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GRANTS AVAILABLE TO SCANDINAVIAN ARTISTS

The American Scandinavian Society of New York, Inc., in its mission to enhance awareness and appreciation of Scandinavian culture, helps support the arts in general and Scandinavian and Scandinavian-American artists in particular via its Cultural Grant program. These grants are awarded each spring, in conjunction with our annual meeting in May/June.

You may be eligible for an American Scandinavian Society Cultural Grant. If so, we would like to hear from you. In order to be considered you must

• be an artist with ties to at least one of the Scandinavian countries
• be actively engaged in creative work to explore/interpret/promote Scandinavian culture for the general public in the New York Metropolitan area
• show skill, talent, and aspiration in the chosen field of your art

Both performing and non-performing artists can be awarded.

To apply, please fill out the Cultural Grant Application Form, and send it with your resume, portfolio, e-mail and web-address, photos, and any other relevant information to the attention of the appropriate Vice President. (See list below)

Thank you!

Else Grotrian Matthews
Cultural Grants Committee Chair
American Scandinavian Society of New York
317 East 52nd Street
New York, NY 10022

Vice Presidents:

Cultural Grant Recipients 2010

Opening Speech by Else H. G. Matthews, June 3rd, 2010

Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen, and a very special welcome to this year’s Cultural Grant recipients!

Every year since 1980’s, the American Scandinavian Society has awarded Cultural Grants to up- and coming artists who have been instrumental in making Scandinavian culture seen and heard in this part of the World.

For the last 5 years when I’ve had the great pleasure of heading this Committee, we’ve given out about 30 Cultural Grants. I would like to think that we’ve helped make a difference in the lives of some of these artists.

The Cultural Grant Committee members all try to keep in touch with “our” artists, and we may go to an off-Broadway show, a recital, a gallery opening, a jazz club, a dance studio to witness first-hand how they’re developing. It’s so inspiring, and I’m always moved whenever a former Grant recipient tells us that our Grant helped turn his or her career around.

More than the money, it seems that the one thing they all stress, is the importance of being recognized and validated as artists.

Again this year, we’ve received an abundance of applications, and it’s been very difficult to select among so many truly deserving artists. I want to thank each of the Vice Presidents for their dedication to – and even passion for the job of selecting the absolute best, and I’m proud of the result which we will now present to you.

Ann-Mary Kay
Field of art: Singer/Songwriter
Nationality: Danish
Web: www.annmarykay.com

Educational Highlights:
2002-Present: Private vocal studies with professional voice teachers and Grammy winning and nominated artists Kate McGarry, Luciana Souza and Jeanette Lovetri.

2009-Present: Speech, Voice and Performance studies with Lucille Rubin Ph.D., ‘Professionally Speaking’, New York City.
2000-Present: Herbert Berghof (HB) Studio, New York City: Musical Theatre, Vocal Studies, Alexander Technique, Improvisation, Acting technique, On-Camera, Movement, Speech.

2000-2002: State University of New York (SUNY Purchase) Performance and Improvisation, Vocal studies with Jill Azzolina.

Affiliation with Scandinavia and the US:
Since the year 2000, Ann-Mary has been pursuing her musical career in New York. She sees her current project, an album with both original and traditional Danish songs, as the culmination of her career, as it will, in her own words:
“… define the artistic vision I have been working on my entire professional career.
… Each song on this album is the gusts of wind that will propel the sail of this Viking ship across the oceans and seas and into the hearts and souls of people in the New York area and all over the world”.

Past and present works:
Recordings: “Comes Love”, solo jazz album; “Dr. Gabbs”, a Swiss jazz musician, “Alex Diaz y Son de la Calle”, a New York based Latin percussionist.
Performances: Various music venues throughout New York City including Blue Note, SOB’s, Zinc Bar, Metropolitan Café, Blue Water, with some of the best musicians on the New York and world scene including Martin Bejerano, Robert Rodriguez, Mike Rodriguez, David Gilmore, Gregory Hutchinson, Essiet Okon Essiet, Ron Affif, Ludwig Alfonso, Chris Minh Doky, EJ Strickland, Gino Sitson, and many more.

Sari Nordman
Field of art: Dancer/Choreographer
Nationality: Finnish
Web: www.myspace.com/sarinordman

Sari Nordman has performed in the US and in Finland since 1996's. Her work has been presented at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, BAAD! ASS WOMEN Festival, Chashama, Columbia University, Dance Theater Hurjaruuth, The Flea, Full Moon Dance Festival, Gershwin Hotel, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Scandinavian House, Zodiak, among other venues. 

Working as a dancer with choreographers Douglas Dunn, Dean Moss, Susan Rethorst and Melinda Ring has influenced her own dance making. She will present her new choreography curated by Dean Moss at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange in February 2011. In 2011, she will be performing with Mr. Moss nationally and internationally. She has received funding from The American Scandinavian Foundation, Finlandia Foundation and from the Consulate General of Finland. She holds an M.F.A. degree in modern dance from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts.

Thorvaldur David Kristjansson
Field of art: Actor, songwriter and lyricist
Nationality: Icelandic
Web: www.thorkristjansson.com

Educational Highlights:
Currently a third year student at The Juilliard School’s Drama Division pursuing his BFA Degree

Affiliation with Scandinavia and the US:
Collaborated with his friend and schoolmate from Juilliard, Evan Fein, with lyrics in Icelandic for a song cycle entitled “New Icelandic Folksongs” and lyrics for a complete opera entitled “The Ravens Kiss” which will be completed in the Fall of 2010.

Past and present works:
Various leading and supporting roles in The Juilliard School productions, such as Midsummer Night Dream, Peer Gynt, The American Clock, Ionescopade, Hearts like Fists, A Month in the Country, Macbeth, and Merchant in Venice. Lead roles in Iceland span from Footloose to Hair, Wake me up before you Go-Go, Bugsy Malone, and Salka Valka.

Honors, reviews, special mention:
2007 recipient of full-tuition scholarship from the McKinney Foundation for his first two years at Juilliard 2009 recipient of the Juilliard School’s Robin Williams 2 year full tuition scholarship.

Camilla C. Webster
Field of art: Writer/director of screenplays, poems, and prose.
Production and editing of films
Nationality: American/Swedish
Web: www.saknadfilm.blogspot.com

Educational Highlights:
Holds an MFA graduate degree from Columbia University’s School of the Arts Film Division

Affiliation with Scandinavia and the US:
As a member of the prestigious Writers Room she wrote a screenplay “Missing” and was a finalist at the 2008 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. In April 2010 she was invited to read Missing at the Writers Room Reading Series. Her focus now is to see some of her current projects come to fruition – especially Missing. The project started as a poem, then a short film, then a feature film screenplay, and she is now planning a novel. This story about a Swedish women, has grown and evolved, and so has Camilla Webster’s connection to Sweden.

Past and present works:
She produced a film “Junebug and Hurricane” which has played at many festivals and won many awards, including best produced short film at the Columbia Film Festival. She wrote and directed a short film “Tracks” that played at festivals around the world and was awarded Faculty Honors and best short film at the Quittrapahilla Film Festival and the Artsfest Film Festival. She also wrote and directed the short film “Civil War” and was awarded Faculty Honors and best short film at various festivals

Evan Fein
Field of art: Photography
Nationality: American
Web: www.EvanFein.com

Educational Highlights:
Holds a Master of Music Degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland institute of Music. In addition, he studied at the Freie Universität Berlin and L’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris. He is currently enrolled in the C.V. Starr Doctoral program at Juilliard.

Affiliation with Scandinavia and the US:
Composed a 30-minute song cycle entitled “New Icelandic Folksongs” with lyrics in Icelandic by Thorvaldur David Kristjansson, his schoolmate from the Juilliard Drama Division . Composed a substantial work for solo organ entitled “Four Icelandic Scenes”. Both works have been performed at the Juilliard School in New York. Wrote a libretto for an opera on an Icelandic subject. The complete opera entitled “The Ravens Kiss” will be completed in the Fall of 2010.

Past and present works:
Has served as Composer-In-Residence for the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, compositions have been featured at Cleveland Public Theatre and public Radio, and have been choreographed by performers from the Juilliard Dance Division, Mather Dance College and Cleveland Contemporary Dance Theatre. His works have also been commissioned and performed by the Juilliard School, The Albany Symphony, The Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Vesuvius String Quarter, the CIM New Music Ensemble, and the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

Honors, reviews, special mention:
Received awards from the ASCAP Foundation as well as grants from Meet the Composer

Hanne Mugaas
Field of art: Visual Art - Artist/Curator
Nationality: Norwegian
Web: www.artsince69.com
www.hanne-mugaas.com

Hanne Mugaas is a curator and artist who is currently a Curatorial Associate at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. She has been working as an independent curator since 2004, with numerous exhibitions internationally.

In 2007-08, she worked as a Curatorial Trainee with Associate Curator Barbara London in the Department of Media and Performance Art at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 2008, she founded the art space “Art Since the Summer of '69” on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, which shows have received positive reviews in The New York Times, New York Magazine and Art in America. 

Mugaas has curated exhibitions and screenings at Art in General, New York; MoMA, New York; Moving Image Archive of Contemporary Art (MIACA), Tokyo; Vilma Gold, London; and Ooga Booga, Los Angeles, among many others. Her work is currently included in the exhibition NinteenEightyFour at the Austrian Cultural Forum in New York, and will be included in an upcoming exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York in the fall of 2010.

In 2010, she received a two-year Work Grant for younger/ newly established artists from the Norwegian Government. Mugaas holds an MFA in Curating from Goldsmiths College in London.

former cultural grants recipients

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