Past
Grantees

ST. JOHN’S UNIVERSITY, Collegeville, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $50,712 in support of the Emerging Artist in Residence Program within the St. John’s Pottery. For 35 years, the St. John’s Pottery has embodied the Benedictine values of community, hospitality, and self-sufficiency, as well as the University’s commitment to the integration of art and life, the preservation of the environment, the linkage between work and worship, and the celebration of diverse cultures. Four emerging artists from Minnesota and/or New York City will be selected via an open application and competitive review for one-month intensive studio residencies during the summers of 2015 and 2016. They will be given studio spaces, stoneware clay, access to technical assistance, room and board, stipends, and the opportunity to fire their work in the Johanna Kiln. The program offers creative interactions among the participating artists, a dynamic studio environment, and the support and mentoring of Master Potter Richard Bresnahan.

DAVID SAMPLINER, for the feature-length documentary My Own Man. David Sampliner, the maker of this film is 40 years old, but he still doesn’t feel like a man – not a real man anyway. When his wife becomes pregnant with a boy, David’s manhood insecurities deepen. How can he bring his son into manhood if he feels so estranged from his own?  This question sets him off on a quest for his manhood that leads him from voice lessons to a men’s group to deer-hunting, and ultimately back to his own father. My Own Man is an intimate, humorous, and emotional account of one man’s search for what it means to be a man and a father in the 21st century. Through My Own Man the filmmaker hopes to play a role in encouraging the male equivalent of feminist “consciousness raising,” inspiring those who accept the reality of gender equality and see this moment in time as an opportunity for men to discover new ways of relating to themselves, to women, to their sons and daughters, and to themselves.

JUSTIN SCHEIN received support for The Last Go Round, a feature-length documentary about filmmaker Justin Schein’s friendship with aging anti-war Yippie peace activist, Mayer Vishner, whose last political act was to take his own life. Schein began filming with Mayer in order to learn more about the life and beliefs of this man who was struggling to get by, but still clinging to his ideals. When Mayer announced on camera his plan to kill himself, the dynamics of the film radically changed. What began as Shein’s simple curiosity about Mayer’s intellect, and the rebellious, irreverent legacy of his countercultural generation, turned into a dark yet profoundly humorous exploration of what Mayer called “My Existential Project.” Mayer repeatedly told Schein that he was “dying of loneliness,” and Schein believed him. But the only way to truly visualize this was to put up a camera in his house. Schein filmed many days and nights of Mayer alone, drinking, smoking his bong, sleeping, pacing, and watching TV. When Mayer went to his long-time physician to ask for help in carrying out his suicide, Schein was there filming the discussion. When he went to his weekly therapy sessions, Schein was permitted to film. From putting on his adult diapers to being staggering drunk, he allowed Schein to film anything and everything. When he finally told Schein that he planned to take his own life, he assumed Schein would be a partner in that project as well––a role Schein struggled with and questioned. He even wanted Schein to film his death, a line that Schein would not cross. Even so, in the end it was Schein who discovered Mayer’s body. A year after Mayer's death, Schein is left with intense feelings and questions, which he continues to process and explore in the production of this powerful film.

PATRICK’S CABARET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for choreographer Chris Schlichting, received $10,000 in support of the creation, production, and touring of the new work Stripe Tease. Patrick’s Cabaret supports artists in their growth and development by encouraging artists of all experience levels to try new things, take risks, or present works-in-progress. Schlichting is creating a contemporary dance work that is part experimental music, part cultural critique, part rock opera, part visual art, and part contemporary performance for six dancers. The new work will examine how once pure and unselfconscious acts of consumption and appreciation are now complicated negotiations. It enlists sly twists that alter expectations and understanding of the familiar and the everyday.

AARON SCHOCK received support for La Laguna, a feature-length experimental documentary about a young Mayan boy’s education as he navigates two different worlds and identities: between the Mayan world of forest and field, and the world of contemporary Mexico that lies just a bit beyond his reach. Raised within a small forest village in the Mexican state of Chiapas, Yuk has impressively mastered a way of life forged within the natural world from a base of knowledge learned from family and community. There, he harpoons fish for his family’s daily meal, gathers seeds, nuts and fruits from the forest, tends to his family’s agricultural plot, and is responsible for caring for and educating his 8-year-old younger brother. While the forest provides for many of Yuk’s immediate needs, his future outside this village depends on his ability to become literate in Spanish. Yet for Yuk, the concept of Mexico is largely a distant one, experienced mainly through a one-room classroom and its non-Mayan teacher from outside his village. In contrast to the kind of experiential learning he has had in the forest and fields, this new way of learning so greatly challenges Yuk that failing is a real possibility. As the oldest son of an elderly father, and brother of a sick sister in need of medical attention, the pressure is on for Yuk to succeed in school and provide for his family. Blending genres of ethnography, documentary, and experimental film, YUK immerses the viewer in a way of life and learning that, deeply tied to the natural world, is increasingly rare in modern human experience.

JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $8,625 in support of a production showcase featuring new works by emerging Minnesota-based choreographers within the 2014 Dance/USA Annual Conference held in Minnesota. Ballet Works served as the fiscal sponsor for the Minneapolis host committee. Dance/USA is the national service organization for the professional dance field, a membership entity currently serving nearly 500 companies, service and presenting organizations, individuals, and related organizations. It sustains and advances professional dance by addressing the needs, concerns, and interests of artists, administrators, and organizations.

JAMES SEWELL BALLET, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a two-year grant of $34,000 in support of the participation of six emerging choreographers in the Ballet Works Project. The mission of James Sewell Ballet is to create and perform works that connect artists with audiences and to advance contemporary ballet. The Ballet will select emerging choreographers based in Minnesota and New York City, and invite them to work with the company to test ideas and develop new works. The program allows for developmental time with the dancers for each choreographer. The works-in-progress will be shown to audiences. This choreographic laboratory is designed to push and play with the ballet idiom.

SHAPIRO, NORAH, Minnesota, will travel to the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam 2014 as well as the concurrent Docs for Sale Market with her soon to be completed feature documentary Miss Tibet: Beauty in Exile. Shapiro views this as an opportunity to stimulate awareness and recognition of the film, help to secure additional festival invitations, and ultimately broadcast distribution options throughout the international market.

SHOKRIAN, JOSEPHINE, New York City, will travel to Paris, France and Lussas, France to work with the artist run film laboratory, L’Abominable to investigate color hand processing techniques for 16mm film, as well as attend a seminar in Lussas, France for the State General Documentary Film Festival, and conduct film research at various institutions in Paris.  Time at this film lab will provide Shokrian a deeper understanding of various film processes, expanding her manual sensibilities and skills in order to more deeply inform her own work.

JACKIE J. STONE received support for Burning Angel Dust, a narrative short in which the central character, Mimi, a Nigérienne-American mother and immigrant, struggles to maintain a connection for her and her American born daughters to their native Nigér. Caught between her mother's expectations and the culture of her adoptive homeland, Mimi must decide to have her eldest daughter undergo a traditional rite of passage, genital cutting, or allow her children to fully embrace American life. The two cultures collide on the day of Violet's traditional coming out celebration. Violet is excited, thinking the ceremony will be like a birthday party. Mimi is conflicted, having kept the most gruesome details of the celebration from Violet. The day unfolds and slowly Violet discovers that something more will happen to her with only one person, her mother, having the power to stop it. Caught in the middle, Mimi must decide to either continue to practice her cultural ritual or allow her daughters to fully assimilate into American culture.

THE SOAP FACTORY, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $20,000 to support the participation of emerging artists from Minnesota and New York City in the 2014 Exhibition Program. The Soap Factory is a laboratory for experimentation and innovation, dedicated to supporting artists and engaging audiences through the production and presentation of contemporary art. Founded in 1989 by artists, The Soap Factory provides a supportive exhibition environment for artists who are at the beginning of their careers or who are exploring new genres of expression. Housed in an historic 48,000 sq. ft. wood and brick warehouse, it offers a raw space for sculpture, installation, painting, performance, theatre, dance, photography, film, and video.

SOCRATES SCULPTURE PARK, Long Island City, New York, received a two-year grant of $50,000 in support of the Emerging Artist Fellowship Program. Founded in 1986, Socrates is dedicated to providing artists with opportunities to create and exhibit large-scale sculpture and multi-media installations in a unique outdoor environment that encourages strong interaction among artists, artworks, and the public. The Park’s existence is based on the belief that reclamation, revitalization, and creative expression are essential to the survival, humanity, and improvement of the urban environment. In the annual Emerging Artist Fellowship Program, Socrates selects fifteen artists and gives them the opportunity to produce and exhibit large-scale, site-specific sculptures or installations in the Park. Artists receive a production grant as well as a four-month studio residency, including access to resources and fabrication facilities in the Park’s outdoor studio. The completed work becomes part of a public exhibition opening in early September each year.

SOHO REP, New York City, received a two-year grant of $40,000 in support of the commissioning, development, and production of new works by emerging New York City-based artists. Soho Rep is dedicated to artistic excellence by supporting distinctive, diverse, and pioneering theater. It empowers artists to make their boldest work and invites audiences to share in that intimate and transformative live experience. The Writer/Director Lab fosters collaboration between early-career writers and directors in the beginning stages of the creative process. Each year, up to five writers and directors are paired to create new plays from scratch, culminating in a public reading series.

STANFORD, CLAIRE MIYE, Minnesota, will travel to Japan to walk the 750-mile Shikoku pilgrimage as research for an upcoming novel that explores different cultural attitudes towards death and suicide through magical realism. Experiencing the temples, inns, forest trails, and pilgrims who walk the road will provide firsthand information for her novel.

STREB, Brooklyn, New York, received $23,000 in support of GO! An Emerging Artist Commissioning Program. STREB, founded in 1979, brings audiences and communities into the artistic process by breaking down barriers of participation and access with new approaches to creation, education, and presentation. The company’s mission is to create opportunities for artistic discovery and connection for a constituency whose diversity represents the breadth and complexity of society at large. It’s built around the organizing principle of Extreme Action, created by Elizabeth Streb. The goal of GO! is to support artists who can capitalize on the resources distinct to SLAM so that the space’s special and unusual characteristics and qualities inform and inspire exciting creative experiments. Emerging artists whose work is movement based, including choreographers, aerialists, and circus artists, are eligible to apply to the program. They receive opportunities to showcase their work throughout the development process, and are provided with resources tailored to the nature and scope of their projects. The resulting works and experiments are presented at SLAM.

SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS, St. Paul, Minnesota, as fiscal sponsor for SuperGroup, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $8,000 in support of the development and production of the new work In Which _______ and Others Discover the End . Springboard is an economic and community development organization for artists and by artists. Its mission is to cultivate vibrant communities by connecting artists with the skills, information, and services they need to make a living and a life. SuperGroup is a performance collaboration of Erin Search-Wells, Sam Johnson, and Jeffrey Wells. It produces a range of performance, from durational structured improvisations to cabaret-style drag to highly layered works for stages. In Which _______ and Others Discover the End is a new dance-theater work investigating the paradoxical human need for stasis and change. Improvised and choreographic movement, song, and text born out of collaboration between SuperGroup and playwright Rachel Jendrzejewski. The performance of the work includes individual durational solos and visual installations in public spaces throughout Northeast Minneapolis.

TEMPORARY DISTORTION, Astoria, New York, received $10,000 in support of the creation, development and production of My Voice Has An Echo In It. Temporary Distortion explores the potential tensions and overlaps found between practices in visual art, theater, cinema, and music. The group, formed by interdisciplinary artist Kenneth Collins in 2002, works across disciplines to create performances, installations, films, albums, and works for the stage. My Voice Has An Echo In It is a six-hour, interactive, installation-based performance featuring live music, text, and video. The performance will take place inside a freestanding, soundproof installation 24 feet long and 6 feet wide, an immersive environment with performers and sequences, songs, interactions, and projected film, but no narrative. The audience member makes the choices of duration, attention, volume, and perspective.

HEATHER TENZER received support for the feature-length documentary The Rabbis’ Intifada. Heather Tenzer first met the ultra-Orthodox rabbis of Neturei Karta when she was a 13-year-old yeshiva (religious school) student. The rabbis were protesting the Israel Day Parade in New York City, in which she was marching. She was perplexed. Why would a Jew demonstrate against Israel? Neturei Karta (Aramaic for “Guardians of the City”) is one of the only religious Jewish groups publicly speaking out in support of Palestinian rights. The group, which was founded 75 years ago in Jerusalem, opposes Jewish nationalism in general, and the state of Israel in particular. The reasons are many, but perhaps at its heart, the group opposes the idea of transforming the Jewish religion into a nation state. For them, Israel—with its army and government—is a form of idolatry. Today, they openly call for Israel’s peaceful dismantlement. As a result of their activism, Neturei Karta rabbis are regularly beaten on the streets. Their synagogue was recently destroyed by arson. And in the 1920s, one of their leaders was assassinated in Jerusalem. Neturei Karta is deeply hated by the Zionist Jewish establishment. In fact, a few months ago, one of the most prominent American Jewish organizations, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) included Neturei Karta on its list of top ten anti-Israel groups in the US. The Rabbis’ Intifada is a feature-length documentary film, which combines cinéma vérité, first-person narration, home movies, interviews, news reports, and archival films to tell the story of the filmmaker’s journey into the world of Neturei Karta.

The TEXTILE CENTER, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received $37,000 in support of the Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grants Program and services to emerging professional textile artists. The Center's mission is to honor textile traditions and promote excellence and innovation in fiber art. The Project Grants Program expands opportunities for emerging fiber artists in Minnesota, supporting them as they undertake specific artistic projects. Four grants are awarded to support a wide range of project activities, from purchasing equipment and devoting time to studio work to travel and to study with established artists. A culminating exhibition caps the program year. There is an annual call for applications, which are reviewed by an independent panel of established artists who select project grant recipients.

The TEXTILE CENTER OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis, Minnesota, received a grant of $31,800 in support of the Fiber Artist Project Grants Program and services for emerging textile artists. The Textile Center, a national center for fiber art, inspires and supports fiber artists, increases public access to and education about fiber art, fosters and promotes diversity in all areas of fiber art, preserves fiber art skills and traditions, and provides a central networking and resource facility for fiber artists. The Fiber Artist Project Grants Program supports four emerging Minnesota artists as they undertake specific artistic projects. The goal of the program is to advance the development of emerging fiber artists and increase public exposure for their creative work. An annual open call yields submissions that are reviewed by an independent jury. The program provides a project stipend, support services from the Center, and a culminating exhibition.