IN THE SP0TLIGHT:
ARTIST-IN-RESIDENCE
CHERYL DUNYE
Cheryl Dunye
The Walker Art Center recently received a significant grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts to fund Artists and Communities at the Crossroads, a series of artist residencies and related educational programs designed to engage more deeply the increasingly diverse and international audiences living within a two-mile radius of the museum. This grant was matched by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The Walker's Film/Video Department is pleased to host Cheryl Dunye as the first artist-in-residence to participate in this important initiative.

During spring/summer 1999, Dunye will be at the Walker to workshop her new film project Angel (working title). Her film incorporates the experiences of mother and daughter as documented in women's slave narratives, particularly Harriet Jacobs' Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Using both historical and fictional accounts from the lives of delinquent and incarcerated girls, Dunye focuses on her character's relationships to issues of race, class, and violence in her daily life, shedding light on the underside of American society and the criminal justice system that shapes her troubled existence.

Dunye's research for the film includes interviewing and videotaping women in Minnesota correctional facilities with the help of AMICUS, a nonprofit organization that partners with offenders and communities to build successful lives. During her second visit to the Twin Cities in May-June 1999, Dunye will workshop, stage, and film portions of her script with a small cast and crew comprised of inmates, actors, community activists, and local teens. Her residency culminates with a public screening of her new work that will be screened as part of a future Women in the Director's Chair/MN festival.

CHERYL DUNYE'S ARTIST RESIDENCY IS SUPPORTED BY A GRANT FROM THE PEW CHARITABLE TRUSTS AS PART OF THE ARTISTS AND COMMUNITIES AT THE CROSSROADS INITIATIVE, AND THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION.