![Last minute touches were being done getting the McKnight Artists Exhibition ready at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design gallery .McKnight Artists Exhibition Program has run for past 32 years, The $25,000 grants will continue and go to 8, rather than 4, artists including photographers who previously had a dedicated program. Instead of exhibitions, program will now have public talks between artists and outside critics plus production of an artist book for each grantee. Artists in this final exhibition are Catherine Meier, Joe Sinness, Amy Toscani and Dyani White Hawk. ] Richard.Sennott@startribune.com Richard Sennott/Star Tribune St Paul Minn. Friday 1/10/2014) ** (cq)](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/M3A2Z45WPTX7B2OUCLV67MQL7I.jpg?&w=1080)
A MCAD staff member finished installing the last McKnight Foundation visual art exhibition in January 2014. Star Tribune staff photo by Richard Sennott
Eight Minnesota visual artists have received $25,000 each from the McKnight Foundation in a program administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). The winners are: David Bowen of Duluth, and Sam Gould, Alexa Horochowski, Michael Hoyt, Alison Malone, Lamar Peterson, Joe Smith, and Tetsuya Hamada, all Twin Cities residents.
A support program for mid-career artists, the McKnight Artist Fellowships for Visual Artists provides each winner with three things besides the money: critiques with national critics; a limited edition book about their work; a speaking opportunity. The public exhibitions that were an element of the program for 32 years were discontinued this year in favor of the book/talk component. When the exhibitions were cancelled, the number of visual art grants also was increased from four to eight.
Five of the 2014/15 Fellowship winners are academics. Bowden is an associate professor of sculpture and computing at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Horochowski is a sculpture professor at St. Cloud State University. Smith is an art professor at University of Northwestern in St. Paul. Peterson, an assistant professor of drawing and painting, and Yamada, an associate professor of art, both teach at the University of Minnesota's Twin Cities campus.
The other three winners are engaged in various activities. Gould is a writer/ publisher who co-founded Red 76 and is the editor/designer of the Journal of Radical Shimming. Hoyt produces arts-based community development projects. Malone is a photographer who documents American subcultures.
Fellowship winners were picked by three jurors: Xandra Eden, exhibition curator at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro; Hesse McGraw, vice-president of exhibitions at the San Francisco Art Institute; and Deborah Willis, artist, professor and chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch Center for the Arts at New York University.
