| Mary Nohl Fellowship |
For immediate release: 10 November 2008For further information: Polly Morris, (414) 229-6771 This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it arts.uwm.edu
MARY L. NOHL FUND FELLOWSHIPS FOR INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS AWARDEDSeven Artists Recognized in Fifth Cycle
Seven recipients of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists have been selected from a field of 132 applicants in the sixth annual competition. Brent Budsberg and Shana McCaw (a collaborative team), Xav Leplae, and Iverson White were chosen in the Established Artist category and will each receive a $15,000 fellowship. Tate Bunker, Bobby Ciraldo and Andrew Swant (applying as Fortress Productions), Frankie Latina, and Barbara Miner will receive Emerging Artist fellowships of $5,000 each. In addition to receiving an award, the Nohl Fellows will participate in an exhibition in the autumn of 2009. An exhibition catalogue will also be published and disseminated nationally.
Finalists in the Established Artist category included Paul Caster, Portia Cobb, Brent Coughenour and Kay Knight.
Finalists in the Emerging artist category included Mark Brautigam, Pat Buckley, Annushka Gisella Peck, John Riepenhoff, Naomi Shersty and Paul Stoelting,.
Images of the artists’ work available at: https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/kroeger/public/Nohl2008.zip
Funded by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation’s Mary L. Nohl Fund and administered by the UWM Peck School of the Arts in collaboration with Visual Arts Milwaukee! (VAM!), the Mary L. Nohl Fund Fellowships for Individual Artists provide unrestricted funds for artists to create new work or complete work in progress. The program is open to practicing artists residing in the four-county area (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, and Washington counties). The Mary L. Nohl Fund also supports a Suitcase Fund for exporting work by local artists beyond the four-county area.
The panel of jurors included Valerie J. Mercer, the first curator of African American art and head of the General Motors Center for African American Art at The Detroit Institute of Arts; Laurel Reuter, director and chief curator of the North Dakota Museum of Art; and Eva González-Sancho, director of the Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain - Région Bourgogne (FRAC Bourgogne) in Dijon, France. The panelists were in Milwaukee October 30-November 1 reviewing work samples and artists’ statements and visiting the studios of the six finalists in the Established Artist category.
About the FellowsEstablished ArtistsBRENTBUDSBERG & SHANA McCAWShana McCaw and Brent Budsberg have collaborated for the past seven years constructing site-specific sculptural installations and performances. Their recent work focuses on realistic architectural miniatures utilizing narrative and mood to transform a site. Both are also founding members of the WhiteBoxPainters, a performance art group specializing in public projects. McCaw was born in Dubuque, IA and received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI in 1999. She currently teaches at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and Cardinal Stritch University. Budsberg was born in Wausau, WI and earned a BFA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2000. He is a 3-D lab supervisor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, a carpenter, a musician, and has also built numerous set pieces for the theatre/film industry. McCaw and Budsberg’s recent exhibitions include Escapisms at Galerie Sans Nom in Moncton, NB, Canada, Beloit and Vicinity at the Wright Museum of Art in Beloit, WI, for which they won first prize and a solo exhibition to be mounted in May 2009, Leading Edge at NML Gallery, Cardinal Stritch University, in Milwaukee, WI, Broken Down at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, MN, and New Work/Emerging Artists at Inova at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Milwaukee, WI.
XAV LEPLAE Xav Leplae, born in Belgium in 1966, is a Milwaukee based filmmaker, performer and artist. He is best known for his film I’m Bobby (official selection at Sundance Film Festival), and was creative consultant on Chris Smith's The Pool (Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival). Leplae attended art school at Cooper Union, studied cinema and animation in China, and was a member of Paper Tiger TV in New York. He is recognized locally as the owner of Riverwest Film & Video. Leplae is currently in post-production on Rasmalai Dreams, a 3-D talent video shot in India.
IVERSON WHITE Iverson White is a native of Detroit, Michigan. While attending Cass Technical High School’s Performing Arts program, he joined playwright Ron Milner’s Spirit of Shango Theater Co. White attended Wayne State University where he acted in local productions, was a delegate to the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture, in Lagos Nigeria (1977), published several volumes of poetry, and produced Oracy, an LP album of poetry and music with long time collaborator Kamau Kenyatta. Oracy was re-released as a CD in 2005. After graduating from WSU with a degree in mass communications, White joined the Graduate Repertory Company at the University of New Orleans (1980-1981) before transferring to UCLA’s film school. At UCLA he received the Donald Davis and Jack Nicholson Awards for screenwriting in 1982 and 1983. In 1985 he produced Dark Exodus, a short film that has been screened on PBS, the Southern Circuit Film Tour, and in national and international film festivals, and has received several major awards including the Dore Schary Award from B’nai B’rith, the Paul Robeson Award from the Newark Museum, the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Award, and the Prized Pieces Award. White’s latest film, Self-Determination, was completed in 2008. It has screened at the Pan-African Film Festival, the San Diego Black Film Festival and at UWM. Iverson White is an associate professor in the department of Film at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has been on the faculty since 1987.
Emerging ArtistsTATE BUNKERTate Bunker moved from Florida to Wisconsin to enter the film program at the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin. The city’s support for local filmmakers kept him here after he received his M.F.A. in 2001. Bunker has directed more than 30 films in the last 10 years. He balances directing his own films, freelancing (Bunker’s lush images and mastery behind the lens make him one of Milwaukee’s premier cinematographers), and teaching film production at UWM. His received an Emmy for his production work on Gumbo TV, two additional Emmy nominations, and two Milwaukee International Film Festival “Best Milwaukee Filmmaker” awards. He also won a Paris Film Festival “Best Cinematography” prize for his Stanley Kubrick-inspired short, Starlite. He is currently working on a feature film, Resurrection Ferns, which will be shot in early January. |
