Each year, KFW awards $200,000 in grants;
$100,000 is given for each program.

Artist Enrichment 2012 Grantees
Art Meets Activism 2012 Grantees

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Artist Enrichment 2012 Grantees

B. Elizabeth Beck (Lexington):  $1,000.00 to attend workshops and develop her full-length manuscript of autobiographical lyrical poems, “Grandma’s Mink & Army Jackets,” about her experiences overcoming incest, rape and domestic violence. She will develop her skills as narrative poet, and her poems can help empower women and inspire them to overcome trauma in their own lives.

Joan Brannon (Lexington):  $4,000.00 to participate in a two-week study trip to Conakry, Guinea to learn West African drumming, percussion and drum-making. She will develop as a performance artist and teacher and use her understanding of the history and current role of women in West Africa to inspire more girls and women to drum.

Dawn Bunch (Louisville):  $5,000.00  to purchase equipment to create a new body of visual art addressesing the impact of violent acts on females and how they reclaim their bodies and power. She will learn new skills and techniques, and her paintings will raise awareness about preventing and healing trauma that women experience.

Julie-Anna Carlisle (Hopkinsville):  $1,000.00 to encourage her work on “Finding Forty,” documentary photography and prose inspired by feminist ethics about women crossing into their middle years. She will enhance her skills as a photographer and writer, and her work will portray powerful women and represent female aging as wisdom, experience and power.

Kelli Carmean (Lexington):  $2,600.00 to support a writing retreat for “Falling Jade Bead,” a work of historical fiction set among the ancient Maya. The novel will raise awareness of the important role Mayan women played in their societies to help inspire shifts in actions, attitudes and behaviors about gender roles in our contemporary world.

Angelique Clay (Lexington):  $2,600.00 to develop a recital series and recording featuring selected songs from seven African-American women composers active in the late 20th and early 21st century. She will develop as a musician and the recitals and recording will raise awareness about African-American women composers and inspire aspiring women of color composers.

Kelly Davenport (Louisville):  $2,250.00  to participate in an astrophotography landscape and image editing workshop to create a collection of images showing the natural beauty of the night sky in Kentucky. She will gain the technical foundation she needs, and her images will inspire women to learn more about science and nature, spark a sense of awe and imagination, and show viewers how to be better stewards of the earth.

Renée Deemer (Bowling Green):  $3,000.00  to create a short experimental video combining allegorical images of the feminine psyche based in literature, myth and archetypes along with her personal vision. The activities will develop her visual lexicon as a feminist artist and the piece will inspire an inner dialogue in women viewers about what images resonate with them, and invite them to explore their own personal interpretations of feminine experience.

Kathi E.B. Ellis (Louisville):  $2,500.00 to attend LaMama International Symposium for Directors, which brings together artists from throughout the world. She will learn from world-class artists, think beyond the norms of the local arts community, and energize her artistic practice. She will share her lessons and experiences with theatre companies in Kentucky.

Frankie Finley (Lexington):  $2,500.00 to participate in a writing workshop to develop her memoir about a family raising a child following same-sex “divorce.” She will be enriched as a writer, and the memoir will help raise awareness about the feminist issues of marriage equality, parenting rights and protecting children.

Mary Hamilton (Frankfort):  $1,000.00 to research and develop historical storytelling about Kentuckian Patty Smith Hill (1868-1946), a nationally known early childhood educator and children’s advocate who co-wrote the “Happy Birthday” song. She will develop her writing and historical storytelling skills, expand public knowledge of women’s history, and inspire others to advocate for children and their families.

Nicole Hand (Almo):  $3,113.00 to produce a series of eight etchings for printmaking that explore inequalities in relationships, specifically concerning gender within the traditional family structure. She will push her feminist ideas to a new place, and her artwork will raise awareness about gender inequality and inspire young women and artists to feel empowered by feminist voices.

Donna Ison (Lexington):  $2,000.00  to develop a piece of creative nonfiction titled “Taking Back Me: From Glamour Girl to Off-the-Grid,” the story of her living independently and simply for one year.  She will define herself and emerge with a more powerful perspective as a woman and as an artist, and her work will inspire women to take back their identities and live as they truly desire.

Julia Johnson (Lexington):  $2,000.00 to support an artist residency to advance a book-length manuscript of poems based on the work of twentieth-century Surrelist artist Meret Oppenheim (1913-1985), whose work engages feminist themes. She will immerse herself in Oppenheim’s work and create new poems that engage new forms to express visual art. Her poetry will raise awareness about Oppenheim and spark conversation around controversial feminist themes.

Diane Kahlo (Lexington):  $6,500.00 to transport her installation about the feminicide taking place in Juarez, Mexico to gallery, university and alternative spaces across the nation and to create a new component that addresses human and sex trafficking. The exhibitions and discussions will help her make her work more visually interesting, and the installations will explore the relationships between poverty, unemployment, corporate exploitation and the objectification of women globally.

Shawna Khalily (Louisville):  $5,800.00 to develop a series of eight large-scale hand-colored woodcut prints entitled, “Homo Luminous: Beings of Light,” exploring themes of gender balance and fluidity. She will learn to create more fluid expression of her figures, and advance her drawing and carving techniques. Her work will present visual images of a more inclusive, unified and harmonious global and cosmic consciousness.

Annie Langan (Prospect):  $4,000.00 to create photographs documenting female farmers throughout Kentucky. She will enhance her skills, and her work will represent women in a strong, positive light and convey a sense of the power of women.

Susan Lindsey (Louisville):  $1,000.00 for her nonfiction book about fifteen formerly enslaved women and men from Christian County, KY, who immigrated to Liberia in 1836. She will learn writing and researching about free women and enslaved people, and the completed work will help readers understand the issues of slavery and colonization, and the roles of women in Kentucky and Liberia.

Anita M. Majors (Louisville):  $1,000.00  for her original television show, “The Tax Lady Sings,” combining financial education with original music. She will be able to focus on creative aspects, and the show will help women improve their financial situations and contribute to economic change in their families.

Kri Martin (Louisville):  $1,000.00 for her multi-media children’s story about a young girl who lives in the KY foster care system and overcomes adversity through her writing and deawings. The completed story will inspire young people to find and speak their voice and see their full potential, which will help create change in society.

Amanda Matthews (Lexington):  $5,795.00  to purchase an electric ring bending machine for metal fabrication to create a series of large-scale circular and spiral feminist sculptures. She will be able to work with a variety of metals, and the sculptures will show the wisdom, love, perseverance, greatness and connectedness of all women.

Jennifer Hester Mattox (Paris):  $2,700.00  to attend the ThrillerFest conference and advance her work on suspense novels about feminist heroines. She will learn new writing techniques and meet literary agents, and her writing about empowered female characters living in Kentucky will help change the way women are portrayed in suspense novels.

Marie Mitchell (Richmond):  $2,400.00  to travel to Prince of Peace orphanage in Guatemala to develop her novel about a fictionalized girl who is placed at the orphanage. She will advance as a writer by focusing on her first solo book, and the book will help raise awareness about the literacy and economic condition of women in Guatemala.

Rene Orth (Louisville):  $4,500.00 to create a full piano and vocal recording of her chamber opera, “The Red Thread,” about the effects of China’s one-child policy on two mothers and a baby girl. She will develop as a composer and the recording will help her work be staged and fully performed, which will raise awareness about the One-Child policy and its affect on women in China.

Tina Parker (Berea):  $2,059.00 to revise and seek publication for her full-length manuscript series of linked narrative poems about a young girl’s journey into womanhood. She will work with poet and mentor Leatha Kendrick to enrich her growth as a feminist writer, bring her work to a wider audience and encourage women to question gender roles and tell their stories.

Chrisena Ricci (Lexington):  $1,000.00  to direct a play called “Smudge,” by Rachel Axler, about a family struggling with post-partum depression.  She will grow as an artist and establish herself as a young female director, and the play will bring attention to the challenges of motherhood.

Rachel Showman (Lakeside Park):  $1,000.00 to encourage her to develop her non-fiction book and website about her life as an active-duty army wife. She will develop as a writer, and the book will help educate Kentuckians about the daily life and struggles of their military neighbors and address the stereotype of an army wife.

Mitzi Sinnott (Flatwoods):  $2,500.00 to work with a graphic designer to create a website highlighting her work as an artist and educator, which will help her advance her career as a feminist social change artist. Her work exploring feminist and social justice issues will reach veterans, civilians and families and help promote healthier self-esteem in girls.

Savannah Sipple (Beattyville):  $3,168.00 to participate in a residency and complete a manuscript called “South Fork,” that is a collection of persona poems in the voice of different community members in a small town in Appalachia. She will develop as a poet and complete her first published collection. The collection will present strong female personas who challenge the conventions of their culture, and draw attention to the complexities of the issues that affect Appalachia, and America today.

Bianca Spriggs (Lexington):  $7,444.00 to support her poetry about thirteen black women who were lynched in Kentucky in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and a multimodal production called “The Thirteen,” incorporating her poems with visual art and music, to explore the racial, political and socio-economic climate that may have led to their executions. She will broaden her experience as an artist, and the poetry will draw parallels around how these women’s lives and deaths correlate to contemporary examples of abuse and violence.

Pam Swisher (Louisville):  $2,250.00  to purchase equipment and incorporate new shooting and editing techniques into three video projects that will each increase exposure of local lesbian-identified artists.  She will expand her work as an independent artist, and her work will redefine “making it” to mean collaboratively creating with and gaining support and inspiration from women artists in her community.

Doris Thurber (Frankfort):  $2,775.00 to participate in a five-day batik workshop to advance her expertise and to incorporate new skills into her work, depicting stories of women, nature and spirit. She will express her feminist and spiritual ideas in her teaching and her art, which will convey the importance of feminist values.

Diana Vandeveer (Louisville):  $2,000.00  to develop a nonfiction book & workbook that explores the life changes and healing process for widows.  She will develop as a writer and learn more about widows’ needs, and the book will help women in this life-changing situation have a voice and purposeful future.

Nieta Wigginton (Lexington):  $2,046.00  to research, develop and market the first biography of Dr. Dorothy I. Height, a leader and visionary who helped African American women see the harmonious role of being both civil rights and women’s rights advocates. She will develop as a children’s book writer, and the completed work will raise awareness about Height’s contributions and inspire and encourage children to advocate for current social issues.

Aimee Zaring (Louisville):  $3,500.00 to create a narrative cookbook of refugee recipes, including the women’s experiences, recipes and photographs. She will expand her understanding of feminism and social change through her interaction with women from around the world, and the stories in the book will inspire readers and dispel fears that some Americans have toward refugees.

 

Art Meets Activism 2012 Grantees

Tonya Adkins and Sharon Wolfe Tepsick (Olive Hill and Ezel):  $1,000.00 to support the Artisan Women’s Retreat series, including heritage arts and crafts workshops focusing on the contributions of women in traditional music. These activities will stimulate creative expression and community building, appreciation of the contributions of Appalachian women, and participants’ potential as agents for social change.

Americana Community Center (Louisville):  $4,000.00 for fiber artist Suzanne Steiger to lead a program enabling immigrant and refugee women to learn and practice various fiber arts in a supportive environment. Through the program, the women will creatively express their cultural heritage, expand their personal identity, build social support networks and develop their leadership and literacy skills, while raising community awareness about refugee and immigrant issues.

Kiah Arnold (Lexington):  $1,000.00 to create a documentary highlighting the achievements of teen and single mothers who are struggling to overcome poverty. The film will highlight their successes and challenge negative stereotypes to help these mothers be treated as equal members of society.

Beaded Treasures Project (Prospect):  $4,500.00 to provide materials and microloans to refugee women to create and sell unique, handcrafted beaded jewelry. The project helps the women overcome economic, social and linguistic barriers to success, and increases awareness of the challenges refugee women face.

Jessica Bellamy (Louisville):  $2,860.00 to create a multimedia interactive program using music and oral histories inside a jukebox to highlight the influence of black women in Louisville’s blues and jazz culture. The jukebox will travel to various locations and increase cultural competency, appreciation of the contrubutions of black artists, and promote intercultural communication.

Bondurant/ Western Hills Student Support Center (Frankfort):  $1,100.00 for Betty Lawson to work with ten female students from Bondurant Middle School and ten female students from Western Hills High School to change the direction of their lives by setting goals and journaling. The writing program will help the girls empower themselves, transform their lives and share their experiences with other young women.

Joan Brannon (Lexington): $1500 to offer drum circles and performance opportunities to survivors of domestic violence and staff of domestic violence shelters. The drum circles will provide an opportunity for creative expression and accomplishment, increase participants’ self-esteem and sense of personal power and lead to individual and group transformation.

Carrie Brunk (Big Hill):  $3,600.00 to support the 2012 Clear Creek Festival, featuring diverse music, theatre, dance, storytelling, spoken word, readings, visual art installation and films along with educational and activist workshops. The local feminist activists and male allies leaders encourage people to become active during and beyond the festival in creating and enacting feminist change.

Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning (Lexington):  $4,000.00 for the Young Women Writers Project for high school women to explore writing and literary performance techniques while examining issues of concern, including body image and self-esteem. Female writers in their 20s and 30s will mentor the students and encourage them to discover their own voices with confidence and self-respect.

Center for Women and Families (Louisville):  $5,000.00 for Christy Burch to engage staff in expressive writing and storytelling, giving voice to their personal experiences of working with women and children who have been traumatized by power-based violence. This is the first phase of “Herstory,” a project to capture, celebrate and preserve 100 years of advocacy work and develop the stories into a theatre production for the community.

Chrysalis House (Lexington):  $1,000.00 for women at Chrysalis House to explore their experience of the intersection of violence against women and substance abuse through photography. The women’s photogaphy will tell their stories to heal, raise awareness about the effects of violence against women and substance abuse, and inspire women currently experiencing violence and substance abuse to seek help.

Council on Developmental Disabilities, Inc. (Louisville):  $2,000.00 for the Weber Gallery, a social change art gallery, to create a two-month visual art exhibition called “Women Work,” featuring diverse women artists, with and without disabilities. The exhibition and accompanying workshop for girls will explore multiple ways to define women and work, and will present an inclusive feminist statement on the inherent value of every woman’s contribution.

Lauralee Crain, Lindsey Jagoe and Austyn Gaffney (Lexington):  $5,065.00 to incorporate photography and poetry into the Full Circles Foundation “Strong Camps” program. The summer day camps will provide a creative outlet for middle school girls to develop their self-confidence as female artists, pride in their community, and take charge of their lives socially, politically and economically.

Freda Fairchild and Teri Moore (Paducah):  $2,000.00 to work with girls from the Oscar Cross Boys and Girls Club to create masks and costumes for a skit they will develop and perform. These activities will explore how participants develop ideas and beliefs about themselves, their sense of self-worth, and point out the importance of passing on good information to girls around them.

Family Scholar House (Louisville):  $2,000.00 for artists Judy Riendeau and Mara Ezerins to work with single-parent college students to help them express their personal stories and interact with each other in new ways through a variety of visual art forms. The artmaking will help participants bolster their hopes and dreams, achieve their goals and build a better future for themselves and their children.

Freedom in Creation Bowling Green, KY Chapter (Bowling Green):  $2,500.00  for Mia Jaye Jackson and Stephani Stacy to lead a series of visual art workshops for youth at the Boys and Girls Club to promote engagement with the arts, learning about the struggles of women and girls in Uganda, including former child-soldiers. The workshops will increase the self-esteem of participants, make them aware of global issues, and show them how to make a difference in their global community, while their community exhibits will raise awareness about feminist issues in Uganda as well as bring attention to young artists in the community.

Josephine Sculpture Park (Frankfort):  $4,000.00 for four women artists to lead groups of girls and boys in creating a piece of artwork outdoors with natural materials that explores ideas of eco-feminism. Youth will develop their creative identities, the artists will gain teaching and collaborative experience, and JSP will develop as an eco-feminist arts organization.

Kentucky Domestic Violence Association, Inc. (Frankfort):  $5,325.00 to support the Swallowtail Project, with incarcerated women throughout the state writing about how violence or the threat of violence has affected their decisions, hopes, health and lives. The program offers the women a creative outlet, new ways to cope after their release, and the opportunity to share their experience with the community.

Kentucky Historical Society Foundation (Frankfort):  $1,440.00 to continue and expand their “Staging Voices” program, in which high school girls and boys will learn from previously unheard Kentucky women by conducting oral histories for use in a theatre production. The program will teach teens about women’s history and feminism, and work to create a new generation of feminist women and men who can speak out about gender discrimination.

Kentucky Repertory Theatre (Horse Cave):  $4,500.00 for feminist playwright Arlene Hutton to offer a series of discussion and writers’ groups in which participants record their memories of how gender roles have evolved since World War II in conjunction with the Theatre’s production of her “Nibroc” series. The production and workshops will help participants and audiences gain awareness of feminist issues throughout the state.

Kentucky River Keeper (Richmond, McKee):  $5,100.00 for Pat Banks and Judy Sizemore to lead a “Shaped by Water” retreat in which women artists working in diverse media will increase their understanding of environmental issues affecting Kentucky waterways, collaborate artistically and develop environmental advocacy projects. The retreat will explore the relationship between feminism and environmentalism, and develop a shared vision for feminist environmentalism in Kentucky.

Kentucky Women Writers Conference (Lexington):  $4,000.00 to support artist fees for the 34th annual conference, including workshops, readings, discussions, publishing seminars, contests and a spoken-word competition. The conference includes a high proportion of presenters who engage feminist issues, and demonstrates the possibilities for community engagement and how art can influence social change.

Looking for Lilith (Louisville):  $3,460.00 to create and perform two new original works: “Becoming Mothers,” a play based on oral histories about motherhood, and “Ten Years, Seven Stories,” a play that takes excerpts from the original plays they have created in the past decade. Both plays will be part of their 10th Anniversary Celebration and expanding LFL’s mission of re-examining and sharing women’s experiences through original theatre.

Louisville Girls Leadership (Prospect):  $3,075.00 for a group of high school girls to produce a 30-minute podcast about the impact the Louisville Girls Leadership organization has had on girls, and the impact these girls have had on the community. The podcast will provide participants experience in web technology, and will inspire more girls who are interested in feminist thought and action.

Heather Marshall and Sharon LaRue (Louisville):  $1,000.00 to host an arts-based healing retreat for survivors of sexual assault, rape and domestic violence. The art activities will provide participants with tools to release hidden feelings and emotions in a safe environment, and the program will bring awareness to the issue of violence against women.

Murray State University, Dept. of Music (Murray):  $4,500.00 to support the 2013 Athena Festival, “Breaking Barriers-- Finding Her Own Voice” through a call for compositions by women composers, workshops for pre-college and college age students with a selected woman composer, scholars sharing current research, and community performances of new work by women. The festival, which promotes music composed by women, will inspire young women to find their own voices and to pursue their musical aspirations.

Susan Pope (Danville):  $1,500.00 to provide theatre residencies at Maryhurst, a residential treatment facility for girls, and Choices, Inc, a transitional housing facility, during which participants will use Image-Theatre activities. The activities will encourage bonding among participants, personal reflection on domestic violence, and understanding of the power of art to make one’s story heard.

Tara Remington (Louisville):  $3,000.00 to provide “Mindful Creativity” workshops to women, including a variety of art and creative expression techniques to help participants discover their authentic selves. The workshops will encourage self-awareness and community involvement.

Nicole Sartini (Louisville):  $4,275.00 to create and distribute a book for children who are entering residential treatment in a group home for the first time. The book will help ease the transition by giving the children an idea of what to expect, process their own stories, introduce coping skills, foster bonds between the children and their new caregivers and encourage the children to break the cycle of violence.

Amber Sigman (Louisville):  $4,000.00 to teach “Live, Learn, Love” photography workshops increasing self-esteem and confidence for teenage female survivors of abuse, neglect and abandonment residing at Home of the Innocents. The photography project will help the girls learn leadership and social skills, teamwork, patience, and appreciation for the arts, as well as raise awareness in the community about the issue of child abuse.

Lisa Simon and Skylar Smith (Louisville):  $5,100.00 to support the creation and group exhibition of “With Child,” new work by seven artists who will examine their pre- and post-child artistic identity. The exhibition will include hands-on art activities, a catalog and an online discussion community to open a dialog about parenthood, gender roles as a parent and artist, sacrifice, compromise and creativity, while providing specific models for incorporating creativity into a busy life.

Woodford County High School Creative Writing Club (Versailles):  $2,600.00 for Laura Benton to lead students to create a print and online literary magazine with the theme, “Feminist Vision and Social Change,” that highlights young women writers. The female students will engage in writing sessions, and discuss social change and opportunities for women writers in the region.

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Artist Enrichment Grantees 2000-2011

Art Meets Activism Grantees 2001-2011

KFW Grantees 1995-2000

 

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