Creative Support for Organizations-Round 2

Florence Brammer: 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.; Vance Gellert: Gellert has been a practicing artist for 40 years, has received numerous grants, shown nationally and internationally, and has photographs in many collections. He was founder, director, and curator for pARTs Photographic Arts, later the Minnesota Center for Photography and has served on the boards of Rain Taxi Review of Books and Link Vostok Dance Exchange. He received a PhD (medical sciences) and has an MFA in photography. He continues to make, show, and publish photographs. He has been on several review panels for photographers.; Katherine Keljik: Keljik has worked in the Twin Cities performance community for ten years, first interning at the Jungle Theater, then working as an education coordinator at the Guthrie Theater. Most recently, she spent her time as the campus and community engagement coordinator at Northrop, at the University of Minnesota. Her passion is in connecting folks to performance arts. Holding a BA in history and an MA in conservation studies, Keljik has returned to a career she studied and is now a project manager at the Minnesota Historical Society, preserving the built heritage of our great state.; Amanda Leyawiin: Pyfferoen is a freelance director and baker. She is currently the associate artistic director for In Heart Theatre and the former board president for Minnesota Theatre Company. Pyfferoen was recently the international drama department coordinator for an intensive English program in Bangkok, Thailand. She has been an active volunteer for more than thirty years with theater and music ensembles in southeast Minnesota and is the first recipient of the Youth Involvement Award at the Rochester Civic Theatre. She holds a MA in theater from Minnesota State University, Mankato with specialties in acting, directing, dramaturgy, history, and management.; Christian Mortenson: Mortenson is a Moorhead based artist, and an associate professor of art and the director of the Cyrus M. Running Gallery at Concordia College. He earned a BFA in art with an emphasis in photography from the University of South Dakota, and a MA and a MFA with a concentration in photography and a minor in printmaking from the University of Iowa. Mortenson's work has been shown regionally, nationally, and internationally at The Rourke Gallery + Museum in Moorhead; Coop Gallery in Nashville, TN; the EMERGEANDSEE Media Arts Festival, Berlin, Germany; the Exhibition Hall, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia; the Saarijarvi Museum, Finland; 5&J Gallery, Lubbock, TX; and the Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR; among others. He has been awarded grants from both the Lake Region Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board.; Julie Prosser: Prosser is currently retired after serving the healthcare industry for more than 30 years as a successful entrepreneur. Prosser worked with architects, engineers, CEOs, medical staff, and construction staff at all levels. She has extensive experience in technical writing, computer skills, interpersonal communication, leadership, public speaking, training, and business acumen. She graduated with a BS in chemistry. To balance the left brain activities, she has been a lifelong artist and writer, engaging in and experiencing many different art forms.; Atlese Robinson: Robinson is a writer, performer, director, producer, and the founding artistic director of Ambiance Theatre Company. Robinson's writing style places an emphasis on the natural flow of speech as a means to preserve the integrity of oral history. Robinson's writing style earned her a spot as a Playwrights' Center 2021 Many Voices mentee. Her previous credits include ensemble in The Dutchman (Penumbra Theatre Company), The Garden (Ambiance Theatre Company), costar in Contact by Simone Brookes LeClaire, ensemble in Rebirth of Rabbit's Foot (Mixed Blood Minneapolis). Robinson was a 2020-21 Naked Stages Fellow. Robinson's previous directing credits include Naked I: Self Defined (20% Theatre Company), The Spectrum of Blackness (Ambiance Theatre Company), Waiting in Vain (Ambiance Theatre Company), and The Place (Lyric Opera of North). Robinson's leadership earned her a Springboard for the Arts 20/20 artist fellowship in 2020-2021.; Denise Tennen: Tennen is a sculptor, public artist, writer, and community organizer since 1988. Tennen's projects received support from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Arts Board, Saint Louis Park Friends of the Arts, and private funders, She is skilled in collaborating with multiple project partners to create community participation projects. Her work can be seen in public buildings throughout the Twin Cities. She served 26 years as a key member of the finance committee of her cooperatively run housing association, eight as treasurer. She is active in connecting arts colleagues with opportunities, as well as mentoring younger artists. She attends dance performances regularly and is an amateur musician.; Kieran Tverbakk: Tverbakk is a transdisciplinary visual artist and community arts organizer. They investigate our human desire to name, categorize, and separate ourselves and our surroundings from the natural world, positing identification as a tool for separation from one another. Drawing from personal history and bodily archives, Tverbakk looks to the everyday abundance and diversity in materials that surround us to conjure contemplation of our sameness and inherent connections in being. They graduated from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2016 with a BFA and were a FY 2020 Artist Initiative grant recipient, awarded by the Minnesota State Arts Board.