Minnesota Center for Book Arts is proud to announce the recipients of the MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship Series IV:

Laura Andrews (Minneapolis, MN), painter
Emma Burghardt (Minnetrista, MN), digital artist and animator
Lisa Loudon (Minneapolis, MN), mixed media artist
Presley Martin (Minneapolis, MN), environmental artist
Dave Molnar (Roseville, MN), photography and historic/alternative process printer

Three jurors, reflecting diverse perspectives and considerable expertise, reviewed 55 applications to make the final selection of six recipients. Jurors included: Erik Brandt, graphic designer and Associate Professor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD); Sarah Fox, author, editor, educator and co-founder of the Center for Visionary Poetics; and Keith Taylor, photographer, printmaker and recipient of the MCBA/Jerome Mentorship Series III.

Mentorship recipients will now embark on a year-long study of new artistic disciplines and one-on-one work with master artist mentors to develop their individual projects. The mentorship program will culminate in an exhibition in MCBA's main gallery in November 2013.

Save the date:
Meet the new recipients and learn about their work at a special Mentorship-themed Book Arts Roundtable on Tuesday, February 12 at 7pm in MCBA's studios.

Since 1985, the Jerome Foundation has helped artists push the boundaries of contemporary book arts by supporting the creation of new book works. Through eleven series of fellowships and four series of mentorships, Minnesota artists of extremely diverse disciplines -- including printers, papermakers, binders, painters, sculptors, poets, photographers, choreographers, filmmakers and others -- have created projects ranging from exquisitely crafted fine press volumes to documented performances to one-of-a-kind installations that "break the bindings" and redefine conventional notions of book form and content.

Recipient artist bios:

Laura Andrews is a visual artist who lives and works in Minneapolis. She received her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) and currently teaches at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, as well as at Century College in White Bear Lake, MN. She received an Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2011, and her paintings were recently featured in a solo exhibition, Unravel, at Bloomington Art Center. Her paintings and drawings focus on the relationship and interaction between people and the natural world, and her latest work deals with hybridism and gender performativity.

Emma Burghardt is a recent graduate of the Cinema and Media Studies program at Carleton College. She enjoys drawing, tiny objects, and learning.

Originally from Nebraska, Lisa Loudon has lived and worked in the Twin Cities for the last fifteen years. Her training is in painting and drawing and she holds an MFA from the University of Nebraska. In the last few years the focus of her work has shifted from more figural two-dimensional imagery to work that is more sculptural and non-objective. She has participated in several regional, national, and international exhibitions including shows at Indiana State University, East Carolina University, Illinois Central College, and Flux Space in Indianapolis, IN. She was a recipient of a 2011 Jerome Fiber Artist Project Grant. She maintains a studio in Northeast Minneapolis where she lives with her husband and two cats.

Presley Martin has a BA in Art History from the University of Pittsburgh and an MFA from San Jose State University. He has shown his work in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and Belfast. Presley lives and works in Minneapolis with his wife and daughter. He uses invasive species in his work as a path to new and unexpected interactions with the local environment.

Dave Molnar grew up in Stillwater, MN and the beautiful environment of the St. Croix Valley fueled his passion to capture his surroundings, as well as jobs through his school years photographing for various school publications. Later, attending the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Dave achieved his BFA, majoring in photography. Four years ago, he discovered alternative process photography and was hooked. The combination of the historical techniques, hand crafted image, controlled chaos, and happy accidents culminating in the final photographic print speak to all his interests, technically and creatively. His favorite processes include gum bichromate, salted paper and wet plate collodion.

Juror bios:

Erik Brandt is a graphic designer and educator who has been active since 1994. He is currently an Associate Professor at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) in Minneapolis. Educated internationally, his creative and research interests focus on issues of globalization that affect and drive the complexities of inter-cultural visual communication systems. His career began as a cartoonist in Japan in 1994, and has since found focus largely in print media. He authors the design blog, Geotypografika (Visual Communication und Wissenschaft), and maintains a small graphic design studio, Typografika (Visual Communication und Konditorei). His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and he has also received recognition for his very, very silly short films.

Sarah Fox lives in NE Minneapolis and has taught creative writing and poetics at the University of Minnesota, the Perpich Center for Arts Education Arts High School, and other schools and community centers throughout Minnesota. From 2000 to 2005 she edited the letterpress project Fuori Editions as a collective, producing two catalogs of Twin Cities poets and several chapbooks. She is co-founder of the Center for Visionary Poetics, and also serves as a doula. Coffee House Press published her book Because Why in 2006, and will release The First Flag in Spring 2013. She contributes posts on feminism, mysticism, astrology, and poetics to the multi-author arts and culture blog Montevidayo (montevidayo.com), and has won grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Bush Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Academy of American Poets, the Gessell Foundation, and the Graduate Research Partnership Program at the University of Minnesota. Recent work appears in Fence, Conduit, Action, Yes, We Are So Happy To Know Something, Poetry City USA Vol 2, Spout, Rain Taxi, Plumberries, LUNGFULL!, and others. She performs poetry rituals and other acts of intersubjective collaboration in public and private spaces throughout the Twin Cities and beyond.

British-born Keith Taylor is a photographer and printmaker and has been living in Minneapolis since 1996. His photographs have been widely exhibited across the US and the UK, he is a two-time recipient of Individual Artist fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and his photographs are held in many private and corporate collections. In 2011 he was awarded an MCBA/Jerome Foundation Book Arts Mentorship. He writes for photographic publications, and also lectures and teaches on the historical photo processes of platinum-palladium, polymer-photogravure and 3-color gum dichromate.

 

About the Book Arts Mentorship

The Book Arts Mentorship is an artist development program aimed at introducing book arts to emerging artists whose primary medium is in another discipline. There are many reasons to explore book arts as a new artistic medium. As a highly malleable and versatile form of expression, book arts extend the possibilities of other art forms. You can create a conceptual space. Experiment with sequence and visual or verbal narrative. Use book art forms to extend, explore, document or reexamine work produced in other artistic disciplines.

Mentorships are awarded to six emerging artists selected from the following disciplines:

• Literary arts (poetry, spoken word, fiction, creative nonfiction)
• Visual arts (drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, mixed media, new media)
• Music (composing)
• Film / video (filmmakers, animation)
• Theater (playwriting)
• Dance (choreography)

Only originating artists in these disciplines are eligible for Jerome support; musicians, actors, directors, dancers, screenwriters and other such categories are not eligible.

Artists selected for the Book Arts Mentorship will receive:

• $1,500 for the purchase of materials and to supplement living or travel costs
  (subject to state and federal income tax guidelines)
• Three months of basic book arts training at MCBA
• Free tuition to participate in up to three workshops offered by MCBA through its regular adult education schedule (artist pays material fees)
• The ability to meet regularly with a mentor and attend master classes that provide contextual and historical foundations for book arts
• One year free membership to MCBA
• Recognition through a culminating exhibition in MCBA’s main gallery
  

 

Eligibility

Applications must be submitted by emerging artists. An "emerging artist" is generally defined as an artist who shows significant potential, yet has not received a commensurate amount of professional recognition regardless of age or recognition in other fields. MCBA and the Jerome Foundation reserve the right to review and determine any applicant status as "emerging" or "established".

Applicants must reside in Minnesota and must have held legal residency in Minnesota for the preceding year.

An artist is not eligible to apply for the Book Arts Mentorship if he or she is:

• a student, full-time or part-time
• a current MCBA artist-in-residence or staff member
• an artist who already uses book arts as a primary form of creative expression
• an artist who is already well-established in his or her field of work
• a prior recipient of any MCBA / Jerome Book Arts Mentorship or Fellowship

Three jurors review the application materials and select six mentorship recipients.

If you have any questions about the Book Arts Mentorships or the application process, please contact Sara R. Parr, Adult and Artist Programs Director, by phone at 612-215-2526 or by email at sparr@mnbookarts.org. To learn more about Minnesota Center for Book Arts, visit us in person in the Open Book building in downtown Minneapolis, call 612-215-2520, or visit us online at mnbookarts.org.