Creative Support for Individuals-Round 1

Cortland Davis: Davis is an artist, producer, and songwriter based in Minneapolis. Mentored by Prince and the NPG?s musical director, Morris Hayes, Davis began cowriting songs for hitmakers like the platinum R&B group NEXT, touring with Tech 9, and opening for prominent names in hip-hop like T.I., Yo Gotti, Plies, T-Pain, and Nelly. He is no stranger to large audiences, having performed for crowds of over 2,500 fans. Davis strives to take his own sonic approach to music that spans several different musical genres, and never boxes him in to one single category.; Nikol Dowls: Ni'Kol is a queer African American multidisciplinary artrepreneur born in Minneapolis. She combines her love of spoken word poetry, photography, body movement, writing, and painting. She uses her artistry as a means of self-expression, to identify with hidden qualities of her character, to teach, cultivate community conversations, and to express her interpretation of the world around her. Her goal is to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, chances for new beginnings, and most importantly new stories. She hopes to change her community, to elevate her activism worldwide, and to mentor and teach others through creative expression, integrity, life coaching, and radical sensuality.; Douglas Harbin: Harbin is a composer, performer, and educator residing in Moorhead. He composes acoustic and electroacoustic systematic music and his works have been performed throughout the world. He is currently assistant professor at Concordia College and has been on faculty at several institutions including Arizona State University, Grand Canyon University, Mesa Community College, and Taylor University. He holds composition degrees from Arizona State University (DMA), Ball State University (MM) and Taylor University (BM & BA in mathematics). Harbin has served on two Artist Initiative panels and adjudicated for national and statewide composition competitions.; Alexandra Lewis-Sadrant: Lewis-Sadrant grew up in Northeast Minneapolis and moved back after living in New York and in France for more than a decade. She works for a local nonprofit with a focus on education, and enjoys discovering artists and their work as a spectator and through volunteer opportunities with artistic organizations. She sings with her neighborhood choir and tries her hand at visual arts like watercolor painting, collage, and paper quilling.; Anne Jennifer Nash: Nash is an associate professor of voice at Concordia College (Moorhead, MN), where she teaches studio voice, diction, performance techniques, and interdisciplinary classes. She is the recipient of both local and national grants for college teaching development and she continues to perform on the national and international stage. In 2015, Nash helped establish the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy. She holds a DMA from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), MM and GPD degrees from Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore, MD), and BA degrees from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA).; Carolyn Runck: Runck is an interpreter, librarian, and artist who uses collage, painting, and printmaking to explore the connections and tensions between place, language, and belonging. She draws inspiration from stories and the natural world. Previously, Runck presented at the Rural Arts and Culture Summit in 2019 and 2017, and taught English in China for two years where she led weekly small group discussions on art and the environment. She received her bachelor?s degree in art from the University of Northwestern (Saint Paul) in 2012.; Amy Seham is a professor of theater and dance at Gustavus Adolphus College. She has an MFA in directing from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) and a PhD in theater from the University of Madison-Wisconsin. Her scholarly focus is race, gender, and power in improv comedy. She has published a book, Whose Improv Is It Anyway?, on her research. She has presented papers for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, the International Improvisation Symposium, and many other conferences. Earlier in her career, Seham was artistic director of performance studio at Free Shakespeare on the Green (New Haven, CT) for eight years.