Do you want to know more about applying for artist grants? Here’s your chance to learn about upcoming grant opportunities for creatives!
Please join us on Tuesday, January 14 from 6:30-8 pm in our Depot Gallery for a panel discussion and Q & A session on grants for artists. Featured panelists include: Sharon Mansur - Outreach & Accessibility Manager with Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC), Bao Phi - Arts & Culture program officer with the McKnight Foundation, & Adam Wiltgen - program officer with the Minnesota State Arts Board.
Featured Panelists
Sharon Mansur
Sharon Mansur (she/her) is originally from Boston, and currently based in Winona, Mni Sota Makoce/MN, Dakota land. In her role at SEMAC she strengthens arts access across southeastern Minnesota by building partnerships, developing workshops, and ensuring our programs reach all communities to make the arts truly accessible for everyone.
She is a dance/interdisciplinary artist, curator, educator, arts administrator, and facilitator of gatherings that embody creativity, social justice and healing practices. Sharon has been fortunate to work at Dance Place, in Washington, DC, BAX/Brooklyn Arts Exchange in Brooklyn, NY, and more recently with Frozen River Film Festival and Art of the Rural in Winona. She also served on the dance faculty at Winona State University and University of Maryland, and currently directs The Cedar Tree Project, a creative platform for Arab contemporary art and artists. In the Driftless region Sharon loves hiking, rock climbing, bike rides by the lake, and tending to her pollinator gardens.
Bao Phi
Bao Phi (he/him) joined McKnight in August 2022 as Arts & Culture program officer. In this role he maintains and develops relationships with grantee partners and intermediary funders, manages significant grant portfolios, and actively collaborates with McKnight programs, investments, and operations teams to advance and strengthen the creativity, power, and leadership of Minnesota’s working artists and culture bearers.
Prior to McKnight, Bao worked as an arts administrator for nearly 23 years at the Loft Literary Center, advancing from receptionist to director of events and awards. He was on the team that helped the Loft earn the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’ Anti-Racism Award for Equilibrium, a spoken word program. He also managed the McKnight Artist Fellowship program in Creative Writing, and was co-creator and manager of Mirrors and Windows, a fellowship for mentoring American Indian, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, SWANA, Latinx, and mixed-race writers in the art and business of children’s literature.
As an artist, Bao is a two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist. Known for his children’s books, his poetry is published widely, and his fiction and essays have appeared in Octavia’s Brood: Stories from Social Justice Movements, and A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota.
Adam Wiltgen
Adam Wiltgen (he/him) serves as a Program Officer at the Minnesota State Arts Board. Based in Red Wing, he is a part of a dynamic hybrid-remote team administering grant programs that give Minnesotans opportunities to engage in the arts through programming provided by Minnesota artists, arts organizations, and other public and nonprofit entities. Specifically, Adam is lead program officer for the Accessible Arts grant program and collaboratively stewards the Creative Individuals and Arts Experiences funding opportunities.
A fellow of the Salzburg Global Forum for Cultural Innovators & an alum of the Blandin Community Leadership Program, Adam has spent nearly his entire arts career engaged in relationship-based work in rural communities. Identifying as both a dreamer and a doer, he previously led and facilitated place-based arts programs with Anderson Center at Tower View and Lanesboro Arts. At heart, Adam is a musician & a music lover well-versed in how the creative process empowers people and sparks positive change.
January ARTSpeak
Grants for Artists
Jan 14, 6:30-8 pm
RWA Depot Gallery
Red Wing Arts is pleased to announce the relaunching our monthly ArtSpeak artist professional development program in 2025!
Join us in our Depot Gallery from 6:30-8 pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month for this program - offered at no cost - which supports both emerging and established artists.
Every other month we will offer panel discussions featuring experts on topics which provide business acumen and growth tailored towards artists. Every other month we will host facilitated artwork critique and networking sessions. See details below on each monthly offering.
ARTSpeak is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund
