The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council Awards Regional Grants
The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council granted funding to individual artists and arts organizations on 3/21/2019. The grants were awarded in the following programs: $40,000 in the Rural and Community Art Project Grant, $43,580 in the Arts Learning Grant, and $12,825 in the Artist Access Grant.
Art Project Grant Recipients
ARAC GRANTED ART PROJECT FUNDING TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS ON MARCH 21, 2019:
Citizens for Backus, International Falls, Koochiching, $4,230:
Funding will support the production of “The Little Prince” by the Borealis Bards, the community theatre troupe of Backus Community Center located in International Falls, Minnesota.
Duluth Superior Film Festival, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000:
Award will support the 2019 Duluth Superior Film Festival, the 10th annual festival of music, film and art. DSFF is to take place across the Arrowhead Region on May 29-June 2, 2019. The festival presents upwards of 70 films that will include international feature films, American independents, documentaries, and premieres from regional filmmakers.
Edge Center for the Arts, Bigfork, Itasca, $2,780:
Funding will support an exhibit and demonstration call Horizons: Glass by Jon Offutt. The project will include an exhibit of Offutt’s glasswork and two days of exterior glassblowing demonstrations open to the public.
Grand Rapids Players, Grand Rapids, Itasca, $5,000
Award will support the 13th annual Summer Kids Camp hosted by the Grand Rapids Players. This camp offers youth opportunities to become skillful in theatrical performance as well as taking on roles backstage, behind-the-scenes, and in the tech booth along with set construction and costume organizing. Camp ends with public performances of Mary Poppins, Jr. and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow on July 12th and 13th.
Lyric Opera of the North, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000
Funding will support the Lyric Opera of the North presentation of Donizetti’s comic opera, L’elisir d’amore (The Elixir of Love), June 14 and 16., at the Marshall Performing Arts Center. Sung in Italian with English supertitles the performance will have a full chorus and orchestra, conducted by Dirk Meyer.
Matinee Musicale, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000
Award will support the presentation of cellist Lynn Harrell along with the pianist Zlata Chochieva in a concert at Mitchell Auditorium on October 8, 2019. The artists will also present separate masterclasses for area music students. Prior to the concert, on October 6, 2019, Matinee Musicale will present a free public outreach event at the Burns Wellness Center Auditorium at the College of St. Scholastica. This event will feature a screening of the film “Cello” starring Mr. Harrell and will be followed by a Q&A session with Mr. Harrell.
North Shore Music Association, Grand Marais, Cook, $5,000
Funding will support a series of events featuring Samite, a world-renowned flutist, singer, and kalimba, marimba, and litungu player. He will perform his one-man play “Resilience,” which combines Samite’s music, storytelling, film, and photo images on October 10th. On October 11th, Samite will talk and perform for middle school students studying global geography and history at Great Expectations School in Grand Marais. That evening, he will offer a talk on the theme of healing through music at the Cook County Community Center or Sawtooth Mountain Clinic.
Prøve Collective, Duluth, St. Louis, $4,490
Funding will support an exhibition (tentatively entitled X Factors) centered on the visual, linguistic, and cultural currency of the “X” as a potent symbol of intersectionality and social change. It will consist of work by local/regional artists as well as artists from throughout the United States. Curated by Prøve board member Jamie Ratliff, this exhibition will take place from Oct. 4-Nov. 8, 2019, with an opening reception on Friday, Oct. 4. During the month that the exhibition is on view, Prøve will hold a roundtable discussion and an artist-led workshop related to the exhibit’s topic.
Wise Fool Shakespeare, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000
Award will support the performance of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” at Lincoln Park Middle School in October of 2019. This production will be set in the traditional Renaissance time period.
Duluth All Souls Night, Duluth, St. Louis, $3,500
Funding will support the 2019 Duluth All Souls Night event. This is an annual, intergenerational, multicultural, fall arts festival at the Historic Depot: lamenting death, celebrating life, and nurturing creativity from all.
Arts Learning Grant Recipients
ARAC GRANTED ARTS LEARNING FUNDING TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANIZATIONS ON MARCH 21, 2019:
Amy Lucas-Peroceski, Chisholm, St. Louis, $2,500:
Funding will support a series of twelve high-quality arts education workshops for students in the Chisholm, Hibbing, and Buhl area as a part of the summer recreation program supported by the City of Chisholm, Chisholm Community Education and Balkan Township.
Minnesota Museum of Mining, Chisholm, St. Louis, $5,000:
Funding will support the 2019 Iron Pour at the MN Museum of Mining. The project will take place outdoors Chisholm on Friday – Saturday, June 7-8, 2019. Igneous Metal Arts, a group dedicated to demonstrating and teaching the art of metal casting, will lead youth and adult participants through the experience of designing and carving a sand mold, observe the pouring process and the cooling and cleaning that takes place before they can take their finished piece home.
Emily Derke, Dora Lake, Itasca, $5,000:
Award will support a series of five basketry workshop. The series will include cedar bark, willow, black ash, and two different birch bark workshops. Students will learn to fully prepare their material and will learn a variety of weaving techniques while working in each medium. The weaving portion of the classes will be held at Rail River Folk School in Bemidji Minnesota, a great space that has a large room and outdoor space available to rent. The harvest portions of the classes will take place throughout Itasca County.
Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community, Carlton, Carlton, $5,000
Funding will support the planning and presentation a series of educational workshops that explore the weaving of Native and African American musical traditions in the evolution of jazz to high school and post-secondary music educators and students in the region.
Greg Mueller, Lutsen, Cook, $2,440
Grant funding will support the North Shore Community Pour, an interactive, learning experience in cast metal sculpture for 2019 Grand Marais Arts Festival attendees. Participants will create sand molds and watch as they are filled with molten aluminum which, when cooled will create a piece that they can take home.
Prove Collective, Duluth, St. Louis, $3,640
Funding will support artist-led workshops with youth in local mentoring programs. We provide our gallery space, art materials, instruction, and dinner for mentors and mentees to come and create individual paintings, drawings, collages, etc. that will be gathered and published in a Zine at the end of the year. Artwork will be displayed in an art exhibition in the gallery in January 2019.
Karen McTavish, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000
Funding will support weekly quilting workshops and open sewing sessions at the artist’s studio April 4, 2019 through December 19, 2019. Sessions will cover basic sewing, design, piecing, quilting and binding.
Duluth Community School Collaborative, Duluth, St. Louis, $5,000
Funding will support the 2019 Hillside Youth Theatre program “The Oddest Sea.” The 6-week program will take place at Myers-Wilkins Elementary School and Lincoln Park Middle School and youth will have the opportunity to experience high-quality arts instruction in acting, singing, dance, set and costume construction, and performance. The program will be led by a team of experienced artistic directors and technicians.
Reflections Dance Company, Ely, St. Louis, $5,000
Award will support the Reflections Dance Company as they host three workshops bringing guest instructors to Ely to work with dancers along with community members who are interested. The workshops will be held at the Vermilion Fine Arts Theater and Tofte Lake Center in the spring and early summer. The evening showcase will be recorded for later use by the Reflections Dance Company as part of their summer production.
Citizens for Backus, International Falls, Koochiching, $5,000
Funding will support Summer Arts Week, a collection of 10 multi-disciplinary art classes taught by artists and school district teachers from the local community and Minneapolis. The project offers opportunity to area youth aged 5 and older to experience affordable, high-quality art-centered learning experiences not otherwise offered in this remote location. The week of classes will conclude with an art exhibition to allow students to display their creations and demonstrate their newly acquired artistic skills.
Rural and Community Art Project
ARAC GRANTED ARTS LEARNING FUNDING TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS ON MARCH 21, 2019:
VFW Post 1720, Grand Rapids, Itasca, $5,000:
Funding will support Jazz at the VFW, a 2019-2020 series of high-quality jazz music at Grand Rapids VFW Post 1720 hosted by Sam Miltich and Friends and featuring special guest artists.
Reflections Dance Company, Ely, St. Louis, $5,000:
Grant will support “Looking Skyward,” a dance production from the Reflections Dance Company centered around the theme of “sky” it will feature live music, original dances, video, photography, and poetry along with an art exhibit during the week of the show.
Overburden/Overlook Project, Virginia, St. Louis, $4,850:
Funding will support six Felt Here workshops at existing cultural venues, farmer’s markets, and public events across the Iron Range from spring to fall of 2019, roughly one per month. The core impact of the proposed project is the creation of a storytelling space and art-making experience where people can have conversations about complex social and economic issues, without pressure to choose sides or take a political position.
MN State Old Time Fiddle Championships, Virginia, St. Louis, $5,000
Award will support the 2019 Minnesota State Old Time Fiddle Championships, August 3, 2019 in Mt. Iron, MN. The event will be open to fiddlers, their accompanists and other stringed instruments from all US states and all Canadian provinces. There are 5 age-specific categories and a non-age specific category for non-fiddle string instrumentalists.
Itasca County Television/Two Rivers Video, Grand Rapids, Itasca, $4,410
Funding will support the production of 47 North, a video series of original songwriters and performers for local public access television, on YouTube and as a video resumes for performers.
Icebox Radio Theater, International Falls, Koochiching, $1,900
Funding will support Icebox Radio Theater’s travel to Minneapolis in April of 2019 to perform ‘The Fall of the House of Usher & Other Stories’ before a live audience at the Bryant Lake Bowl.
Good Harbor Hill Players, Grand Marais, Cook, $5,000
Grant award will support the community development, planning, creation, and staging of the Summer Solstice Pageant in Grand Marias.
Cloquet Middle School, Cloquet, Carlton, $5,000
Funding will support a program for 6th graders at Cloquet Middle School that will explore traditional and contemporary Ojibwe design with local artist, Sarah Agaton Howes. Students will develop digital floral designs to be integrated into collaborative, laser engraved birch bilingual signage for the school.
Rainy Lake Community Orchestra, International Falls, Koochiching, $5,000
Grant funding will support a week-long string orchestra workshop, August 11-16 2019 at the Community Hall in Ranier, MN. The Rainy Lake Orchestra will perform in concert with the workshop attendees. Approximately 40 musicians, including 10 children and 15 mentors and guest artists will attend. The camp has been running over 35 years
Artist Access Recipients
ARAC GRANTED ARTIST ACCESS FUNDING TO THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS ON MARCH 21, 2019:
Allison Pagnac, Hermantown, St. Louis, $1,000
Funding will support the purchase of supplies and payment for a professional class to learn the Came Lead Method of stained glass.
Alyssa Johnson, Duluth, St. Louis, $1,000
Award will be used to build an online portfolio and materials to promote the artist’s work and grow an audience.
Bodhi Werner, Duluth, St. Louis, $1,000
Funding will support time to write the script for a pilot episode of a non-fiction television series to submit to ITVFest 2019.
Charlotte Montgomery, Duluth, St. Louis, $935
Funding will be used to purchase a new acoustic-electric guitar and a pickup for banjo.
Derek Rausch, Two Harbors, Lake, $1,000
Funding will support participation in a thirteen-day course on Norwegian log building with Trond Oalaan at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais.
Joe Paulik, Grand Marais, Cook, $1,000
Funding will support the recording of twelve songs with producer Al Oikari.
Lorna West, Duluth, St. Louis, $1,000
Award will support the creation of a children’s book.
Michelle Bennett, Duluth, St. Louis, $1,000
Award will support the production of twenty professionally printed and framed photographs of local musicians to be displayed in a solo show to be held at Duluth Coffee Company.
Nikki Shull, Mizpah, Koochiching, $1,000
Funding will support the creation of a paper quilling series on Minnesota wildlife and habitat.
Peter Knutson, Cloquet, Carlton, $890
Funding will support the release a three-song EP of live performances recorded at The Rex Bar in Duluth which will be published and distributed both online and with physical CDs.
Roxann Berglund, Grand Portage, Cook, $1,000
Funding will be used to create a three-song demo of original compositions that will be used to gain feedback from other musicians and to promote the artist.
Sarah Guy-Levar, Ely, St. Louis, $1,000
Funding will support the creation of four watercolor paintings inspired by Betty Bridgman’s book “This Is Minnesota.”
Scott Lamps, Duluth, St. Louis, $1,000
Funding will be used to compose, record and perform a musical collection of melodic guitar pieces.
