A decorative text graphic with Forecast Public Art's logo reads Artists As Witness, Grants for Minnesota artists & culture bearers who are bearing witness"

The 44 Artists as Witness Grant Recipients

Thank you to everyone who applied for Artists As Witness grants for Minnesota artists and culture bearers who are bearing witness

Applications closed at 11:59pm on February 8, 2026

The response to Artists as Witness has been extraordinary. Within the first day, we received significant interest from artists, reflecting both the urgency of this moment and the deep care artists and culture bearers across Minnesota are bringing to their communities.

This incredible response affirms how essential artists’ witnessing and documentation are right now. We are grateful to every artist who has shared their work and trust with us.

These grant recipients are sharing community stories through a full-length play, a short-form documentary, zines and collaborative videos, as well as documenting mutual aid and support networks, marking places where ICE agents took people, holding space for community to tell their stories, making visible underreported impacts of the ICE occupation, preserving social memory through poetry, creating a community-centered portrait series, and much more.

We are humbled to announce this incredible group of artists selected to receive a total of $44,000 in Artists As Witness grants:

Aaliyah Henrie    Abdimalik Ahmed    Akiko  •  Alex Barreto Hathaway  •  Anniessa Antar, Avery LaFlamme, and Serena Violet Hodges  (team)  •  Anonymous (2)  •  Antonio Duke    Ashawnti Sakina Ford    Binta Kanteh    Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo Charlie Andrés    Constanza Carballo    Crystal Sokuu    Darius Dotch    Drew Arrieta  •  FM People’s Pride Art Collective     The Ghost Shoe project  •  Grover Hogan    Jamie Capps    José A Luis    José Felipe Ozuna    Juan Diego Perez La Cruz    Kassie Bradshaw Kmitch    Katie Ka Vang    Klo Vivienne Garoute    Kyle Tran Myhre    Lara Mimosa Montes  •  Loren Niemi  •  Mai’a Williams    Martha Essi Sykes     Minna    Mounisha Gorle and Gautham Vijayasankar Raja (team)    Nedahness Rose Greene  •  Ngân Elic Huỳnh   Nia Navarro    Nimo H. Farah  •  Noval Noir    Tall Paul, Haley Day Rains, Uzoma Ngwu, Mike Owens, Wendie Owens, Samara Jones, Faith Phillips, Natalia Poteryakhin, and Marcy Price Jackson (team)  •  Sagirah Shahid   Shankaron Hassan  •  Udeshi  •  Wei Vivian Lu  •  

We congratulate these grantees, and share gratitude for the important work they are doing. We look forward to witnessing and amplifying their stories.

In moments like this, bearing witness is a democratic act. This is one small act among hundreds of the beautiful work happening on the ground with neighbors helping neighbors across our state. Supporting artists who are doing that work matters.

Grant recipients

Presented alphabetically by first name; check back for more info in the coming months

Aaliyah Henrie

Abdimalik Ahmed

Akiko

Alex Barreto Hathaway

Anniessa Antar, Avery LaFlamme, and Serena Violet Hodges

Anonymous

Community Visibility and Education
Support for a series of videos being created in collaboration with others covering what’s happening with DHS/ICE violence in affected communities in Minnesota, and to educate affected communities.

Anonymous

Antonio Duke

Ashawnti Sakina Ford

Binta Kanteh

Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo

Charlie Andrés

Constanza Carballo

Crystal Sokuu

Darius Dotch

Drew Arrieta 

FM People’s Pride Art Collective

Isabetta Bleu, Margaret McKenzie-Ray, Melina Holtzer-Benitez, Logan S

The Ghost Shoe project 

Laura Migliorino, Anthony Marchetti, Melissa Borman, Chavonn Williams Shen, Luis Fitch

The Ghost Shoe project was started by a small cohort of creative practitioners to create a remembrance project for the ICE siege Minnesota endured in the winter of 2026. The artists are Melissa Borman, Laura Migliorino, Anthony Marchetti, Chavonn Williams Shen, and Luis Fitch. This core group represents a broad spectrum of creatives in our state, many are recipients of McKnight and Jerome awards, Minnesota State Arts Board funding, and other prestigious awards. We are Queer, straight black, white and brown; we are citizens of Minnesota. The group represents publishing and exhibiting both locally and worldwide but most importantly this project belongs to everyone and will expand and invite participants from all walks of life. While we may be the ones who established the idea it is not about us, it’s about the resistance movement within our communities.

ICE Ghost Shoes 26: A Remembrance will mark the places where ICE agents have kidnapped /arrested people and mark it with a pair of shoes/boots including children’s shoes. This is a remembrance project to never forget what we witnessed.

Grover Hogan

Jamie Capps

José A Luis

José Felipe Ozuna

Juan Diego Perez La Cruz

Kassie Bradshaw Kmitch

Kassie Bradshaw Kmitch is an archaeologist and digital archivist who is documenting the art of protest in the twin cities. She has been using photogrammetry to conserve street art as a form of protest since the 2020 lynching of George Floyd. She has been documenting the resistance movement against the fascism of Trump’s second Presidency since January 2025. Currently, she is documenting the art of protest during Operation Metro Surge (Dec 2025-present) and has been legally observing ICE actions in the Twin Cities. Photographs and 3D scans can be found on her website: www.digitizemsp.com

Katie Ka Vang

Klo Vivienne Garoute

Kyle Tran Myhre

The resource zine from Kyle Tran Myhre gathers everything that the artist found himself sharing during the surge, with a special focus on the ways that artists and culture workers showed up (and continue to show up) to support our communities.

These include invitations into the work, action ideas, a list of links for artists and writers, favorite poems and essays from Minnesota voices, and more.

The zine is meant to be useful—both to people in Minnesota doing this work, and to people preparing in other communities.

He’s since shared copies of the zine everywhere from the Netroots Nation conference, to the Immigrant Defense Network’s Midwest Summit, to dozens of performances, workshops, trainings, and beyond. Find both the digital version and a PDF to print/fold/share your own at guante.info/try.

Lara Mimosa Montes

Loren Niemi

Mai’a Williams

Marcie Rendon

We Are Still Here
When everyone was ditching facebook, I asked a Lakota activist if he was leaving. He said, ‘no, the ndns are all on fb’. So I stayed. I consistently post on fb, write stories, create witness writing, and will continue to do so. The finished project will be a collection of fb posts, written work, photos and interviews.

Martha Essi Sykes

Minna

Mounisha Gorle, Gautham Vijayasankar Raja

Ne-Dah-Ness Rose Greene

Ngân Elic Huỳnh

Ngân Huỳnh is a Vietnamese illustrator based in Minneapolis. Ngân graduated from MCAD with an Illustration degree. As a lover of mythology, fairy tales, and family oral storytelling, Ngân’s illustration and design focus on what it’s like to turn everyday moments into a mesmerizing story that captivates you like how a fairy tale did when you were young. As a child of deep family roots in the heart of South Vietnam, they want to highlight cultural heritage and have a piece of their identity in all of their work, no matter how small or big. Ngân is the designer / illustrator of many publications, such as Blue Marble Review Anthology Volume Two, Paranoid Tree Press, and most recently, When We’re Under the Same Roof—their debut children’s book!

Nia Navarro

Nimo H. Farah

Noval Noir

Tall Paul, Haley Day Rains, Uzoma Ngwu, Mike Owens, Wendie Owens, Samara Jones, Faith Phillips, Natalia Poteryakhin, & Marcie Price Jackson

An illustration depicts the close up of a person's head and shoulders being slammed to the ground by another person's arm

Shankaron Hassan

Sagirah Shahid

Sagirah Shahid is a Black American Muslim poet from Minneapolis, MN. She is a 2015-2016 recipient of a Loft Literary Center mentorship award in poetry. Her poetry and prose are published in Mizna, About Place Journal, Paranoid Tree, Prose Online, and elsewhere.

Udeshi

Wei Vivian Lu

Thank you to our generous donors

for supporting twenty-four of these Artists As Witness grants for Minnesota artists

A logo for the MN Arts Rise and Response Fund featuring a blue state of Minnesota with a white Rebel Loon icon and the words Arts Organizations Serving Community

•  MN Arts Rise and Respond Fund

•  Sally Karioth

•  Amanda Thompson

•  Anonymous

•  Brinsley Davis

Overview

Artists As Witness: Grants for Minnesota Artists and Culture Bearers who are bearing witness

Forecast awarding 20 grants of $1,000 each

To our Minnesota community: we support you, and we are with you in solidarity. Like so many Minnesotans, we are heartbroken, angry, and shaken by what our communities are living through. We also see the strength of community and the power of love and creativity among neighbors. We didn’t ask for this chaos, but we will fiercely stand up for one another today and every day. Alongside you, we mourn the killings of our neighbors, including Keith Porter in Chicago and poet Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. 

Artists and culture bearers, we see you in this moment. Through your voices, bodies, stories, and presence, you are on the front line of courage and care in our communities. You are helping people stay connected, grounded, and human. We see you showing up in the cold, documenting, feeding, comforting, creating spaces to gather and grieve. We see you showing us what democracy looks like in real time, standing up for freedom of expression, peaceful protest, and the right to disagree and dissent. You are standing up for truth and pushing back against racism, misinformation, and hate, reminding us that democracy depends on our ability to see one another in our shared humanity and resist division. 

We want to support the courageous artists who are bearing witness to what is happening to Minnesotans. Because of you, history will not forget this moment.

Applications are now closed

Applications closed at 11:59pm on February 8, 2026

Starting January 21, 2026, Forecast is offering 20 small grants, of $1,000 each, to Minnesota-based artists and culture bearers who are documenting what is happening to their communities, countering disinformation and telling the lived, human stories and strength of Minnesota’s people. This documentation and storytelling is critical. What happens in Minnesota now, will be lessons for others around the country and the world.

Artists may work in writing, photography, video, design, dance, murals, sound, music, visual art, or other creative forms. We know there are risks in telling the truth so the work may be public or private, shared widely or held close. If you give us permission, we will share your stories/creative works on our digital platforms, including our social channels and our free FORWARD publication, which amplifies the power of artists to address the most pressing issues of our time.

This opportunity is for Minnesota artists and culture bearers who are:

  • Witnessing what is unfolding in their own communities
  • Documenting lived experience of this moment, so it is not erased or misrepresented
  • Countering misinformation, racism, and narratives meant to divide Minnesotans
  • Telling stories that affirm dignity, hope, connection, and our shared humanity 

In moments like this, bearing witness is a democratic act. Supporting artists who are doing that work matters.

How Applications Will Be Reviewed

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and grants will be awarded until all available funds are allocated. Due to limited resources, we regret that we are not able to fund every application.

We will prioritize proposals that demonstrate:

• a clear connection to lived experience in Minnesota, including the artist’s own community, relationships, or direct witnessing
• a thoughtful intention to bear witness to this moment
• care, integrity, and responsibility toward people and communities involved
• timely work that can reasonably be carried out with a $1,000 grant

In this moment, we are especially interested in work that bears witness to experiences of communities closest to harm, including immigrant, refugee, Native, youth, and other communities facing heightened risk, displacement, or erasure.

No single discipline, format, or aesthetic will be prioritized.

Our goal is to get funds to artists as quickly as possible, so they can bear witness in their communities now.

All applicants will be notified within one week of applying and payments will be made in full within one week of signing the grant agreement. Applications will be reviewed by a three-member panel, including staff, artist, and advisor.

Please note: if we can’t fund you now, we can offer technical assistance, guidance or connections to other resources.

We can fund 20 projects at this time, but are seeking additional funding partners to help us grow the amount of available funds. Please note: if we can’t fund you now, we can offer technical assistance, guidance or connections to other resources.

Find more Relief

Emergency Relief Fund – Metro Regional Arts Council

Artists Respond: Safety in Neighbors – Springboard for the Arts

DONATE TO THIS FUND

If you’re able, please help us reach even more artists with a donation to launch a second grant cycle, reaching 20 additional public artists (40 total), and their communities.

You can donate at our GiveMN page (include a dedication to “Artists as Witness grants”), or send a check with “Artists as Witness grants” on the memo line to:

Forecast Public Art
2380 Wycliff Street, Suite 200
St. Paul, MN 55114

Questions?

Contact Theresa Sweetland at theresa-at-forecastpublicart.org