Creative Support for Individuals-Round 2

Bob Bierscheid: I am the retired Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Saint Paul.. Previously, I was Director of Parks and Recreation for the cities of Roseville and Marshall MN. I served on the MRAC Board and have done multiple MRAC committee assignments both in person and virtually. I currently serve on the board of Public Art Saint Paul I am a strong supporter of the arts as an essential element of every community. I have a B.S. from the University of Iowa and an M.Ed from Temple University.; David DeGennaro: DeGennaro works as a bassist, drummer, and pianist throughout the Twin Cities metro area. He currently performs with Zed Leppelin, a Led Zeppelin tribute act, and has been the creative director at Northeast Center for Music and the West Bank School of Music. DeGennaro currently has a private teaching practice in Columbia Heights. He was awarded an artist grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2011 for developing the interactive children's musical, Monkey Mind Pirates with his friends at Z Puppets Rosenschnoz.; Brigid Fitzgerald: Fitzgerald is a retired attorney having spent her legal career with the Rosenmeier Law Office in Little Falls. During her 35 years in Little Falls, she has been a member or board member of many groups including St. Francis Music Center, Friends of Lindbergh Heritage, Little Falls Arts and Crafts committee, Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin Lakes and Pines Council, and most recently the Five Wings Arts Council. Fitzgerald graduated from Creighton University, Omaha, NE with degrees in Spanish and theology.; Stephanie Hunder: Hunder is a professor of art at Concordia University in Saint Paul. She teaches classes in printmaking and design and is the director of the Concordia Gallery. Originally from Rochester, Hunder received her BFA and MA from the University of Wisconsin---Madison, and her MFA from Arizona State University. Her current work addresses relationships through natural iconography and combines photographic and digital techniques with traditional printmaking techniques. The significance of process---exploring, researching, and creating--- being central to learning and vocation is a focus in her art and teaching.; Grace O'Neil: O'Neil is an entertainment publicity professional. She works with clients such as Apple TV+ and Warner Bros. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism and a BSB in marketing. Her thesis project helped inform the Minnesota Film and Television Board how to better the HR structures within Minnesota's film and entertainment sectors. O'Neil grew up immersed in the arts in Minnesota. She is a musician who has served in local choirs and worked for premiere arts venues such as Northrop Auditorium.; Angela Pelster-Wiebe: Pelster is a writer who has benefited from Minnesota State Arts Board grants in the past and would like to do her part in helping the work continue. Pelster was a 2021 McKnight artist fellow judged by Hanif Abdurraqib. Her first essay collection, Limber, won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award for best new book in nonfiction and was a finalist for the PEN Award for the Art of the Essay. Her work previously appeared in LitHub, Ploughshares, Tin House, Granta, The Kenyon Review, and The Gettysburg Review among others. She was a Bread Loaf Fellow in nonfiction, a Minnesota State Arts Board grantee, and an Iowa Arts fellow during her MFA at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA). She's an associate professor at Hamline University and is currently at work on her new book, The Evolution of Fire: Essays in Crisis.; Avesa Rockwell: Rockwell directs the college and advanced writing program at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She has been teaching academic and professional writing for eighteen years. Previously, she was a project associate for WritersCorps, through the San Francisco Arts Commission, and oversaw a half million dollar annual budget to fund writers in residence in Bay Area schools, community centers, and prisons. Rockwell's poems and essays have appeared in Gone Lawn, Survive and Thrive, Killing the Buddha, Talking Stick, Freshwater Review, Indicia, and Perfect Duluth Day. She earned a MA in English at the University of Minnesota Duluth and a BA in community development at the Evergreen State College.; Richard Sennott: His assignments have taken him into conflicts in Bosnia, El Salvador, Iraq, Afghanistan and the West Bank, and to disaster coverage of floods, tornados, forest fires and earthquakes. Sennott's, artful independent documentary work has earned him various awards in POYI, two McKnight Photography Fellowships a National Endowment for the Arts grant and the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism gold medal for photography and writing for a story about Italy's convents . His work has been published in Life, Newsweek, Time Magazine, the New York Times and the National Geographic Traveler.
; Sarah Walker: Walker is an artist, zine maker, and museum professional. She received a BA in fine art and creative writing from Illinois Wesleyan University (Bloomington, IL) and went on to procure a certificate in museum studies from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL). Her professional experience includes working as a gallery assistant at the Merwin and Wakeley Galleries in Bloomington, IL and as the office coordinator and press liaison for the Las Cruces Museum of Art in New Mexico. Her volunteer experience includes work for Chicago's Glessner House Museum, The Walker Art Center, and Fireweed Community Woodshop. Her writing and artwork has been included in publications worldwide.