Anderson Center supports Early Career Artists

August 2023 Anderson Center Early Career Artists-in-Residence (from left): Sarah Evenson, AriDy Nox, Zosha Warpeha, Donte Collins, and Ash Goh Hua. Submitted photo.

The 2023 Early Career Artist Residency program at the Anderson Center has been taking place during the month of August.

From Aug. 1 through Aug. 30, chosen artists travel to the Anderson Center for the program.

This year’s artists include five early career artists chosen from nearly 200 applicants.

“Poet Donte Collins, printmaker Sarah Evenson, filmmaker Ash Goh Hua, playwright AriDy Nox, and composer Zosha Warpeha were each selected by a jury panel in March, out of a competitive applicant pool of nearly 200,” the Anderson Center stated in a news release.

With the support of the Jermoe Foundation the artists receive a stipend, documentation support, a travel honorarium and more.

“The Anderson Center’s Early Career Artist Residency aims to meet the specific needs of early-career artists from Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City artists by providing focused time and dedicated space in a supportive and inspiring residency environment that empowers them to take risks, embrace challenges, and utilize unconventional approaches to problem-solving,” the Anderson Center stated.

Donte Collins- they/them

“Donte Collins is a neurodivergent afro-surrealist blues poet, playwright, and movement artist named the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Saint Paul, Minnesota. A 2023-25 Jerome Hill Artist fellowship for theatre, spoken word and performance, Donte believes poems allow us to wander back to ourselves, to meet ourselves anew. Their work harbors the question, “How does it feel?” as opposed to, “What does it mean?” Their 2017 poetry collection “Autopsy” (Button Poetry) was a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award.

During their residency, Donte is revising a choreopoem entitled “Mercy.” Blending poetry and movement, verbal and non-verbal communication, the piece is about home and children’s need for a safe space to call their own and return to. On Thursday, Aug. 24 at 7 p.m., Donte is offering a reading, performance and Q&A in the Tower View Barn.”

Sarah Evenson- they/them

“Sarah Evenson is a transgender printmaker, illustrator, book artist, and zinemaker whose colorful work explores queerness as a natural human state worthy of exploration, documentation, & celebration. Sarah holds a BFA in printmaking from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and was a 2019–2021 fellow at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, as well as a resident in the 2021 Emerging Artist Residency at Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Their artist books and zines are held in collections across the English-speaking world and beyond.

During their time as a resident at Anderson Center, Sarah is creating a series of interrelated screen-printed images, zines, animations, and installations that record their transition through gender-affirming care and rejoice in the new relationship between their body and sense of self this care has made possible. Sarah is offering a drop-in heat foiled cut-and-fold-zine workshop at the Minnesota Children’s Book Festival on Sat, September 16. Sarah will screen animations of their screenprinting work and offer an artist talk in the Tower View Barn on Tuesday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m.”

Ash Goh Hua- she/they

“Ash Goh Hua is a filmmaker from Singapore, based in New York. They tell political stories personally through experimental leaning documentaries, challenging dominant ideologies in order to imagine possibilities of other worlds. Ash’s films have screened and won awards at film festivals internationally, and have been distributed by PBS, The New Yorker and Third World Newsreel. They were named one of the 25 New Faces of Film by Filmmaker Magazine in 2022.

Ash is currently expanding their creative capacity by venturing into the narrative world. At Anderson Center, they are working on a script, vision board and pitch deck for a short narrative film about immigration and family. On Tuesday, August 29 at 7 p.m. in the Tower View Barn will screen a short film and participate in a talkback with audience members.”

AriDy Nox- they/them

“AriDy Nox is a multi-disciplinary black femme storyteller based in New York City with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under their belt. A member of Playwrights Center Core Writers and a 2023-2024 Van Lier New Voices Fellow, AriDy creates out of the vehement belief that creating a future in which marginalized peoples are free requires a radical imagination. Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping, created by and for Black femmes.

At Anderson, AriDy is developing a series of seven magical realism plays exploring of the matrilineal lineage of a black family and their inextricable connection to Mother Bayou, the Goddess who safeguards (and occasionally terrorizes) their village. On Thursday, August 24 at 7 p.m. in the Tower View Barn, AriDy is sharing monologues from their play series and leading a discussion with the audience.”

Zosha Warpeha- she/hers

“Originally from Minnesota and currently based in Brooklyn, NY, Zosha Warpeha is a composer-performer working in a meditative space at the intersection of contemporary improvisation and folk traditions. She performs primarily on Hardanger d’amore, a sympathetic-stringed instrument closely related to the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, as well as five-string violin. Her current acoustic and electro-acoustic work is informed by the cyclical forms, rhythmic elasticity, and the physical momentum of Nordic folk music.

During her Anderson Center residency, Zosha is composing a site-specific body of work for Hardanger d’amore, voice, and resonant space, utilizing two acoustically resonant structures at Tower View: the silo and the historic water tower. Zosha is offering a public performance of new work on Tuesday, August 29 at 7 p.m. in the Tower View Barn.”

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