Emily Johnson performs "The Thank You Bar," for which she won a Bessie last year. Photo provided by Cameron Wittig Dance
Choreographer/dancer Emily Johnson and visual artist Seitu Jones, both prominent fixtures on the Twin Cities arts scene, have each won a $50,000 grant from the Joyce Foundation, two of four 2013 recipients of the annual award. Johnson, who won a high-profile Bessie Award in 2012, will present SHORE, the third installment of a trilogy, with Northrop Auditorium at the University of Minnesota, which commissioned it. The work, a multi-day event integrating dance, storytelling, volunteerism and a shared feast, coincides with the Dance/USA conference and re-opening of the auditorium in June 2014.
Jones is collaborating with Public Art St. Paul to present The Community Meal, a Septemeber 2014 dinner stretching a half-mile-long across the city of St.Paul with 2,000 participants. The event explores consumption, marketing and food production, and features performances of spoken-word artists
This is the first year that the Joyce Foundation has expanded the award parameters to allow art that takes place anywhere, using any media.
