Recent Events

Five Minnesotans have received the 10th annual Arts Access Awards from VSA arts of Minnesota. These statewide awards are funded by VSA arts to recognize outstanding accomplishments that help make the arts more accessible to people with disabilities. The awards were presented in Minneapolis on Sunday, September 23 at Macy’s Sky Room, which hosted the presentation during VSA’s Autumn Auction & Cabaret. In the past ten years, VSA arts of Minnesota has recognized 34 artists, educators and individuals, and 15 organizations. Each has received an original work of art called the Jaehny, after co-founder and performing artist Jaehn Clare, who traveled from her current job at VSA arts of Georgia to attend this year’s ceremony. The creator of this year’s Jaehny is Mankato artist Marlene Olson.

The 2007 VSA Arts Access Award recipients are:

Most Active and Visible Minnesota Artist with a Disability – Alissa Hullett, Faribault artist;
Outstanding Arts Educators of Students and Adults with Disabilities – Danelle Griner, Saint Paul, art teacher and facilitator for Rise and Courage Center; Jeff Tornquist, Eden Prairie, co-advisor to the Y’s Act social inclusion drama club at Eden Prairie High School;
Outstanding Individuals Actively Promoting Access to the Arts for People with Disabilities – Gail Burke, Woodbury, Executive Aide, Human Resources Manager/Accessibility Coordinator, for the Minnesota State Arts Board; Jon Skaalen, Stillwater, board member for the Minnesota Association of Community Theatres, Interact Center for Visual & Performing Arts; volunteer accessibility coordinator for the Minnesota Fringe Festival; Access to Performing Arts Coordinator for VSA arts of Minnesota.

An affiliate of VSA arts and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, headquartered in Washington, DC, VSA arts of Minnesota is a nonprofit agency whose mission is to create a community where people with disabilities can learn through, participate in and access the arts. Its name stands for Vision of an inclusive community, Strength in shared resources, and Access to the arts For more information, call 612-332-3888, 1-800-801-3883, both voice/TTY; e-mail info@vsaartsmn.org.

Information about each Jaehny recipient follows:

Alissa Hullett

Most Active and Visible Minnesota Artist with a Disability
Artist from Faribault
Arts Ambassador for VSA arts of Minnesota; arts instructor for Faribault Art Center; For more info: 507-333-2361.

Alissa has been an Arts Ambassador for VSA arts of Minnesota over the past two years. In that role, she has visited many school sites, discussing her work as a professional artist with a disability. She has consistently presented herself as a positive role model through the program, coming to presentations with a positive attitude, prepared and excited to share her work with students of various ages.

One of Alissa’s great strengths is her ability to create an environment that is open and welcoming to students to ask her questions about her mental illness. She is very open to sharing how her disability affects her life and art. Alissa is also continually developing new work and submitting her monotypes and other work to new exhibitions and communities.

She loves art and teaching and is also an active teaching artist within her home town, working with the Faribault Art Center, which will have a new home when the Paradise Center for the Arts opens this fall in downtown Faribault.

Gail Burke

Outstanding Individual Actively Promoting Access to the Arts for People with Disabilities
Woodbury; work 651-215-1610; home 651-738-3429
Executive Aide/Human Resources Manager/Accessibility Coordinator, Minnesota State Arts Board

The Minnesota State Arts Board would be a different place, as would the hundreds of arts organizations it assists across our state, if it were not for the attention to accessibility details paid by Gail Burke.

Celebrating 29 years at the State Arts Board, Gail makes sure the Arts Board itself is accessible physically and programmatically, for workshops and meetings, its website and publications, accommodations for staff, applicants or meeting attendees; and helping to make sure that program language in applications is accurate and appropriate.

One of her joys is to read the accessibility plans submitted by all 158 or so arts organizations that apply for institutional presenter or organizational support from the State Arts Board. If they need improvement, Gail is the one who contacts them. One might call her the Enforcer, a very important role if we want to achieve improved access in every corner of the state.

What this means is that if the ABC Arts Center said they were going to make this or that accessibility improvement, she checks their next application to see if they actually did it, or she alerts the site visitors to check on what they have done since the last application.

Gail also provides ongoing, year-round consulting on access questions. She has presented on access issues at the annual National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and served on the White House Mini-Conference on Accessibility. She has been a great partner with VSA and Springboard for the Arts on convening several Careers in the Arts forums and encouraging statewide artists with disabilities groups, including the AWDA in the Twin Cities and a new grant which will help similar groups grow in five Minnesota communities. Last month she was a co-host with VSA and the Guthrie of the Kennedy Center’s Leadership Exchange in Arts & Disability Conference.

Gail has served under 7 executive directors at the State Arts Board. We all appreciate it when we are told our work has made an impact. Gail loves it when an individual artist says "Thank you for the help," or "You were there when nobody else was able to help me." Or when an administrator says "I never thought of that; thanks for the idea." Or "That's a whole different part of our population I never thought about. Thank you - now people with these disabilities in our area will be helped." At a recent meeting in Duluth, all the artists attending hugged Gail, saying, "Thanks for starting this group up here."

Gail says, “That's why we do this.” And achievements like Gail’s are why awards like the Jaehny need to be presented -- to encourage others to go and do likewise.

Jeff Tornquist

Outstanding Arts Educator of Students and Adults with Disabilities
Eden Prairie; 952-949-9761, Work 952-975-6761
Co-advisor to the Y’s Act social inclusion drama club at Eden Prairie High School

Jeff is an advisor to the Y’s Act social inclusion drama club at Eden Prairie High School. He took the post two years ago after another teacher needed to take a break from the position. Jeff jumped in with both feet. The club is successful, says Brent Turner, the Eden Prairie teacher who nominated Jeff, because of Jeff’s laid -back, yet caring nature with the students and parents.

Jeff’s calm demeanor has allowed students to find safe ways to express their talents and be accepted by the whole student population. He has produced 2 wonderful theatre productions that have allowed students with disabilities to express themselves through dance, drama, singing and other quirky talents. One highlight for this group came this past school year when the principal attended the Y’s Act play and invited the productions to choose a few scenes from their variety show to showcase their talent in front of the school’s end-of-the-year assembly. Jeff chose a single student to share his lip-synched solo along with a fun production number that included the whole cast. The performances brought tears to the eyes of the staff and students as these performers with disabilities were accepted, celebrated and cheered by their colleagues.

Jeff does his advising out of love of the students and staff. He creates environments where students of all abilities can thrive in the classroom and on the stage. Yet, unassuming himself, he would rather sit behind the curtain and cheer than be out front getting the applause.

Jeff switched to special education from administration. This year he is looking forward to developing a new show he calls "Y’s Act Idol," so they will be developing their own commercials, weather and sports reports, and variety show acts in order to involve every child in several roles. They'll be gearing up for performances next spring.

Danelle Griner

Outstanding Arts Educator of Students and Adults with Disabilities
St. Paul, 763-520-0421
Rise Creative Arts Coordinator

For many people, including persons with disabilities, expressing one’s self can be a challenge. When words fail, it can be helpful to find other creative means of expression. Danelle Griner has been working with participants in several Rise programs including Creative Partnerships North and South, Structured Day Programs, and Adult Day Programs. She has used her background in Art Education and Art Studio to help people with severe physical, developmental, traumatic brain injury and emotional disabilities to further explore themselves through art.

Danelle designs art therapy that complements other physical and habilitative services her clients are receiving. She coaches and encourages them to become artists, and for some, her therapy has met needs that traditional therapy, doctors and other professionals have not met. She shows them the way, but then steps aside so they can flourish on their own using a wide range of art media, telling their personal stories, and perhaps creating their own, new endings.

Danelle has also been creative in developing art shows for Rise artists, some of whom have donated artwork to Rise silent auctions to support their program.

In March Rise recognized Danelle as their Community Support Partner for last year because of the important part she plays in their program services. They recognized her progressive, compassionate work as an art teacher and facilitator at Rise.

You can also find Danelle working at Courage Center, or check out her website, Art Shop (www.artshoptherapy.com).

Danelle says, "The power of art is finding your voice and saying what you have to say. Everyone should get to experience and take part in this process. I especially enjoy getting to share this experience, to travel on this journey with others, and constantly see the new and interesting things that happen. We all get to leave our mark on the world."

The 2007 Jaehny award helps recognize the mark that Danelle Griner is making on our world!

Jon Skaalen

Outstanding Individual Actively Promoting Access to the Arts for People with Disabilities
Stillwater, 651-439-3362, work 612-332-3888 v/tty
Board member for the Minnesota Association of Community Theatres, Interact Center for Visual & Performing Arts, and American Association of Community Theatre; volunteer accessibility coordinator for the Minnesota Fringe Festival; Access to Performing Arts Coordinator for VSA arts of Minnesota

Last weekend Jon Skaalen was in his home town in western Minnesota, presenting a play he’d written and directed. His 10-person cast included 7 performers with disabilities, one of whom, Sam Jasmine, a past Jaehny winner, received an acting award earlier this year for her performance at the state community theatre festival.

Loving theatre and going to arts events with friends with and without disabilities is part of the reason Jon has enjoyed advocating for greater accessibility on a local, state and national level. For many years he attended community theatre festivals with Eric Peterson, a past VSA arts of Minnesota president. He learned a lot from Eric’s efforts to get audio description services. He’s also learned why making the arts accessible is not only important but each person’s needs are different, and every person deserves to sit in a theatre or explore an outdoor sculpture garden or read a wonderful book or experience a movie to the greatest extent possible.

Jon has encouraged the Minnesota and American Associations of Community Theatres as well as the Minnesota Fringe Festival to develop arts access plans – to state what they do well, what they don’t do so well, and what they are working on to improve. In his board involvement with Interact Center and Theatre Associates of Stillwater, he has encouraged offering ASL-interpreted and audio described performances. And now he’s excited about increasing efforts to offer captioning at both large and small venues so that people who are hard of hearing – which increasingly includes aging Baby-Boomers – to catch more of the words and enjoy the shows more.

VSA arts of Minnesota would like to thank all the cooperating educational sites, staff and teaching artists who partnered with us this past 2007-2008 school year. Through your support, we were able to partner with 19 schools throughout Minnesota and increase access to the arts for approximately 809 students primarily with disabilities through our Artist in Residence program!

Collaborating sites include: Carver Scott Educational Cooperative, Marion W. Savage, Saint Peter Alternative Learning Center, North Intermediate School, Le Center Schools, Transition Plus Hopkins, Vector North Program, Transition to Independence, NE Metro South Campus, Brimhall Elementary School, Early Childhood District 622, Cityview Performing Arts Magnet School, Roosevelt High School, Folwell Middle School, Phase North Program, Waconia High School, Lakeview School, & Minnesota State Academy for the Blind.

Many thanks to the creative students and staff at Augsburg Music Therapy Department for the wonderful festival this year!  Engaging sessions including Rocker Apparel 101, Intro to the Beats & Don’t Forget the Lyrics enabled participating students to become a rock star and share the rock star life with local musicians The Abdomen.

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication!

Leili Tajadod Pritschet, a Minneapolis dancer/choreographer who was born in Iran, presented her story, Hidden Yearning, on the Intermedia Arts stage on December 7 & 8, 2008. The project was made possible by a Cultural Community Partnership grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and was a collaboration with VSA arts of Minnesota. A cross-cultural tapestry of Persian classical dance, multi-cultural music, video and Sufi poetry, the show combined the energies of many artists—Middle Eastern and American, Muslim, Christian and Jewish—to probe issues of immigration, assimilation and faith.

Hidden Yearning was inspired by the 13th century-Persian poet Rumi, whose passion is rooted in Sufism, "the alchemy of the heart," the mystical aspect of Islam. The exquisite beauty of the dance, poetry and music reveals a different face of the Islamic world than the austere Islamic fundamentalism held in the minds of most Americans. Pritschet says, "This artistic expression has grown out of my own life, my heritage as a native of Iran (Persia), and as a woman in the Islamic culture. I was deeply immersed in my country's culture of dance—researching, studying, performing, choreographing, teaching, and producing with some of the world’s finest artists."

That all changed in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Islamic fundamentalists forbade performing arts and rigidly restricted the rights of women. Because of her visibility as a woman with a voice in the arts and in the media, Ms. Pritschet was imprisoned, tortured and disabled. The power of her feminine strengths and vulnerabilities were essential to her survival. She escaped Iran to seek political asylum and safety here in the U.S. 9/11 motivated her to create a production based on fear of the unknown and her belief that fear and intolerance cannot be eliminated, but they can be transformed.

Directed by Amber Lee Olivier, the cast included dancers Canae Weiss, Catherine Linska, Hoa Elm, Jennifer Amaya, Ken Yoder, Lisa Bah, Louise Indritz, Patty Lefaive, Stefania Strowder, Steve Elm, Saed Kakish, Summer Kendall, Susan McKenna, and Ted Ulrich; musicians David Harris, and Aida Shahghasemi; set by Hend Al-Mansour.

West African musician/dancer Sidiki Conde and his group Tokounou performed Saturday, May 3 at Hopkins High School Auditorium. A portion of the concert, produced by VSA arts of Minnesota, featured students with and without disabilities who learned to drum and dance at residencies with Conde and percussionist Balla Kouyate in Hopkins, Minneapolis and Savage. Their two-week residency was made possible through the assistance of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

At age 14, Conde lost the use of his legs as the result of polio. In his village in Guinea, West Africa, disabled people commonly were banished from their homes in order not to bring shame or bad luck upon their family, so he was sent to his grandfather's village deep in the forest. Knowing that he would not be able to participate in the coming-of-age ceremony if he could not dance, Sidiki reconstructed the traditional steps using his hands instead of his feet. He became so adept that he traveled to the capital city and recruited an orchestra of artists with disabilities from the city's streets. In 1987, he was asked to join the prestigious troupe Les Merveilles de Guinea to compose and direct musical arrangements and choreography. He has also worked as a musician and arranger with popular African musicians, such as Youssou N'Dour, Salifa Keita, and Baba Maal. He founded the Tokounou All-Abilities Dance and Music Ensemble in 1999. In 2007 Conde was presented the National Heritage Award by the National Endowment for the Arts (www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/NHFIntro.php?year=2007). This award recognizes American folk artists for their contributions to our national cultural mosaic.

Conde and Tokounou just released a CD, "Sidiki," on the American Composers Forum Innova Recordings label. (See INNOVA - www.innova.mu/world.aspx). Sidiki now spends much of each year in New York City, performing and teaching in public schools, and touring around the world.

Tokounou will return to Minnesota to perform in the Flint Hills International Children’s Festival at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts (www.ordway.org/festival). They will have four performances on May 31 and June 1.

For more about Sidiki, go to Sidiki Conde - Tokounou Dance Company (http://tokounou.home.mindspring.com).

Six Minnesota artists have been awarded $1,000 grants through the VSA arts of Minnesota Artist Recognition Program. The 11th annual competitive grant, funded by a Jerome Hill Centennial Grant, recognizes excellence by Minnesota artists with disabilities. Selected from 48 applicants, the grantees for 2006 are:

Robert K. Anderson Saint Louis ParkWriting – creative non-fiction.

Frank Garcia DuluthPerformance - clarinettist.

Barbara Harman Visual Art - monotypes.

Amy Salloway Performance - storyteller.

Holly Tappen Falcon HeightsVisual Art – acrylic, oil, charcoal, mixed media.

Carei F. Thomas Performance – music performer/composer/theorist.

The Recognition Grants were awarded following a jurying process conducted by individuals with extensive backgrounds in the written, visual and performing arts. Panel members included:

Brian Balcom, theatre director, Fringe Festival & Guthrie, Edina;
Mary Anne Bennett, retired visual art educator, musician, Burnsville;
Jessica Pack, executive director, ArtReach Alliance, Stillwater;
Michael-jon Pease, marketing director, FORECAST Public Artworks, Saint Paul; recently executive director of Cornucopia Art Center, Lanesboro;
Denise Vogt, artistic director, Lakeville City Ballet; visual artist, writer, Lakeville;
Yvette Weijergang, painter, visual art instructor at Interact; Monticello.

Mini-Bios of Recipients of 2006 VSA arts of Minnesota Artist Recognition Grants:

Robert K. Anderson, Saint Louis Park

Writing has been a key part of Robert Anderson's life. He received a Master’s degree in English literature from the University of Minnesota and spent his working career writing, editing, teaching, speechwriting, etc. When he retired from the Minnesota Department of Education 10 years ago due to blindness, he intensified his focus on personal creative writing and on dealing "with life where it is sweetest – 'near the bone.'" Curious about what lies within and beyond each moment, "I stretch and push and tug at it till I have teased out some truth that satisfies my heart, mind and soul." For Anderson, writing is "an exploration of the intersection, the clash and jumble, and finally, the mutual illumination of two realms"– the spiritual and the commonplace. He recently finished a memoir entitled "Testament of Denial: Notes from the Gay Married Underground," and is planning a book exploring spirituality and disability.

Anderson's poems, essays and articles have appeared in such publications as ArtWord Quarterly, Blue Skunk Companion, View from the Loft, Equal Time, Men Talk and Charlotte’s Table, a finalist for the 2006 Minnesota Book Award. He has read at The Men's Center, the University Club, various Twin Cities coffeehouses, and Coffman Union and the Weisman Museum at the University of Minnesota. Awards have included a 2001 VSA arts grant, a Jerome fellowship and a Writer-to-Writer award from SASE: The Write Place. He volunteers for the Aliveness Project, The Men’s Center and Vision Loss Resources.

The essay he submitted for this year’s Artist Recognition Grant was entitled "Blind in the City of Light," his account of being a blind tourist in Paris which explores what it means to 'see' without seeing and to find fulfillment in the midst of loss.

Frank Garcia, Duluth

Playing the clarinet has taken Frank Garcia all over the world and has enabled him to perform with many famous musicians. A San Diego native, Frank held a principal position with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra and played utility clarinet with the San Diego Symphony. He has taught woodwinds, served as a freelance clinician in California and Minnesota, and has been a conductor for several ensembles in the Duluth/Superior area.

In 2002, Frank’s musical life was put on hold when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. After experiencing the disease, its symptoms, and its stresses, he spent time learning to adapt to its difficulties such as seeing and tracking musical notation, comprehending complex musical tasks, and executing virtuosic passages with numb fingers. After 30 years of training and experience, he says "these adjustments are a small price to pay in order to keep making music." He feels that not only does music have something special to bring him, he still has "something special to bring to music listeners."

Earlier in 2006, Frank received a Betaseron Champions of Courage Grant to record a compact disk entitled Passion, Pain and Promise. This project is intended as inspiration for others with multiple sclerosis. Samples of this recording were submitted for the VSA arts grant along with samples from a live performance at the University of Minnesota Duluth with the internationally known clarinetist, Richard Stoltzman.

Barbara Harman, Minneapolis

Barbara Harman's artwork "creates a bridge between the environments I encounter – both natural and man-made – and the circumstances of my own life. One I see with my eyes and respond to aesthetically, emotionally, sometimes politically. The other is more elusive, relying on synapses of memory from childhood or from the day before yesterday, the state of the world, fears, longings, hidden agendas…."

Harman works in series, with each series encompassing writing, notes and sketches, photographs, monotypes, artist books and paintings. A series "becomes a sort of map and in the process of making it I figure out both where I am and how to get to where I am going."

Diagnosed with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome in 1996, Harman still manages to create work for juried and invitational exhibits, such as The Art of Paper at Womanmade Gallery in Chicago, Undercover at Saint Louis Artists' Guild, Books: Beyond the Binding at Bradley University , Peoria , IL ; and Waterdance at Lowry Nature Center in Victoria , MN . Harman is a Mentor for the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) and has served as both treasurer and president to the WARM Board. Her most recent solo or two-person exhibitions have been at Riverfront Art Center in Stevens Point, WI, at the First Unitarian Society in Minneapolis, and at Componere Gallery in St. Louis. Her work is included in many collections, including the Minnesota Historical Society, Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and Museum of Modern Art (New York).

Harman's upcoming exhibitions include a two-person show at the Minnesota Women's Building, 550 Rice Street, Saint Paul, February 2 – March 23; a Project Art for Nature exhibit, February 10 – May 29 at the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota; and part of a WARM Group Exhibit in April and May at Abbott Northwestern Institute for Health & Healing, 28 th & Chicago in Minneapolis. For more information: Barbara Harman, Artist (www.barbaraharman.com) or Barbara Harman Paperworks (www.gotopaperworks.com).

Amy Salloway, Minneapolis

Amy Salloway creates solo monologues based on her personal history and relationships and the recurring themes that have shaped her – body image, loneliness, family dysfunction, the search for self-worth. She has been called "the queen of self-deprecation," but says her goal is to create mostly-autobiographical theatre "that's fresh, authentic, connective and universal … that makes audiences feel the way the work of (my) mentors has made me feel – validated, enlightened, hopeful…and not alone."

Considerable validation of her onstage storytelling art has come from reviewers such as Cincinnati CityBeat which wrote, "To see her astonishing … Herschel Gertz! is to wonder which to admire more, her original ideas or her warm, winning revelation of them." Or The Two Jew Review which wrote that she "offers the audience a world of empathy as she travels in and out of characters, addressing bigger issues of peer pressure, feeling left out of the crowd, and a few other crucial life lessons we have all learned at one time or another, but soon forget."

She has performed, taught and written since majoring in theatre at the University of Minnesota and doing graduate work in directing at Ohio State University in Columbus. She hasn't yet been very public about the life she lives with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, which has put "frustrating limits on my energy, concentration, immune system and level of fitness," thus affecting how much she can accomplish and how fast.

Salloway has performed her full-length shows, Does This Monologue Make Me Look Fat? and So Kiss Me Already, Herschel Gertz!, on the Fringe Festival circuit from Halifax and Ottawa to Winnipeg and Vancouver . These have gone on to be presented by other theatre festivals, organizations and events, like WomenSpeak at Open Stage of Harrisburg, PA, and the Flying Solo series in Cape May, NJ. She has also presented shorter pieces locally at Patrick's Cabaret, Cheap Theatre, DivaRiot and other venues.

As an actor, she has performed recently for Gremlin Theatre and Interact Center for Visual & Performing Arts. Her own medical history has led her to take on acting work portraying patients for doctor training purposes at the University of Minnesota Medical School. At Interact she has also served as an instructor and a writer for The Broken Brain Summit , and will be on the writing team for their spring show about genetic modification.

While her most recent work-in-progress, Circumference, won an award at the 2006 Atlantic Fringe Festival in Halifax, she is using the VSA arts grant to give her time to rewrite it for future Fringe touring. For more info on Amy, go to Amy Salloway (www.amysalloway.com).

Holly Tappen, Falcon Heights

Some people create art because they have to. That's Holly Tappen. With Major Depressive Disorder, she can paint during the good days and, astonishingly, during the bad days, too. While doctors keep trying to find medication that work for her, in the meantime she makes art that lifts her – and others – "up and out of our mundane thoughts and into the spirit of fresh ideas and new thoughts."

Tappen's art is "evolving a new expressive style, with abstract human bodies and faces still recognizable, telling a story or evoking a mood." Having spent her childhood in New Orleans, she often paints water as a character, wildly crashing through walls, sitting in peace, or, since Hurricane Katrina, having a dangerous tone and embodying spirits struggling up and through it. Yet she always offers a touch of hope in her paintings.

Tappen's wealth of art in her home includes collages of old maps from obsolete countries like Yugoslavia and the old USSR. She paints transparently over these maps to create unique landscapes, tearing and repositioning old borders to generate new mountains, rivers of words, valleys and clouds. She says "it is a revitalized way to look at familiar subjects in the abstract."

Since earning her BA from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, she has continued art studies in Paris and the Republic of Georgia, studied under art mentors in Saint Paul and at the Split Rock Arts Program in Cloquet, and received awards from the Highland Park Winter Festival and the U of M Department of Anthropology. She has exhibited her oil, acrylic and mixed media paintings in many solo, juried and group shows. One "terrific" event last year was the Art of Recovery exhibit at the State Arts Board for Victims of Crime -- bringing "law enforcement in touch with victims who have recreated their recoveries through visual art. It had real power for all involved, and was, I think, a real boon for the arts and the crime solvers to get together in unity and appreciation." Other shows have included the Live Bait Art Show at the Undercroft Gallery in St. Anthony, Recovery at Allina Hospital, Social Justice Restoration at Unity-Unitarian, Post-Depressionist Art at Old Man River in Saint Paul, shows at 3M Corporate Headquarters, a display piece in the Hinckley Firestorm Museum collection, etc.

The main challenges Tappen faces as an artist aren't artistic but "how can I get the work out there to be seen?" She could use a good art photographer, professional marketing tools and a website – all ways "to have my art enter the world, even when I can't much." Her work is available to view on Minnesota Artists, Holly Tappen (www.MnArtists.org/Holly_Tappen).

Carei F. Thomas, Minneapolis

Carei Thomas has come to realize that he is as much a theorist as he is a performer and composer. Since studying music theory and therapy at Chicago Musical College and the University of Minnesota, he has developed music concepts "that expediate the efflorescence of invention and improvisation." As a musician, visual artist and spoken word raconteur, he enjoys collaborating with a wide spectrum of participants (children, persons with disabilities, professionals, non-musicians and others in dance, video, film, choreo-drama and theatre) in a multi-media arena of performance arts.

At the age of 68, and with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Carei wants to use his time to write, formalize and share his concepts and experience. On the board of the High School for Recording Arts and a member of the American Composers Forum, he says "I can use my influence as a matured composer and determined educator to forge out avenues for others' careers." To this end he has spoken, performed and collaborated in settings such as Longfellow Humanities School, VSA arts of Minnesota Arts Ambassador visits, Ancestor Energy Poetry/Music at the Southern Theater, and a Harlem Renaissance at Open Book. He has created work and performed at the Weisman Art Museum, Macalester College, Dakota Bar & Grill, Walker Art Center, and many other venues. He was recognized as City Pages Jazz Artist of 2003, was presented the Sam Favors Award for Musical Excellence at the 2005 Freedom Jazz Festival, received several Meet the Composer Grants, a McKnight Fellowship for Composition, and other grants.

Thomas describes a sample of Phononomaly, submitted for his Artist Recognition Grant, as the "smoke and mirrors" of acoustical/electronic music - sound design used as "a canvas accommodating collaborative endeavors along with just pure music." He develops Brief Realities as an "ever-changing series of purely invented music often spiced with cells or fragments of written material acting as connective tissue. . . . This improvisational concept gives performers a structure that defines and focuses content while offering a broad choice of source material … and allows it to remain everchangingly fresh."

His Poemmetry, or raconteur storytelling, honors the "hip hop" of his generation. "I like to think of poem fragments as a way to engender emotions and memories of places and landmarks of life. By using phrases that are similar yet unconnected, as they clash, they somehow become connected - a way for people to get their hands on the same reality, and dance with the struggle of reacting immediately to a new experience."

What's next? Thomas would like to develop "an inclusive piece with the community with a goal of healing and uplifting the human spirit."