Congrats Grant Recipients!
March 2022
Artist Access
$953 - Cindy Bina, Ely, St. Louis, funding will support the purchase and tools, materials, and training in leatherwork to incorporate into current metal and stonework.
$1,000 - Grant Kaihoi, Moose Lake, Carlton, grant award will support time to explore new directions in woodworking.
$1,000 - Cindy Hale, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the creation of large naturally dyed “pre-felts” in a full spectrum of colors using the wool the artist’s sheep produce and then making a variety of wet felted rugs, wall hangings and sculptural pieces from those pre-felts.
$1,000 - Jack Spaeth, Isle, Aitkin, funding will support a photographic series exploring geography and domicology through the landscapes of county ditches.
$1,000 - Maury Aaseng, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the creation of a children’s picture book called “Pollywog! Not a Frog.”
$1,000 - Britt Malec, Grand Marais, Cook, funding will support the creation of an illustrated mini-memoir about the artist’s relocation to Grand Marais, and subsequent postpartum experience, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. The project will use narrative non-fiction writing and illustrations in mixed media to reflect on experiences with amateur lichenology as a vehicle for introspection and metaphor.
$1,000 - Marie Zhuikov, Duluth, St. Louis, grant award will fund the editing and design of the northern Minnesota memoir, “Meander North.”
$1,000 - Mary Warpula, Moose Lake, Carlton, funding will support the creation of a body of watercolor art works to be shown at regional galleries and events.
$1,000 - Jeffrey Hall, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the development of new wood works.
$1,000 - Zack Baltich, Duluth, St. Louis, grant award will support the filming and recording of two new live performance videos: one, a solo percussion piece “Adjusting” and another for a new work with the duo ZAZ, including folk singer Abby Zak of Grand Marais.
Arts & Cultural Heritage Grant
$4,000 - Alison Aune, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the creation of artworks and materials for community learning events held throughout the year at various locations.
$4,000 - Cloquet Middle School, Cloquet, Carlton, funding will support Pollinating Healthy Choices Through Art, a program to examine community knowledge of foods, pollinators and health. Cloquet Middle and High School students will learn in collaboration with community specialists from Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District, Fond du Lac Bimaaji’idiwin Ojibwe Garden Program, and the Northeast Minnesota Beekeepers Association. Students will use new knowledge and explore the artistic process in creating a public outdoor mural with Adam Swanson.
$4,000 - Erik Simula, Finland, Lake, funding will support birch-bark canoe building instruction events in Ely and regional tribal communities.
$4,000 - Justin Anderson, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support a community boat build of a 27-foot wooden rowing and sailing boat in the Scandinavian/Nordic tradition using hand tools.
$4,000 - Moira Villiard, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support a collaborative project to develop an animated film of Dakota artist Zitkála-Šá’s life as a part of an opera exploring the same.
Individual Artist Project Grant
$4,000 - Shaunna Heckman, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the mixing, mastering, and release of a new album of electronic music.
$4,000 - Sarah Krueger, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will be used for the studio time and engineering fees for the recording of the second full length Lanue album.
$4,000 - Margo Gray, Side Lake, Itasca, funding will support an interactive, audio-driven experience that gives users of the Mesabi Trail a deeper sense of the history and culture of the Iron Range. This experience, accessed via smartphone, spans a section of the Mesabi Trail between Hibbing and Virginia. Audio stories and guided activities deliver an interactive narrative. Inspiration for the narrative comes from interviews with community members and first-person accounts from community history records.
$2,500 - Lindsay Swan, Cloquet, Carlton, grant funds will support “Land of Stories” an outdoor documentary play about Ojibwe Chief Northwind, the 1918 fires and flu, and Anishinaabe legends that teach vital lessons about Cloquet, to be held in October 2022.
$3,920 - Evan Flom, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the creation of a series of six short narrative videos that will showcase a diverse group of farmers in northern Minnesota. The project will create a coherent narrative across each of the videos that demonstrates sustainable land stewardship and a diverse local food system that includes indigenous, black, and other young and emerging farmers.
$4,000 - Andy Frye, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support Dance TV (DTV), a 50-minute dance show, including 18 production numbers with all original music, 2 hosts, and 12 dancers. Inspired by old-school live dance shows such as American Bandstand, Solid Gold, and Club MTV, yet with a modern flair as the audience enters a live taping; they see both what’s presented on stage as well as behind the scenes. This live dance television program is joyful, silly, infectious, and campy.
$4,000 - Allen Killian-Moore, Duluth, St. Louis, grant award will be used for “Neurodivergence” a series of photographic portraits highlighting neurodiversity (people with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, down syndrome, Tourette’s, etc.). Portraits will be on metal, using wet plate collodion, a Victorian era chemical photo process.
$3,800 - Candace LaCosse, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will be used to support a project involving foraging native and invasive species of the Arrowhead region of Minnesota and use them to steam dye cotton, linen, silk and wool which will be used make one full garment using the material dyed with plants native to the region, one full garment using the material dyed with plants that are considered to be invasive, and a quilt using the scraps of each combined. The finished items will be put on display at Hemlocks, in the Lincoln Park Craft District. A free natural dye workshop on April 15, 2023, and documented materials on the process will also be available.
$4,000 - Karl Bardon, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will be used to create a series of paintings of bird portraits, a portion of which will be shown at the Jaques Art Center in Aitkin.
$4,000 - Kelly Schamberger, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will support the planning and preparation of painted works to be shown at the Great Lakes Aquarium
$4,000 - Leah Yellowbird, Grand Rapids, Itasca, funding will support work time and materials for a large quill-work piece. The piece will then be on display at the AICHO gallery in Duluth and at the MacRostie Art Center in Grand Rapids. A workshop will also be hosted.
$4,000 - Susanna Gaunt, Duluth, St. Louis, funding will be used to create the “Great Lakes Almanac” a set of paper sculptures that record natural history data and the community’s personal anecdotes, both visually and textually. The finished art will show at the Great Lakes Aquarium in the summer of 2023.
