Special Projects & Grants

Agnieszka Zając (@_agazart_ ). We came to know Agnieszka when she inquired about sponsorship of a special project involving collage and Polaroid photography.  Agnieszka is the founder and a curator of the Polaroid Collage Club a creative hub uniting all media collage artists working with Polaroid photography as a substrate. The Polaroid Collage Club can be found on Instagram (@polaroidcollageclub) where any artist across the globe can access a weekly Polaroid prompt. Artists use the prompt image as a starter to make a collage. Participants then post their works to a shared hashtag. She then selects a collage to be featured on the feed.  For World Collage Day 2022 she sent out 130 starter kits to artists all over the world. Each artist used the contents of their kits to create collages that were then submitted for an open call. A jury consisting of Agnieszka Zając and John Kennedy selected  20 collages to be placed in a postcard book. The Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection underwrote a portion of this project. 

Recently she has begun to facilitate a group that meets regularly to create collage. The outcome has been superb. Participants are experiencing wonderful strides in their artistic skills and overall well-being. We believe in the power of collage to support emotional health and general well-being. We recognize that when people gather regularly to collage the energy of the group and the power of collage creates a tender environment to combat loneliness and uplift souls. We are honored to support her work with this group. This gift grant will provide for materials for the participants and support Agnieszka Zając time as the facilitator. 

Agnieszka Zając Born in Poland, Agnieszka is now living in Plymouth (UK). She is a mixed media artist and collage illustrator. As an artist she is a lover of the retro and surreal. She is a self described paper hoarder and curious explorer of various collage techniques and styles. The key themes in her artwork are absence, solitude, family roots, love and femininity but most of all—constant study of the human soul, searching for lost and forgotten identities and vulnerability that comes with it.

You can view her work on Instagram @_agazart_ and @polaroidscollageclub

Morgan Bukovec (@morganbukovec) was selected in 2019 for our first international open call titled “Finding a Place of My Own”. Since that time the Collection acquired four additional works.

We have given Morgan a gift grant to support her current project titled, Service Industry Stitch Project (@serviceindustrystitchproject). The focus of this project is the documentation of words spoken to Morgan as she worked in the service industry. Morgan is on a mission to highlight the hardships experienced by those in the service industries and to investigate the power of words. She began to collage what had been said to her to expose the verbal abuse she endured. This is a common issue all over the world! By the time we offered to support her work Morgan had stitched-collaged more than 75 Guest Pads with the abusive statements. To encourage her to meet her goal of 100 pads we have underwritten the creation of the last 25 collages. 

Morgan describes the materials of her work as “tools of meditative resistance” and she has been tirelessly stitching to complete the project. It is a project of healing. The project is linked to her own processing of this vulnerable and deeply personal experience that has led to realization of inflicted trauma, anxiety, and PTSD. 

Morgan is using the power of her own artwork to carve a path of healing and create space for learning and productive dialogue. She views this project as a force of personal release, gaining an ownership over the words said to her by men, and discovering a powerful self ownership of her female form.

This grant will assist and support Morgan in completing her project and aligns with the mission of The Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection with its intent to be involved in the advancement of the medium, while supporting, uplifting, and validating contemporary art. The medium of collage is described as "assembling materials together," therefore, the Service Industry Stitch Project is considered collage, which aligns with The Kanyer's mission and dedication to the medium of collage and its advancement. 

Join her work. If you too experienced this abuse you can share what was said to you @serviceindustrystitchproject. 

Teri Henderson (@blackcollagist on Instagram) 

In efforts to expand the holdings of collages created by Black artists Teri Henderson was appointed one of three Curators of Selection for the Collection. In order to make her selections she recorded her discoveries on an Instagram page she titled @blackcollagists. This was the first time, to our knowledge, where an in-depth documentation on this platform of contemporary Black artists making collages had taken place. It became clear that a monthly gift grant would be made to Teri for her exceptional efforts. For a period of approximately eighteen months, starting in 2020, she received a monthly grant to support her work.

Fueled by the passion of her discoveries, she went on to establish a formal organization. The organization she founded is titled Black Collagists Arts Incubator, of which she is the Director. “Through the incubator we will document the historic relevance and growing prevalence of the Black Collage Art World,” says Henderson.

In the time Teri worked with the Collection it became clear that a book featuring her findings. An additional grant was made to support the curation of the book.  Black Collagist: The Book by Teri Henderson was published by Kanyer Publishing in December 2021. A hardcover version can be purchased on Amazon. The eBook version is available at the store here on this website. 

About Teri Henderson

Teri Henderson holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Texas Christian University. She is a curator, co-director of WDLY, and staff writer for BmoreArt in Baltimore, Maryland. Her work as co-director of WDLY addresses shrinking the gap between the spaces that contemporary artists of color inhabit and the resources of the power structures of the art world through the curation and artistic production of events. She is the Gallery Coordinator for Connect+Collect Gallery. Connect+Collect seeks to build relationships with Baltimore based artists and collectors in Baltimore and beyond. As a staff writer for BmoreArt she highlights the voices of Black, brown, queer and non-traditional artists and creatives. 

Teri formerly held a curatorial internship at Ghost Gallery in Seattle, Washington. She served as the Art Law Clinic Director for Maryland Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts. She has been published in the St. James Encyclopedia of Hip Hop Culture.

Henderson is the founder Black Collagists, an arts incubator designed to research and collect the work of Black collage artists internationally. She served as a Curator of Selection of Black collage for the Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection until November 2021. Her book Black Collagists: The Book, was published by Kanyer Publishing was released in December 2022. 

https://bmoreart.com/contributor/teri-henderson

KATIE BLAKE (@whatapageturner on Instagram) is a Doug + Laurie Art Collection gift grantee. This grant will be used to build out a suite of tools in SharePoint for the purpose of managing the Collection itself as well as related artists files, exhibitions, publications, art calls, initiations, and grant documentation. This suite of tools is to fulfill and maintain a core part of the Collection’s mission which is to archive the purchased and gifted works and is equally in support of their mission to develop a record for the study of collages created between 1980 to the present. This suite of tools will aid in maintaining an up-to-date website showcasing both the Collection and the works’ creators. The tools are driven by industry standard metadata and incorporate taxonomies such as the Art & Architecture Thesaurus (The Getty) and Library of Congress Subject Headings.

As part of managing these taxonomies the Collection recognizes that the industry terminology will not be extensive enough to encompass nor accurately describe the inventiveness of contemporary collage, so part of this tool suite will be to work with artists to capture terms they have assigned to their own work and retain those as part of a Collection data dictionary. Over time, and again as part of the Collection’s mission we hope to influence the industry thesauri with additions of the artist-driven lexicon.

Though this particular Collection mission will be ongoing, the initial grant work will be to capture all of the works held to-date. Following that effort, the tools will go on to be a constant part of the Collection’s mission to manage and prepare for future artist’s works as well as to be a direct and ongoing support of other Collection initiatives such as the Black Collagists Arts Incubator, publications underwriting, gift grantees, and open-calls for art.

About Katie Blake

Katie earned a Master in Library and Information Science (MLS) from the University of Washington (UW) and a Master of Science (MS) from Pratt Institute in Art History with a thesis focusing on Romare Bearden, Jaune- Quick-To-See Smith, and Della Wells “Myth and Materiality in Contemporary Narrative Collage”. She also holds a Bachelor of Fine Art in printmaking from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. 

While in New York at Pratt, she interned at Barnard College’s Zine Library where she worked to update a portion of their catalog records as well as researched and curated a small exhibit, “ReVision: Zines and Collage” (catalog is available via this link & Issuu.com), the American Folk Art Museum where she worked in The Museum System to assist in updating exhibition records and with their publications department on a project comparing citations and assisted the Free Music Fridays director, and The Frick Collection Art Library. While at UW Katie interned with the Rare Book and Book Arts curator at their Special Collections Library where she assisted with two exhibits: “A Passion for Word & Image: Books by Enid Mark” (March 2007) and “Capturing Color: The Don Guyot Decorated Paper Collection” (July 2006). Additionally, Katie worked as a student digital initiatives technician both under supervision and independently working on CONTENTdm digital databases: Decorated Papers, Modern Book Arts. In this job she was responsible for writing and editing their data dictionaries; developing, entering and reviewing standardized metadata against national standards using AAT, VRA Core (3.0) as well as begin to build internal taxonomy using vocPuppy (by Webchoir); conducted in-depth research on the history of decorative paper for metadata and support essays, artists’ books -their creation, artists and historical contexts. This work resulted in those collections being published the UW’s digital collections:

Essay: Marbled Papers https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/essay1.html 

Essay: Paste Papers https://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/essay2.html 

Decorated and Decorative Paper Collection http://content.lib.washington.edu/dpweb/index.html 

Katie has an active role in the international collage community as part of Flying Glue Book Project, Add and Pass facilitated by Geronimo Finn, Neo Exquisite Corpse, Sabine Remy’s Identical Twins project, Target Practice First 100 Days and {the ink} publication by Aaron Beebe.

Collage maker KELLY SCHAUB (@powonwheels) is the recipient of The Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection’s gift grant, for providing scholarship funds to make Collage Lab 101, an online course, more accessible during these times of global pandemic and economic uncertainty. Laurie Kanyer discovered Kelly’s collage work through last year’s Kolaj Fest Purchase Award call for artists.

 Kelly founded collage-lab.com earlier this year and is building this website as a resource for collage artists around the world. Since its inception, Collage-Lab (@mycollagelab) has organized a Quarterly Collage Scrap Exchange and Online Exhibit, shared a free online course with over 200 artists, hosted a virtual collage materials scavenger hunt, presented monthly online collage Play Dates, hosted an international call for collage artists – resulting in 2 volumes of “Art Doesn’t Have to Match Your Sofa”, created a year-long online course about various collage techniques, and built a supportive Facebook Group for collagists. 

 Collage Lab 101 is the next online course offering – scheduled for October 18-30, 2020, and presented via a series of Facebook Live sessions, in a private Facebook Group. The course is designed for those who have never taken a formal collage class. These Facebook Live sessions will cover all of the basics of materials, techniques, and creating your own palette of unique collage papers. Participants will take their collage art to the next level with simple composition exercises and dive into the endless array of possibilities with mixed media collage.

The course will include at least 8 hours of live instruction, the private Facebook group for sharing and asking questions, downloadable handouts, instructor feedback and a series of exercises to teach and challenge.

“I love teaching collage because it is so accessible,” she says, “anyone can begin cutting and pasting, and supplies can be very basic.” The scholarship funds, provided by the Kanyer Collection, and personally matched by Kelly, will be used to make this class financially accessible, too.

Scholarship requests will be taken at www.collage-lab.com through October 8, 2020. Applicants will be notified of their status within 48 hours of applying. Selected applicants will then register for the course, using a scholarship discount code, which will be provided.

About Kelly Schaub

A theatre artist and administrator for over 30 years, collage maker Kelly Schaub moved to Rockport, Texas, in 2017, just in time for Hurricane Harvey. With a focus on mixed media collage, she works primarily with vintage ephemera and one of a kind painted papers. You will find her leading Collage Workshops and participating in exhibits around the area. For World Collage Day 2019, she hosted Local Glue – a community collage collaboration. She recently expanded her reach by creating Collage-Lab.com – an online resource for collage artists everywhere.

 She says, “I love the accessibility of collage. This is why I teach – no preconceived notions, no “I can’t draw/I can’t paint” excuses. The materials lead the process. My vintage materials lead to narratives and my abstract work focuses on color, composition, and movement. With a background in live theatre, I love the ephemeral aspect of vintage collage materials. Two main influences from the theatre world continue to guide my work in collage. First, there is the ephemeral aspect of a theatre experience. Each performance is different and will never be duplicated exactly ever again. Second is the collaborative nature of the theatre, where artists with a range of skill-sets come together to enhance and strengthen each other’s work. The audience is collaborator, too, often heightening the experience and informing the transient nature of the art. Analog collage is one-of-a-kind. And collage is an art form that easily allows for collaboration.”

New Jersey collagist JASMINE DIANNE ROMANI-ROMERO has received a gift grant to create a collage docuseries based on Incan mythological figures while exploring concepts of her heritage as a Peruvian-American.

Although she was born and raised in the United States, the culture she inherited from her Peruvian parents will inform the work. She said she will study and delve into concepts of colorism in her culture to uplift indigenous bodies and highlight the indigenous Quechua language. Specifically, each collage will be accompanied by a video of its creation in which she documents and speak about her material gathering process, show the actual collaging process, and how I apply finishing touches, she said. There will be five colleges and five videos total.

As “Primcess” on Instagram, she is inspired by music and magic to create whimsical works that explore spontaneous play, ideas of beauty to highlight self-transformation while borrowing from various mythologies, including her own indigenous Peruvian heritage.

Collage allows her to act with purity, looseness, and vulnerability. She sees art as an extension of the human spirit, and to create it, an act of magic in itself. For her, the concept of art making is entangled in the concept of magical thinking, in which we will ourselves to manifest certain feelings, desires, and outcomes in our lives through intentioned actions. For Jasmine, collage is a medium that taps into one's highest self. It is unrestrained and requires nothing from the artist but will, curiosity, and fascination.

About Jasmine Dianne Romani-Romero

Jasmine Dianne Romani-Romero is a 25-year-old Peruvian-American collagist from Hollywood, Florida working in Jersey City, New Jersey, under the name Primcess. Her parents are from Lima and Huachocolpa in Peru. While she is the only one in her family born in the States, she is bilingual and predominantly of indigenous Andean descent.

Her interest in art began with illustration in childhood. Cartoons, comics and early internet aesthetics were her catalysts, and pencils and paper were her two main tools; she focused on learning how to draw the human body, as well as learning to manipulate it through cartooning. Around her last years of high school, she began painting acrylic portraits of women in the midst of spiritual transformation. Her first small art show exhibiting these paintings was held at the Downtown Hollywood ArtWalk in Young Circle circa 2012.

In her college years, she moved away from painting and illustration as main mediums and delved into photography. Eventually, her love of music led her to become a college radio DJ at Florida International University’s WRGP. She took on co-hosting The Pipeline, a local music radio show and occupied her time as an amateur music photojournalist and creative photographer. Eventually, after creating several documentaries featuring local bands in the Miami music scene as well as assisting in producing award-winning music videos in 2016 with Backyard Cinema Club, she looked to take on a different kind of art form. 

In 2017, she began collaging a series of works on envelopes and packaging that led to her first solo show in Jersey City at the former Hudson County Art Supply, entitled (hidden). The show was held in January 2019, nearly a year after having moved out of Florida. Since then, she has exhibited her collage work at Jersey City City Hall for JCAST, SMUSH Gallery and Six Columns Gallery. In January 2020, she founded Vision Coven (formerly known as Jersey City Collage Club), a group dedicated to collage, and designed and curated a virtual online exhibit, IN CHRYSALIS, featuring the work of its members in April 2020. Her analog collage “Hope” was accepted into the Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection in June 2020. 

Currently, she is working on programming for Vision Coven, working as the official collagist for Sunstroke Magazine, contributing to Sumou Magazine, and pursuing her aspirations in becoming a tattoo artist and learning to speak Quechua. 

In the fall of 2020, Netflix Spanish language broadcasting Con Todo (@contodonetflix) approached Jasmine to create a series of four (4) analog collages to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. She was selected for the Netflix project among artists like Jenna Ortega(@jennaortega), Madison Reyes (@themadisonreyes, Rhenzy Feliz (@rhenzyfeliz) and Jharrel Jerome (@jharreljerome).

JENNIFER SAMPSON (@scissorsandstories) is the recipient of The Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection’s gift grant, which has underwritten her book, CUT IT OUT: Theatrical Set Collages. Laurie discovered Jennifer’s works on Instagram in April of 2020 and they began to discuss her unique way of working.

Jennifer is a collage artist with a 25+ year background in the theater. She directed and performed with theaters all across the country, most notably, The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where she was a graduate student. She was fortunate to work with several Tony Award-winning directors who influenced her future work as an actor, director and collage artist.

In 2017, Jennifer was sidelined by a chronic illness and began to story-tell exclusively through the medium of collage; some traditional paper-based and some, as Laurie Kanyer aptly named them, Theatrical Set Collages. It was the Theatrical Set Collages that most aligned with the Collection’s mission to elevate unique modalities of collage.

“We are all storytellers at our core. My favorite thing is to facilitate the telling of a good story, “ Jennifer said. “Regardless of the materials used, each collage I create is meant to spark a story in the mind of the viewer. I assemble the necessary props to support a story and leave an intentional title, hoping to spark something in the imagination of the viewer. The materials used range from paper, ribbon, golf pencils, food items, feminine products, hair curlers, vintage jewelry, etc. Any object is fair game. And, like the theater, after my Theatrical Set Collages are staged and photographed, they are struck. The props are stored for future use, or, as in the case of my husband’s bow tie, returned to their rightful owner. Creating traditional paper based assembled collages and Theatrical Set Collages has been a wonderful way to continue staging stories in the midst of illness and this current global pandemic. All the world’s a stage and we need to continue to tell stories.” 

“I was so pleased that my work spoke to Laurie Kanyer and she was kind enough to reach out to me. Her friendship and support have shifted everything, and I’ll be forever grateful,” she said.

Her book Cut It Out, Theatrical Set Collages came out September 2020 and is available on Amazon for purchase.

About Jennifer Sampson

Jennifer Sampson worked as a freelance theatre artist with several theatres and schools in Chicago, Denver, San Diego & New York City. She received an MFA from the University of San Diego/The Old Globe Theatre where she enjoyed working with several Tony Award winning directors. Jennifer directed and taught acting courses at The Dalton School, John Jay College of Criminology, The Youth Summer Theatre Institute of NYC, The La Jolla Playhouse and California State University, Bakersfield. She directed plays for Oklahoma State University, Fresno Pacific University, The Empty Space Theatre, Bakersfield College, and led shows in the gallery space at the Bakersfield Museum of Art and the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra. She is now devoted to her collage practice. 

KIKI BUCCINI

Collage will reach more people in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, thanks to work by New Jersey collagist KIKI BUCCINI and grant funding from the Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection. “Making and receiving art is therapeutic,” she said. “It will help people’s mental health during this pandemic. Making collages is an affordable and accessible way for people to do something positive and productive.”

People were not receiving what she called “happy mail,” so Buccini believed her “gift” collages would help change that trend.

The grant from Doug + Laurie Kanyer Art Collection strives to provide Buccini with the resources necessary to test her hypotheses related to making and sending “gift collages.”

“I began creating gift collages as a way to connect with friends who were far away, but it became more like a kind of visual affirmation — first for myself and then, subsequently, to the recipient,” Buccini said. “I found myself becoming emboldened and empowered through the process of creating just to create, without any expectations of a masterpiece collage.”

And her therapeutic intention extends beyond those who receive the gift collages in the end.

“I found something poetic about this practice, the inherent opportunity in making something and releasing it into the world,” she said. “I would think about the many hands the artwork would go through, from the postal workers to its final destination. By sending the artwork as a postcard, it became a public way to display a message to the many different people and places it traveled through.” 

During the grant period, she will make fine art collages and send them to essential workers and people in her own social circle while tracking both her and recipients’ responses. The overarching goal is to test the difference gift collages can make in both the maker’s and recipient’s lives.

In the end, Buccini hopes this research will lead to a formal program she plans to call “Art En Route.”

“I believe it will empower people to express themselves creatively through making collage art and will advance the medium of collage with people who may not have been exposed to it previously,” she said.

About Kiki Buccini

Kiki Buccini is a Jersey City-based collage artist who has shown at several art galleries over the past five years, namely Smush Gallery, Raven Art Gallery and Boutique, The Scandinavian Collage Museum and Jersey City’s Art and Studio Tour at Lackawanna Center. In 2018, she helped facilitate The Collage Garden’s NYC Exhibit with organizer Susan Lerner. She has been a member of the international Collage Club group on Instagram since 2016, as well as the newly formed Jersey City Collage Club.

Cutpasteface is the pseudonym Buccini uses for her collages. A lucid dreamer, empath and humanist, her subject matters are influenced by surrealism and social issues. Born and raised in the tri-state area of the United States, she has always been interested in how & why people from all walks of life are drawn to New York City. Her work attempts to take a crack at the human experience, the solitary paths we all must take; yet share in commonality the struggles and challenges we all face. As much as she observes and is curious with the outer world, her soul comes alive while creating in her own inner world. Her main medium is analog collage, but she has also used photography as a form of expression. With collage, it is a true form of meditation, usually nothing is preconceived or consciously thought out beforehand. Going through materials and being open, the image or message presents itself.

Previous Grant Recipients

Lucas Spivey, MBA, an artist and cultural worker who used his grant to explore a podcast called Culture Hustlers. Learn more about Lucas at  http://lucasspivey.com/.

Justin Klump, producer, songwriter and musician who used his grant to expand his production equipment in order to produce his own music and other music of others. Learn more about Justin at https://www.justinklump.com/.

Bill Brennan, artist Yakima Valley. Bill was awarded a residency underwritten by The Kanyer Art Collection in cooperation with Yakima Valley Museum. This residency entitled the artist to an exhibition, an artist catalog, and resources to cover the expense of materials to mount the exhibition. Yakima Valley Museum acquired a work by the artist for the permanent art collection.

Carolyn Nelson, artist Yakima Valley. Bill was awarded a residency underwritten by The Kanyer Art Collection in cooperation with Yakima Valley Museum. This residency entitled the artist to an exhibition, an artist catalog, and resources to cover the expense of materials to mount the exhibition. Yakima Valley Museum acquired a work by the artist for the permanent art collection.  

Tom Hauskins, artist Yakima Valley. Bill was awarded a residency underwritten by The Kanyer Art Collection in cooperation with Yakima Valley Museum. This residency entitled the artist to an exhibition, an artist catalog, and resources to cover the expense of materials to mount the exhibition. Yakima Valley Museum acquired a work by the artist for the permanent art collection.

Doug Johnson, artist Yakima Valley. Bill was awarded a residency underwritten by The Kanyer Art Collection in cooperation with Yakima Valley Museum. This residency entitled the artist to an exhibition, an artist catalog, and resources to cover the expense of materials to mount the exhibition. Yakima Valley Museum acquired a work by the artist for the permanent art collection.