The Aiko Fellowship!

Yesterday I was informed that I was chosen to receive the 2009 Aiko Fellowship Award. It is a $5,000 project-based grant available to Book and Paper graduate students completing their first year. Each year an outside juror is selected to award the fellowship, which is awarded purely on how well the project is conceived and articulated.

To apply I submitted:
- A project proposal with budget
- resume
- images and slide list
- artist statement

My proposal Overview
I am interested in bringing together members of the Columbia College Book and Paper Department with residents of a Chicago neighborhood through a joint community garden. The garden plot would be dedicated to growing both fibers for papermaking and vegetables for the community. The communal space would act as a bridge between Columbia students and the surrounding community members while facilitating a connection with the land within an urban environment.

The Aiko Fellowship would be used to fund tools, soil, seeds, plot maintenance, a compost system and the fencing needed for the physical garden.

(I then go on for the next 3 pages to detail the collaborators and the sites with whom i have already been working, my vision for the garden, what will be grown, who will have access, and how it will be operated, maintained, how it will benefit the B&P department, how it will benefit the community, and my ultimate long term goals for the endeavor.)

Limited to B&P grad students finishing their first year, the applicant pool was pretty small (like 10apps max) but I still feel pretty darn proud to have been selected. After a very difficult first year in grad school full of self doubt and insecurity, this award came at just the right moment reassuring me I am in the right place doing what i should be doing.

Below is a version of the first flier i designed for the first meeting days. I got the image from all the old Victory Garden Posters from the 30s. Pretty cool stuff!