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Bush Foundation Announces Dakota Creative Connections Grants

July 13, 2009—

The Bush Foundation announced today that 10 artists from North and South Dakota will share $49,290 in Dakota Creative Connections grants for projects designed to both develop new ideas and support current endeavors. The artists work in literary arts, music composition, performance-based work, script works, and traditional and ethnic performing arts.

The 2009 Dakota Creative Connections grant recipients are:

• Brian Begley & Mary Inman (Vermillion, SD) will rework, remount and tour Constellations: Stories in the Stars, a movement theater and multimedia work addressing issues in mythology and astronomy. (www.discoverymovementtheatre.com, $6,000 grant)

• Dallas Chief Eagle II (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) (Martin, SD) will produce a DVD of his hoop dancing and cultural teaching to be marketed to schools, educators and cultural venues. ($6,000 grant)

• Kathleen Coudle King (Minot, ND) will travel to small towns in North Dakota and Minnesota to research and interview residents for the purpose of expanding her one-act play Ghost Town into an evening-length work. (www.dakotalit.com, $6,000 grant)

• Heidi Czerwiec (Grand Forks, ND) will work on developing and refining her sonnet sequence Self-Portrait as Bettie Page in preparation for publication at the Sewanee Writers Conference and West Chester University Poetry Conference. ($5,000 grant)

• Mary Alice Haug (Brookings, SD) will travel to Daejoon, South Korea, to research a new book on family, land, culture, church and women, and will hire a designer to help market the finished book online. ($3,000 grant)

• Patrick Hicks (Sioux Falls, SD) will travel to Auschwitz and Birkenau in Germany and to Oswiecim and Krakow in Poland to research his manuscript Newgrange, a novel about death and loss. ($4,100 grant)

• Hollis Mackintosh (Bismarck, ND) will choreograph, design and construct set and costumes for Peter Pan, an original two-act ballet for Northern Plains Dance. ($4,000 grant)

• Bill Peterson (Canton, SD) will perform, produce and promote recordings of Midwestern fiddle tunes on a new CD titled We Didn’t Make This Up with his band (Fiddler Nelson) and guest artists. ($4,000 grant)

• Robert Sackman (Bismarck, ND) will travel, collect and perform traditional German/Russian songs in towns in North Dakota with a significant German/Russian heritage. ($5,260 grant)

• Michael Wittgraf (Grand Forks, ND) will compose a new work using KYMAX software in quadraphonic and stereophonic sound for premiere by the University of North Dakota choir. (www.und.edu/instruct/wittgraf, $5,930 grant)

Dakota Creative Connections grants provide artists with project support ranging from $3,000 to $6,000. The grants can be used for travel, study and research; artist residencies and retreats; equipment and materials; and/or short-term projects. The program is managed in partnership with the Saint Paul-based Springboard for the Arts and coordinated by South Dakota artist Grete Bodøgaard. This is the second year the Foundation has awarded Dakota Creative Connections grants.

Recipients were chosen by a regional panel of five artists and curators who met in Jamestown, ND, over a two-day period in June. (A list of panelists is given at the end of this release.)

The Bush Foundation was established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife Edyth. The Foundation strives to be a catalyst to shape vibrant communities in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota by investing in courageous and effective leadership that significantly strengthens and improves the well-being of people in these three states. In 2009, the Bush Foundation is pursuing its Goals for a Decade—in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota to develop courageous leaders and engage entire communities in solving problems, to support the self-determination of Native nations and to increase educational achievement.

The Bush Artist Program (BAP) was established in 1976. Since then, it has awarded 486 grants to 439 different artists. BAP creates opportunities for artists to advance their work, stimulate dialogue and contribute to deeper community engagement by providing financial and professional development support through three grant initiatives—the Enduring Vision Awards, the Bush Artist Fellowships and the Dakota Creative Connections.

Panelists for the Dakota Creative Connections Grants

M. Cochise Anderson (Oklahoma Chickasaw/Choctaw)
(2002 Bush Artist Fellow)
Spoken word artist, storyteller/playwright
Minneapolis, MN

Karen Van Fossan
(2007 Bush Artist Fellow)
Founder/Director
Dragon Jane Performance Art Company
Playwright, artist-in-residence, dance/movement therapist
Bismarck, ND

Troyd Geist
Senior Folklorist
North Dakota Council for the Arts
Fargo, ND

Lee Ann Roripaugh
(2003 Bush Artist Fellow)
Poet and Associate Professor of English
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD

Owen DeJong
Musician and Classical Music Director
South Dakota Public Radio
Vermillion, SD