36 Oregon Artists Receive Career Opportunity Program Grant Awards From The Oregon Arts Commission And The Ford Family Foundation (Photo) -01/13/23
Salem, Oregon – In the first round of FY2023 Career Opportunity Program grant awards, the Oregon Arts Commission and The Ford Family Foundation have awarded $92,297 to 36 artists for career development projects. The awards include $45,020 from the Oregon Arts Commission for all artistic disciplines and $47,277 in supplemental funding for 15 established visual artists through a partnership with The Ford Family Foundation’s Visual Arts Program. Individual grants range from $596 to $9,000.
Career Opportunity grants support individual Oregon artists by enabling them to take advantage of timely opportunities that enhance their artistic careers. Most grants support the artists’ participation in residencies, exhibitions or performance opportunities.
“This grant program invests in the career growth of talented Oregon artists,” said Avantika Bawa, the Arts Commissioner who chaired the review panel. “That support is critical as artists continue to rebuild from losses related to the pandemic.”
The Ford Family Foundation funds are available to established Oregon visual artists who are producing new work in the fields of contemporary art and craft.
"These awards allow artists to seize key opportunities in their careers. Even one exhibition or residency has the possibility of unlocking a new path, technique or business relationship that can alter an artist’s future in a significant way,” said Anne C. Kubisch, president of The Ford Family Foundation. “The Foundation is pleased to play a part in that."
Note: The application deadline for round two FY2023 Career Opportunity Program awards is 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 8.
FY2023 Career Opportunity Program grant award recipients are:
Robert Arellano, Talent
Oregon Arts Commission $1,895
To support Arellano’s travel and accommodation expenses for an invited residency at Tulane University, home of the Stone Center for Latin American Studies, where the artist will conduct research for a forthcoming novel-in-progress, “Havana Loca,” the final book in an award-winning Cuban noir series from Akashic.
Brandon Azbill, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $970
To support Azbill’s Royal Conservatory of Music certified teacher application, including teaching supplies, books and exam fees required for becoming a certified and registered RCM instructor.
Susan Banyas, Astoria
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
To support Banyas’ research, travel and development of a performance work and multi-media script titled "Voices from The Great Serpent/a Kundalini History," set in southern Ohio and part three of the artist’s Ohi-yo trilogy including "The Hillsboro Story" (book and theatre) and "No Strangers Here Today" (monologue and music duet).
Christian Orellana Bauer, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $596
To support Bauer’s travel and creative material costs for the Independent Publishing Resource Center’s 2022-2023 Poetry Portfolio Program.
Nika Blasser, Pendleton
The Ford Family Foundation $1,500
To support Blasser’s travel and participation in a two-week artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont.
Natalie Bock, Bend
Oregon Arts Commission $1,200
To support Bock’s solo exhibition at the Pence Pinckney Gallery at Central Oregon Community College in the spring of 2023.
William Bonner, Eugene
The Ford Family Foundation $2,000
To support Bonner’s online marketing, promotion and continued development of the Air Shed project, an art-science landscape installation, throughout November in Eugene, Oregon.
Karl Burkheimer, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
To support the creative exchange between campus communities (and broader communities) related to Burkheimer’s unique sculptural installation in an exhibition space with a busy interchange of students, faculty and staff on Washington State University’s Vancouver campus.
Bruce Burris, Corvallis
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $6,000
To support a solo exhibit of new work by Bruce Burris at March Gallery, New York City, as a follow up to a promising first March Gallery/Summertime exhibit in 2020.
Crystal Cortez, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
To support Cortez’ research trip to Spain to visit two hubs of media institutions in Barcelona and Madrid. The artist will meet with Matadero Madrid, Media Lab Prado and Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona, among others.
Twig Cosby, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,245
To support Cosby’s co-facilitation of “Queer Cat,” a queer-led firing of the “Chicken Cat” catenary arch wood-soda kiln at East Creek Art in Willamina, Oregon. The event will include LGBTQ+ artists and promote access to the wood fire ceramics community in Oregon.
Fernanda D'Agostino, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $2,000
To support D’Agostino’s travel to Vermont for a residency at Vermont Studio Center in April, where the artist be in an intensive research and creation phase for a project with Restoration Services on Biophilia and art and science investigation.
Edward Davee, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the continuation of Davee’s experimental Icelandic raven trilogy film project, in collaboration with local filmmaker Roland Dahwen, that highlights a very special talking raven and its caretaker on the Hólar farm in Northern Iceland.
Jordan DeLawder, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,158
To support DeLawder’s photography exhibition at Blue Sky Gallery (date tbd) showcasing work made during a month-long artist residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology.
Stephanie Gervais, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
To support Gervais’ production of a series of paintings and an artist text and future publication during a group residency program at AADK Spain Centro Negra, in Blanca, Spain, from Nov. 1, 2022, to Jan. 30.
David Gibb, Jacksonville
The Ford Family Foundation $2,000
To support Gibb’s photography of Oregon landscapes from an aerial perspective using camera-equipped drone equipment during fall 2022, including printing large 4'x9' mural prints to be displayed permanently in the Jacksonville and Grants Pass post offices in spring 2023.
Marlana Stoddard Hayes, West Linn
The Ford Family Foundation $1,000
To support Hayes’ exhibition and programming with the Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon, to highlight the artist’s work and provide insight into its use in curriculum for the Tillamook School District (sponsored by the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology using fungi as a subject).
Nat Hulskamp, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
To support Hulskamp’s consultancy with founder Allie Silver at Free Radical Productions, a professional world-music artist management company, to manage publicity and promotional strategies for the artist’s upcoming album release (December 2022 through June 2023).
Rainen Knecht, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
The Ford Family Foundation $5,500
To support Knecht’s solo exhibition, “Total Catastrophic Living” at Melanie Flood Projects in Portland from November 2022 through January 2023.
Erin Langley, Springfield
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the cost of Erin Langley’s attendance at the Vermont Studio Center Artist Residency in Johnsonville, Vermont, from March 3 to April 4.
Summer Luu, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support Luu’s documentary about adoption from the BIPOC adoptees’ perspectives to create awareness and change in the adoption community.
Bethany Marcel, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support the editing of Marcel’s novel by a professional developmental editor prior to signing with an agent and pursuing publication.
Jessica Mehta, Hillsboro
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $6,500
To support Mehta’s installation "Deep Seeded" at Kala Art Institute.
Kathryn Cellerini Moore, Milwaukie
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
The Ford Family Foundation $1,926
To support Moore’s research and creation of artwork featuring the aurora borealis during an NES Artist Residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland, and at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, from Oct. 2 to Dec. 2.
Sidony O'Neal, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $6,000
To support fabrication of works for O’Neal’s solo exhibition at Dracula’s Revenge (New York, NY) in March 2023.
Sung Eun Park, Monmouth
Oregon Arts Commission $1,825
To support the creation of Park’s new body of work for an upcoming solo exhibition at Well Well Projects in Portland in April and an artist residency at Mass MoCA (North Adams, Massachusetts) in May.
Nathaniel Praska, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,093
To support Praska’s production and documentation of a collection of sculptures to be exhibited alongside a series of the artist’s paintings in the Forsberg Gallery at Lower Columbia College from Jan. 3 to Jan. 26.
Linda Robertson, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,988
To support Robertson’s travel to Ireland May 15 through 28 to lead an art retreat focused on encaustic painting at Essence of Mulranny Studios, and to stay another week to develop ideas, photos and sketches for a new series of paintings.
Jeremy Rotsztain, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support Rotsztain’s travel to the Geneva International Film Festival in Switzerland for the presentation of "Walking a Turtle" (a virtual reality experience) and to participate in the 2022 Geneva Digital Market.
Michael Sell, La Grande
The Ford Family Foundation $1,500
To support Sell’s travel, living and material expenses for the planning and initial creation of a photographic portrait project during an exploratory month-long artist residency and exhibition through Proyecto áce in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November 2022.
Kerry Skarbakka, Corvallis
Oregon Arts Commission $1,500
The Ford Family Foundation $1,500
To support Skarbakka’s travel and related costs to present and promote work at the 60th Annual Society for Photographic Education Conference in Denver from March 16 to 18.
Caleb Sng, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
To support Sng’s creation of a genre-defying, informative variety show about Oregon to air on Open Signal’s public access channels and online from winter 2022 through summer 2023.
Taravat Talepasand, Hillsboro
Oregon Arts Commission $2,000
The Ford Family Foundation $7,000
To support the fabrication, packaging, crating and shipping of Talepasand’s artwork for an exhibition at The Warschaw Gallery at Macalester College in Minnesota from January to March, as well as design specifications for a 16-20 page catalog.
Mike Vos, Portland
The Ford Family Foundation $851
To support Vos’ artist residency, mentorship and professional development program at Cobertizo Arts in Jilotepec, Mexico, in late 2022.
Ezra Weiss, Portland
Oregon Arts Commission $1,050
To support updating demo recordings for “The Golem’s Gift,” Weiss’ original musical, in the fall of 2022.
Amanda Wojick, Eugene
The Ford Family Foundation $2,000
To support Wojick’s month-long artist residency and exhibition in Kyoto, Japan, in April.
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The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, services, and special initiatives. The Arts Commission is supported with general funds appropriated by the Oregon legislature and with federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as funds from the Oregon Cultural Trust.
