Individual Grant Recipients
McKnight/ARAC Career Development Grants -- awarded January 17, 2008
Mary Plaster - Duluth ($1,000) Ms. Plaster will use this grant to participate in the Apprenticeship Training Program with the Bread and Puppet Theater in Glover, Vermont, working with founder Peter Schumann.
Bridget Riversmith - Duluth ($1,000) Ms. Riversmith will use this grant to produce a new animated film on DVD to be exhibited in gallery exhibitions; submitted for inclusion in film festivals and screenings; and as documentation for applications for future animation projects.
William Isles - Duluth ($1,000) Mr. Isles will use this grant to attend and perform at the 2008 North American Folk Music and Dance Alliance International Conference in Memphis, Tennessee.
Teresa McCue - Aurora ($1,000) Ms. McCue will use this grant to travel to Norway to participate in a Telemark Rosemaling class conducted by Norwegian Rosemaling artist Bjorg Kleivi.
McKnight/ARAC Artist of Color Career Development Grants -- awarded October 18, 2007
Sarah Agaton Howes - Cloquet/Carlton County ($1,000) Ms. Howes will use this grant to pursue the traditional art of bullrush mats including researching methods, working with elders, and purchasing materials for the project.
McKnight/ARAC Career Development Grants - awarded October 18, 2007
Karen Savage-Blue - Sawyer/Carlton County($1,000) Ms. Savage-Blue has an exhibit scheduled at Fond du Lac Museum in September 2008, for which she will create an Ojibwe style tik-kin-nah-guhn, a traditional style baby carrier also known as a cradle board. The grant will be used for exhbition and materials support.
Richard C. Johnson - Duluth/St. Louis County ($897) Mr. Johnson's grant funds will be used toward the cost of producing a new digital video work, the prelude (treatment) of which will also be submitted to film festivals and to other granting agencies.
Daniel J. Anderson - Grand Rapids/ Itasca County ($1,000) Mr. Anderson's short film The Joy of Leisure has been selected to screen at the International Experimental Cinema Exposition in Montevideo, Uruguay in November 2007. Grant funds will be used for travel expenses associated with this opportunity.
Alexander Chernyshev - Duluth/ St. Louis County ($1,000). Mr. Chernyshev has been invited to perform at the Interstudio Arts Series in St. Petersburg, Russia, and will use the grant funding for artist fees, travel and acommodations.
McKnight/ARAC Fellowships - awarded June 21, 2007
Alberta Marana, Duluth ($4000) is a landscape artist who has worked with pastels and is now preparing to pursue painting with oils. Marana has exhibited at Opening Night Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Katie Gingrass Gallery, Milwaukee, WI; Buffalo Fish Fine Art, Willmar, MN; Grace Chosy Gallery, Madison, WI; and Palazzo Sciafini, Palermo, Sicily as well as in several other galleries throughout the country. She will spend her fellowship year participating in an oil painting workshop by Brian Blood, a plein air oil painter from northern California and a month long residency at the Anderson Center in Red Wing working on oil painting.
Katherine Sandnas, Hibbing ($4000) is a ceramic artist with particular interest in the sculptural aspects of clay. Sandnas exhibited and has works placed in Minnesota, Japan, Thailand, Maryland, and Washington D.C. She will travel to Bangkok, Thailand, where she will participating in the forthcoming exhibition, Shigaraki Alumni 2002-Now and Then at the Susan Pakkad Musueum. During that time she will also present a lecture at the exhibition , lecture at Silpakorn University and do research on several Thai ceramic artists.
Ellie Schoenfeld, Duluth ($4000) writes free verse poetry, mostly the shorter line variety. Her work focuses on images and occasionally tells a story. Schoenfeld's work has been published in The Moon Rolls Out Of Our Mouths, Calyx Press; Difficult Valentines, Fallow Deer Books; Screaming Red Gladiolus, (chapbook) Poetry Harbor; and in a variety of small press journals. Schoenfeld will use her fellowship year to take time to work and to focus on the manuscript for a new solo book.
Danielle Sosin, Duluth ($4000), is a writer of novels and short stories. She has a short story collection, Garden Primitives, published by Coffee House Press and has done readings in several venues across the United States and has had reading broadcast on National Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio. The fellowship year will allow her time to work on the final draft of her novel, The Long-Time Lake, preparing it for submission to a publisher.
Elias Bissonett, Ely ($4000), is a touring and recording fiddler who plays a variety of ethnic fiddle styles. Bissonett has created violin arrangements for fourteen CD's and one DVD, all exclusively released by Spirit wood Music. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Classical Violin Performance from the University of Minnesota. Bissonett will use the fellowship year to study at the Ala-Konni Opisto, a folk music institute in Kaustinen, Finland, where he will receive instruction in various forms of Nordic folk music.
Stephanie Richards, Duluth, ($2000, Emerging Artist) is a painter whose work consistently relates to the domestic environment. Her current work focuses on a series beginning with the idea of Home. Richards has exhibited at the Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth; Duluth Art Institute; Nutty Meg's, Duluth; Beaner's Central, Duluth; and the Duluth Teachers Credit Union. She will use the fellowship year to work on her current series of work, Home.
Calvin Benson, Duluth, ($2000, Emerging Artist) is a poet who is working with traditional poetic formats as well as with free verse. He has had an essay published in Arts Education magazine; self-published Peterpie Moon, which he also read at one of the last arts performances at the Norshor Theater; had two poems published in Response, a poetry competition and resultant book, Calyx Press; and has read with Duluth Poet Laureate, Barton Sutter, at Duluth OutLoud. The fellowship year will allow Benson time to work on publishing and distributing a new book of his poetry.