Creative Support for Individuals-Round 1

Project Details by Fiscal Year
2022 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$6,000
Fund Source
Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund
Recipient
Ruth A. Denny AKA Ruth Denny
Recipient Type
Individual
Status
Completed
Start Date
January 2022
End Date
December 2022
Activity Type
Grants/Contracts
Counties Affected
Hennepin
Ramsey
Hennepin
Ramsey
Project Overview

Creative Support for Individuals-Round 1

Project Details

Denny will organize a public reading with other Native writers and/or rappers, and read from her upcoming memoir, I Am Zibiquah.

Competitive Grant Making Body
Board Members and Qualifications

Peggy Burnet: entrepreneur, art collector, and community volunteer; Uri Camarena: director of business consulting with Metroplitan Economic Development Association (MEDA); Michael Charron: arts educator and an arts and civic leader; Richard Cohen: attorney in private practice and a former state legislator; Sean Dowse: arts advocate, arts practitioner, and civic leader; Emily Galusha, arts and civic leader, former arts administrator; Anthony Gardner: vice president, marketing and communications at CentraCare; Philip McKenzie: team lead with Boutique Air, founder and owner of Bluedoor 74, adjunct college faculty; Mary McReynolds-Pellinen: executive director, Lyric Center for the Arts; Dobson West: retired attorney; Christina Widdess: nonprofit consultant; former managing director, Penumbra Theatre

Advisory Group Members and Qualifications

Hannah Coleman-Zaitzeff is a development associate at The Bakken Museum in Minneapolis. She has previously worked as a theater educator in Richfield and Bloomington Public Schools and was formerly the company manger of Mill City Summer Opera. She is a recent graduate of Hamline University where she earned a BA in theater with a focus in direction and stage carpentry.; Lisa Cook is the founder and president of C & C Consulting, where they help nonprofits in building infrastructure through development activities, board training, and grant research and writing. Cook also currently serves as the development director for EOS International. Cook graduated from the University of North Dakota and has served as a member with Lakeville Schools Gifted Advisory Council.; Sally Koski is a retired graduate nursing professor from the College of St. Scholastica. She served as a volunteer executive director of the Ely Community Health Center and a public health nursing consultant for the Minnesota Oral Health Project. She has been active with local Ely area nonprofits such as the Ely Area Food Shelf and Community Care Team. She graduated from the College of St. Scholastica with a bachelor's and master's in nursing and holds a PhD in nursing from Barry University (Miami Shores, FL). She is a flutist, watercolor painter, photographer, and nunofelter. Koski has extensive experience as a grant reviewer for local nonprofits and with the Minnesota Department of Health. She recently has been selected as a contributing photographer with the Foundation for Healing Photo Arts.; Laura Martin is a visual artist and graphic designer who has had a lifelong attachment to the arts. She draws, paints in acrylic, does graphic design, and has taken classes in graphic design through the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design (Lakewood, CO).; Daniel Munson has been a theater professional since the 1980s. He has worked on Broadway, Off Broadway, and around the country at such prestigious theaters as The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC) and Pasadena Playhouse (Pasadena, CA). Born, raised, and educated in Winona, Munson has returned to the area and has worked with Great River Shakespeare Festival, Theatre du Mississippi, Frozen River Film Festival, and Minnesota Beethoven Festival in leadership roles.; Chloe Rizzo is a sculptor, engagement consultant, teaching artist, and founding partner of Holliday Studios. Much of her work is done in ceramics and glass with reference to her classical training in sculpture at Rowan State University (Glassboro, NJ), where she earned her bachelor?s degree in 1998. She earned a master?s in ceramics at the Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Crafts (Rochester, NY) in 2001 and completed post baccalaureate studies in sculptural ceramics at the University of Colorado (Boulder, CO). She has been an exhibiting and teaching artist for more than fifteen years, working with diverse communities in both public and private institutions across the country, including the Northern Clay Center, the City of Saint Paul, Gage Academy of Art, and more. Public art installations from her most recent engagement work can be seen in multiple locations throughout the Twin Cities. Rizzo was an instructor of fine arts for Amarillo College and West Texas A&M University. She currently is represented by the RubineRed Gallery, and a sample of her most recent series may be viewed at the 2020 Minnesota State Fair fine art exhibition.; Gary Ruschman is a vocal artist, instrumentalist, conductor, and prizewinning composer. He has appeared with orchestras, opera companies, and festivals around the world, and was a member of the Twin Cities based Cantus vocal ensemble for a decade. He has received institutional support and recognition from Chorus America, American Composers Forum, Nautilus Music Theater, and ASCAP. Ruschman is director of music at Saint Timothy Lutheran Church in Saint Paul, and currently serves on the music staff of One Voice Mixed Chorus and Mixed Precipitation?s Picnic Operetta. He earned degrees with honors from Northern Kentucky University (Highland Heights, KY) and the San Francisco Conservatory (San Francisco, CA).; Valerie Williams completed her MFA in directing at Baylor University (Waco, TX) in May 2020. Before that, Williams served as grants writer for the Great River Shakespeare Festival and Winona Area Public Schools. She also directed the Winona Senior High drama program. Williams began her theater career as an AEA stage manager with Illusion and Mixed Blood theaters in Minneapolis, and Theatre du Mississippi in Winona. Williams has presented at Texas Educational Theatre, Mid-America Theatre, Comparative Drama, and Association for Theatre in Higher Education conferences. She has been published in the Texas Theatre Journal and the Asian Theatre Journal.; Emily Winn is a dancer and dance teacher with experience in ballet, modern, and jazz. She performed with Twin Cities Ballet and Borealis Dance (a modern company in Minneapolis) from 2014 to 2017, and currently teaches at Ballet Royale. She graduated summa cum laude from Georgia Southern University (Statesboro, GA) at the age of eighteen with her BA in writing and linguistics, where she studied creative nonfiction, short stories, and poetry. She also has a love for community theater and musicals and has performed in and/or choreographed for several, including The Music Man, The King and I, and Anything Goes.

Conflict of Interest Disclosed
No
Legal Citation / Subdivision
Laws of Minnesota 2021, First Special Session, chapter 1, article 4, section 2, subdivision 3
Appropriation Language

ACHF Arts Access ACHF Cultural Heritage

2022 Fiscal Year Funding Amount
$6,000
Other Funds Leveraged
$0
Direct expenses
$6,000
Proposed Measurable Outcome(s)

I am a storyteller, I will use this grant to connect to my Native American community by organizing a reading with Native writers and one rapper. I would like to have a community reading at the Minneapolis American Indian Center or All My Relations Art Gallery. Someone can film/document with a computer which I would like to happen on June 25, 2022.

Measurable Outcome(s)

Connected to my Native American community by organizing a reading with Native writers and one rapper. There were two hip hop artists, two poets and two storytellers and about 50 audience members.

Project Manager
First Name
Ruth
Last Name
Denny
Organization Name
Ruth A. Denny AKA Ruth Denny
State
MN
Phone
(612) 224-4725
Email
zibiquah@gmail.com
Administered By
Administered by
Location

Griggs Midway Building, Suite 304,
540 Fairview Avenue North,
St. Paul, MN 55104

Phone
(651) 539-2650 or toll-free (800) 866-2787
Email the Agency