Creative Support for Individuals-Round 1

Ayesha Adu: Ayesha Adu is an award winning writer, director, producer, and editor. Adu has been a stage actor for The 20% Theatre Company and performed for the legendary queer variety show, Dykes Do Drag. Adu is a self-taught filmmaker and has attended Minneapolis College of Art and Design and Minneapolis Community and Technical College for some formal education in the early 1990's. ; Ivory Doublette: Ivory Doublette works as a vocalist in the Life Online School Partnerships and Sing, Play, Learn! At the MacPhail Center for Music. Doublette has been a teaching artist with Children?s Theatre Company, Stages Theater,and Billingsley School of Music and Art. Locally, Doublette has performed with Penumbra Theatre, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Theatre Latte'Da, and many others. She and her family perform as a Gospel quartet called SeVy. Doublette performed with other musical groups such as the Soul Tight Committee Band and The Bazillions. She holds a BA in theater arts from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.; Brian Frink: Brian Frink has been an art professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato for 31 years. He has received grants and fellowships from The McKnight Foundation, Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, and the Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council. He is an active artist, exhibiting his work around the region and nation. He received his BFA from Illinois State University and his MFA from University of Wisconsin Madison.; Frederick Rogers: Rogers is director and founder of Minnesota Folklore Theater (Walker), is artistic director of the Walker Bay Theater (Walker). Rogers spent thirty years designing all over the country and was the lead costumer for Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Orlando, FL. He taught costume design for two years at North Hennepin Community College (Brooklyn Park) and ten years at the University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL). He spent three years with Burt Reynolds's Dinner Theater (Jupiter, FL). Rogers? work has appeared on HBO and the Lifetime Channel. Rogers represented Cass County on the Five Wings Arts Council and served as board chair for two years; he was recognized as an outstanding arts leader for Cass County in 2019. He serves on the Walker City Library Board as vice chair.; Jonathan Schill: Jon Jee 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 Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and has served as an artistic evaluator for the Arts Board. Schill currently serves on the board of Theater Mu.; Felicia Schneiderhan: Schneiderhan is a writer and writing teacher whose first book, Newlyweds Afloat (Breakaway Books, 2015) details the years she lived on a boat in Chicago. As a freelancer, her magazine articles appear widely, including Parents, Real Simple, Minnesota Monthly, and Lake Superior Magazine. Her literary work?both fiction and creative nonfiction?appear in journals including Brevity, Hypertext, and the Great Lakes Review. She hosts the WDSE show Drawn to Write, about writers and artists, and just completed a term serving on the Lake Superior Writers board.; Lydia Smith-Lenardson: Smith-Lenardson is a Pacific Islander with expertise in visual, cultural, and performing arts including dance, poetry, music, and writing. Her work focuses on holistic health, design, and travel, and she is inspired by environmental and philanthropic causes across the globe. Smith-Lenardson works as an editing and writing consultant, and has helped authors get their manuscripts published by traditional and independent publishers. She has a bachelor of fine arts in theater and dance from University of Hawaii (Manoa, HI) and has performed and choreographed dances for its Young Choreographer and Spring Concerts.