Two Art Department Staff Win Scandinavian Folk Arts Fellowships
The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) has announced that Technology Administration Technician Sonja Peterson (MFA '09) and Foundry, Sculpture, and Wood Shop Technician Paul Linden (BFA '99) are among a cohort of artists and makers who have been awarded Scandinavian Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions Grants.
ASF provides support for living Scandinavian folk arts and cultural traditions in the Upper Midwest (North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Broadly defined, folk arts are expressions of community identity and values. They are cultivated informally among individuals by word of mouth or example. Whether practicing a traditional craft, art, technical or occupational skill; performing music or dance; or marking important moments of life or the year with special foods or customs, folk arts are deeply rooted in community life. They foster human creativity and transmit cultural values that affirm community ties.
ASF is committed to celebrating and preserving Nordic (Denmark, Greenland, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sápmi, Sweden) cultures throughout the United States. By supporting folk arts and traditional cultures in the Upper Midwest, in particular, ASF recognizes and celebrates the mastery of individual artists or practitioners, facilitates the cultivation of skills and understanding among younger generations, brings greater visibility to living Scandinavian arts and traditions, and highlights the centrality of cultural expression to all of our lives.
Sonja Peterson, who works primarily in large-scale hand-cut paper installations, will travel to Denmark this summer to research and develop new work that will combine the psaligraphy (paper cutting) technique freehand blade-cutting she uses with the symmetrical scissor-cutting in future large-scale work. This will also provide research for a workshop for small-scale psaligraphy in the tradition of Gaekkebrev — teaser letters which combines folding and cutting.
Paul Linden is a craft activist and a practitioner of Slöjd, an approach to handcraft that emphasizes an acute knowledge of tools, materials, and the local environment. He will travel to Sweden this summer to spend a week with renowned woodworker Beth Moen learning the techniques of traditional cooperage, the process of making staved wooden buckets and containers. Then he will travel to Motala to work in the blacksmith shop of Hans Karlsson and his sons, who are among the best tool-makers in the country.
