On Oct. 15, 11 individuals from Duluth were awarded funding from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council for its Technology/Equipment Grant Program. These grants are for individual artists seeking funding for technology needed to advance their career and body of work.

We live in a digital age. Often if artists want to advance their career, they now need digital portfolios requiring digital documentation or digital recording of their work. This is one way in which this grant is extremely useful. Individuals have also used this grant to create a web presence for themselves. In the previous round for this grant, Delina White received a grant to hire a a web professional to create a website to get exposure for her work. The website created with those funds was very successful and helped advertise for her Great Lakes Woodlands Skirts Project, which will be on display at the Tweed on Oct. 30. Other individuals use this grant to buy new equipment to advance the possibilities of their work. Bryan Hansel is receiving grant funds to buy new lenses to capture better images of the Milky Way as seen in northern Minnesota.

The 11 individuals funded from Duluth and their projects were:

• Lucie Amundsen, Duluth, St. Louis County, $1,640: will purchase a Mac Book Pro, a printer, and a means to automatically back up her files to enable her to continue her career as a professional writer of creative nonfiction.
• Jon Brophy, Duluth, St. Louis County, $2,000: will purchase professional drafting and rendering software to assist in doing theatrical lighting design.
• Angie Frank, Duluth, St. Louis County, $2,000: will hire the services of a web design company to build a website to highlight her theatre work and will hire a photographer to produce high quality photographs of her facilitating theater work.
• Brett Grandson, Duluth, St. Louis County, $1,388: will purchase an ultraviolet light box to make handcrafted photographic prints and double the size of the prints he is currently able to be produced.
• Paula Gudmundson, Duluth, St. Louis County, $2,000: will purchase Nasut Baroque and Renaissance flutes which will be used in the development of a concert series titled “Klezmer meets Tango,” which will focus on introducing audiences to folk music traditions, specifically klezmer music.
• Bryan Hansel, Duluth, St. Louis County, $1,560: will purchase two wide angle, fast, prime camera lenses to enable the photographing of the night sky and other low-light subjects.
• Dawn LaPointe, Duluth, St. Louis County, $862: will purchase various high quality filters for camera lenses to assist in creating longer exposure photographs in challenging light.
• Matthew Mobley, Duluth, St. Louis County, $1,700: will purchase a 150 year-old, hand-carved, European, double bass to play with numerous bands at local and regional venues.
• David Moreira, Duluth, St. Louis County, $2,000: will purchase an interactive pen display and professional graphics tablet to upgrade decade old technology for graphic design.
• Carolyn Olson, Duluth, St. Louis County, $990: will purchase a camera to take high quality photographs of paintings, drawings, and sculptures, for posting on her website and exhibition proposals.
• Matt Wasmund, Duluth, St. Louis County, $1,990: will purchase an audio interface, external hard drive, microphones, and microphone accessories to capture live recordings of original music pieces.

For a complete list of those awarded, click here. For more information on the Technology/Equipment Grant and how you may apply, visit the ARAC website.