Individual Artist Project Grant
Individual Artist Project Grant
The Neighbors: Animals in Our City
Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Emily Swanson: arts administrator at Oldenburg Arts and Cultural Community; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Roxann Berglund: musician; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Sam Zimmerman: visual artist, teacher; Liz Engelman: dramaturg, founder and director of Tofte Lake Center; Jessica Peterson: essayist, playwright, co-founder of Yellow Tree Theater; Erin Cain: University of Minnesota-Duluth Student Liaison
Kendra Carlson: writing and theater instructor, University of Minnesota Duluth; Mary McReynolds: former director of the Lyric Center for the arts, fiber and acrylic artist; Jessica Peterson: essayist, playwright, co-founder of Yellow Tree Theater
ACHF Arts Access ACHF Arts Education ACHF Cultural Heritage
The community will gain a thoughtful and engaging artwork that will lead them into thinking about animals in the city, sustainability, and choices (by means of the QR code and linked website). I hope it will also serve as an affectionate link to the city and its wildlife. I am trying to create a climate of thought in which animals and people are peers in their occupancy of land, through making a sculpture that invites people to sit with an animal and also to think about issues around the co-existence of human life and animal life, through people's use of the QR code to link to a website with material on the featured animal (TBD) and on issues of animal/human coexistence (links to crucial writings on this will be on this website). People will also be able to post responses on the website. Outcomes will be measured based on people's engagement with the website (a quantifiable outcome) as well as through anecdotal evidence of people's interaction with the work itself. A more distant outcome will be the interest of downtown businesses in extending the series of artworks. I have done similar projects before for similar budgets, and the people I've done them for are happy with them. If you look at my resume you'll see many completed projects. I have never not been able to finish a project I'm committed to. The Fox in May Park has many happy family fans, the Mallard at the Marydale Park playground is similarly popular. I only recently installed the Otter here in Duluth (funded with an MSAB grant) but he is certainly making friends as well. The work will be a success if: -- people engage with the website and leave comments; --waterfront businesses report good interaction with the artwork; --other businesses express interest in extending the series.