Newsletter September 2003
Winners of the Alberta Prize for Poetry are Rosemary Griggs (2003), Tina Brown Celona (2002) and Chelsea Minnis (2001). Winners of the Alberta Prize for Art are Wendy Wischer (2003), Tania Candiani (2002), Sarah Sze (2001) and Jean Lowe, Jacci Den Hartog and Elizabeth Talbot Scott (all 2000). Sponsors and supporters of the artists and poets to date are Fence Publishing, New York, NY; The Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Marion Boesky Gallery, New York, NY; Christopher Grimes Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; and Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA

2002 Celebration for Artists and Poets

On Sunday, May 4, 2002 the Alberta duPont Bonsal Foundation held a celebration for the poets and artists that have been named Alberta Prize winners. The event honored our most recent recipients for art and poetry in 2002, Tania Candiani and Tina Brown Celona. All of the previous poetry award winners and many of the art award winners travelled from all over the country to attend the party. The Cinco de Mayo Fiesta featured Mexican cuisine prepared by renowned Chef Emma Flores (below left) and a strolling Mariachi band at the home of Irene and Gough Thompson (party crowd shown at right). Guests included San Diego area museum directors and curators, gallerists, artists, writers and various patrons of the foundation. Tania Candiani's works greeted arriving guests and were exhibited throughout the Thompsons' home, along with an installation by Jean Lowe (Alberta Prize 2000) and Jacci Den Hartog (Alberta Prize 2000). Just before dinner was served, Tina Brown Celona initiated an interlude of poetry readings, followed by Chelsea Minnis (Alberta Prize 2001) and Rosemary Griggs (Alberta Prize 2003). Towards the end of the evening desserts were served, and Ms. Lourdes Torres Inzunza, inspired by the Mariachis, gave an impromptu serenade to the remaining guests.

Promoting the exchange between the literary and visual arts is one of the unique aims of the Alberta duPont Bonsal Foundation. The event showcased this union, which was one of the underlying currents of the whole weekend. Several of Tania's recent fabric pieces on display were inspired by verses from Tina's winning collection of poems, The Real Moon of Poetry. One of these works was used for the party invitation. The foundation also sponsored activities on the day before the party, bringing together the poets and artists in a more intimate setting. Saturday morning the poets headed down to Tijuana to visit Tania's studio and eat lunch (below right). In the afternoon, they came back across the border for a stop at Jean Lowe's studio in Encinitas. All enjoyed the opportuninty to discuss each other's work, and Chelsea Minnis was even moved to write a poem inspired by seeing Jean's studio, which she then read at the party the next evening. Tina was also very impressed with the artists' works, adding that she "could not imagine a more deserving person than Tania to have had the success she is beginning to enjoy thanks to the Foundation."

All in all, the event was well supported. Over one hundred individuals attended the party and even more sent in additional donations. Thanks to the generous contributions of supporters like you, the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta raised over $20,000. The foundation hopes that this will be the first of many such events, which not only raise money for future award recipients but bring together the two disciplines of art and poetry to be enjoyed by all.

Poetry News
We are pleased to announce that the recipient of the 2003 Alberta Prize for Poetry is Rosemary Griggs (pictured below). Her manuscript Sky Girl is being published by Fence Books and will be available in the upcoming fall.

The poems in Sky Girl provide a remarkable, lyric portrait of our ever-changing world as it is reflected by those who make their living in the skies above us. From far off and quite near, these poems observe with a kind but unstinting gaze the trials of the flight attendant, and provide an intimate look at the changing realities of life in the air after 9/11. These poems jet to parts known and unknown–Saginaw, Phuket, Isoka, Maui, a gateway, a layover, the great blue yonder–inspiring affection and sympathetic fear and loneliness wherever they travel. THe poems are as varied and exploratory–and often very funny–as they are deeply humane. Sky Girl is also, of course, and unusually timely and topical book of poems.

Rosemary Grew up in Illinois, received her BA in English from the University of Iowa and completed an MFA in Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Recently Rosemary Griggs' first play, "The Letter Witches" opened this winter in San Francisco at the Phoenix Theater. She has supported herself as a flight attendant for over six years.

Art News
The most recent Alberta Prize for Art recipient, Tania Candiani, is already enjoying continued success. She held an artist in residence post at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska this past summer. Located in an old factory in the market section of Omaha, the Bemis Center offers large studios, living quarters, a library and workshops to its residents. Tania was thrilled with the available materials and took the opportunity to focus on large-scale installations and wall pieces. She has now returned to her studio in Tijuana to continue her work.

For Tania's award, the foundation has elected to puchase two of her works and donate them to the San Diego Museum of Art. SDMA Curator of Contemporary Art Betti-Sue Herz participated in the selection of a pair of fabric wall hangings. El Novio y La Novia/Boyfriend and Girlfriend (at left and right) are two large portraits referencing marriage advertisements that appeared in a Mexican magazine in the 1950s. Each portrait has an accompanying text beneath that highlights each individual's strengths, likes and dislikes. The portraits and texts are detachable and may be interchanged with the profiles of different individuals, much like the pages of the periodicals from which these accounts were taken.

Other prior award winners are keeping busy as well. A new installation by Sarah Sze (Alberta Prize 2001) will be presented in the Whitney Museum of American Art this summer through October 9th. Sarah Sze: The Triple Point of Water combines the artist's trademark architectural accretions with natural and artificial vegetation to form an urban garden designed specifically for the Whitney's Sculpture Court. Jean Lowe (Alberta Prize 2000) has two solo exhibitions in the next several months. July 12 marked the opening of Empire Style at the Rosamund Felsen Gallery in Los Angeles. On September 13, Lowe kicked off the fall programming at the Kemper Center for Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri. Jean Lowe: The Course of the Empire takes its title from a series of paintings created by 19th century American artist Thomas Cole and will address many reoccuring themes in Lowe's work, from land development to animal treatment. Jacci Den Hartog (Alberta prize 2000) continues to work on her transformation of Angel's Flight Plaza in the Hillside area of Los Angeles. She has begun working closely with landscape architects to achieve her plan of integrating the park area with the surrounding urban fabric.

Many individuals have helped the foundation achieve its initial success, and a few have given particular support in selecting our first several art awards. In honor of the generous assistance of Lynda Forsha and Hugh Davies over the past three years, Gough and Irene Thompson have purchased four photographs and donated them to the collection of the Museum of Contemporeary Art, San Diego. The photographs are from Yvonne Venegas' series of wedding portraits of Tijuana's society set, which were recently featured in a solo exhibition at the MCASD's downtown location in conjunction with their Cerca series.