Individual Artist Project Grant (INDIVIDUALS ONLY)

By providing a professionally printed hardcover photo book to neighborhood residents, businesses, and social spaces, I will be creating a community photo archive that will live on in the neighborhood for years to come. This is why it is important that these photos are made into a book, rather than an exhibition. This method of conscientious storytelling through collaborative image-making not only gives the community an opportunity to see their culture celebrated, but also translates their experiences to a broader audience. I hope that the book can not only help document a community that I love, but also carry the story to other communities in the state that are facing rapid demographic and economic change, helping them reflect on the similar choices they face. The people of Lincoln Park/the West End have given me lots of their time, stories, and images. I want to thank them by sharing a beautifully designed, edited, and printed book that gives their stories the dignity they deserve.My artistic goals include the uplifting of rural and small town life, determined focus on making accessible work for non-artists, holding space for marginalized voices, and embracing my documentary subjects in collaborating on their own representation. I want to create a personal, poetic book that uplifts the older and more offbeat parts of Lincoln Park that I see, not just the parts promoted as the "craft district". I want to make something that will live on in the hands and hearts of the neighborhood for many years to come. I have experience following through on other large-scale documentary projects, including a major photo book made in collaboration with a community of immigrants and refugees in Worthington, Minnesota. I've made many documentary films through artist residencies, a Jerome Foundation fellowship, one ARAC grant, and many commissions. I have experience telling thoughtful and sensitive stories about communities, constructing large and complex documentary narratives, and holding myself accountable to the people I represent in my images. Based on my experience making another documentary photo book, this timeline for the book design and printing is feasible.The way I see it, there are two audiences for this work; residents of the neighborhood itself, and the broader arts and documentary community. I will solicit feedback from the neighborhood residents whose images and stories appear in the book. Many of these people have been surprised at my interest in their lives and stories; they also express skepticism that anybody would ever be interested in what they have to say. I want to show them that their collected stories have value to a bigger audience. To this end, I will solicit their feedback and gauge their response to see how the project resonates locally. To share this work with the broader arts and documentary community, I will bring it to book fairs, submit it to open calls, and share it with my colleagues in the arts and community development field. The responses from this outreach and these submissions will tell me if this project can translate to a wider audience.