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The Oregon Arts Commission has recognized ten Oregon artists with Artist Fellowship awards of $3,000. The Commission's fellowships recognize outstanding work created by artists throughout Oregon, and consider both past achievement and future promise in the arts. This year, the program considered artists involved in literary and performing arts.

The purpose of the Commission's Fellowship program is to assist Oregon artists in their work. Artists may use the $3,000 fellowship grants to complete work in progress or embark on a new body of work, undertake research, study or travel, or experiment with new materials or media. Applications are reviewed by panelists who make recommendations for funding based on the quality of the artist's work as well as their record of sustained professional activity and achievement.

The artists selected for 2005 Fellowships are:

Background on each of the selected artists follows.

Linda Alper , Ashland. In 1980, Linda Alper joined the acting company of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where, for eighteen years, she has been a festival leading lady. Most recently, she won a West Coast Critics Award for her performance as Dr. Vivian Bearing in Wit. Also a theater translator and adaptor, Alper wrote the English script of Eduardo De Filippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday in partnership with Beatrice Basso. Alper also writes with OSF Artistic Associate, Penny Metropoulos, and dramaturg Douglas Langworthy. Their adaptation of The Three Muskateers has been performed by OSF and other Shakespeare theaters. Linda Alper earned a BFA in drama from The Juilliard School in New York City. She will use Fellowship funds to prepare for Tracy’s Tiger, a new chamber musical that she is co-writing for the OSF 2007 season, seeking artistic input from outside the region, traveling to New York City to experience OFF Broadway musicals and other theatrical performances.

Dariush Dolat-shahi , Portland.

Dariush Dolat-shahi began his study of traditional Persian music at age ten at the Tehran Conservatory of Music. He earned a bachelor degree from Tehran University, studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory of Music and at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, continuing his studies in electronic music at Columbia University where he received his doctorate degree. Dolat-shahi is a composer, lecturer and musician known for his improvisational work on the tar and setar. His performances have received critical acclaim nationally and internationally. Fellowship funds will support his October 2005 concert and CD recording with Persian drummer Pejmani Hadidi who performs on the daf and tombak.

Jackie Gabel , Portland.

Jack Gabel has been a musical composer and producer in Portland for over 25 years. He began primarily in a classical tradition, but has been writing more frequently for area choreographers. Throughout his career, he has expanded his repertoire with creative music works based on ethnic and ancient musical themes. He has continued his support of avant-garde music through the launching of an out-of-the mainstream recording label North Pacific Music. With an extensive catalogue of works to his credit, Gabel will use Fellowship funds to create an a chamber orchestral score for Agnieszka Laska Dancers.

Shelly Lipkin , Lake Oswego.

Shelly Lipkin is an actor who has performed with many Portland area theatres: Artists Repertory Theatre, Cygnet Theatre, Tygres Heart Shakespeare Company, Profile Tehatre and other. In 2002, he co-wrote Vitriol and Violets – Tales from the Algonquin Round Table which was recognized with an Oregon Book Award/Angus Bowmer Award for Drama in 2004. He received an Oregon Literary Fellowship and a Regional Arts and Culture Council project grant for the artistic development of Sylver Beaches. Lipkin will use Fellowship funds to further develop the artistic content of Sylver Beaches, with the goal of fully developing the play for submission to playwright festivals and workshops.

Judith H. Montgomery , Bend.

Judith Montgomery has been a freelance editor in Oregon since 1975, and was able to take her first poetry workshop in 1995. She has sought out study with poets she admires but critical to her success have been fellowships and residencies with Literary Arts, Caldera and Soapstone. Her poetry and prose look at the questions of time, passion, sacrifice and duty, especially in the developing lives of women. Montgomery received a BA from Brown University and an MA in English Literature and PhD in Ameircan Literature from Syracuse University. She will use Fellowship funds to make final revisions to her first full-length book, Red Jess (Cherry Grove Collections, September, 2005) and develop her next collection, Open Pose by spring/summer 2006.

Timothy Scott, Portland.

Timothy Scott, born in Broklyn, NY, attended the Juilliard School of Music and Sarah Lawrence College, studying cello with Maurice Eisenberg. After touring the US with Harry Chapin for two years, he moved to Portland to be a member of the Oregon Symphony. A well respected cellist, Scott has been an active member of many chamber music ensembles, summer festivals and as a soloist with the Oregon Symphony and other orchestras. In recent years he has performed chamber music with Chamber Music Northwest, Third Angle New Music Ensemble and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Scott has been given a large, valuable collection of rare cello music from 1880-1950 and will use Fellowship funds to catalog, preserve and make available the music from the collection to cellists and scholars.

Robin Stiehm, Jacksonville.

Robin Stiehm, is a dancer/choreographer in Jacksonville who has worked for more than 25 years as a dancer and choreographer in Minneapolis. Since 2002, she has been working to develop a dance training and professional program in Southern Oregon that is on a par with the excellent theater already present in the region. Stiehm is interested in expanding her own work as a choreographer by pursuing collaborations across artistic disciplines. She will use Fellowship funds to support a weekend of performances of her choreography in Ashland as well as the development of a full evening dance about the subjective nature of reality; that project will be a collaboration with visual artist Stacey Davidson.

Julia Stoops , Portland

Julia Stoops has been working on a character-driven novel for the past several years. An Associate Professor at Pacific Northwest College of Art, Stoops has been a practicing visual artist for over 15 years. Recently her artistic focus turned toward creative writing as she began work on a novel set in Portland about a group of idealists. Working closely with writing workshops and mentors, she has developed a strong voice in her writing coupled with excellent attention to detail. Stoops will use Fellowship funds to buy time to write, taking the Fall 2005 semester off to focus on writing.

Rhys Thomas , Portland

Rhys Thomas is a theatre artist whose main shows and smaller repertory pieces incorporate juggling and equilibristics (circus balancing effects) and intelligent, insightful narrative for a wide variety of audiences. Thomas’ “Science Circus” and “Gollyology” are two of his pieces which use circus tricks to teach Newtonian physics, examples of shows which he presents to thousands of students in the Pacific Northwest each year. Thomas is expanding his production to further the use of juggling and other circus acts performed to music to illustrate the complexities and imbalances of modern life. He will continue to tour his science and theatre shows nationally and internationally in 2005-2006 and will use Fellowship funds to perform a full theatre concert in the Portland area.

Minh Tran, Portland

Minh Tran arrived in Portland as a political refugee from Vietnam almost twenty-five years ago. A choreographer and dancer, Minh Tran has developed a choreographic style that fuses his early training in the Vietnamese Opera, later training in traditional Asian dance forms, and classical ballet and modern dance. His body of work expresses a strong sense of energy, time, space, human relationship and introspections. He received a BS in Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis from Portland State University and an MFA in Dance from the University of Washington. He will use Fellowship funds to produce a choreography/dance project, Fathom, which will be presented as a full evening performance in November 2005.

The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine Commissioners, appointed by the Governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The Arts Commission became part of the Economic and Community Development Department in 1993; in recognition of the expanding role the arts play in economic development and the financial well-being of the state. In 2003, the Oregon Legislature moved the operations of the Oregon Cultural Trust to the Arts Commission, streamlining operations and making use of the Commission’s expertise in grantmaking, arts and cultural information and community cultural development. More information about the Oregon Arts Commission is online at: www.oregonartscommission.org.

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Dated for freshness! Page last updated May 02, 2008