Deaf Artists Residency in Red Wing, Minnesota
Alex (Daily Moth): In June, four deaf artists and a DeafBlind artist lived and worked together in a month-long residency at the Anderson Center at Tower View in Red Wing, Minnesota.
[Full-screen image of five residents sitting on steps or standing outside in front of the porch of the house. From left are Youmee Lee, Sara Stallard, Cristina Hartmann, Jenna Fischtrom Beacom, and Charlie Ainsworth.]
Alex: The program coordinator is Cynthia Weitzel, a deaf artist who has a year-round studio space at the Anderson Center. She explained that in 2011, she became a part of the artist community in Red Wing and was inspired to create a space for deaf artists.
Cynthia Weitzel: I was invited to join the artist community in 2011. I developed a strong relationship with the director and everyone involved here. I observed the interactions between artists, writers, poets, performers, and scholars from all over the world who came here for a month-long residency, which took place from May to October, with new groups coming through each month. I was able to meet so many people and share things with them. It was so cool and beneficial. But I thought — where is a deaf residency program? So I did some research, and there was none here in the U.S. There are over 500 residency centers and programs of various types in the U.S., but none are deaf-friendly. So I had a chat with the executive director here at the Anderson Center, and they immediately agreed for us to write grant applications for funding. We sent them out and we got support from the National Endowment for the Arts. They’ve been supporting us since the program's founding in 2014.
Alex: This year’s cohort, the fourth in DAR’s history, was supposed to meet together in 2020, but it was delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the residents, Youmee Lee, said she and other artists had experience with residency programs, but that this was the first deaf-centered residency for her and others.
Youmee Lee: We as a group still keep in touch after residency. I felt more connected compared with my other residency experiences with hearing people. This deaf residency program is so different. In hearing residency programs, I would usually meet hearing artists and exchange information, which I do like, but it can be superficial because there isn’t that deep interaction. We would just focus on our work. That’s my observation of what hearing residents typically do, short conversations with most of the focus on work. They have an easy time with communication in everyday life, so they can take it for granted. But for deaf artists, we create those connections with deep conversations in which we have shared experiences. At the same time, I’m a BIPOC person, so it was important for me to bring my experiences to the table so they could learn. It was the same with Cristina, who is DeafBlind, as she brought different viewpoints. It helped us all learn more.
Alex: The DAR had one awesome perk for artists — a chef-cooked dinner every weeknight who also did all the grocery shopping. This afforded the group an opportunity to have a dinner table conversation after spending the day in their own artist spaces.
Alex: Cristina, a DeafBlind writer, described what a day felt like in an emailed statement.
[Full-screen text with an image of Cristina sitting on a chair and typing]
Cristina Hartmann: “As the early riser in the group, I always made the first pot of coffee before getting to work. It was pretty quiet during the day as we worked. Sometimes we’d cross paths, the residents identifying themselves to me using Protactile, and we’d have quick chats. The real fun came at dinnertime, where I would chat with my neighbor, sometimes for hours. My phone was constantly buzzing with texts in our group thread as we exchanged ideas and made jokes…”
[Sponsored Video from Convo: https://www.convorelay.com/download]
Alex: In this year’s DAR program, four of the artists were writers, while one was a mixed-media artist. At the end of their residency, they gave a capstone presentation.
Cristina’s project was a short story called “The Helping Hand,” which is about a DeafBlind woman going out for coffee and meeting a hearing-sighted man who tries to help but makes a mess out of things. She said she did this project to explore the sometimes complicated and contradictory nature of trying to help out others.
Sara Stallard created ASL-centered stories and created ceramic sculptures of ASL handshapes.
Charlie Ainsworth worked on a five-act screenplay for a movie about a deaf boy’s journey.
Jenna Fischtrom Beacom worked on a novel based on her experiences of becoming deaf as a teenager and a project to revive #DeafinMedia.
Youmee created a ceramic jar zoetrope that had several faces carved around it so when you spin it, it’ll move like an animation.
[Video clip showing Youmee’s zoetrope jar being spun around with carved faces opening and shutting its eyes and mouth] Source video: https://www.instagram.com/p/CRKL8yOlqiK/
Credit: Instagram/youmeelee
Alex: Youmee also did an experimental ceramic animation film that consisted of tiles with carvings of handshapes signing deaf idioms, such as pei pei or bing. Youmee said she wanted to make the animation tactile and accessible to Cristina.
[Video clip showing a series of tiles with carvings showing hands in various handshapes: ASL idioms in order:
Abstract, Pei-pei, Bing, Telepathy, Heart blossom, Speechless / Whoops / Gotcha ]
[Full-screen image of Cristina touching the tiles as they are laid out on a table]
Alex: I asked Cristina what this meant to her.
[Full-screen text with corner image of Cristina]
Cristina: “It means that we are rethinking how we interact with art. So much of what we call art is for the eyes only, kept behind glass and ropes. Youmee is thinking beyond that and creating art that we can interact with using multiple senses…”
Alex: Cynthia said applications for the next iteration of the DAR will open this fall for June 2022. She hopes that in the future, the DAR program can be an annual thing rather than a biannual event. You can check out the DAR website for more information.