ARTIST IN RESIDENCE | APRIL-MAY 2017
FUSION AIR / Artist-In-Residence Program presents
LAINE CUNNINGHAM (USA)
Author and Publishing Consultant / Winner of five national awards

Laine Cunningham's novels interweave social, cultural, historical, political and spiritual movements that have occurred within different groups and at different times. These elements engage readers in discussions of how similar forces have changed or are changing the contemporary world ... and what might be in our future. When individuals recognize how large issues build over time from multiple small steps, they recognize that everyone can foment change.Laine's work has won multiple national awards, including the Hackney Literary Award and the James Jones Literary Society Fellowship. The Hackney Award was received by Horton Foote and William Styron, placing Laine in the ranks of Pulitzer Prize-winning authors.
She has received dozens of fellowships and residency slots from programs like the Jerome Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, Wildacres Center for the Humanities, Arte Studio Ginestrelle in Assisi, Italy, and the Takt Kunstprojektraum in Berlin, Germany. In spring of 2017, she will be in residence for two months at Fusion Art in Turin, Italy, and one month at Takt's Leipzig location.
Four completed novels, one of which is the first in a series that is
Station Eleven for historical readers, are available.
Several nonfiction books are available. These include Woman Alone, a memoir for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love and ​Cheryl Strayed's ​Wild. 
Laine Cunningham is an accomplished ghostwriter and publishing consultant with 20 years of experience.

www.lainecunningham.com

Honors and Awards

Residency, Takt Kunstprojecktraum, Leipzig, Germany Jun 2017
Residency, Fusion Arts, Turin, Italy Apr/May 2017
Hackney Literary Award for the Short Story, Mar 2017
Writer's Digest Book Award for Reparation, 2016
Reading, Hambidge Center, Nov 2016
Residency, Hambidge Center Nov 2016
Exhibition, Tapir Gallery, Berlin, Germany Sep 2016
Reading, Tapir Gallery, Berlin, Germany Aug 2016
Residency, Takt Kunstprojecktraum, Berlin, Germany Jul/Aug 2016
Wildacres Residency Apr 2016
Exhibition, International Artists, Assisi, Italy Dec 2015
Arte Studio Ginestrelle Residency, Assisi, Italy Nov 2015
The Rensing Center Residency Feb/Mar 2014
Anderbo Book Award Top Three Dec 2012
Blowing Rock Residency Jul 2011
Carolina Woman Magazine Award, Essay 2011
Vermont Studio Center Residency Nov 2006
VSC Fellowship and Grant Nov 2006
Wildacres Residency Mar 2005
Hackney Literary Award for the Novel, Mar 2005 
Reading, Birmingham Southern College, Mar 2005
Writer’s Digest Award, Short Story Nov 2003
James Jones Literary Society Fellowship Oct 2003
Career Opportunity Grant Jul 2002
Cornucopia Arts Residency Nov 2001
Jerome Foundation Fellowship Nov 2001
New York Mills Residency May 2000
Jerome Foundation Fellowship Apr 2000
Writer’s Digest Award, Short Story 1999
Writer's Digest Award, Feature Article 1998
Focus on Writers Award, Memoir 1998 
Focus on Writers Award, Poetry 1998

ART AND ARTIST MANIFESTO

1. Art—visual, literary, performance, digital and etc.—has the ability to change perspectives, people, societies and lives, and should be treated with the deep respect it deserves.

2. Artists, as the creators of something that has the power to change perspectives, people, societies and lives, should be honored for the sacrifices they make on behalf of those people and their perspectives, their societies, and their lives.

3. All countries should follow the examples of Denmark and Sweden and provide annual stipends equivalent to a living wage to support artists in the pursuit of the skills and abilities needed to craft quality work. 

4. Art is empowering, passionate and fun, and a full range of courses should be offered in every public school as part of the academic curriculum.

5. Art is food for the mind, the heart, and the soul, and every citizen should have access to the arts so that their hearts and minds and souls might not whither.

6. The creation of art takes time and effort and skill, so no artist should ever be expected to work for free.

7. Art fuels and is fueled by a society that values what is humane and compassionate and loving and magnificent in the human, creating an upward spiral of interchange and exchange in a humane and compassionate and loving and magnificent world.

8. Art is meditation.

9. Art is beauty, and beauty is found in the sacred and the secular, in the divine and the mundane.

10. Art is intrinsic to that which we are; therefore, we are art.

11. It would be fine, really, really fine, if certain artists (you know who you are) would commit themselves to getting up off their butts for six hours a week and actually create art rather than talk about how much they want to make art but their jobs, their lovers or their hamsters stand in the way.

12. Art requires thinking and developing and conceptualizing and visionary processes that require space and solitude and freedom in which to engage.

13. Art requires staid, steady work and volcanically explosive inspiration and loud, messy creative fugues that require the stability of a dedicated space in which to act.

14. Creating art is an act of kindness and devotion and true love.

15. Engaging with art is a conscious act that leads the audience into the creative fugue.

16. Art can be taken up at any point in life. It requires no expertise to begin.

17. Art can move audiences of any age. It requires no foreknowledge to achieve its resonance.

18. Art and artists depend on the efforts of administrators, donors, nonprofits, governments, and citizens to build and manage and maintain the infrastructures of the society that it enhances.

19. Art is a career choice that is as critical to the GDP as the STEM, service, and manufacturing industries.

20. Leave Elena Ferrante alone. Perhaps she stayed anonymous to preserve her ability to just write or to advance the buzz around her work or to boost sales of the works under her real name when she was inevitably revealed but women have enough problems with bias and prejudice in the arts world so just read her books, enjoy them or not, but leave Elena Ferrante alone. 

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