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The Creative Economy Fellowship is an unrestricted $10,000 award given individually to ten (10) BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and Native artists in Minnesota. This program seeks to support and recognize artists who make and share tools designed to benefit as many artists as possible, with the belief that interconnected communities of artists create greater impact, and substantial, systems-wide change.

Acknowledging the role that systemic racism plays in siphoning off economic onramps and opportunities, Springboard is offering the Creative Economy Fellowship to individual BIPOC and Native artists who are developing tools, pathways and systems of support for artists in their communities, thus building the capacity for greater equity, agency and power across neighborhoods and systems.

The Creative Economy Fellowship is the relaunch of a successful three year pilot program previously named the 20/20 Artist Fellowship. We are excited to announce this new cohort of Fellows, who are working to show how artists are essential in our communities, and whose work builds more vibrant and just economies, models of collaboration, and economic support systems.

Throughout the fellowship year, the fellows are provided access to Springboard's extensive resources, including: professional development tools, workshops, consultations, and trainings, local and national network of community artists, financial planning support, and Springboard's organizational platforms including a published profile piece on Creative Exchange.

Springboard Staff

Economic Opportunity Director
 

The Creative Economy Fellowship is supported in part by contributions from the Bush Foundation, with past support from the Surdna Foundation.Logo of The Bush Foundation

 

 

Meet the Fellows!

Adrienne DoyleAdrienne Doyle
they/them & she/her
@burnsomethingcollective
Minneapolis, MN
Adrienne Doyle is a tender Capricorn artist organizer with an eye for resource systems and a love for lush adventure. Their creative practice centers the collective and connective aspects of blackness and queerness through creative writing, zine making, teaching, and art direction. Adrienne is a co-founder of Burn Something Collective, a group of 7 artists working at the intersection of curation, publishing, and peer-to-peer mentorship to support the agency and development of Black and POCI femme, nonbinary, and trans artists. Through Burn Something, Adrienne and their collaborators experiment with building new models for collective ownership, radical care, and healing relationships with their resources. www.burnsomething.org

DejaJoelle HeadshotDejaJoelle
they/them & she/her
@DejaJoelle
Saint Paul, MN
DejaJoelle is an African Centered - Healing Artist, Choreographer, Director, and Cultural Healing Curator. She believes Dance serves as our connection to ourselves, our communities, and our overall Divinity. DejaJoelle creates intentional spaces for Black, LGBTQ2, and Deaf community to discover their own practices toward Healing using Dance, Body Reclamation, and other Healing practices. As the world experiences collective hurt and grief, DejaJoelle trusts that our greatest act of REVOLUTION and REBELLION against hatred and corruption is Self-Love and Healing. As she refuses to fuel the fire of destruction and heinousness, she instead focuses her Art and energy on properly handling Black people who continue to be mishandled. https://www.bodyprayersaesthetic.com/

Duaba Unenra
he/him
Born, Raised, and Residing in the Mississippi River Valley
Duaba is a Black culturesmith who uses written and spoken word, publishing, facilitation, and research as tools of liberation and healing. He has spent his entire life surviving and witnessing anti-Black governments enact violence on the communities that give him life. He creates because it makes resistance a life giving act of joy. One of his longest running projects is called the Ki-Kala, a hieroglyphic writing system for survivors of the Maafa-the Middle Passage. When he's not busy with a project, he loves getting lost in good Sci-Fi. https://duaba-unenra.medium.com/

Garrett McQueenGarrett McQueen
he/him
Saint Paul, MN
Originally from Memphis, TN, Garrett McQueen is a bassoonist who has performed with ensembles including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Today, Garrett is the host and producer of nationally-syndicated radio programs at the intersection of race, contemporary culture and "classical" music, and is the co-host and Executive Producer of the TRILLOQUY podcast, noted by the New York Times as "required listening". Additionally, Garrett maintains board, leadership, and artistic advisory positions with institutions including the American Composers Forum, the Black Opera Alliance, the Lakes Area Music Festival and the Gateways Music Festival. http://www.garrettmcqueen.com

Kenna-Camara CottmanKenna-Camara Cottman
they/them
NORTHSIDE!
Kenna-Camara Cottman is Black, non-binary, and repping North Minneapolis, Mni Sota Makoce home of the Bdote.  Kenna runs Voice of Culture Drum and Dance,  where we create Black space for practicing cultural arts and liberation. Kenna has taught many things including elementary school, college level dance, and kickboxing.  Kenna has worked many places including Franklin Middle School, the MN State Fair, and at a coffee shop. Kenna is a proud prayer of BodyPrayers, a musician & vocalist, and a Cultural Artist/Educator, among other things. Kenna is the child of community parents Bill and Beverly Cottman, and the mother of Yonci Peaceful and Ebrima Baye. www.voiceofculture.org

María Isa María Isa
she/her
@mariaisasotarico
Saint Paul, MN
Maria Isa is a Boricua singer, songwriter, actress, rapper, producer, educator and recording artist born in Minnesota and raised on St. Paul's West Side barrio. Isa's work, which delivers many different rhythms of Afro-LatinX-Indigenous culture channeled into performing arts and activism. Isa has been trained by the masters of Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba and professionally trained in concert choral and jazz developing her passion towards Hip-hop lyricism, percussion and the importance of educating arts and activism. Since 2009 Isa serves as CEO for her independent label SotaRico, managing and distributing over 15 projects bridging her music mix and upbringing of Minnesota and Puerto Rican culture into a fusion of sound. www.IamMariaIsa.com

Marlina Gonzalez Marlina Gonzalez
she/her
Minneapolis, MN
Marlina Gonzalez is a multi-disciplinary theater and media arts producer, director, curator and writer of Filipina heritage. "We are indigenous to a place and sojourners to another. In our movements through space and time, our lives have touched, clashed, converged, but are forever moving in parallels. I want to find convergence from points of divergence." Through creative expression and community engagement, Marlina strives to bring together the power of vox populi ("voice of the people) and her ancestral heritage in all of her work. And she hopes to one day bottle her own secret recipe of Filipino adobo sauce! https://www.joycefdn.org/webinars/artists-as-connectors-building-racial-solidarities-in-the-twin-cities

Ricky Collins Ricky Collins
he/him
@PackedHouseLive_ 
North Minneapolis, MN
Ricardo "Ricky" Collins was raised in North Minneapolis, MN and has been an entrepreneur since 15 years old. He also is a rapper, artist manager, editor and video director working with the likes of Floyd Mayweather (Boxing Legend) and Eric Thomas (#1 motivational speaker in the world). Since a kid Ricky has aspired to earn enough money and connections to empower people who grew up in rough neighborhoods like he did.  "We need to build new systems with foundational values to help repair the damage done from years of oppression in lower income communities" said Collins. Today he is the founder/CEO of Packed House Live on a mission to help content creators all over the world earn more money than ever from their work while retaining equity thus building generational wealth for their families. www.PackedHouseLive.com

Sharon Mansur Sharon Mansur
she/her
Keoxa/Winona, MN, Dakota land
Sharon Mansur is an Arab/SWANA American dance and interdisciplinary experimental artist, educator, curator, community mover and shaker. Her creative practices interweave expressive movement, multi-sensory landscapes,  screendance, audience encounters, food sharing, collective gathering and meditative spaces. She is influenced by the here and now, and moments in between.  Sharon currently directs The Cedar Tree Project amplifying creative voices from the Arab/SWANA diaspora. And she curates SHIFT~ performance salons, cultivating collaborative situations,  risk taking and play among local artists.  Sharon is also a therapeutic bodyworker, novice climber of rocks, and feline Juniper Moon's human. www.mansurdance.com

Za'Nia ColemanZa'Nia Coleman
she/her
@tangiblecollectivemn
North Minneapolis
Za'Nia Coleman is an interdisciplinary artist and Co-Organizer of the Tangible collective. Her primary medium is film focusing on documentary and oral history.  She has been holding spaces and creating experiences that center black thought and expression in the Twin Cities for over four years. Along with her cultural work she works with textiles in theatre and teaches community sewing classes. The root of her work is sustaining traditional and historical practices around love, pleasure, cultural expression, and community building. https://www.tangiblecollective.org/

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Read the frequently asked questions related to the Creative Economy Fellowship.

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