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Travel and Study Arts Program Awards
2004 Grants
The General
Mills Foundation, Minneapolis, and the Jerome
Foundation, St. Paul, have supported professional development travel
for 33 independent artists and nonprofit arts administrators in Minnesota
through the 2004 Travel and Study Grant Program. The grants, ranging in
size from $620 to $5,000, were awarded to individuals in both the Twin
Cities and Greater Minnesota in the areas of dance, theater and visual
arts.
Three panels reviewed 215 grant
applications in April, and the Jerome Foundation board of directors
approved the panelists' recommendations. The 2004 Travel and Study Grant
recipients are:
Dance
Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
- Lisa First, a Minneapolis-based arts
administrator and dance presenter, will travel to Hungary, Slovak and
Czech Republics, and Berlin, Germany, to increase her expertise in
Central and Eastern European modern/contemporary dance forms. First
will meet with several Central European dance professionals. This
investigation will inform First's role as an international dance
organizer preparing a Central European/Minneapolis Dance Exchange
Project.
- Colette Illarde, a Flamenco dancer in
Minneapolis, will travel to Madrid, Spain, for one month to take part
in an invitational workshop directed by Master Flamenco artist Manuel
Reyes, who will be creating an original Flamenco work. The workshop
will include the study of Siguiriyas, which epitomizes flamenco jondo,
or deep flamenco.
- Dinita Nicole, a dancer in St. Paul,
will spend nine months in Salvador, Brazil, learning the songs,
dances, daily routines and traditions of the Afro-Brazilian religion
Candomblé. Nicole will explore the Candomblé practice exemplified in
both the dance and daily routines of secular society, and will study
under Babalorixa Antonio Carlos Encarnacao in a terrerio, a Candomblé
house. Many of the ceremonies Nicole will experience are rarely seen
by the public.
- Aparna Ramaswamy, Minneapolis,
Bharatanatyam choreographer and dancer, will travel to Tamil Nadu,
India, to conduct further research for her work in progress, "Bhakti
(Devotion)." The work is an exploration of mystical, musical
poetry, which illuminated the soulful poetry of two female
saint-poets-Andal of 8th century India and Hildegard von Bingen, of
11th century Germany. The hymns written by Andal are sung by
congregations throughout Tamil Nadu during the month of Maargazhi
(mid-December through mid-January), the time of Ramaswamy's travel.
- Linda Shapiro, University of Minnesota
Dance Program adjunct faculty and freelance writer, will spend five
days in New York City to explore and document the ways in which
language and literature, in the broadest sense of genre, form and
content, interface with and affect the work of choreographers Douglas
Dunn and Tere O'Connor. Shapiro will interview the choreographers on
both audio and videotape, attend rehearsals and performances and write
a paper based on the interviews.
- Morgan Thorson, a Minneapolis
choreographer, will travel to Las Vegas for three days and then to the
Djerassi Artist Residency Program in Woodside, Calif., for five weeks
to research the areas of obsession and impersonation for the
development of new choreographic material. Thorson is investigating
obsession in the areas of impersonation, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
and ritualistic behavior.
- Roxane Wallace, Minneapolis
choreographer, dancer and dance instructor, will spend one month in
Toronto attending a summer intensive at Ballet Creole. She will
investigate the philosophy and methodology used in the choreographic
fusion of Ballet Creole through study with artistic director,
choreographer and scholar Patrick Parson.
Greater Minnesota
- Mary Anne Noel and Job Ethan
Christenson, dancers and teachers in Crookston, will travel to Hebron,
N.H., for eight days to attend Swing Out New Hampshire 2004. The Dance
Camp will consist of classes and dancing in Swing, Lindy Hop, Jazz,
Blues and Tap.
- Anna Thompson, an arts presenter at the
College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minn., will attend the CINARS
(Commerce Internationale des arts de la Scene) Forum in Montreal,
Canada, to see dance performances by international companies. More
than 1,000 artists, agents, presenters and observers from 60 countries
attend CINARS.
Theater
Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
- Janet Malia Allard, a Minneapolis-based
playwright, will spend one month in Hawaii at the Kalaupapa Settlement
on Molokai and on Oahu. Allard will conduct interviews, attend hula
festivals and do historical research on Hawaiian performing arts,
gathering raw materials and information to create a new theater piece
on the Kalaupapa Settlement, a home for surviving Hansen's disease
patients.
- Bart Buch, a Minneapolis puppet artist
and teacher, will travel to Portland, Oregon, where he will spend
seven days attending Sojourn Theatre's Summer Institute for adults
working in theatre, education and community settings. The workshop
will inform Buch's interest in community change through the use of
puppetry.
- William Cleveland, a Minneapolis-based
arts administrator and writer, will spend 12 days in Belgrade, Serbia
and Montenegro to conduct field research to document the history of
Dah Theater Company's artistic responses to social and political
upheaval in Serbia. He will attend the theater's first retrospective
conference, where he will conduct interviews. He will use this
research for the theater section of a book he is writing about artists
working in communities facing extreme social, political and/or
military upheaval.
- Nor Hall, a writer who resides in
Minneapolis, will travel to Santa Fe, N.M., and Chapel Hill, N.C., in
four separate trips to develop ideas, share research, study actors in
process, and write text collaboratively in the creation of a new work
for the theatre company Archipelago. She will conduct research on
myth, poetry, dreams, literature, film and media, for a new project,
"The Woman in the Attic."
- Esther Ouray and Julie Kastigar,
Minneapolis puppet theater artists, will travel to Noragachi, Mexico,
to attend the Tarahumara Festival of Semana Santa, to observe the
magic of a deeply rooted spring ritual of death and resurrection. Much
of Ouray's and Kastigar's work with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet
Theatre focuses on magic and ritual, including the May Day Festival.
In Mexico, the two will learn more about ritual, which will inform
their work for the 2005 Tree of Life ceremony on May Day.
- Joko Sutrisno, puppeteer, musician and
educator, St. Paul, will spend four weeks in Surakarta, Indonesia,
where he will update and expand his knowledge and skills in Javanese
wayang kulit (shadow puppet theater). Sutrisno intends to develop a
production that infuses a traditional wayang story and performance
with elements of Islamic tradition.
Greater Minnesota
- Eva Barr, a theater artist in Wyckoff,
will travel to Matagalpa, Nicaragua, to work with the theatre groups
of the Collectivo de Mujeres. It is Barr's intention to learn how
their use of performance affects the communities and individuals with
whom they are involved. She will apply what she learns to her work in
rural Minnesota.
- Dan Eastman, a theater designer and
professor in Winona, will travel to St. Augustine, Trinidad, West
Indies, to expand his design and stagecraft skills in workshop study
with two of the Trinidad Carnival's premier wire formers. He will work
with artists who create the 20-foot masks and costumes used during
Carnival.
Visual Arts
Twin Cities Metropolitan Area
- Tamara Brantmeier, a painter living in
St. Paul, will spend 35 days studying at the Florence Academy of Art
in Italy. She will take two intensive, month-long drawing and painting
courses, and attend weekly lectures, technical demonstrations and
additional drawing classes.
- Laddavanh Chanthraphone, an artist and
dance instructor in Brooklyn Park, will spend six weeks in Laos to
expand and deepen her skills in the art of Laotian traditional fruit
and vegetable carving. She will study with Mrs. Sengphet Viratham, a
master of the form.
- Jan Estep, an artist based in
Minneapolis, will spend three weeks in Norway doing research leading
to the creation of a new body of artwork related to the ideas of
philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Estep will visit the Wittgenstein
Archives at the University of Bergen and spend some time in Skjolden,
Norway.
- Michael Fallon, arts writer, critic and
editor, St. Paul, will spend three weeks in Denver, Atlanta and
Pittsburgh to study the phenomenon of the neglected artist by focusing
on three unrecognized but skilled artists in these locations. He
intends to write about what he discovers in a series of critical
essays/profiles, and to explore what the social phenomenon of
neglected artists may mean to the future of cultural production in
this country.
- Vance Gellert, a Minneapolis
photographer, will spend 10 to 11 weeks in Bolivia to continue
research and make photographs on Shaman rituals and medicinal plant
use by the indigenous cultures of Bolivia. The photographs from this
research trip will be used to develop long-term project strategies.
His goal is to convey through photographs the art of ritual as an
integral part of effective medicinal treatments in various cultures
worldwide.
- Ben Heywood, Karen Kasel and David
Pitman, arts administrators for No Name Exhibitions @ The Soap
Factory, will travel as a team to research how other visual arts
organizations have successfully developed their physical properties.
They will travel to New York, N.Y. and other locations
on the East Coast to cultivate curatorial and artistic relationships
that may lead to exhibition exchange, artist residency exchange and
audience development.
- Douglas Padilla and Xavier Tavera,
artists from Minneapolis and St. Paul, respectively, will spend two
weeks in Mexico City and Oaxaca exploring and documenting Dia de los
Muertos, the Day of the Dead, a religious, sociological and aesthetic
event. Padilla and Tavera have a longstanding commitment to the
celebration of Dia de los Muertos in the Twin Cities, and will go to
Mexico to dig deeper by experiencing indigenous Day of the Dead
celebrations.
- Joe Smith, a painter in St. Louis Park,
will spend five days in Los Angeles to facilitate better connections
with galleries and artists there, to see art in a vibrant community,
and to bring that experience back to Minnesota as an influence on new
work that he will create.
- Melissa Stang, a painter, installation
artist and object maker in Minneapolis, will visit the Sea Turtle
Conservancy Field Station in a remote part of the Osa Peninsula in
Carete, Costa Rica, to draw, write, document and participate in
efforts to protect and study nesting green turtles and the release of
hatchlings. The results of this travel will be a series of essays,
drawings, paintings and an installation in progress tentatively titled
Marine Ecosystem, designed to read as a Natural History Museum
display.
- Theresa Sweetland, an arts administrator
in Minneapolis, will spend two weeks in New Zealand investigating
model legal graffiti arts programs. This will inform the design of a
youth mentoring program that she is developing in collaboration with
the Minneapolis Graffiti Task Force.
- Amy Toscani, a sculptor in Minneapolis,
will spend two months in Utica, N.Y., in a residency at Sculpture
Space, which presents an environment that fosters risk-taking,
exploration and innovation. Toscani will work alongside other
sculptors and technicians, learn from her interaction with them, and
develop new approaches to her work.
- Kimberlee Whaley, a Minneapolis
photographer, will spend seven days in New Bedford, Mass., to further
define and develop a photographic project titled
"Fragments," about her hometown. The long-range goal is to
create her first significant body of work, pursue exhibition
opportunities for it, and advance her professional career.
Greater Minnesota
- Craig Edwards, a potter from New London,
will spend three weeks in South Korea and Japan to learn more about
the forms, kilns and glazes of folk pottery. He's interested in the
hand-building and wood-firing techniques used by the Onggi potters of
Korea and the Mengei of Japan.
- Patrick Kelley, a Web artist in
Northfield, will spend ten days at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in
Snowmass Village, Colo. He'll participate in a workshop titled
"Web Animation for Artists," taught by new media artists
Joshua Davis and Mark Tribe and focusing on the Web as an artistic
medium.
- Karen Krause, an arts administrator and
arts educator New Richland, will spend three weeks in Central Europe
meeting with other arts administrators, taking classes designed to
develop her own work, and creating a pilot international art exchange
program for elementary school children.
- Sam Spiczka, a sculptor from Sartell,
will spend three weeks visiting large-scale outdoor sculpture venues
and artists on a road trip exploring the nature of large-scale outdoor
sculpture in America today. He'll visit and document through
photography and writing major sculpture venues between Minnesota and
the East Coast, and will meet with sculptors along the way.
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