Individual Artist Project Grant
Individual Artist Project Grant
The Neighbors: Shou Sugi Ban. This project will pioneer a new way of creating permanent outdoor sculptures in wood by working with a traditional Japanese weatherproofing technique.
Tara Makinen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Amber Burns: choreographer, dancer, actor, middle school art teacher; 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.
Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Ron Piercy: jeweler, gallery owner; Roxann Berglund: musician; Serenity Schoonover: writer; Esther Piszczek: mixed media and visual artist, arts instructor.
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
The human community will benefit from having a show to see and discuss that concerns matters that are deeply important to it: climate change and its effect on the ecosystem. They will also benefit by having the animals of the ecosystem sited in public places -- where they can interact with them. People do love having the animals around: my array of animals at the St. Louis County Government Services Center in downtown Duluth are much beloved, and people interact with them in many different ways (including dressing them warmly for winter-- which means that people living on the streets can be given a scarf or a hat by an otter). My sculpture of the Great Catsby along the bike trail is always adorned--people who miss Catsby can interact with him in this way. I have confidence that these animal icons will also be adopted by the community and loved. The animal community will benefit, I hope, through a growth in empathy in the human world. I am trying to do two things: First, to create a moving and living body of work that helps the human community increase its empathy for the animal community. Second, I want to experiment and create a new way of making permanent outdoor sculpture that is far more "green" than bronze or steel-- work that has a minimal carbon footprint, and that also serves as a reminder that we are all in this together as carbon-based life forms. Part of the project is getting exposure for the work (which I am confident of, as I have secured interest and commitments from managers of proposed sites) and part of the project is empirical research on how well shou sugi ban adapts to 3D sculpture. Traditionally, it is used to weatherproof architecture-- siding, posts, etc. But there is no reason it will not prove equally effective in weatherproofing sculpture. The grant will enable the trial of the technique over a period of a year. I've always delivered on my promises. In 30 years of doing public art projects and grants-funded projects, I've never not met my commitments. I have created a few (4) of these carved animals, using high-speed grinders with powercarvers and chisels. Of course one is always learning, but I am confident of my techniques now. The gallery show is arranged with Sam already; I have a project proposal approved by the city of Duluth; I have had several meetings with Jodi at Ecolibrium 3 about participating in their plans for the Lincoln Park neighborhood. My experience working with Arrowhead Regional Library staff several years ago was positive (the Scott Murphy mural at the Duluth Library, and a dozen other public art projects at libraries around the Range, are the result of that project, which I administered for them), so I believe I will be able to work with them to site these works outdoors at regional libraries. I am so looking forward to doing this work!First, I will monitor attendance at and response to the Gallery 315 exhibition. Second, the number of works I am able to site in the region will be a measure of engagement with the work. Third, I will monitor the works for one year from their installation. If they weather well outdoors for the period of time, I will know that that aspect of the work is successful. I will also be able to develop maintenance plans for such work.
The artistic goals have been advanced by the grant-period activities. I was able to make connections with other artists working on climate issues; the shows I placed this work in were covered in print, on radio, and online; I was able to spend time making the sculptures despite not having a commission and despite income hits because of the pandemic; and I am still working on this body of work, hoping to advance it further and accomplish the show that was outlined in the application. Both smaller-scale works and large-scale works are in process, stemming from this project. "Culture x Climate" was covered on KUMD's Green Visions Show, and in the Reader. Climate>Duluth taped two shows at PACT-TV. I was interviewed re the Cormorant Crown in the Nordic Center show, and that interview is on their website.