Bush Foundation Fellowships

Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson

2007 Bush Artist Fellowship
North Dakota
www.kyjakristjana.com

Career Field: Media Arts
Secondary Field: Film

Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson has screened her films and videos at festivals and galleries around the world since the late ‘90s. Born in Jamestown, North Dakota, she spent her youth in the company of her imagination, curiosity, and her older brother. They considered themselves world explorers, even though digging to China through their parents’ garden failed at every attempt. Failure, however, only leads those who persevere to new paths. Moving to Fargo at the age of nine, she spent over a decade studying as a cellist before moving to Minneapolis. While studying at the University of Minnesota, Kristjansson-Nelson was an IRSEP scholar to Iceland, where she studied Icelandic language at the University of Iceland. She earned her bachelor of individualized studies degree in film studies and Icelandic culture from the University of Minnesota. She also earned an associate in science degree in filmmaking from the Minneapolis Community Technical College. After working in television in New York City, she returned to school to earn her master of fine arts in film at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She has won several awards and grants, including a Fulbright grant to Iceland. Kristjansson-Nelson is interested in the sculptural force of memory and how stories, genealogy, and landscape inform collective consciousness, which in turn shapes who we are as human beings. She is currently an assistant professor in the film studies department at Minnesota State University Moorhead and an amateur gardener.