Congratulations to the 2018 Alumni Microgrant recipients! An initiative of the Alumni Council, the Alumni Microgrant program awards $1,000 to six alum to support them in a creative endeavor.

The 2018 Alumni Microgrant recipients are:

Max Mikulecky

Website: maxmikulecky1.xhbtr.com/santafe

Along the Santa Fe is Max’s photography project that examines “the history and current state of the small towns, and their residents, that the historic Santa Fe Trail connects.” Max will use his microgrant to take a trip along the Santa Fe trail, photographing the residents and towns of that once-booming region. Max began his documentation of this region in 2014; now armed with better equipment and techniques, he hopes to improve upon the work he has already done and create a photobook.

Alex Goss

Website: alexgoss.net/

Alex is preparing Gathering Dust, a “one-night endurance performance [that will] explore the labor of machine and human workers as it’s manifested digitally and physically.” Alex will use his microgrant to lease a free-standing robot arm that will displace dust throughout the venue. A human will perform the same futile task and lights and animation will accompany the performance. For Alex, “[t]his performance is not a demonstration of technology, but rather points to the human hand’s role in these machines’ operations as anatomical inspiration in design. It is a demonstration of collective exhaustion.”

Maurisa Li-A-Ping

Maurisa will use her microgrant to attend the American College Personnel Association Convention. At the convention, Maurisa will be participating in a session called Spoken Word Poetry & the Black College Experience, where she will perform her original poem “in this universe, Blk Women are the moon.” According to Maurisa, “this project will be a space where I am able to put my work into practice with not only Black undergraduate students, but Black graduate and professional staff as well. It is an opportunity to center the arts on people in the margins.”

Bria Whitney

Website: briawhitney.com/

Bria will use her microgrant to cover the costs associated with producing a series of mixed media prints and an editioned art zine for her series This Is Not a Statement. The series will explore feminitity through hair, specifically black hair, and will focus on Bria’s own experiences as a black woman and the reactions she’s received to the way she wears her hair. Bria’s goal is to add commentary to the discussion around feminity and to further her creative work on the topic of identity.

Amirra Malak

Website: amirramalak.com

Amirra is working on Water Is Life, a series of paintings about the nature and sacredness of water. Amirra has already completed paintings featuring bodies of water in the Pacific Northwest and will use her microgrant to travel to Egypt where she she will create new paintings based on the bodies of water found in her father’s homeland. When the series is complete, Amirra will display the works with “calls to action for viewers regarding water protection efforts locally and globally.”

Mindy Lu

Website: mindylu.com

Mindy will use her microgrant to finish an artist’s book she began in 2015. Collection of Prawns contains letters between Mindy and an imprisoned con man, letters between Mindy and her father while he was incarcerated, and an essay about her relationships with both men and how they tie into her art-making. Mindy’s microgrant will go toward writing, editing, and printing Collection of Prawns.

Once again, congratulations to the 2018 Alumni Microgrant recipients! Stay tuned to our blog to learn when you can apply for the next cycle of Alumni Microgrants!