Creative Support for Individuals-Round 1

Julie Ahasay recently retired from the faculty at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has directed and acted at the Duluth Playhouse for many decades, and has directed for Lyric Opera of the North, Wise Fool, and Renegade Theater Company. She has participated in approximately 80 theatrical productions ranging from college shows and comedy revues to dinner theater and live radio productions. She is an instructor at Duluth Playhouse Conservatory.; Carolyn Borgen is the marketing and bookings manager at State Street Theater Company, where she has helped the theater grow from a small organization putting on four shows a year to a theater offering year around events. Borgen previously worked as executive director for Mankato Area Youth Symphony Orchestra, helping the organization grow from two groups and thirty students to five groups with ninety students. She graduated from Saint Mary?s University of Minnesota (Winona, MN) with an BA in electronic publishing and with an MA in art administration. Borgen also teaches string bass with the New Ulm Suzuki School of Music.; Florence Brammer is a recently retired federal attorney, having investigated and prosecuted violations of federal labor law for 30 years. She received undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism, religious studies, and special education. Brammer is an avid arts goer and volunteer and is passionate about the importance of the arts for Minnesota. She has been a tour guide at the Walker Art Center since 1993, a former co-op printmaker with Highpoint Center for Printmaking, and an occasional performer for theatrical/dance performances at the Walker Art Center, Southern Theater, O?Shaughnessy, and Northern Spark. She is an enthusiastic student of the arts, regularly taking classes at the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Grand Marais Art Colony, and other places in visual arts, art history, piano, creative writing and other artmaking forms. Brammer has frequently enjoyed being a guest to talk about the arts, particularly theater, on MPR?s ArtHounds. She has volunteered as an audio describer and script reviewer for local theaters.; Matt Connolly is an assistant professor of film studies in the department of English at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He received his MA and PhD in communication arts with a focus in film studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His scholarly work on LGBTQ cinematic history has been published in Cinema Journal and Spectator. Connolly writes film criticism, which has most recently been published in Film Comment and Reverse Shot, the publication for the Museum of the Moving Image. He is a former programmer for the Wisconsin Film Festival and has been a judge for the Speechless Film Festival.; Sarah Duncan: Duncan's mixed-media works explore themes of identity such as queerness, parenthood, and friendship using storytelling to express truths through varying lenses. Trained as a graphic designer, Duncan recently completed her bachelor?s degree in art at the University of Minnesota, 26 years after starting it. Her current invitation series explores the idea of hospitality in this time of extreme domesticity. Moving into year two of the pandemic?Duncan presents invitations to pause, care, and play.; Rachael Givens graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a bachelor?s degree in visual art. She is the volunteer social media assistant for The Links, Incorporated. She previously was a curatorial research intern at the Weisman Art Museum. She has experience as a communication engagement specialist at Pillsbury United Communities, where she designed marketing collateral on various enrichment programs for children that focused on visual arts, music production, STEM education, and career mapping. She received an Eli Segal AmeriCorps Education Award for completing over 1,700 combined hours of community service.; Jonathan Schill has a background in nonprofits and foundations. He believes in the transformative power of the arts and is passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion. Schill grew up in the Pacific Northwest but has been in Minnesota long enough to call it home. He has served as a panelist for the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and as a panelist and an artistic evaluator for the Arts Board. Schill currently serves on the board of Theater Mu.; Jamie Schwaba is currently the director of development at the Reading Center/ Dyslexia Institute of MN, but prior to holding this position she was the managing director of the Minnesota Conservatory for the Arts in Winona for seven years. She holds a MS in adult and continuing education, BA in theater arts, and she performed professionally in the Milwaukee area for eight years.; Peter Spooner teaches at Lake Superior College (Duluth) and the University of Minnesota Duluth. He founded Archive Arts, LLC to provide appraisal, research, and consultation to private and institutional clients. Spooner is the former curator for Tweed Museum of Art, University of Minnesota Duluth, a position he held from 1994 to 2012. He earned a BS in art education from the University of Wisconsin - Stout and received an MS and MFA in painting and drawing from Illinois State University (Normal, IL).