement, and storytelling experiences for elderly residents living in memory care and assisted living communities. |
Augustus J. Hinton, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Hinton will create the third episode of the animated web series Closet Combat to add to the canon of queer stories and characters in media, for LGBTQ+ youth empowerment. |
Kristine Hipps, Winona | $ 5,500 | | Hipps will produce a documentary film celebrating southeastern Minnesota's diverse regional theatrical and festival scene, sharing the joys and struggles of creating theater outside the Twin Cities arts hub. |
Ashley Hise, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Hise will develop her craft in working with clay and light by creating four sculptures, then provide opportunities to explore this process through a class and workshop, followed by a group exhibition with the students and other invited artists. |
Esther M. Hoffmann, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Hoffmann will create a prompt and poetry book. Printing and distributing 300 copies, she will host writing events at the Blue Earth Public Library, ARTrageous Mankato, and YouTube Live. |
Keith T. Hopkins, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Hopkins will complete his movie, Man Has A Mania, a feature film engaging and employing a diverse group of artists from greater Minnesota. |
Annie Hough, Moorhead | $ 10,000 | | Hough will oversee production of a Moorhead drama camp and performances of her latest original educational play for children, Butterfly Garden Adventures. |
Keith R. Hovis, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Hovis will continue developing his original musical, Ostentatious Outlaws of Neehai Valley, with a workshop and public reading. The piece explores the complex relationship between religion and queerness. |
Jade A. Hoyer, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Hoyer will create large-scale visual art works on paper using recycled handmade paper in collaboration with Greenvale Park Elementary School students in Northfield. |
Curtis J. Hunt, Isanti | $ 10,000 | | Hunt will teach others how to create medicine wheels and dream catchers and how to appreciate the spiritual healing and hope that they can offer. |
Lauren Husting, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Husting will commission a new work for trombone quartet that embodies the spirit of Motown music with a modern and local flavor. The work, along with their Motown program, will be performed in three concerts across greater Minnesota in 2024. |
Su Hwang, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Hwang will complete, revise, and seek publication for her second poetry collection; and will offer a series of free, in person poetry workshops in three small towns and rural Minnesota communities to connect through poetry and collaboration. |
Philli Irvin, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Irvin will complete production of his debut recording, "Drain-0," and execute an immersive live show that revitalizes the bonds that unite us as a community. |
Bethany O. Jackson, Aurora | $ 9,280 | | Jackson will engage with the public through artist receptions, and when not physically present in galleries, visitors will learn about her creative process from the curators of the galleries with which she collaborates. |
Cassidy Jay, Laporte | $ 10,000 | | Jay will showcase the art of music composition with an emphasis on improvisation and artistic expression through the release of recordings, live performances, and publishing content online. |
Annika J. Johansson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Johansson will develop their choreography with five other dancers to produce a public dance show, exploring queer and trans themes. |
A. Rafael Johnson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will interview Minnesotans about their memories of the unrest after the murder of George Floyd. Their stories will shape his upcoming novel, The Search, about a biracial teenager who goes missing during the riots. |
Blossom Johnson, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will write a new play that centers Diné people and explores food sovereignty. |
James R. Johnson, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will broaden his artistic skills and engage Minnesotans in folk arts appreciation by creating and presenting a program of Celtic and Balkan folk music and dance, both separately and in a novel fusion that includes Highland bagpipe. |
Julie A. Johnson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Johnson will arrange and transcribe her original compositions into printed and digital sheet music that will be performed in a full-length show. The performance and sheet music will be available to musicians across Minnesota. |
Paul V. Johnson, Pelican Rapids | $ 9,150 | | Johnson will interview residents of Pelican Rapids, one of greater Minnesota's most culturally diverse cities, and create a sculpture of interviewees utilizing a compelling aluminum tape technique. |
Flora J. Jones, Red Lake | $ 10,000 | | Jones will teach and support community members in making their own star quilts. |
Linda M. Kachelmeier, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Kachelmeier will collaborate with three women artists over age fifty through poetry, music, dance, and visual art to develop a creative process to create public art for and in rural Minnesota communities. |
Penny M. Kagigebi, Detroit Lakes | $ 10,000 | | Kagigebi will teach embellished birchbark basketry classes in Native American communities with basic quillwork and beadwork on birchbark, sparking queer/two spirit American Indian and Alaska Native cultural reclamation through art, conversation, and community. |
Asuka Kakitani, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Kakitani will compose, produce a recording, and present a concert of a new 25-minute solo piano work featuring Shannon Wettstein, in order to reach and impact Minnesota audiences. |
Chris Kalogerson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kalogerson will perform three free, patriotic shows for Minnesota veterans at several different veterans homes around the state of Minnesota. |
Patti Kameya, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Kameya will develop skills through engaging with Minnesota immigrant experiences and presenting those stories in new ways. She will also hold a reading and writing workshop at a public library. |
Z. Kaplan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kaplan will elevate the voices of marginalized Jewish community members through engaging in meaningful research and leading workshops that aim to deepen their ceramics practice and bring art and healing to their community. |
Charles G. Kapsner, Fort Ripley | $ 10,000 | | Kapsner will return to his own work after a decade on a large commission, creating a signature painting focused on his traditional roots as a studio painter, showcase the piece at two rural venues and one gallery, and engage with the local school and community. |
Clarita Kell, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Kell will collaborate with an Aztec dance group to enrich their cultural knowledge of the tradition, invite Latine community members to experience and embrace its cultural healing, and share the dance's richness with the broader community. |
John D. Kellen, Willmar | $ 10,000 | | Kellen will create, direct, and produce a documentary film exploring racism in rural communities. |
Serenity Kenan, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Kenan will expand entry points into clay through creation of new work for public exhibit and mentorship of an emerging visual artist. |
R. J. Kern, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kern will present a series of community engagement programs at six county fairs in greater Minnesota, each focused on rural youth and 55+ audiences. Programming includes storytelling presentations, workshops, and an exhibition of photography. |
Fawzia Khan, Hopkins | $ 10,000 | | Khan will weave a series of prayer rugs, incorporating voiceprints of audio recordings of ancient and contemporary words of wisdom and, along with the audio recordings, present them in a solo exhibtion at Soo Visual Arts Center. |
Miriam Khanan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Khanan will present three candle making workshops and present their work to audiences at three pop-up art markets. Khanan will organize and curate these markets, highlighting Jewish artists of marginalized identities in the Twin Cities metro. |
Michael Kiesow Moore, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Kiesow Moore will develop a poetry manuscript My First Pandemic on his experiences during the AIDS crisis. He will hold workshops to gather stories from the LGBTQIA+ community about their experiences with AIDS and present readings with the participants. |
Sophia E. Kim, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kim will write and submit two essays to literary journals for publication, complete a draft of her second novel, and hold two public readings. |
Matthew A. King, Minneapolis | $ 9,990 | | King will use portraiture and interviews to explore what the modern usage of "queer" means to Minnesotans who identify as such. |
Marina Kittaka, Minneapolis | $ 6,309 | | Kittaka will write, produce, promote, and perform a pop album that conveys her search for meaning through the lens of queer desire, Japanese American subjectivity, Christian symbolism, and bygone techno optimism. |
Michael Kleber-Diggs, Saint Paul | $ 9,500 | | Kleber-Diggs, a poet, will work on a second poetry collection and lead a workshop and poetry reading in Ely. |
Kevin L. Kling, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Storyteller Kling will collaborate with famed Arctic explorer and climate activist Will Steger on a new full-length piece that combines story, live music, and video culminating in a recorded workshop excerpt to be broadcast on YouTube. |
Leah V. Klister, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Klister will increase access to her artist book, Ode to a New Mother, by turning it into a larger trade edition. She will distribute the trade edition through perinatal communities and small businesses throughout Minnesota while seeking out a publisher. |
Naomi E. Ko, Savage | $ 10,000 | | Ko will develop new film work, present her work, and host a free filmmaking workshop for Asian Pacific Islander Americans in Duluth. |
Zoë Koenig, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Koenig will begin development of a new dance work, Physical Prizes, in collaboration with musician Nora Nygard, and hold a roundtable discussion, open rehearsal, and work in progress showing to engage community members in the creation process. |
Matthew Koshmrl, Chisholm | $ 10,000 | | Koshmrl will develop a new nonfiction video exhibition, Hereford, a window into the life of cattle on the Iron Range. |
Jennifer A. Kramer, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kramer will film the stories of senior women in rural northern Minnesota. |
Sarah J. Krueger, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Krueger will write and record an original work titled Estuary, inspired by the Saint Louis River estuary. The piece will be recorded in Duluth, feature musicians with direct ties to the region, and will be released with an online video component. |
Paul W. Kruse, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kruse will create a series of documentary audio pieces about LGBTQ people in the Upper Midwest and their relationship to family in a project called "Once Removed." |
Amoke Kubat, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Kubat will explore the nature of human monsterswho live in plain sight among us in her new play, How to Redeem Monsters. Minnesota audiences will be engaged with the work through public readings of the work in progress in north Minneaplis. |
Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Dobbs will develop new work about Korean intercountry adoption and white settler colonialism for her third book of poems and will organize readings and audience discussions in rural and urban Minnesota to share this work with readers. |
Kathryn Kysar, Saint Paul | $ 9,450 | | Kysar will write and edit a lyric memoir, revolving around music, work with an editor; create a new website; and host an accessible and inclusive reading of writing about music. |
McKain Lakey, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Lakey will explore songwriting as a tool for healing and self-care by offering a pair of six-week class series and a weekend workshop. Participants of all backgrounds will be invited to write songs examining identity and celebrating personal growth. |
Vivian Lark, Saint Paul | $ 9,625 | | Lark will create a piano instruction book based on the methods she has developed teaching multicultural students with different learning styles. The book will be based on original or copyright free music from a variety of cultures and genres. |
Dralandra D. Larkins, Minneapolis | $ 9,860 | | Larkins will write and produce a poetic memoir book and audiobook. She will perform poems from the manuscript, plan poetry readings, and discuss themes from the manuscript in her poetry workshops. |
Andrea Leap, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Leap and a group of performer/creators will develop, rehearse, and present musical adaptations (songs and arrangements) based on personal stories of older Minnesotans living in congregate care settings. |
Gregory E. Lecker, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Lecker, a painter, will create his first artist book, Watercycle, for distribution and sale to connect with audiences and communities beyond exhibitions and open studio events. |
Rita R. LeDuc, Fountain | $ 8,700 | | LeDuc will teach painting classes, using her teaching technique and paintings to help others understand that everyday choices decide their community's quality of life. |
Kasilena Lee, Mounds View | $ 10,000 | | Lee will use media visualizers and conceptual photo shoots to express her identity as a Hmong-American woman growing up in our modern world of instantaneous media consumption through her album titled, archived. |
Charlie Leftridge, Saint Peter | $ 10,000 | | Leftridge will compose and present a song cycle for voice and string quartet. The multimovement work will set to music his original poetry, highlighting his experiences growing up as a queer artist in rural Minnesota. |
Robert Lehmann, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Lehmann will compose, record, and perform new music centered on his Lolo's stories of immigrating to the United States in the 1960s, exploring topics of diaspora; reconnecting back to Filipino culture, language, land, and water; and healing generational trauma. |
Camila S. Leiva, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Leiva will produce new comic chapters of her graphic novel, Fabiola, about her incredible human rights lawyer grandmother, and will share her work and facilitate a zine workshop with Latine youth. |
Bronson Lemer, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Lemer will revise and seek publication for his veterans' health memoir, Improper Movement. |
Sharon E. Lennartson, Apple Valley | $ 5,000 | | Lennartson will offer a series of classes to engage and educate participants on regalia making and Dakota culture. |
Laura M. Levinson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Levinson and collaborating artists will present the next phase of the "DOIKAYT project," a film installation and a live performance at Resource Minneapolis in April 2024. |
Jennifer Lien, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Lien will commission three song cycles by Asian American composers set to Asian American texts. She and a Minnesota based Asian pianist will give two recitals at colleges, engaging especially with Asian American student musicians in Minnesota. |
Nic Lincoln, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Lincoln will collaborate with the Minnesota Transgender Alliance for a performance featuring Helen Hatch, Gemma Isaackson, and Venus De Mars. |
Doug Little, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Little will compose new works for the group Charanga Tropical. The new repertoire will premiere at festivals and other venues in Minnesota in summer 2024. Little will also purchase video equipment to share content with audiences online. |
A.P. Looze, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Looze will develop skills to produce and publicly present reimagined trans flags to fly in June 2024 through a project called Freak Flags. |
Su Love, Roseville | $ 10,000 | | Love will draft a poetry book manuscript about nuclear radiation in Minnesota, developed through ethical story sourcing with atomic veterans and members of the Prairie Island Indian Community, and secondary research. Public readings will take place in Minneapolis, Morris, and Moorhead. |
Amy M. Lucas-Peroceski, Chisholm | $ 7,672 | | Lucas-Peroceski will hold seven-week adult painting sessions in four locations in rural, northern Minnesota to foster confidence and enjoyment in the creative process. |
Bryan A. Lund, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Lund will collect, write, and publish a collection of nineteen oral histories that reflect the remarkably diverse array of lived experiences present in the Rochester, Minnesota community. |
Ka Oskar Ly, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | "Ly will expand their HMong batik practice into a pop-up studio space to provide more seamless community workshop classes, gatherings, and experiences.
" |
Khadijah M, Saint Louis Park | $ 10,000 | | Muse will research the design and shapes of handwoven traditional techniques of Somali women through mentorship from practicing artists; and create an installation of reinterpretation of those forms, shapes, and designs. |
Hannah Z. MacKenzie-Margulies, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | MacKenzie-Margulies will develop and present "Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins," a new family-friendly contemporary and traditional dance work. |
Theresa H. Madaus, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Madaus will collaboratively create a new dance work touching on themes of grief, geologic time, connection to place, lineage, rituals, spellcasting, and ghosts. |
Victoria L. Malawey, Saint Paul | $ 5,268 | | Malawey will create an album of original songs, written for voice and guitar, culminating in a release show for the public. |
MALFLOR, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | MALFLOR will create a series of photographically based artworks exploring protection, safety, and care within the trans community. |
Paula L. Mann, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Mann will use a collaborative process in her choreography to explore aspects of our humanity and ideas of aging with four cross-cultural, mature, women choreographers who represent a diversity of life experiences. |
Roosevelt Mansfield, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Mansfield will shoot portraits and collect stories of the living legends in the Rondo neighborhood of Saint Paul to be assembled in a book. The intent is to honor them while they are living and help them share their legacy and stories. |
Elisha A. Marin, Albert Lea | $ 10,000 | | Marin will create a full-length studio album at the Library Studio with notable Minnesota recording artists Matt Patrick, Zach Miller, and Aaron Fabbrini. |
John W. Marks, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Marks will create a multimedia work to be projected on a church facade in the midtown Phillips neighborhood in Minneapolis. The artist will engage a neighborhood youth group in filmmaking workshops during its creation. |
Nazara Matos, Minneapolis | $ 9,573 | | Matos will engage individuals and families who live and work in the neighborhood surrounding George Floyd Square by producing a series of environmental photographic portraits. |
Ezra D. Mattes, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Mattes will create a new collection of memoir comics and host a digital workshop for students in Minnesota, especially from the disabled and LGBTQ+ community, culminating in a live reading showcase in Minneapolis. |
Kathy McCurdy, Minneapolis | $ 3,945 | | McCurdy will engage senior care facility residents through movement, rhythms, music, interaction, and performance. A dance troupe of senior women will engage residents at a minimum of twelve senior care facilities, performing to original choreographies. |
Kathy McTavish, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | McTavish will create a series of generative, chance infused, short films called "the Light Factory." The work will be exhibited at a local theater and online. |
Catherine F. Meier, Finland | $ 10,000 | | Meier will create a series of drawings depicting landmarks within the geographical triangle of Silver Bay, Little Marais, and Finland, with an exhibition at the Tettegouche State Park Center and a program at the Silver Bay Public Library. |
Benjamin T. Merritt, Minneapolis | $ 7,975 | | Merritt will complete a series of garments that reflect on chronically ill embodiment, which will be exhibited at the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing. |
Liz Miller, Good Thunder | $ 10,000 | | Miller will create a modular, fiber based wall installation comprised of discarded items found within the rural, southern Minnesota landscape. |
Jess Morgan, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Morgan will utilize their skills as a nontraditional poet and musician to curate events, sound experiences, and poetry that encourage audiences to listen deeply, be present in their body, and connect with their environment. |
Christian E. Mortenson, Moorhead | $ 9,973 | | Mortenson will begin work on a new photographic series, "The Air. Thin and Eager Like This," which examines individuals who hunt and the landscapes that shape them. |
Tariq A. Muata, Saint Paul | $ 9,962 | | Muata will provide creative support to individuals showing interest in film or visual media through lessons on multimedia craft that combine real world experiences with technical knowledge and skills. |
Rachel L. Mueller, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Mueller will engage with Minnesotans in developing a short personal documentary exploring the conflicts between queer identity and the dogmas of faith, offering insight into the universal quest for acceptance. |
Nathaniel L. Nelson, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Nelson will enter full production on a Minnesota focused documentary on punk music communities through the lens of mosh pits and humor. |
Devin D. Newby, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Newby will create a limited YouTube series that will serve as a prelude to an associated pop-up gallery show where a new collection of oil paintings will be displayed, all of which focus on highlighting individuals of the Minnesota workforce. |
Sho Nikaido, Minneapolis | $ 9,999 | | Nikaido will teach a ten-week long photo workshop at a Japanese restaurant. Students will learn its history, technology, and how to approach the media. In the end, students will have an opportunity to show their work in a public space. |
Aliza Novacek-Olson, Roseau | $ 10,000 | | Novacek-Olson will research antiquated Scandinavian folk art and textiles located in northwest Minnesota museums. Three unique pieces will be selected to replicate using traditional methods and materials, culminating in a public museum exhibition. |
Christine Novotny, Grand Marais | $ 10,000 | | Novotny will weave a new collection of dimensionally colored rya carpets, using hand dyed yarn spun from Minnesota wool fleeces. |
Natalie Nowytski, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Nowytski will workshop and present original compositions and traditional music for a play in development, The Last Babushka, based on real stories of Ukrainian elder women who returned to live illegally in Chornobyl's Exclusion Zone. |
Margaret Ogas, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Ogas will research, develop, and produce her first evening-length dance work. |
Geno Okok, Brooklyn Park | $ 9,550 | | Okok will explore ways of creating access to the arts for underserved communities, providing free arts education focused on modern and traditional African art making for the youth of Brooklyn Park and Champlin; activities will be offered in person and via an online medium. |
Emily Oliver, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Oliver will interview writers in Minneapolis, Duluth, Northfield, and Faribault; her writing students at Faribault Prison; and writers involved in the Veterans Voices Program about poems that gave them "the experience of being known." She will write new poems and host a digital salon of Minnesota writers. |
Eric Olson, Bemidji | $ 4,439 | | Olson will perform three public educational recitals on violin in greater Minnesota, with pianist Stephen Carlson, to increase access to the performing arts. |
Melissa J. Olson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Olson writes for people who consider themselves survivors and intergenerational survivors of Indigenous child removal policies and practices, along with many artists, activists, and academics allies. |
Michael Ortega, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ortega will organize three seasonal showcases and create new audio and visual work. |
Karen Owsley Nease, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Nease will create 25 paintings for the "Topographies: Layers of Meaning" exhibition at the Johnson Heritage Post Museum in Grand Marais. She will also have her work professionally documented for a new e-commerce website. |
Sheila J. Packa, Duluth | $ 9,950 | | Packa will complete her manuscript in process and make it publication ready. She will do a public reading and teach two writing workshops in northern Minnesota. |
Lara Palmqvist, Faribault | $ 10,000 | | Palmqvist will stay connected to Minnesota communities and sustain her arts and teaching practices by hosting an in person writing workshop, leading an online writing group available to all Minnesotans, and completing a story collection. |
Maggie Panetta, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Panetta will launch Garages for Good, a residential mural initiative for southeast Minnesota. |
Yan Pang, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Pang will produce a forty-five-minute, one-act musical opera blending Chinese operatic tradition with American contemporary dance, providing a culturally rich experience for Minnesotans. |
Melanie M. Pankau, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pankau will create a large-scale print installation and suite of paintings based on her daily meditation and drawing practice, to be exhibited at the Rochester Art Center, and will hold a series of meditation and automatic drawing workshops. |
Leyna M. Papach, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Papach will record and produce an original concept album, Creet, which explores a diverse musical language based on her cumulative experience as a bicultural artist. With its release, will be a concert of pieces from the album. |
Sarina Y. Partridge, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Partridge will complete, promote, and publicly present Kin: a singing story musical about wild journeying and remembering kinship with all beings, featuring original music and visually narrated by a crankie (an illuminated picture scroll). |
A Pavan, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pavan will invite his teacher, Shabbir Nisar, and conduct four tabla workshops for diverse music and dance students, and produce videos. Pavan will gain a strong educational and promotional tool to reach new audiences, students, and collaborators. |
Loriene A. Pearson, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Pearson will design and embroider three framed pieces that tell a story, at All My Relations Gallery, of Natives thriving and flourishing despite the traumas inflicted through the doctrine of discovery and subsequent colonization. |
Michelle R. Perdue, Brooklyn Park | $ 10,000 | | Perdue, a cancer survivor and trained actress, will write and produce a one woman show to educate, entertain, and inspire women among the African Diaspora to live courageously in spite of their cancer diagnoses. |
Roseanne G. Pereira, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pereira will develop skills creating a new installment of her craft based writing newsletter, aimed at engaging writers of color and focusing on the overlap of the literary and citizenry—what it means to be a good reader of both books and of the world. |
Lois K. Peterson, Dakota | $ 10,000 | | Peterson's large-scale intricate drawings of dormant native plants draws upon her family's history as a fourth generation farming family. Her work reflects on the destruction inflicted on the prairies of Minnesota with a hope for a new awareness. |
Sarah Peterson, Lanesboro | $ 10,000 | | Peterson will continue developing her craft of songwriting, creating new music, and partnering with regional artists to coordinate writing and performance opportunities for songwriters in southeast Minnesota. |
Nikki Pfeifer, Saint Paul | $ 6,059 | | Pfeifer will continue developing skills as a producer, musician, promoter, record label member, and community advocate. |
Niphone Phommaras, Saint Paul Park | $ 10,000 | | Phommaras will create a new community appreciation for Lao traditional dance and culture through six public dances. |
Nell Pierce, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pierce will build upon their Q'llage project by interviewing five queer people, facilitating a movement workshop based on a theme that emerges from the interviews, and creating a large scale collage inspired by imagery from the workshop. |
Sara J. Pillatzki-Warzeha, Delano | $ 10,000 | | Pillatzki-Warzeha will produce and direct an immersive, community needs driven and collaborative production of the hit musical Next to Normal. |
Sophia Pimsler, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pimsler will premiere an original multidisciplinary performance, Shrink, featuring music by Venus DeMars, at the Center for Performing Arts in 2024. It will be a montage of fictional narratives inspired by Pimsler's lived experiences as a licensed psychotherapist. |
Viviana Pintado, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Pintado will arrange and notate traditional Afro-Cuban themes for performance by choral and percussion groups, sharing a cultural tradition while developing a new publishing revenue stream. |
Wendy S. Placko, Northfield | $ 10,000 | | Placko will create a documentary film exploring the housing crisis, highlighting a rural model for sustainable affordable housing. She will share her process via a blog series, offer a public screening, and distribute the film through public broadcasting. |
Lane M. Powell, Harmony | $ 10,000 | | Powell will compose and distribute free copies of a new beginning band composition to elementary schools across Minnesota that exposes young performers to nontraditional harmonies, rhythms, and contemporary orchestration that is fun and engaging. |
Mary Prescott, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Prescott will research and develop an interdisciplinary project about her Thai heritage involving food, performance, and documentary to examine the relationships between ecology, migration, cultural inheritance, and maternal legacy. |
Ryan D. Rader, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Rader will compose original jazz arrangements of video game music and will perform them with a six-piece jazz ensemble at five public concerts in southern Minnesota. |
Nirmala Rajasekar, Plymouth | $ 10,000 | | Rajasekar will conduct research on Padams and Javalis, the devotional love songs of Carnatic music; she will then teach this material over five workshops and present them in concert. |
Aparna Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | My project is to create high quality musical recordings of archival pieces from my repertoire, with the aim to preserve my artistic lineage and increase access to my work for diverse audiences. |
Ashwini Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ramaswamy will create and lead workshops that help explain the complex themes and poetry in three of her full-length Bharatanatyam works, while promoting mind/body connections. |
Ranee A. Ramaswamy, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Ramaswamy will create an immersive Bharatanatyam Abhinaya choreography set for three dancers from the East Indian community. |
Nen G Ramirez, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Ramirez will complete their book, To Undo the Undoing, a poetry collection on anorexia recovery as a nonbinary Chicanx individual. They will also organize three community poetry events. |
Vanessa Ramos, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Ramos will host a reading for children, share new literary work, and offer a workshop for other writers of color and indigenous writers who are interested in writing for young audiences. |
Gabrieline Reece, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Reece will engage collaborators in producing "Black Women Surving Corporate," a feature length documentary film sharing the journeys of Black women who are surviving in corporate America and debunking the myth of an angry black woman. |
Marcie R. Rendon, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Rendon, in collaboration with video artist Sequoia Hauck, will create a multimedia production of her script about missing and murdered Indigenous women, titled "Say Their Names," that can travel to communities around Minnesota. |
Jes Reyes, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Reyes will create a new body of interdisciplinary artwork, publish a companion artist book, and culminate the project with a weaving workshop. |
Tracy L. Rittmueller, Sauk Rapids | $ 10,000 | | Rittmueller will deliver creative writing courses based on her own poetry, essays, and creative practices to older adults who live in assisted living or memory care institutions in Brainerd, Mankato, and a rural community near Saint Cloud. |
Nina Robinson, Shoreview | $ 10,000 | | Robinson will create a new textile art installation surrounding the theme of masking in autistic women for an exhibition in December 2024 at Super Charged Printmakers. |
Areca Roe, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Roe will develop a project of three-dimensional anaglyph (red/cyan) prints that visually explore intersections of the domestic and natural worlds. She will exhibit the work, create a book, and offer a workshop about creating 3D anaglyph photographs. |
Monica C. Rojas, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Rojas will create engaging author visits for Hennepin County libraries, and write and revise two new picture book manuscripts. |
Valerie Rose, Eagan | $ 9,850 | | Rose will engage residents in the next evolution of film by immersing them in innovative, interactive film experiences that seat them in the director's chair to virtually direct the film via controlling how the story action unfolds. |
Brett C. Ross, Ely | $ 9,448 | | Ross will document through photography the intense landscape of Ely, along with the people who build strong community in its midst, and will share those images through gallery displays and short films. |
Vladimir Rovinsky, Mankato | $ 9,998 | | Rovinsky, with the mentorship of playwright Andrei Kureichik, will create a new English language adaptation of the 1937 Karel Capek play The White Plague, and offer staged readings to Minnesota audiences. |
Amanda L. Sachs, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Sachs and collaborator, Elena Hollenhorst, will bridge the barriers of access to high quality contemporary dance by touring their duet and offering educational workshops to communities of greater Minnesota. |
Lin Salisbury, Hovland | $ 9,578 | | Salisbury will engage an editor in completing the final draft of her novel, The Violet Hour Book Club, to prepare it for submission. She will hold three writers' salons for North Shore writers, and develop a podcast for Superior Reads. |
Les Sanders, Bemidji | $ 10,000 | | Sanders will develop a community art program in the Nymore area. Grant funds will be used for materials, program support, and hiring of several art instructors to assist with the variety of art classes. |
Anne E. Sawyer, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Sawyer will create a new picture book and school residency about pollinators. |
Kayla Schiltgen, Two Harbors | $ 10,000 | | Schiltgen will complete preproduction for her new screen dance considering society's discomfort with women who choose solitude. She will involve the Two Harbors community in this work via dance classes and creative documentation. |
Anika H. Schneider, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Schneider will create her first artist book, exploring her Chinese family's assimilation and cultural resilience, and will host a book release. She will also create a solo exhibition titled Double Happiness, Double Consciousness, exploring similar themes. |
Felicia Schneiderhan, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Schneiderhan will work on her novel, Winds, Light and Variable, about a family boating Minnesota's North Shore and Isle Royale. She will teach writing workshops to older adults in Duluth and celebrate with a public reading. |
Laura C. Schultz, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Schultz will record an album of her original music and play a series of free album release shows in 2025. |
Luverne G. Seifert, Saint Anthony | $ 10,000 | | Seifert will collaborate with musician Annie Enneking to adapt a new translation of Brecht's The Mother, to address the economic disparity facing people in urban and rural Minnesota. |
April L. Sellers, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Sellers will engage in a one-week artist residency at Tofte Lake Center in Ely to begin developing Kiki and the Opulent Dissenters, a new dance work. The residency will be documented in a video blog and culminate in live performance. |
Pei Shen, New Brighton | $ 10,000 | | Shen will work with performing artists and other knowledgeable Chinese and Jewish community members to evolve the script, music, and choreography of "Shanghainese" to a workshop version in preparation for final production of the dance drama. |
Sun Yung Shin, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Shin will write a hybrid memoir using the sci-fi/horror/action films Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) to explore race, orphanhood, colonization, immigration, and maternity in the age of artificial intelligence and private space travel. |
KT Shorb, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Shorb and collaborative partner, Katherine Wilkinson will produce a live performance of their original play, Inappropriate, a theater show about queerness, time travel, and friendship. |
Loretta J. Simonet, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Simonet will perform live, in person concerts with her duo, Curtis & Loretta, at eight venues in rural Minnesota communities. She will also give a shorter outreach concert at a rest home in each community. |
Nicole S. Simpkins, Minneapolis | $ 9,085 | | Simpkins will present new installation work of mixed-media tapestry drawings based on local ecosystem changes, as well as public workshops to support artists in applying for residencies and other opportunities. |
Candice Simpson, Saint Paul | $ 9,947 | | Simpson will develop and teach a program for adult artists with developmental and intellectual disabilities, to provide greater access to the knowledge and confidence that is required to promote and sell one's own art. |
Moheb Soliman, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Soliman will research, prototype, and engage North Shore communities with core components of a site-specific future public art project titled Poem of Sublime Proportion that uses poetry, land art, and social practice around the Great Lakes. |
Jon A. Solinger, Pelican Rapids | $ 10,000 | | Solinger, a photographer, will collaborate with eight rural residents in a project about relating to the natural world through raising or foraging food, resulting in public exhibits at three locations and a permanent online exhibit. |
Flor Soto, Austin | $ 10,000 | | Soto will complete a mural in Austin, that celebrates the diverse community and uplifts immigrant stories. |
Justin Anthony Spenner, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Spenner will form a three-artist cohort dedicated to developing a multigenre concert series in diverse venues that centers artist compensation and cultural accessibility. |
Aaron C. Squadroni, Grand Rapids | $ 10,000 | | Squadroni will create a series of metal point drawings that express his relationship to the mining landscape of northern Minnesota. The drawings will invite people to see Minnesota's mining landscape in a new way that is sculptural and personal. |
Tom Stewart, Mahtomedi | $ 7,494 | | Stewart will depict scenes of Indigenous activities for interpretation of an ancient chert quarry in partnership with Mower County History Center and Prairie Island Indian Community. His pen and ink drawings will be seen at the county museum, in public talks, in an online guide, and will be offered to related tribal communities. |
Alyssa Stormes, Minneapolis | $ 9,750 | | Stormes will produce and direct three music videos for three different local musicians or bands, and host a public screening and performance. |
Dameun M. Strange, Saint Paul | $ 9,850 | | Strange will create AquaSonos, a sonic and graphic exploration of the ecological history of land we call Frogtown, culminating in a soundwalk and permanent augmented reality sound installation. |
Kevin L. Strauss, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Strauss will write stories and poems about small towns in Minnesota and present a series of four writing workshops where participants will receive online or in person group instruction and individual email or video feedback on their writing. |
S.M. Sukardi, Minneapolis | $ 8,400 | | Sukardi will complete their full-length short story collection on queer Asian American girlhood, Girls Like Us. They will present their work to the Minnesota community at public readings held at independent Twin Cities bookstores. |
Joko Sutrisno, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Sutrisno will hold an Indonesian gamelan music residency at the Performing Institute of Minnesota arts high school that will culminate in a public performance. |
Tri Sutrisno, Saint Paul | $ 9,850 | | Sutrisno will hold a residency at the Performing Institute of Minnesota arts high school, teaching Indonesian dance, that will culminate in a public performance. |
Sydney L. Swanson, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Swanson will partner with six arts venues across southeastern Minnesota to host dance film screenings that showcase different styles of dance created by Minnesota artists. |
Timothy C. Takach, Big Lake | $ 9,940 | | Takach will make a professional recording of his ballet Unfashioned Creature for use in Minnesota touring and outreach with James Sewell Ballet, and for digital distribution. |
Nailah R. Taman, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Taman will research and create a contemporary khayameya Egyptian tent structure to gather queer community in conversation and healing. |
Yuko Taniguchi, Saint Paul | $ 9,600 | | Taniguchi will implement Counterspaces, a collective healing project highlighting the voices and experiences of BIPOC community members at the Robert J. Jones Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center. |
Gino Terrell, Maple Grove | $ 10,000 | | Terrell will create a short film collaborating with African American artists to enrich and engage with the African American community in the greater Twin Cities region in Minnesota. |
Alicia Thao, South Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Thao, a performing artist specializing in experimental indie folk, soul, and R&B, will engage collaborators in completing their debut album, "Here". |
Mary Therese, Bemidji | $ 9,791 | | Therese will guide area youth in painting self portraits in the shape of leaves, and incorporate them into a mural painting titled Tree of Community, to be installed on the exterior wall of the Harmony Food Coop in downtown Bemidji. |
Maddie J. Thies, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Thies, a third culture kid (TCK), will continue her "Everywhere and Nowhere" series of musical exploration with other TCK musicians, focused on liminality, grief, nomadic living, and more. |
Nicole Thomas, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Thomas will complete new work about Vietnamese American diaspora and grief. She will also host multiple open studios in Minneapolis featuring musicians from diverse backgrounds throughout the year. |
Mary E. Thoreson, Bemidji | $ 8,044 | | Thoreson, in collaboration with music educator Casey Rasmussen, will engage clients at the Bemidji homeless shelter in a creative musical experience, giving voice to children through compositions for chorus and orchestra. |
Kelly J. Tokay, White Bear Lake | $ 2,910 | | Tokay will bring the visual arts to the lowest income elementary schools in the White Bear Lake school district to increase appreciation for the creative process and art making. |
Yuki Tokuda, Burnsville | $ 10,000 | | Tokuda will produce a live dance performance collaborating with a Japanese taiko group to celebrate cultures in Minnesota. |
Michael P. Torres, North Mankato | $ 9,972 | | Torres will revise his memoir. He will host a generative writing workshop and, along with other writers of color, he will perform a reading from work in progress in Mankato. |
Virginia R. Townsend, Richfield | $ 9,877 | | Townsend will create a series of work reimagining psychiatric wards by engaging with those who have frequented them and wish to tell their stories. Her final exhibit will be accessible both in person and online. |
Hedy Tripp, Saint Cloud | $ 10,000 | | Tripp will write and further develop her manuscript, From Colonialism to Antiracism: Memoirs of a Singaporean Eurasian Immigrant Woman, and will work with a local editor to get it ready to submit to publishers. |
Lisa S. Truax, Winona | $ 10,000 | | Truax will create and exhibit ceramic sculptures based on abstractions of the local environment, incorporating local and recycled materials, with a focus on rural Minnesota. |
Joshua R. Turner, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Turner will host a launch for his new concept album Fantasy Parkway, a musical piece centered in finding connection and dealing with mental health struggles, which will include performances and smaller discussion groups. |
Mar Valdecantos, Northfield | $ 9,400 | | Valdecantos will write a fiction story about the immigrant journey in the United States as a several episode podcast, to be shared with audiences as readings and listening sessions, accompanied with her One Queer Hispanic Woman Show, The Invisibles. |
Nancy X. Valentine, Underwood | $ 10,000 | | Valentine will create a new series of contemporary Chinese paintings and explore ways of exhibiting her artwork through an online medium. |
Kazua M. Vang, Cottage Grove | $ 10,000 | | Vang will develop "The Green Lady Service" audio drama from collective stories based on true events of Niam Tais Ntsuab (Hmong green ladies). |
Mong Vang, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Vang will purchase a new computer to continue editing new work as a filmmaker, and to learn new skills in social media to gain a better online presence. |
Santi Vigil, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Vigil will record, produce, and promote a new album with his QTPOC Chicanx emo band, Virginia's Basement. |
Moira I. Villiard, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Villiard will present Waiting for Beds, a traveling multimedia art installation that uplifts programming, stories, artwork, and objects that reveal the individual and community impacts of long wait times for crisis care. |
Liping Vong, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Vong will create and present a new puppet show in the Twin Cities. |
Saymoukda D. Vongsay, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Vongsay will print 1,000 copies of her award winning play, Kung Fu Zombies vs. Cannibals. The playscript will feature illustrations and dramaturgical notes. There will be a public reading and performance event to celebrate. |
Oanh Vu, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Vu will create new puppets and sets for Phantom Loss, a puppet show; perform excerpts of it for a live audience; and deliver a presentation showcasing the puppets. |
Rory E. Wakemup, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Wakemup will create a new form of star blanket tipi that will be unveiled on Indigenous People's Day in 2024. |
Jannet L. Walsh, Murdock | $ 10,000 | | Walsh will write a new collection of nonfiction family history stories in Minnesota, arriving before the Civil War and eventually homesteading in Swift County. Stories will be used to create a manuscript ready to seek a book publisher. |
Dennis Warner, Clearwater | $ 10,000 | | Warner will present family concerts in Minnesota's small rural communities. Following each performance, Warner will be available to greet the audience, answer questions, and share his story with aspiring musicians. |
Maya Washington, Plymouth | $ 10,000 | | Washington will explore avenues for immersive multidisciplinary work to continue engagement of Minnesota audiences. |
Elayna P. Waxse, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Waxse will create an evening length contemporary dance performance exploring cultural impacts of grief. Research into this piece will include public workshops on somatic approaches to grief support. |
Michael J. Weatherly, Elbow Lake | $ 10,000 | | Weatherly will continue a series of large scale prints on doors addressing the current opioid epidemic. Weatherly will also continue outreach with recovering addicts and youth at risk with discussions and teaching printmaking. |
John A. Wells, Red Wing | $ 10,000 | | Wells will create and exhibit five new artworks combining sculpture and painting. These works further expand his "Material Geometry" series, exploring the spatial relationships of shapes, sizes, and the relative positions of forms. |
Bodhi Werner, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Werner will complete the storyboard illustrations for a TV script based on his first novel; llive stream a reading from his novels; and create a multimedia online curriculum showing how to adapt a book into a pilot episode television screenplay. |
Amy Wilderson, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Wilderson will engage Minnesotans, especially those age fifty-five and older, in demonstrations and discussions as they experience her creating a new body of work, At Peace and On Fire, that evolves her concepts from wirework jewelry art into metalsmithing installations. |
Gregory T. Wilkins, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Wilkins will create and exhibit six mixed media works, which will be exhibited at the Grand Center for Arts and Culture in New Ulm, and will integrate social justice using visual and narrative descriptions to record identity. |
Bennie Wilson, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Wilson will film, host, and edit Real Recognize Reel, a ten-episode Web series dissecting black film from comedic, cultural, and societal lenses, exploring and experiencing the black experience as a whole with featured guests. |
JM Wilson, Saint Louis Park | $ 10,000 | | Wilson will write and direct a multicultural screenplay about William Shakespeare and the catalyst for the creation of his most famous works, titled Becoming Shakespeare. |
Dawn Wing, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Wing will share new works of her visual poetry pop-out book series inspired by Minnesota landscapes and East Asian culture at local arts festivals such as Autoptic. She will promote visual poetry in book arts through workshops and her website. |
Josh K. Winkler, Saint Peter | $ 9,130 | | Winkler will purchase materials to build a foundation for lithographic practice. He will teach a workshop focused on local flora in collaboration with a local art center. The prints will be disseminated to participants and publicly exhibited. |
Marlene M. Wisuri, Duluth | $ 10,000 | | Wisuri, an elder visual artist, will produce a fine art book containing photographs, essays, and resource and bibliographic references to present both a beautiful art object and creative inspiration to others in the community. |
Pa Chia Xiong, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Xiong will unveil her latest creation–an articulated Hmong paper doll and adult coloring book, beautifully showing intricate Hmong cultural designs. |
Pagnia Xiong, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Xiong will begin the production of a new album, explore and mend the relationship with her voice, and expand her vocal skills. |
Randy K. Xiong, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Xiong will develop a feature-length script, "The Story of Song and Pow," based on stories documented from his parents and their journey from Laos to America as Hmong refugees. |
Txhee B. Xiong, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Xiong will develop and direct a short film exploring her experience with mental health. |
Liqing Xu, Minneapolis | $ 10,000 | | Xu will research and write a full-length play that celebrates queer Asian desire, sexuality, and joy, and organize a public reading of the work. |
Mohammed Yabdri, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Yabdri will make a documentary titled Freddy, exploring the art and journey of immigrant artists to Minnesota from Algeria. |
Shia Yang, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Yang will document the stories of Hmong Vietnam veterans in Minnesota, conducting interviews with twelve veterans to curate an exhibition. |
Tsuab Yang, Brooklyn Park | $ 10,000 | | Yang is a Hmong American queer filmmaker, writer, and comedian based in the Twin Cities area that will be taking acting classes while also developing her own scripts for future film productions. |
Leah H. Yellowbird, Grand Rapids | $ 10,000 | | Yellowbird will host a weekly sewing circle to engage with other artists in the Itasca County area to expand her artistic practice and strengthen the community of fiber and traditional artists in northern Minnesota. |
Shun Jie Yong, Woodbury | $ 10,000 | | Yong, a fine art photographer and multidisciplinary artist, will create a new photo series titled "C-H-F," to investigate and share stories of what motivates Asian climbers to take part in what is considered a "white" sport. |
Kyle G. Young, Saint Cloud | $ 10,000 | | Young will transcribe nineteenth century banjo music for modern banjoists. In the process, he will educate others about the African American origins of the music which has played a pivotal role in shaping American music for over two centuries. |
Judith A. Yourman, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Yourman will expand her sculpture practice through research and mentorship with a public artist, and will work with Saint Paul Public High School English language learner students, predominantly low-income students of color, to create outdoor public artwork. |
Alexis T. Zaccariello, Rochester | $ 10,000 | | Zaccariello will improve her raku techniques and use of encaustic medium as surface decoration. She will show her work regularly to the greater Minnesota community, teach community pottery classes, and organize a neighborhood art fair. |
Ehkhudah S. Zar, Saint Paul | $ 10,000 | | Zar will write a play based on an ancestry folk tale. |
Elly Zaragoza, Mankato | $ 10,000 | | Zaragoza will create content for a website she is developing to reflect the Latino experience in Minnesota. |
