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2008 Artist Fellows Announced

June 9, 2008—

The Bush Foundation today introduced its 2008 Bush Artist Fellows at an event at Open Book in Minneapolis. Each of the 15 fellows, chosen from a competitive field of 485 applicants, will receive a total of $50,000 in unrestricted funds and professional development support.

The Bush Artist Fellowships provide strong and promising artists with resources that enable them to deepen and advance their work and foster their careers as artists. It is one of the largest artist grants in the Upper Midwest and one of only three open-application artist fellowships of this size in the United States. This year’s fellowships focused on visual arts, media arts, and traditional and functional craft arts.

The 2008 Bush Artist Fellows

Mauricio Arango (Minneapolis, MN), visual arts

Norik Astvatsaturov (Wahpeton, ND), traditional and functional craft arts

Matthew Bakkom (Minneapolis, MN), visual arts

Elizabeth Day (Minneapolis, MN), media arts

Jim Denomie (Franconia, MN), visual arts

Nathaniel Freeman (Minneapolis, MN), media arts

Monica Haller (Minneapolis, MN), visual arts

Mike Hazard (St. Paul, MN), media arts

Jay Heikes (Minneapolis, MN), visual arts

Foung Heu (St. Paul, MN), media arts

Rollin Marquette (Minneapolis, MN), visual arts

Craig Schlattman (White Bear Lake, MN), media arts

Tom Schroeder (Minneapolis, MN), media arts

William Slichter (Minneapolis, MN), media arts

Alec Soth (St. Paul, MN), visual arts

The complete bios and photos of the 2008 fellows are available at www.bushfoundation.org.

The categories for the 2008 fellowships are: visual arts (painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, installation, works on paper, collage, mixed media, artists books, cartooning, ceramics and fiber arts), media arts (narrative, documentary, animation, or experimental time-based works using audio, digital, film and/or video, media, and computer art) and traditional and functional craft arts (weavings, quilts, woodcarving, basketry, metal work, beadwork, ceramics, glass, wood, fiber and recycled materials).

A Career and Life-Changing Award

For many past recipients, the fellowship is a life-changing award. Writer Patricia Hampl was able to finish her groundbreaking memoir A Romantic Education while a fellow. During his fellowship, the late playwright August Wilson completed his second major play, Fences, which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Kathleen Norris worked intensively on her book The Cloister Walk, composer Ying Zhang produced his first American CD and photographer Paul Shambroom honed his negotiating skills to gain access to photograph nuclear installations for a groundbreaking project.

A Rigorous Selection Process

Fellows are selected through a rigorous, national peer panel review process. Applicants began the competitive award process in November by submitting a written application with an artist statement and samples of their work. Panels of artists and curators who are experts in each field of work reviewed applications, honing the pool of 485 to 34 finalists. An interdisciplinary panel chose the final 15 fellowship recipients. (Panel members are noted at the end of this release.) “These artists represent some of the most talented and committed people in our communities,” said Bush Foundation President Peter Hutchinson. “We believe in their leadership and ability to inform and transform. Our significant investment in them is truly a direct investment into the many communities in our region.”

About the Bush Foundation

The Bush Foundation was established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Granville Bush and his wife Edyth. In 2007, the Foundation made grants of approximately $40 million to support programs and efforts to sustain communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota. With a mission to improve the quality of life in this region, the Foundation aims to be a catalyst to shape vibrant communities by investing in courageous and effective leadership that significantly strengthens and improves the well-being of the region’s people.

The Bush Artist Program, one of three programs to support individuals in the Foundation’s region, was established in 1976. Since then, 447 grants have been awarded to 392 different artists. The Bush Artist Program (BAP) creates opportunities for artists to advance their work, stimulate dialogue and contribute to deeper community engagement by providing them financial and professional development support. The BAP consists of three grant initiatives: 1) the Enduring Vision Awards; 2) the Bush Artist Fellowships, which provides a total of $50,000 in grant support annually to 15 artists and is one of only three open-application artist fellowships in the country to provide unrestricted grants at this financial level; and 3) Dakota Creative Connections, providing artists in North and South Dakota with project and professional development grants ranging from $3,000 to $6,000.

2008 Bush Artist Fellows Program Preliminary Panelists

Visual Arts:

Jordan Kantor, artist and Associate Professor at California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

Yong Soon Min, artist and independent curator, Professor at University of California, Irvine, CA

Chrissie Orr, visual artist, Santa Fe, NM

Media Arts:

Leslie Fields-Cruz, Director of Programming, National Black Programming Consortium, New York, NY

Brian Knep, new-media artist, Boston, MA

Susan Oxtoby, Senior Film Curator, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA

Visual Arts: Traditional and Functional Craft Works:

Paula Owen, President, Southwest School of Art and Craft, San Antonio, TX

Lynne Spriggs, Curator of Special Projects, C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT

Bob Teske, folklorist and Executive Director, Milwaukee County Historical Society, Milwaukee, WI

2008 Bush Artist Fellows Program Final Panel

Nick Cave, artist and Department Chair, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Brian Knep, new-media artist, Boston, MA

Yong Soon Min, artist and independent curator, Professor at University of California, Irvine, CA

Lynne Spriggs, Curator of Special Projects, C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT

Namita Gupta Wiggers, Curator, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR