Past
Grantees

For the past eight years, multimedia artist Betsy Damon has been creating metaphors and images of relationships between humans and water, studying how water functions to give and support life. Damon was awarded $2,500 toward eight weeks of travel in China. She plans to visit a sacred water site in China to document the site, interview area residents and work with Dr. Mitchell Xiao, a biochemist at the Cheng Du University of Science and Technology. She'll compile imagery, myths and scientific information which will result in installation works, a book and a film which explores water sites in the world.

Artist David Hall received $1,000 for two weeks in Tultpec, Mexico, to witness the pyrotechnic Fiesta of the Torito's living fireworks. Hall's work is a combination of sculpture and pyrotechnical performance; attendance at the festival will expand his knowledge of those forms.

Marie Markoe, a writer and visual artist, was awarded $5,000 for five months of study in the United Kingdom. She plans to visit sites associated with gods, goddesses and other mythic characters, and explore places associated with writers who have chosen to work from these same sources.

Filmmaker and writer Mark D. Ryan received $1,000 to attend the four-day Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The purpose of his trip is immerse himself in an intense period of viewing films, and have the opportunity to see works that wouldn't normally be accessible. Ryan is interested in the history of silent film, which is a key element of this event.

Writer, photographer and cultural worker Sal Salerno received $5,000 to spend a month in Southern Italy to study Sicilian spiritual traditions that have had an impact on his cultural identity. Salerno will visit sacred sites en route to Festa dei Giudei (Feast of the Jews), a festival held during Holy Week in San Fratello, Sicily. He plans to study the desecration of Black Madonnas, which continues to occur in Italy, and keep a journal with narrative and images that reflect on the Italian American immigrant experience.