ARTIST RESIDENCIES

Are you looking for an artist to do a residency in your school?  There are many fine residency artists listed on the Minnesota State Arts Board website (www.arts.state.mn.us/).  The artists in the MSAB list have been chosen through a juried review process based on both their artistic skills and their ability to teach students. From traditional to fine arts, the roster includes a wide range of artistic disciplines for residency possibilities.  The list breaks down the disciplines into 3 categories:  Literary, Performing and Visual artists.  Each of these broad categories are broken down further into sub-categories.  So it is easy to find an artist that would make for a great residency at your school.

Listed here are some residencies that were recently funded through a SMAHC Arts & Learning grant.  These artists are all on the MSAB roster artists list.  These have all been very successful residencies.

Perrin Boyd:  She is a theatrical artist that specializes in art of clowning.  She brings a wide experience of performance (she traveled with Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus) as well as an educational experience (she has a MA degree in teaching and holds a current Minnesota teaching certificate).  From her listing she writes, “Using the basic tenets of what a good theater artist does, I craft my work around curriculum, character education, and circus to assist children on their journey of discovery and imagination.”  She recently conducted a very successful residency at Parkside Elementary School in Marshall.

Susan Armington:  She is a visual artist who works in painting, mixed media, and imaginative map-making. In her residency at the Appleton/Milan Elementary School, she worked with second and third grade students on drawing and creating “Mapboxes” and larger collage boxes about animal habitats.  Armington is a very creative artist having developed many notable projects including the “Talking Suitcases”  project in which members of diverse groups can come together to create Talking Suitcases about their lives and values. Her residency in Appleton was very successful.

Terrence Smith:  He is an expert in American folk dance and has been a caller with over 25 years of experience.  He works with students of all ages and his specialties are fairy dances and Maypoles.  He uses traditional, universal dances to discover the beauty of movement and to express thoughts and feelings.  His residency at the Appleton Milan Elementary School helped children explore the world of folk dance culminating in a performance at the Milan Syttende Mai Celebration to show off their folk dancing skills.

Florence Dacey:  She has been conducting residencies for over 20 years in the SMAHC region as well as other regions throughout the state.   She states that her goal as a visiting teaching artist is to open young writers to deeper levels of their imagination and feelings about themselves and the world. She has developed residencies on many themes including the environment, immigration, intergenerational sharing, and pioneer days.  In a residency recently at the Stevens Elementary School (Dawson-Boyd School), Dacey worked with two groups of after-school program students, grades 1 & 2 and grades 3-6.  Students wrote, published and performed poems from their experiences.

Grants in SMAHC’s Arts & Learning program are available for up to $2,500 for Artist Residencies and up to $750 for Pre-packaged Theatre Residencies and $600 for Field Trips or 90% of the total project cash costs, whichever is less.  There is one deadline remaining for this fiscal year.  The deadline for Round II is April 1, 2011.  The earliest start date for projects is June 15, 2011.  There is a Grant Writing workshop scheduled for February 24, 2011 from 4-6 p.m. at the SMAHC Office.  Please check with the SMAHC office to confirm the date and time for the workshop and to register.  If you are thinking of applying for a grant for the next school year (2011), now is the time to start planning for it.  You can download the Program Overview & Instructions and Application Form from the SMAHC website:  www.smahc.org.