2022 Grants for Individuals & Collectives Recipients - October Deadline
January 19, 2023
Through their work, artists add inspiration, interaction, expression, and creativity to Edmonton. The Edmonton Arts Council’s (EAC) Individuals & Collectives grant contributes to a healthy arts ecosystem by providing vital support to artists. With this support, artists working as individuals or collectively can pursue work that develops their practice, advances creative thought, contributes to an art form, and provides our community with a reflection of itself.
The EAC’s Individuals & Collectives grant has three distinct streams, each with its own evaluation criteria and assessment process. For the second intake cycle of the 2022 Grants for Individuals & Collectives program (deadline October 3, 2022), more than 320 eligible applications were assessed. From these, 133 grants were recommended by the peer assessment committee for investment. Focusing on fostering experimentation, supporting artists from equity-seeking groups, and professional development and mentorship (addressing the Aims and Actions found in Connections & Exchanges: A Ten-Year Plan To Transform Arts & Heritage in Edmonton); a total of $1,498,954 will be invested in Edmonton’s arts community through this round of grants for Individuals & Collectives.
Interested in applying? Our next deadline is March 1, 2023. You can find more information here.
Read on to learn about the successful applicants from the October 2022 intake and the exciting projects they are pursuing:
Stream 1: Exploration & Experimentation provides support to artists to work on creation, experimentation, or research activities. 54 applicants were recommended for funding (support set at $5,000 each). Congratulations to the following recipients:
Adrian de Leeuw will explore partnering choreography and improvisational scores to dig deeper into the physical relationship between two artists.
Alicia Proudfoot will develop an inventor persona and repurpose light switch cases as foldable sculptures leading to a linocut print installation portraying asthma as a visual Iliad.
Ariana Ozga-Reinecke will film videos of significant people in her life performing self-care. Stills from this process will be used as source material for a visual arts series exploring intimacy and closeness.
Ben Smith will workshop Sweet Dreams, a new musical featuring the music of the Australian rock duo, Air Supply.
Benjamin McInnes will pen the first draft of The Blue Rocks, a novel about nonhuman subjectivities, religiosity in Canada, and migrant experiences.
Bev Ross will write the first draft of a novel exploring the question, ‘Did Scarlatti compose the harpsichord sonatas attributed to him or were they composed by his student, Spanish Queen Barbara?’
Cailey Mrochuk will enhance her painterly style through online courses designed for stained glass mosaicists.
Caitlin Sian Richards will explore and research techniques for papermaking from recycled and found materials, leading to a new series of mixed-media collages and paper-based assemblages.
Christian Pérès Gibaut will begin the initial work for a multi-media visual art series on the notion of estrangement and loss of connection to one’s country of origin.
Collin Johanson will create a series of oil paintings exploring abstraction, forested landscapes, and authoritative architecture.
David Walker will research, work on dramaturgical/conceptual development, and complete the first draft of a new experimental theatre piece, I WOULD PREFER NOT TO.
Delia Barnett will research and interview Canadian burlesque legend, Judith Stein, to create a one-woman show about the power, resiliency, and value of sex workers and women.
Dwayne Martineau will explore new techniques for the creation and exhibition of his work, primarily to create portable versions of his mirror wall exhibit, to inform the next stage of his practice and as a step toward public art projects.
Eric Awuah will research the movement and expressive structures of West African immigrant dances to develop a technique(s) for teaching West African contemporary dance and diasporic neo-traditional dances.
Eszter Rosta will experiment with performance art, photography, and video, to investigate and trace the psychosomatic manifestations, coping gestures, and processes of grief and trauma in relation to the body.
Gail Sidonie Šobat will create and experiment with the narrative forms of science fiction and speculative fiction to inform a new novel featuring a female protagonist set in a fictional, post-apocalyptic Edmonton.
Geoff Li will explore solarpunk themes through contemporary composition for string ensemble.
Geraldine Carr will write the foundational pieces of a feature screenplay called Father, My Father.
Giselle General will complete the first draft of a memoir, Living on Cliff’s Edge, of a child who became an orphan at eight years old and lived in a rural mining village in the Philippines until immigrating to Canada as a teenager.
Harley Morison will write a workshop-ready draft of a new play, REDD MEATS that explores the politics of queerness, set in the butcher shop of a rural Alberta hamlet.
Heather Hindman will study contemporary choral writing techniques that intersect unpitched sound, technology and harmony approaches for use in future compositions.
Helen Belay will research Thomas Day — who in 1786 adopted two young girls to train using Rousseau’s Emile, or on Education, as a template for how to train a wife — to inform a new theatre play.
Ivan Wilfried Ulrich Ngandjui Touko will explore ballet movements as a way to improve flexibility, dexterity, and technique, to enhance their technique and Afro groove.
Janet Savill will create a short video series based on themes uncovered in research on her family’s history using recorded interviews and digitized photos.
Jeanette Ntakiruntika will learn about music video creation, and seek out specific film collaborators, in order to visually tell the stories behind the songs in her album Cocoon.
Jeff Collins will reinterpret his experience of the land he lives on through paintings, using symbols and icons, to capture the significance of the landscape’s place and time.
Jeff Stuart will write, arrange, and demo a set of songs that explore perspectives on the passage of time, in preparation to record a solo album.
Jessy Ardern will conduct an intensive revision process for R+J: Two Show Day, a new interactive theatre show that was first workshopped in spring 2022.
Jordan Rule will observe and analyze the movements of living organisms over a one-second duration and recreate them within his watercolour paintings.
Katherine Cutting will rework Transgelical, a personal film project about a trans woman’s exploration into her past as an evangelical Christian; how it scarred her, and how it saved her.
Keith Schooler-Callihoo will explore the origins and protocol specific to Kanienkehaka Traditional Tattoo practices that will enhance the resurgence of skin markings in Treaty 6 territory and Turtle Island.
Kelly Ruth will explore and experiment with creating sound installations in virtual worlds, documenting the process for future projects and in support of others creating in this medium.
Krista Leddy will use beadwork in conjunction with other media, to visually express Métis identity in the contemporary world.
Kyle Parrotta will experiment to find a natural (sap-like) adhesive for use in their moss art.
Leif Oleson-Cormack will undergo the process of scriptwriting and research of a new solo performance piece, Cult of One.
Marlene Wurfel will pursue folkloric research about gnomes in support of THE GNOMINOMICON, a humorous illustrated novel for kids.
Matthew Stepanic will research emotional abuse to draft a psychological horror novella that causes the reader to feel similarly gaslit as they experience it.
Meara Kirwin will explore the histories and politics of Irish and other percussive dance on Treaty 6 territory, to deepen their engagement with both Irish dance and anti-colonial resistance.
Meghan Schech will practice daily to refine her puppet-building skills through workshops and the creation of several characters to build a portfolio and film a new demo reel.
To explore mark making, Michaela LaForge will build a drawing plotter that can use various mediums as its tool (charcoal, pen, paintbrush, etc) as a starting point for a series of new intermedia art pieces.
Michelle Robb will develop her playwriting and dance practice while researching methods of combining text-based choreography with new Canadian plays.
Michelle Schultz will research and organize studio visits with 10 – 15 local artists, to conceptualize projects that will connect artists to the larger art world and develop her curatorial practice.
Morgan Pinnock will commence a textile and photography-based project that examines the state of Alberta’s wool industry, promoting small-scale fibre farms and highlighting the significance of textiles in our lives.
Nicholas Hertz will explore the use of fabrics and photography to research the oscillation between the objectification of the queer body and the anthropomorphizing of environments.
Paul Donald will experiment with the best technical and artistic processes to record and develop musical improvisations influenced by the ambient sound in the environment.
Rachel Gleddie will field record the natural sounds of specific locations in the Edmonton Region and use these recordings to produce songs to sound as much like the natural location as possible.
Rebecca Campbell will research and write a documentary film treatment for her film Moving Mountains, a story of women with breast implants struggling to reclaim their health.
Ryan Payne will establish a daily practice that includes analyzing composers to explore new structures for musical improvisation and composition.
Steven Pirot will assemble shorter isolated spoken word performance pieces into a continuous solo performance of approximately 50 minutes suitable for presentation at performance festivals.
Taiessa Pagola will create felt structures of rare plants and research historical and modern plant shipping containers, exploring colonial extraction, the construction of whiteness, and ecological exchange.
Veronika Marks will create a series of video works that serve as a foundation for paintings and sculptures.
Viola Sweep will teach the cultural designs used in beading and sewing to the current generation, passing on lost art forms based on Manitoba First Nations (Nisichawayasihk Cree nation), to restore family traditions.
Wayne Arthurson will create a proposal to publishers, for a non-fiction book on Indigenous War Heroes for middle-grade readers.
Zana Wensel will experiment with new materials and sewing processes, to create Meditations: a new series that aims to instill a state of introspectiveness about one’s relationship with the Earth.
Stream 2 of the grants for Individuals and Collectives program focuses on Skills and Career Development. This stream supports mentorship, attending a residency or other forms of professional development. The assessors have made recommendations to fund 23 applicants, for a total of $181,524. Congratulations to the following recipients:
Angeline Manu will be mentored by Dr. Yashoda Thakore to learn nuances of the ancient Devadasi dance form.
Anna Pratch will develop her existing movement skills to expand her range as an artist through the International Stunt School’s 2023 Stunt Performer Course in Seattle.
Chris McNicoll will learn to mix, produce, and master music at an intermediate professional level through a mentorship program with experienced producer Prem Raj.
Christopher Valcin will travel to Los Angeles for the KĀOS dance convention to train with world-renowned choreographers and audition for the Kaos Aftermath show.
Clinton Wilson will attend a residency at the Kala Art Center in Berkeley, to research and produce a series of photographic works profiling lost and missing west coast species of flora and fauna. A compilation of his research will contribute to an exhibition at the McMullen Gallery.
Daniel Foreman will attend Write Over Here: Open Rezidency, a three-week self-directed residency at the Banff Centre facilitated by Eva Thomas.
Demmi Connolly will attend the Twist & Shout Balloon Convention in Glendale, California for professional development.
Emily Jan will embark on an immersion in ceramics through participation in group classes followed by guided individual study with a mentor: ceramicist KJ MacAlister of Viva Clayworks.
Fabio Henao Caviedes will attend online film-scoring courses for a greater understanding of harmonic language, orchestration techniques, and synthestration methods to complement and elevate visual storytelling. The courses will be taught by Mattia Chiappa and Mark Richards.
James Portingale will attend online colour grading courses via Mixing Light, with a focus on colour grading as it relates to media art and filmmaking.
Jesse Thomas will begin training at Sound + Vision: New Media Platforms under mentor Will Bauer at Moment Research, to acquire skills in new media platforms to be used in the creation of a series of interactive soundscapes.
Kasie Campbell will attend a two-week course at Series Summer Art School at Red Deer Polytechnic to learn about bronze casting and the lost-wax process.
Kate Boorman will participate in a month-long artists’ residency, hosted by the La Napoule Art Foundation in France: a unique opportunity to be surrounded by multi-disciplinary creatives who are likewise dedicated to their craft.
Kayla Bradford, a Deaf artist, will seek peer support, professional theatre mentorship from Tori Morrison, and funding to learn how to design and execute creative captions, a way of conveying spoken dialogue and aural elements of performance in a single visual medium
Lebogang Disele will work with mentors Eric Awuah and Gaolape “Aus G” Basuhi to design and partake in a program of study, working on African contemporary dance to develop her choreographic practice.
Lucas Chaisson will be mentored by audio engineer Scott Franchuk at Riverdale Recorders in a 10-week, self-directed apprenticeship.
Maaike Kuypers will attend four 6‑week sessions at Studio 72 to expand and strengthen her creative practice and ceramic skills working with mentor Emma Lakey.
Marlouie Saique will attend masterclasses, panels, and performances during the world-class International Trumpet Guild Conference in Minneapolis, MN.
Matthew Cardinal will work with mentor AJA Louden to learn how to work at a professional level with a client from start to finish and produce a mural on panels.
Max Rubin will start an intensive 20-week part-time mentorship with Sheiny Satanove of Punctuate! Theatre, focused on Canadian theatre production and artistic directorship.
Emerging dance artists Maxwell Hanic, Michelle Robb, Jason Romero, Callie Lissinna, Sam Ketsa, Sophie Arab, and Emma Brown will facilitate and participate in a studio residency to advance their skills in contemporary dance, teaching, and collaboration while deepening connections within the Edmonton dance community.
Sissy Thiessen Kootenayoo will complete tutorial sessions to build her education and skills in wood flute playing to connect to her Cree spirit name Windy Woman and add to the Indigenous performing artistic disciplines that educate and inform the community.
Vismaya Bhagavathi Parambath will begin a mentorship under Dr. Yashoda Thakore, to learn the foundation of the Devadasi tradition, specifically Abhinaya and Taalam.
Stream 3 of the grant program invests in Major Artist-Driven Projects. These funds are allocated to support artist projects materially ready for production and/or presentation. 56 projects were recommended for funding, for a total of $1,047,430. Congratulations to the following artists and collectives:
Aboud Salman will create seven paintings about remarkable women from the Middle East to shed light on the influential roles Middle Eastern women have played over the course of history.
Adrian (AJA) Louden will create and present a new Afrofuturist-inspired mural on the Avenue Theatre building on 118 Avenue.
Adriana Onita (Founding Editor) and collective members Karrie Auger, Luciana Erregue, Candice Joy Oliva, Gian Marco Visconti, and Medgine Mathurin will publish two issues and debut five chapbooks of the multilingual magazine The Polyglot featuring Edmonton poets and artists who are experimenting with their Indigenous and heritage languages.
Anna Hawkins and co-programmer Elisabeth Belliveau will screen a series of artist-made moving-image works in dialogue with cinematic feature films, exploring the narrative, experimental, conceptual, and symbolic roles that flowers play on screen.
Anthony Goertz will produce and distribute the short romantic comedy film, Apocalypse Book Club.
Aretha Tillotson will record a full-length album of original jazz compositions featuring a quintet.
Ashleigh Hicks will debut their new play, MINE, a historical drama that focuses on a small coal mining community on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia during the turn of the twentieth century as a staged reading as part of RISER Edmonton 2023.
Brandon Baker, a Métis singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist performing under the name Electric Religious, will record a new full-length album to be released in 2023.
Braxton Garneau will produce new mixed-media works incorporating asphalt, raffia and cowrie shells for their first international solo exhibition at GAVLAK Gallery in Los Angeles.
Brian Raine will produce, and curate multi-disciplinary artworks intertwined with the music of Ways in Waves to present as a combined art show and album release.
Carla Rae Taylor in collaboration with the Dreamspeakers Festival Society will blend urban art techniques and traditional acrylic painting to create a mural that celebrates being Indigenous, to be mounted on the WhiskeyJack Art House.
Chris Bullough and co-creator Laura Raboud will research, experiment and create a new song cycle under the mentorship of David Kennedy.
Christine Lesiak will continue the development of the original play The Spinsters through rehearsal and workshops with co-writers, designers, and performer collaborators in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg.
Courtney Loberg will complete the fifth graphic novel in her surreal, folktale-inspired series, We Don’t Go Through the Angelgrass.
Dakota aka Psi McIvor will publish a multi-disciplinary art anthology based on visual and written creations, supported by merchandise and a book release event.
Dan Davis will record a live album at the Yardbird Suite with the Way Back Whens, an Edmonton-based traditional jazz band.
Darren Jordan will curate and produce 5 Artists 1 Love (5A1L), an annual immersive arts event celebrating the cultural diversity and vibrancy within Edmonton’s Black communities.
Dustin Chok will complete post-production and publicly present Wave Riders, a short documentary that follows a teacher-student story between Edmonton dancer Sekou Sonko-Boisclair, and legendary New York dancer, Future.
Erina Harris will complete and publish their poetry manuscript, Trading Beauty Secrets with the Dead, an Abecedarium of Other Rhymes and Nonsense Versus.
Chamber music trio Frank Ho (violinist), Vladimir Machado Rufino (violinist), and Fabiola Belarmino de Farias Amorim (violist) will record an album of 19th, 20th, and 21st century works.
Gary James Joynes will create a high-resolution visual-sound photo series exploring the postulation of Nicola Tesla that Cymatic Farady sound wave tones have potential healing properties.
Hemali Boorada will present the dance production, Art of Asthapadi’s, an exploration of a Canadian-raised artist choreographing Sanskrit hymns from the 12th century with Kuchipudi repertoire.
Jamie McRae will create Found, a 16mm based film, presented as a 4×4 collage (16 frames) display of edited found footage from the Film and Video Arts Society (FAVA) darkroom over the years.
Jennifer Mesch will complete the development of choreography, rehearsal, multimedia design and build, set design-build, and performance of Go Where Light Is, an evening-length dance work.
Jinzhe Cui will complete and self-publish a book containing a new series of paintings and fairy tales inspired by Edmonton’s river valley.
Jordan Abel will complete the first draft of the visual poetry book Welcome to the world, dear [son/daughter name]! which explores what it means to be a dad when one’s own dad was absent, and how to continue existing within the inherited traumas of Residential Schools.
Kelsey McMillan will complete a full-length folk album exploring themes of growth, expression and conflict, working with a local producer, session musicians, and a mastering technician.
KJ MacAlister a ceramicist/writer, and illustrator Stephanie Simpson, will self-publish their children’s book Little Otter Becomes a Potter.
Kyle Armstrong will go from pre-production to post-production of a micro-budget feature film following a couple through the experience of a miscarriage, based on an original screenplay.
Laena Anderson, along with fellow members of The Debutantes, Michael Vetsch, Robyn Slack, David Rae, Shanni Pinkerton, and Glenna Schowalter, will re-mount Odd Wednesday, a monthly sketch comedy showcase.
Lauren Brady (Artistic Director) and Zachary Strom (Artistic Producer), will develop and present the multidisciplinary and mixed media clown show, InterWEBBED.
Liam Monaghan will rehearse and produce the Edmonton première and Lethbridge tour of a new original play, Strange Familiar, exploring queerness, adoption, and family belonging.
Lora Brovold will write, produce, and direct the short documentary, Finding Friendos: one woman’s endometriosis survival story.
Mac Brock will produce and direct their original play Boy Trouble, as part of the 2023 Edmonton Fringe Theatre Season.
Marco Claveria will record a third studio album in Edmonton, exploring Latin rhythms and Celtic elements at Homestead Studios with Lane Allen.
Marek Orszulik will record music for classical guitar by Polish composers, encompassing works from the Renaissance to the present day, for CD and digital release.
Maria Fekecz-Mangan will present Face2Face, a multimedia performance integrating momentary synchronization between video, live dancers, and music.
Marie Carrillos-Avalos and Bashir Mohamed will continue working on their play about Charles Daniels, incorporating the stories of Lulu Anderson and Ted King.
UltraViolet Ensemble members Mark Segger, Chenoa Anderson, Allison Balcetis and Roger Admiral will commission and perform two new works by Sointu Aalto and Rio Houle in late 2023, as part of a concert featuring six new pieces by Edmonton composers.
Filmmaker Matthew Gooding will complete post-production work (editing, colour, visual effects) on a music video for Edmonton band Wares.
Morgan Smith, Spenser Pasman, Stuart Lindsay and Zachary Parsons-Lozinksi will re-mount the 2022 Edmonton Fringe hit The House That F*cks at the SoHo Playhouse in New York City.
Neima Siyo will make two music videos for Laammii Koo (“Our Society, Our People”), from their latest album release.
Noor Dean Musani will compose, rehearse, record, mix and master a new full-length album under their moniker Freetrayed, combining field recordings, granular sampling, and traditional synthesizer techniques.
Ntwali Kayijaho will produce, develop and release four songs with corresponding visual content, including music videos and cover art.
Olivia Elel Enanga will self-publish Chanson Chez Nous: a songbook of traditional music for voice from Cameroon, Africa.
Rebecca Merkley will hire seven artists to learn, sing and record two singles of an original musical comedy spoof based on the Scooby-Doo cartoon series.
Robin Alex McDonald will program and facilitate (Dis)respect Des Fonds, a one-night screening of eight short films and a discussion event exploring artistic interventions into public archives.
Ryan Leedu will receive funding to cover film festival submission fees for two recent short films: Portrait of the Con-Artist as a Young Man and No Bedroom.
Sean Davis Newton will record the debut LP Nobody Lives There, at Riverdale Recorders, exploring our relationship with the environment, politics, and each other.
Sharon Rose Cherweniuk in collaboration with Jason Symington will create a series of eight floral beadwork panels/large-scale photographs, portraits and audio, exploring intimate and loving relationships, to re-contextualize and decolonize the stories of Indigenous womanhood.
Steven Teeuwsen will curate and present an exhibition of sculptural outdoor play structures by artists and designers at Lowlands Project Space.
Co-creators and showrunners Sydney Campbell and Elena/Eli Belyea will edit and complete post-production of their queer sketch troupe’s web series’ first season, GENDER? I HARDLY KNOW THEM.
Titilope Sonuga will complete the arrangement and production of the spoken word album Sis, which fuses performance poetry and music.
Collective members Trevor Duffy, Sonja Garette, Lisa Nobel, Pete Nuygen, Danny Jaycock, Brendon Boyd, Thomas Ohara, Bryan Cooper, and Simon Gushulack will complete Tree Island, a series of six short videos, depicting puppets, to help educate and enable children to identify and express emotions through storytelling.
The Vaughan String Quartet (Vladimir Machado Rufino, Fabiola Belarmino de Farias Amorim, Mattia Berrini, and Silvia Buttiglione) will launch a chamber music festival celebrating the Quartet’s 10th year, collaborating with established and emerging musicians from the Edmonton music community.
Yong Fei Guan will create and present an eco-public art exhibition at Fort Edmonton Park, focusing on the history and use of goji berries in Edmonton.
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