St. Louis Park Arts & Culture Grant Awards, 2008

Julia Caston - $1,220 to paint an indoor mural at St. Louis Park High School. Caston, a St. Louis Park Resident and St. Louis Park High School student, will create the mural with the assistance of students of the high school and others in the community. Caston was a 2006 grant recipient and successfully completed an outdoor mural at Perspectives Family Center.

Margaret Coleman- $1,500 to cast sculptures of plants native to St. Louis Park in resin, plaster and clay, and host a show open to the public in St. Louis Park displaying the cast sculptures. Coleman is also hoping to teach one casting class per week for a month in St. Louis Park to teach residents the art of slip casting. Coleman is an emerging Midwest artist currently residing in New York and returning to the Twin Cities area for the summer of 2008.

Sharon Lyon – $2,950 to run two six-week, after-school enrichment programs for 7^th and 8^th grade students to build creative and technical photographic skills. Participants will be given simple in-class and out-of-class photo assignments relating to their community and people in their lives and be involved in a final photo board(s) production and exhibit at St. Louis Park Junior High School. Students will receive basic camera knowledge, resolution, digital transfer, composition, lighting, portraiture and critiquing skills.  Lyon, a resident of St. Louis Park, is a local artist, photographer and instructor.

Jonee Kulman Brigham - $15,555 to produce an interactive environmental art project, The Children’s Nest Egg, at the Westwood Nature Center. This project will engage community members through sculptural spatial experience, engagement in construction milestone events, and by honoring their experiences with nature that they wish to leave to the next generation by including their observations and poetry into the artwork. The project will remain at Westwood for a minimum of two years. Kulman Brigham is a Twin Cities architect. The Community Foundation has requested that their $7,000 donation to the Arts and Culture Grant Program for 2008 be devoted entirely to this project.

St. Louis Park Community Theater – $2,000 for start-up funds to formulate a plan for community theater in St. Louis Park. These funds will be used to hire a professional consultant with outcomes to include a mission statement, vision statement and short and long-term goals. The St. Louis Park community will be solicited to participate in an informational gathering session to derive input from as broad a spectrum as possible. In addition, the committee will develop a 12-18 month production schedule for St. Louis Park Community Theater.

Laura Powers (36 Arts Magazine) - $440 to assist in the publication and printing of an annual literary arts magazine of submissions by St. Louis Park High School students. These funds will assist 36 Arts Magazine in community distribution of the publication in addition to printing costs. Submissions from this magazine and others are displayed or read at their annual film festival – Open Mic Coffeehouses.

Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center - $2,500 for art supplies for a canvas mosaic that will represent the diverse faces and culture of the Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center student community and a clay relief city mounted on the wall outside the Susan Lindgren Intermediate Center school office that shows the neighborhoods in St. Louis Park.  The portable nature of the canvas mosaic will allow the work to be moved to other parts of the community for display and discussion. Students will work on both projects during the school day and in after school and evening groups.