In 2019, Bunnell Street Arts Center selected Berith Stennabb, a visual artist from Skovde, Sweden, for an 8-week residency in 2020 with support from the Alaska Community Foundation’s Grant for International Understanding as part of a reciprocal exchange with Skovde Museum. In turn Skovde Musuem selected Homer visual artist, Mandy Bernard for an 8-week residency in Skovde this fall. This exchange is made possible with a grant from the Alaska Community Foundation Irma Scavenius Memorial Fund for International Understanding (add link) Between Alaskans and Those of Other Countries. Both residencies are postponed  due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Berith is an art teacher, dancer, textile and performance artist interested in meeting and interacting with people from all walks of life. She creates interactive fiber installations featuring crochet and mixed media. A softspoken person, Berith’s interactions with people are subtle. She is a listener more than a leader but in her gentle approach she manages to inspire others to open up and personalize her art-making experiences. https://www.berithstennabb.se

“My current work is about power structures, communication, movement and identity. I am inspired by nature’s design and its importance and impact on all living beings. My transdisciplinary artistic work is based on hand-craft experience and an ongoing love story within the textile art field. I am driven by curiosity, and seek to enter new worlds. Those explorations often include motion, sound and visual expressions.”

Mandy Bernard utilizes textiles and fiber to navigate themes of communication and human connection to the natural environment. The consistent thread in her work is its repetitive and process-heavy nature. Working within textiles from a foundation in printmaking, pattern and duplicity are important aspects of her practice. Mandy Bernarddybernard.com/

Her current body of work revisits personal interactions that are translated through manipulated textiles, hand-tufted fiber sculptures, and surface pattern. The differing textures and mediums utilized in each piece suggest a dissonant exchange, while the final sculpture represents a conversation between two people, a question and an answer, a call and a response. She is particularly interested in how emotional isolation, estrangement, geographic distance, stubbornness, etc. limit humanity’s potential for valuable connection—and provokes the audience to consider how their own actions ultimately affect the strength of community bonds.