Grantees: 2010 Artistic Innovation – Through the Soul of an Artist
Total Allocation: $136,070.00
Support for individual artists projects: Grants for the development of new work for contemporary Native artists in visual arts, video and digital arts, installation, dance, music and performance based arts, playwrighting, literature, spoken word, or interdisciplinary projects.
Grantees:
1. Marie Watt (Seneca)
2. Emily Johnson (Yu’pik)
3. William Wilson (Navajo)
4. Christen Marquez (Native Hawaiian)
5. Ricardo Mendoza (Salinan)
6. John Feodorov (Navajo)
7. Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/Athabaskan)
8. Lisa Telford (Haida)
Marie Watt (Seneca)
Location: New York, NY
Award: $20,000
Project: “A Secular Operatic Interpretation of First Nation Histories”
Marie Watt is an artist whose work is centered around community. Most notable is her work with blankets – both as an object and as a metaphor in Native life. Funding for this project will assist with the first phase in a new body of work that include elements of drawing, 3 large hand sewn tapestries, and community projects that feature sewing circles and The Incomplete Indigenous Botanical Canon – Plant Stories, Remedies, Illustrations. This project will culminate in a solo mid-career exhibition at the Halle Ford Museum of Art in Salem, Oregon.
Emily Johnson (Yup'ik)
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Award: $20,000
Project: “Niicugni (Listen)”
Emily Johnson is dancer and choreographer whose work often functions as an “installation performance” that combines dance, storytelling vignettes, props, and theater sets. Funding for this project will assist the artist in the development of new work centered on movement, story, and sound housed within an installation of hand-made fish skin lanterns. The project will reach the stage after continued ripening of the piece.
William Wilson (Navajo)
Location: Santa Fe, NM
Award: $9,000
Project: “Auto Immune Response”
William Wilson’s work focuses primarily on the Navajo people and their relation to the land. His large scale photographs illustrate Native Americans vexed relationship to an environment torn apart by industrial intrusion. Funding for this project will support the final chapter of a series, leading the artist to an exploration of the four sacred mountains of the Navajo Nation with the major subtext being the legacy of energy resource development in the area. The project will attract attention through the artist's working relationship with IAIA, MoCNA, and the Santa Fe Art Institute.
Christen Marquez (Native Hawaiian)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Award: $20,000
Project: “Haku Inoa – To Weave a Name”
Christen Marquez is a young filmmaker on the cusp of completing a full length feature auto-biographical documentary that follows her from the contiguous United States to Hawai`i exploring a complicated relationship with her mother and the meaning of her Hawaiian name. Funding for the project will support the final shooting for the film on the continent. The project will culminate in distribution on television and in theater venues.
Ricardo Mendoza (Salinan)
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Award: $19,700
Project: “Willie Boy Revisited”
Ricardo Mendoza is a seasoned muralist who follows in the tradition of the great Mexican muralists of the 20th century and the Chicano mural movements of California. Funding for this project will support the development of a large scale portable mural depicting the life of fabled Chemehuevi tribal member popularly known as “Willie Boy”. The project will culminate in the presentation of the mural in Yucca Valley, CA.
John Feodorov (Navajo)
Location: Seattle, WA
Award: $7,370
Project: “Vision Project Solo Exhibition”
John Feodorov is a conceptual artist whose work addresses contemporary issues of consumerism, the environment, and identity. Funding for this project will support the creation of mixed media assemblages, 2D works, and a looped video production that topically explores the BP oil spill and delves deeper into broader issues concerning our connection and disconnection to the natural world, identity, and place. The project will culminate in a solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe.
Sonya Kelliher-Combs (Inupiaq/Athabaskan)
Location: Anchorage, AK
Award: $20,000
Project: “Common Threads”
Sonya Kelliher-Combs is a visual artist whose work is rooted in painting but is interwoven and influenced by traditional skin sewing and sculptural elements using animal parts. Funding for this project will support work with a master printer and the development of an exhibit. The project will culminate in a retrospective solo exhibit at the International Gallery of Contemporary Native Art in Anchorage.
Lisa Telford (Haida)
Location: Everett, WA
Award: $20,000
Project: “Lisa Telford/Preston Singletary Collaboration”
Lisa Telford is a weaver whose traditional NW weavings have transformed into contemporary garments, shoes, and non-traditional objects serving as elucidating commentary on Native identity, stereotypes – even fashion. Continuing these explorations, funding for this project will support work in partnership with renowned glass artist, Preston Singletary, and will explore the new medium. The project will culminate in an exhibition of the work in the Northwest.