Gülgün Kayim
Co-Founder
Gülgün Kayim an interdisciplinary theater artist, writer and teacher recognized for her work through numerous grants, awards and fellowships including a 2006 Creative Capital Foundation Grant, a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship (2004), Jerome Foundation Travel/study Grant (2002), a Minnesota State Arts Board Theater Fellowship (2001) and two MSAB Artist Assistance Grants (2004/2007) among others. With Skewed Visions she created The Hidden Room, part of the Days and Nights series (2006), also performed at the Walker Art Center and the International Festival of Movement and Dance, in Yaroslavl, Russia. She created two elements of The Car, adapted, designed and directed The House – both part of The City Itself Trilogy (2004); created The Orange Grove (2003), The Eye in the Door part two: Breakfast of Champions (1998) and Untitled #1 (1998).
Kayim’s work has been recognized and reviewed in local, national and international journals, newspapers and media and regularly appears on critics best of the year lists.
Kayim was a 2006 Walker Art Center resident artist, as part of “Open Ended: The Art of Engagement” exhibition featuring installations by Ralph Lemon and Rikritrivanya. She regularly works independently with writers at the Minnesota Playwright’s Center, theater practitioners Phillip Zarrilli and Ludmila Ryba - an ensemble member of Tadeusz Kantor’s Cricot 2- and with local dancers and visual artists.
From 1996-2000 Kayim was program coordinator of the Public Art on Campus and the Jerome/Lilly Temporary Public Art Commission programs at the Weisman Art Museum. She served as adjunct curator at Intermedia Arts’ Art Inside/Outside Space installation program (2003) and as director of the Minnesota Site-Specific Visible Fringe Festival (2004).
She is an affiliate faculty member in the Dept of Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota and holds an MFA in Theater Directing from the University of Minnesota, an MA in Theater Theory and Criticism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a BA (Hons) in Theater and Film from the University of Middlesex, London. She is the new Director of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy for the City of Minneapolis.
