Individual Artist Project Grant FY21
Individual Artist Project Grant FY21
HISTORICAL WRITING and RESEARCH Facilitating a writing group for senior citizens in my community will allow me to assist them in documenting their family history. Research will allow me to create a viable outline and 6 polished chapters of my trilogy.
Tara Makinen: former-Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, musician; Tammy Mattonen: Executive Director of Itasca Orchestra and Strings, visual artist, co-founder of Crescendo Youth Orchestra; 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; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Roxann Berglund: musician; Bill Payne: Professor of Theater at the University of Minnesota-Duluth
Kathy Neff: musician, Director, Fine Arts Academy at the University of Minnesota-Duluth; Kris Nelson: artist, teacher; Adam Swanson: visual artist; Betty Firth: writer; Greg Mueller: sculptor
ACHF Arts Access
[1] OUR HISTORY COMPONENT Senior citizens residing in Comstock Court Assisted Living and Homestead Nursing Home are the primary community of the OUR HISTORY writing group. I want them to feel comfortable writing (or recording) their stories for their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. If there is an interest in sharing with the broader community, I will work with facility staff to do so. Of course, OUR HISTORY will have a ripple effect. In the group, we will use old photographs as writing prompts, so the family albums will be unearthed. Staff and family members will be curious as to what the seniors are doing, and ask questions, which will encourage more stories. I hope to enlist family members to ?interview' residents that are more able to talk than to write. [2] RESEARCH AND WRITING COMPONENT As a historian, I have found that ?my community' has expanded to wherever the incident I am writing about takes place. HOMESTEADERS IN SKIRTS is set in northern Itasca County. The first group of women homesteaders came from Red Lake County. The second group of women moved to the area with their families from Wright County. Some homesteaded right away, a few others had to wait until they were old enough. I love doing presentations about my research and to read from a work in progress. If the opportunity arises during the grant period, I certainly will conduct presentations, but my goal for this portion is to concentrate on key elements of the trilogy. My goals for HISTORICAL WRITING and RESEARCH are to: [1] Encourage, assist, and celebrate senior citizens in documenting their personal history in the OUR HISTORY writing group [2] Conduct historical research at the MNHS and RLCHS, and write key elements of my work in progress, HOMESTEADERS IN SKIRTS trilogy. Measurable Outcomes: [1a] Work with 6-10 senior citizens for up to 18 weeks in a group and one-on-one setting to document personal history that is meaningful to them and their family and provide a tangible record (written/oral). [1b] Celebrate the participants writing accomplishments [2a] Obtain and digitally catalog and archive at least two hundred primary source documents and photographs at the MNHS and RLCHS [2b] Create a ?working' outline for the three manuscripts of the trilogy. [2c] Complete at least six polished chapters of the first book in the trilogy. ~ I have written a weekly (4 years), now bi-weekly newspaper column since 2014, and am used to deadlines. ~ I have completed my first novel! It is professionally edited (thanks to a grant from ARAC) and I am awaiting the results of several contest before I pursue querying it to Indie publishers. ~ Even during this challenging year (my mother died), I didn't miss a deadline for my bi-weekly column in the Grand Rapids Herald Review newspaper. ~ I love what I do and am dedicated to my writing. I spend at least 40 hours a week on my writing even though I take care of a three-year-old grandson three days a week. The ?Reminisce? column takes about ten hours. Publishing related activities and contests takes another ten. The remaining 20 hours are dedicated to improving my skills with online classes, local workshops and writing short stories. Measuring Outcomes: [1a] Document names (adhering to confidentiality) of individuals, dates of writing sessions they participate in, their process (written, recorded, etc), and their work in progress. Provide 3 copies of the documentation for themselves and family. [1b] This depends on the participants (open house, readings etc), but at a minimum I will write and submit a newspaper article to the Grand Rapids Herald-Review about the OUR HISTORY writing group. [2a] Maintain a list and description of each primary source document and photograph obtained. Keep 1 copy of the file on an external drive. [2b] Produce a 15-25 page outline for the three manuscripts of the trilogy in a format that can be revised as needed during the writing process. [2c] Produce six polished chapters (20-30 page
I met all my artistic goals, though an extension was needed because of covid restrictions at the Gale Research Library at the MN Historical Society. The research I did in the northwestern counties in Sept 2021, provided me with many of the details I had hoped to glean and include in my novel in progress Homesteaders in Skirts. The writing groups were a new endeavor for me, and they turned out to be more fun (and rewarding) than I anticipated. We always have food at our meetings, and frequently get off the subject, but what rich and varied lives the participants have had! I look forward to our meeting days as much as they tell me they do. In addition to the group at the Comstock assisted living facility, I also facilitated a writing group in the rural community (20 miles from Deer River) of Sand Lake, Between the two, I worked with 9 older adults, exceeding my goal of 6. My 2 writing groups took a summer hiatus and will start again in October, which I will facilitate gratis.
Other,local or private