McKnight Honors 46 Artists and Ensembles

The McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, has honored 46 artists and ensembles as recipients of the 2004-2005 McKnight artist fellowships and residencies. McKnight's is the largest geographically focused arts fellowship program in the country, with fellowships for Minnesota artists of $25,000 per year. 

Support for individual artists has been a cornerstone of The McKnight Foundation's arts program since its inception. A fellowship can help an artist set aside periods of time for study, reflection, experimentation and exploration; take advantage of an opportunity; or work on a new project.

Including this year's awards, the foundation has funded nearly 1,200 artist fellowships since 1982. McKnight currently gives about $1.7 million per year to support fellowship programs run by nonprofit arts organizations representing 12 media.

This year's fellowships were administered by the American Composers Forum (composers), IFP Minneapolis/St. Paul (screenwriters and filmmakers), The Loft (writers), Playwrights' Center (playwrights and theater artists), MacPhail Center for the Arts (musicians), Minneapolis College of Art and Design (visual artists), Southern Theater (choreographers and dancers), Northern Clay Center (ceramic artists), and the University of Minnesota Art Department (photographers).

Recipients of the 2004-2005 McKnight artist fellowships and residencies are:

Ceramic Artists

• Fellowships: Andrea Leila Denecke, Minneapolis; Matthew Metz.
• Houston Residencies: Eileen Cohen, Mendocino, CA; Satoru Hoshino, Shiga-ken, Japan; Paul McMullan, Ann Arbor, MI; Anita Powell, Nacogdoches, TX.

Choreographers

• Fellowships: Hijack, Minneapolis; Uri Sands and Deborah Jinza Thayer, both of St. Paul.

Composers

• Fellowships: Ruth MacKenzie, St. Paul; Mike Olson, Matthew S. Smith and Ying Zhang, all of Minneapolis.
• Visiting Fellows: Ushio Torikai, New York, NY; Michelle Nagai, Brooklyn, NY.

Dancers

• Fellowships: Toni Pierce-Sands, St. Paul; Peggy Seipp-Roy and Julia Tehven, both of Minneapolis.

Filmmakers

• Fellowships: Melody Gilbert, St. Paul; Eric Tretbar, Minneapolis.

Musicians

• Fellowships: Stephanie Arado, Minneapolis; Artaria String Quartet, St. Paul; John Snow, Plymouth; Thomas Turner, New Hope.

Photographers

• Fellowships: Beth Dow, Alec Soth and Tobechi Tobechukwu, all of Minneapolis; JoAnn Verburg, St. Paul.

Playwrights

• Fellowships: Vincent Delaney, Melanie Marnich and Kira Obolensky, all of Minneapolis.
• Residency and Commission: Mac Wellman, Brooklyn, NY.

Screenwriters

• Fellowships: Susan Arakawa, Brooklyn Park; Brad Pecelj, St. Paul.

Theater Artists

• Fellowships: Jeanne Calvit, Peter Rothstein and Michael Sommers, all of Minneapolis.

Visual Artists

• Fellowships: Ana Lois-Borzi, Rollin Marquette and Erika Olson, all of Minneapolis; Joe Smith, St. Louis Park.

Writers

• Fellowships in Poetry: Mark Conway, Avon; Dana Curtis, Minneapolis; Dobby Gibson, St. Paul; Susan McLean, Marshall.
• Fellowship in Children's Literature: Janet Graber, Burnsville.

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