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.

Choreographer and dancer Susana di Palma received $3,500 to spend three weeks in Mexico City, Mexico. The purpose of her travel is to receive aesthetic guidance from Manolo Vargas, one of the originators of theater flamenco, and to work with him on a new solo piece. di Palma will also attend Spanish/Flamenco technique classes and research works of Hispanic female artists Frida Kahlo and Remedio Varo, in preparation for the development of a new work.

Theater director Steven DiMenna's grant of $4,000 will allow him to spend 82 days in Ancona, Italy. Dimenna plans to study the culture of his family and country of origin, to determine how culture, religion and ethnic tradition inform his work.

William F. Eddins, a musician and conductor currently in residence with the Minnesota Orchestra, received $3,500 toward a month-long period in Berlin. Eddins will assist maestro Daniel Barenbaum as a repetiteur and rehearsal pianist at the Berlin Staatsoper.

Performer, teacher and body-based therapist Diane Elliot received $2,465 to spend four weeks in Budapest, Hungary, and the surrounding countryside to explore her Jewish/Eastern European roots. She intends to initiate a creative exploration process based on her work with the Contemporary Dance Workshop in Budapest.

Composer, musician and visual artist Douglas Ewart was awarded $3,135 to attend a five-week symposium at the Banff Center for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, Canada. While in residence, he'll create a new musical and visual piece, and work in a group with other artists, exploring the constellation of definitions for "nomad" in contemporary culture.

Collette Gaiter, a visual artist and educator, was awarded $1,000 to spend a week in Washington, D.C. to research and procure historical images of African Americans in the National Archives and Library of Congress. She plans to gather information for an interactive multimedia work.