Artist Access Grant
Artist Access Grant
To write the script for a pilot episode of a non-fiction television series to submit to ITVFest 2019.
Tara Makinen: executive director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Moira Villiard: visual artist, cultural programming coordinator at American Indian Community Housing Organization; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Margaret Holmes: visual artist, poet, and former Children’s Theatre employee; Tammy Mattonen: visual artists, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Ariana Daniel: mixed media artist, arts instructor; Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Christina Nohre: writer and arts advocate.
Tara Makinen: executive director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; Kayla Aubid: Native American craft artist, writer, employee at MacRostie Art Center; Kathy Neff: musician, director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
The project I am requesting grant funds for is to fund my time in order to write a 60-minute (40-70 page) script for the pilot episode of a television series. This episodic series is based on a collection of 52 non-fiction short stories that I am adapting. EMMY-winning director of photography Mark Eveslage and Sumner Matteson, nonfiction and screenplay writer, and avian ecologist - Wisconsin DNR, will mentor me during this project. The resulting pilot episode will be used to convey my vision for the series in an engaging, credible way as I pitch the episodic series to producers, collaborators, and supporters, including ITVFest. How I will know I’ve succeeded at my goal is when I have a 60-minute (40-70 page) screenplay in my hand that is properly formatted and professionally edited, and that my mentors deem ready to submit to ITVFest and other competitions, and to share with industry professionals. I have received letters of confirmation from my two mentors stating they will read my pilot episode script drafts, offer feedback, suggest edits, and confirm when I have written a complete, optimized script which can be used to credibly pitch the story idea in industry language and format so that television professionals can understand, trust and support the project.
I completed what I set out to do. I spent 40 hours writing a 60-page screenplay and submitted it to Catalyst Content Festival (Formerly ITVfest) on July 2nd, 2019. During the writing process, I participated in mentorships with Mark Evesalge and Sumner Matteson.