Photo by Katherine M. Turczan

Three artists with Minnesota ties are among the 180 winners of 2011 awards from New York's John Simon Guggenheim MemoriaL Foundation.

Photographer Katherine M. Turczan, who teaches at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, was among 8 photographers picked for the prestigious award announced April 8. Known for her large-format portaits of people from Ukraine, her parents homeland, she has often focused on women and children whose vulnerability to the country's recent political and economic turmoil has made them especially sympathetic subjects.

Dancer and choreographer Ananya Chatterjea of Minneapolis is one of five winners in choreography. She heads the dance divison of the Department of theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota and is founder of the Ananya Dance Theatre, a troupe composed of women of color who infuse their performances with social justice issues.

Minneapolis-born Duncan Hannah, a long-time resident of New York City, is among 20 winners in the fine arts category. Working in an illustrational style reminiscent of old-fashioned Dick and Jane primers, Hannah depicts suburban socialites and Anglophiliacs in scenes that merge the emotional cool of Alex Katz' portraits with the coy porn of Balthus.

Established in 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation presents about 220 cash awards annually, primarily to scholars and academics, in 78 fields ranging from fiction and poetry to economics, law, statistics and natural sciences. Winners in this series were picked from about 3000 applicants.