KFW Announces 2022 Artist Enrichment Grants
Press Release written by Ellen Birkett Morris
The Kentucky Foundation for Women awarded 37 Artist Enrichment grants totaling $140,030 to Kentucky feminist artists and arts organizations committed to creating positive social change throughout the state.
KFW’s Artist Enrichment grants provide opportunities for feminist artists and arts organizations to develop new skills and share art that advances social justice in Kentucky. Applicants may request funds to participate in artist residencies, explore new areas or techniques, and/or build a body of work.
Arts-based organizations and artists at all stages of their careers who demonstrate artistic skill and an understanding of the power of feminist art to enact social change were welcome to apply. The grant program drew 60 applications from throughout the state.
The Artist Enrichment grants awarded in Kentucky went to a diverse group of artists working in a variety of disciplines across the state. Their projects address vital concerns and highlight the contributions of women to Kentucky’s rich artistic and cultural heritage. They included projects examining ecology, neurodiversity, and gender-based violence, among other topics. By developing their skills and building community, these grantees are at the forefront of positive social change that will better the lives of all Kentuckians.
“We are excited to offer funding that helps feed the development of these artists as they explore areas that are central to the lives of women and girls in Kentucky. These projects will increase awareness, forge connections and break down barriers,” said Sharon LaRue, executive director of the Kentucky Foundation for Women.
Recipients include:
- Azucena Trejo Williams (she/her/ella) Campbellsville, $3,376 to attend classes at the weaving school Trauma Textiles to learn backstrap weaving for her project “Becoming Guatemalan,” an exploration in learning about the culture that she belongs to by re-contextualizing and contemporizing weaving. She will use fibers as a way to feel connected to maternal ancestry and the artistic creators who use fibers to carry iconography and colors to establish regional familiarity.
- Christine Keating (she/her) Fort Knox, $2,500 to write a creative nonfiction account of her all-female polar expedition for publication and build an accompanying package of interactive elementary classroom materials to raise awareness of women in eco-exploration and conservation. This grant will allow her to understand and put into action writing as a tool for lasting, quantifiable social change.
- Jabani Bennett (she/they) Louisville, $4,650 to create a body of work of mixed-media portraits that feature Black women creative professionals over the age 55 who are longtime residents of Louisville. As an emerging artist-mother, this project will provide an opportunity to build out her creative practice and support her ongoing research into cultural equity in Louisville through a Black feminist lens.
- Robin G. (she/her) Louisville, $7,625 to promote the empowerment of women and our obligation to heal from past traumas and to love ourselves despite our social and economic status through spoken word, instrumentals, and visuals. This project will develop her sense of self and artistic abilities, while cultivating her experience with different media.
- Rachel Reeher (she/her) Whitesburg, $3,464 to research and write the final draft of a novel that examines religion, sisterhood, body image, and the impacts of trauma-related illness on motherhood. Funds will raise awareness of Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS) and support a greater conversation around the resulting fear, shame, and illness.
- Carla Gover (she/her) Lexington, $5,000 for travel to Dublin to study the Irish roots of traditional music and dance in Appalachia with a prominent Irish female performer, and create a one-woman show informed by what she learns. The project will allow her to focus on artistic development in choreography and music while highlighting stories of women’s oppression, resilience, and strength from Ireland to Appalachia.
- Kristopher Gruber (fae/faer) Richmond, $2530 to create “My Mommy is at Liberty Place,” a coloring book depicting the Liberty Place Recovery Center for Women, a long-term treatment center for substance abuse. Fae will donate these child-friendly stories to the children of the mothers in the program to help them better understand what their mothers experience there in the hopes of breaking the cycle of addiction.
KFW will provide applications and guidelines for its next grant cycle in early February.
The Kentucky Foundation for Women is a private foundation formed in 1985 by Louisville writer Sallie Bingham. Its mission is to promote positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts.
KFW Executive Director Sharon LaRue and selected grant recipients are available for interviews/appearances. Contact Ms. LaRue for further information and to schedule interviews. A complete list of the grants awarded statewide broken down by congressional districts follows.
2022 Artist Enrichment Grant Summaries from the Kentucky Foundation for Women
Literary Arts
Amanda Corbin (she/her) Lexington, $2,500 to fund the purchase of a new laptop, conference admission, and artist fees as she completes a novel that explores issues around pregnancy, miscarriage, birth, the foster care system, and addiction. These activities are intended to help her develop as a writer and expand her body of work.
Ann DeVilbiss (she/her) Louisville, $1,000 to attend the Tin House Winter Workshop, an intensive five-day online gathering with workshop classes, craft lectures, generative exercises, and industry panels. Attending will help her connect with other poets, learn more about craft, and hone her skills as a feminist artist, which will help her to better articulate the need for change.
Carrie Green (she/her) Lexington, $3,964 to complete a manuscript of visual poems based on 1937’s “The New Etiquette: The Modern Code of Social Behavior” by Margery Wilson. Using techniques of erasure, embroidery, and collage, the project will allow her to expand her artistic skills while conversing with the work of a Kentucky-born pioneering actor and filmmaker who was constrained by the gender expectations of her time.
Julie Hensley (she/her) Richmond, $3,205 to write poems that explore the beauty and complexity of neurodiversity, employing karst landscapes as a metaphoric and symbolic framework. The proposed collection of poems will validate the work of caregiving, which is often delegated to females and undervalued. The book will help her develop her skills as a landscape writer and encourage her to write in ways that blend genres.
Beth Howard (she/her) Lexington, $5,000 to cover travel costs for a writing retreat, writing course, and research interviews allowing her to complete her political memoir and place herself in a tradition of Appalachian women activists. The grant will allow her to learn new writing techniques, how to structure a book, and give her insight into the publishing industry.
Elisabeth Jensen (she/her) Nicholasville, $4,239 to conduct research for a historical fiction book, set in the ghost town of Bayocean, Oregon–a seaside community obliterated by human-caused erosion and flooding. This research will help her grow as an author, and the novel, which will focus on the experiences of women and their connection with the land, will provide a needed counterpoint to the male-centric (and wealth-centric) narrative that is typically presented as history.
Amy M. Miller (she/her) Louisville, $3,264 to give her the focused time and attention needed to complete her first essay collection, prepare a book proposal for agent queries, and submit the manuscript to small presses and contests. The proposed work will establish her voice in the literary community as a feminist, nonfiction author writing at the intersection of motherhood, cultural identity, neurodiversity, and disability.
Lisa Munniksma (she/her) Frankfort, $3,364 to write creative nonfiction that reflects her experiences as a woman in outdoor, farm, and food-systems settings and to connect with others upholding similar feminist ideology. She will strengthen her skills and confidence to tell personal stories as someone who “doesn’t look like a farmer,” empowering readers to act beyond gender roles, and lifting up women who are stewarding land and communities.
Christine Keating (she/her) Fort Knox, $2,500 to write a creative nonfiction account of her all-female polar expedition for publication and build an accompanying package of interactive elementary classroom materials to raise awareness of women in eco-exploration and conservation. This grant will allow her to understand and put into action writing as a tool for lasting, quantifiable social change.
Deborah C. Payne (she/her) Louisville, $2,500 for time to write and reflect on previously recorded interviews with Ugandan women, exploring issues across life, health, family, subsistence living, and economic development. The resulting manuscript will address western perceptions of global development and the value of reconsidering our understanding of women from developing countries both abroad and at home.
Rachel Reeher (she/her) Whitesburg, $3,464 to research and write the final draft of a novel that examines religion, sisterhood, body image, and the impacts of trauma-related illness on motherhood. Funds will raise awareness of Religious Trauma Syndrome (RTS) and support a greater conversation around the resulting fear, shame, and illness.
Savannah Sipple (she/her) Lexington, $5,000 to engage in a year of editing and workshops to polish her novel, Three Strikes. This will strengthen her fiction writing and revision skills and help raise awareness about the queer rural experience. She believes the prose form can provide more clarity to her as an artist, a more accessible voice for her readers, and reach a larger and more diverse readership than her previous work as a poet.
Media Arts
Lexi Bass (she/her) Louisville, $2,500 to create a feature-length experimental sci-fi film, informed by a feminist approach to evolutionary biology as espoused by Charles Darwin. The film will explore the emergence of AI, CRISPR and other technologies alongside the artist’s own experiences of advanced maternal age pregnancy, birth, and post-partum depression. The project will develop her skills as a filmmaker, employ women actors and technicians, work with Berea College theater and film students, and engage the public in Kentucky and beyond.
Kristopher Gruber (fae/faer) Richmond, $2530 to create “My Mommy is at Liberty Place,” a coloring book depicting the Liberty Place Recovery Center for Women, a long-term treatment center for substance abuse. Fae will donate these child-friendly stories to the children of the mothers in the program to help them better understand what their mothers experience there in the hopes of breaking the cycle of addiction.
Amira Karaoud (she/her) Louisville, $3,500 to acquire equipment needed to develop a new photo documentary that aims to preserve memories of the Martiki coal mine site in Appalachia. This project will help change the prevailing narrative and emphasize social, economic, and environmental issues while telling the stories of Appalachian women’s loss, belonging, and forced enclosure.
EA Meuser (she/her) Lexington, $4,000 to create a visual narrative of America’s entrance into WWII that reflects feminist social change through an examination of archival media. This project will allow Meuser to show how war and media coverage are a catalyst for change and how increased feminist activity during the period led to feminism’s second wave.
Performing Arts
Victoria Fisher (she/her) Louisville, $1,500 to create a professional studio recording of her original music and make it available to her community. The recording is intended to musically communicate collective experiences through her work as a mental health therapist in the hopes of honoring and amplifying the shared stories of women.
Robin G. (she/her) Louisville, $7,625 to promote the empowerment of women and our obligation to heal from past traumas and to love ourselves despite our social and economic status through spoken word, instrumentals, and visuals. This project will develop her sense of self and artistic abilities, while cultivating her experience with different media.
Carla Gover (she/her) Lexington, $5,000 for travel to Dublin to study the Irish roots of traditional music and dance in Appalachia with a prominent Irish female performer, and create a one-woman show informed by what she learns. The project will allow her to focus on artistic development in choreography and music while highlighting stories of women’s oppression, resilience, and strength from Ireland to Appalachia.
IDEAS xLab, Louisville, $7,375 to research and identify stories of Black enslaved women in and around Kentucky and engage Black women artists to perform those stories by showcasing and celebrating the humanity of these Black women. Providing a voice for these women can help expand an understanding of them, their lives, and their impact in shaping our world today.
Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, Louisville, $5,000 to devise and create a play script using Crystal E. Wilkinson’s writings and poetry that will be produced and toured in schools and communities. By lifting up Wilkinson’s voice, adapting her works, and incorporating voices of women today, their audience will benefit from engaging in storytelling about the Black Woman’s Appalachian Experience that fights stereotypes and reflects the true history of the region.
Mandee McKelvey (she/her) and Jessica Mathis (AKA Divinity Rose) (she/her) Louisville, $5,000 to create a TV-worthy video of Mandee’s one woman show, “My Left Boob” to bring the timely story of her experiences with bodily autonomy to a larger audience. Divinity will utilize her unique background in standup and video production to help Mandee develop the next stage of her career as she learns to work with professional camera crews to create the video.
Margaret Miller (she/her) Louisville, $1,500 to remount her play [IN]FERTILITY at the Kentucky Center and foster public discussions about fertility, reproductive inequality, sexuality, and self-forgiveness. Featuring original music by Kentucky’s own Heather Summers, [IN]FERTILITY is an autobiographical plunge into the world of fertility treatment and the struggle for peace while residing in the liminal spaces of ongoing treatment.
Hannah Pruitt (she/her) Louisville, $5,000 to complete the Level 3 Training and Certification Program with Intimacy Directors & Coordinators, Inc. which involves learning intimacy choreography, exploring anti-harassment procedures, and establishing her own curriculum and practice as a certified Intimacy Director in theatre. With this training, she will be able to serve artists of all ages to foster a consent-forward, safe space in theatre and in their artistic lives.
Visual Arts
Jabani Bennett (she/they) Louisville, $4,650 to create a body of work of mixed-media portraits that feature Black women creative professionals over the age 55 who are longtime residents of Louisville. As an emerging artist-mother, this project will provide an opportunity to build out her creative practice and support her ongoing research into cultural equity in Louisville through a Black feminist lens.
Ann Dawkins (she/her) Louisville, $2,500 to develop and exhibit a series of paintings that use thick oil paint to describe the visceral and fleshy qualities of fruit to represent the experiences of having a chronically ill female body. This will bring awareness to the vulnerabilities women face in a world that fails to understand their worth outside of their bodies, especially when those bodies are societally deemed unhealthy or unsuitable regarding sexual objectification and reproduction.
Diane Kahlo (she/her) Lexington, $3,000 for the transportation and installation of an exhibit focusing on the disappearance and murders of women at the US/Mexican border by addressing the issue of gender-based violence globally at the intersection of race, gender, ethnicity, social, and economic status. Showing this ongoing work will honor those taken and inspire her search for other ways to express the intense loss of life and potential of these women’s lives.
Susan E. King, Lexington, $4,597 to take the week-long workshop titled Diary Quilts: Documenting, Storytelling, and Intuiting with Stitch from feminist artist Heidi Parkes in Wisconsin. This funding will allow King to explore new techniques with a talented teacher, create a diary quilt, and document the process through an illustrated manuscript.
Teresa Koester (she/her) Louisville, $2,500 to create a new body of watercolor landscape paintings, depicting the most sacred or meaningful places held by women she interviews who steward large tracts of public or private land—be it as a farmer, land manager, scientist, forester or private landowner in Kentucky. This project will enrich her eco-feminist understanding and broaden her painting skills while drawing attention to the importance of Kentucky women engaged in protecting the environment.
Lisa L. Kriner (she/her) Berea, $3,800 to purchase a Type B 8-harness Macomber loom to create a body of art that explores the hormonal changes that happen during menopause (natural or medically induced) and to explore ways to visually portray perceived body temperature changes that come with hot flashes.
Kiana Mahjub (she/her) and Cecelia Rhoden (she/her) Richmond, $7,430 to complete research and development for The School of Needlework for Disobedient Women curriculum by hosting a weekly after school art program for teen girls. This program will help them grow as teaching artists/workshop facilitators by creating meaningful opportunities to build, practice, and refine their subversive, socially conscious art curriculum while providing space for like-minded teen girls to make connections and express themselves.
Erin R. Miller (she/her) Berea, $4,872 to make 4-6 digital jacquard weavings that will contribute to a larger body of work that explores how the objectification and sexualization of women influences their relationship with their bodies from a young age. Her goal is to use this project to develop her weaving skills on a specialized loom and expand her knowledge of feminism in the context of craft.
Lexie Millikin (she/her) Marion, $3,545 to fund a residency in Guatemala to study backstrap weaving with master weaver Lidia Lopez and her sisters, while learning about other cultural traditions with a group of female artists, educators, and curators. She will bring this knowledge into her practice to promote cultural diversity, hone her technical educational skills, and expand her network, which will help her make cross cultural connections and strengthen her creative community.
Irene Mudd (she/her) Louisville, $3,230 to complete an artist residency in Ireland, where she will research women’s magical practices and folklore related to her ancestral background while building a new body of artwork. The field research for this project will enrich her artistic development as well as spark discourse about the relationships between women’s history, witchcraft, and female power.
Nicole Musgrave (she/her) Whitesburg, $4,800 to create a series of quilted textile collages that will explore intersecting themes of gender roles, cultural and family inheritances, personal memory, and economic justice. This will prepare her to transition her quilt practice from the private sphere to the public sphere and allow her to develop new skills and ideas to integrate into her community-centered work.
Leia F. Sexton (they/them) Louisville, $1,200 to spend 2023 tattooing their body with a tapestry of ancestral exploration. This will create a self-preserved narrative of folklore and history while allowing them, a non-binary Appalachian, to reclaim their body, rights, and expression.
Azucena Trejo Williams (she/her/ella) Campbellsville, $3,376 to attend classes at the weaving school Trauma Textiles to learn backstrap weaving for her project “Becoming Guatemalan,” an exploration in learning about the culture that she belongs to by re-contextualizing and contemporizing weaving. She will use fibers as a way to feel connected to maternal ancestry and the artistic creators who use fibers to carry iconography and colors to establish regional familiarity.