Marya Morstad

Marya Morstad is the host and producer of the weekly arts talk show,
"Art Matters". Listen to her live Friday mornings from 11-11:30am on KFAI-FM, or on line (shows are archived for two weeks).

Her latest project is in conjunction with mnartists.org, interviewing featured artists on line and in person through the Walker Art Center's McGuire Theater.

Winner of the Golden Reel Award forbest Local Documentary from the National Federation of Community Broadcasters NFCB (National
Federation of Community Broadcasters) conference in Albuquerque, New
Mexico on April 23rd, 2004.

"Art and Spirit Matters: Arts and Religion in the Twin Cities"

From Gospel to Goddess worship, Islamic installation art to Jewish
Sephardic music, criticism of religious fundamentalism to the
preservation of the Tibetan performing arts, Art and Spirit Matters:
Arts and Religion in the Twin Cities features interviews with 14 local
artists from a cross-section of artistic disciplines and religious
faiths. The documentary focuses on the connection between the artist's
creative and spiritual paths.

Morstad was one of ten grantees from the Arts and Religion in the Twin
Cities initiative which took place September 2000-September 2002. The
project was funded nationally by the Henry Luce and Rockefeller
Foundations and sponsored locally by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
and the United Theological Seminary.

"What became clear from the Arts and Religion in the Twin Cities
initiative was that the arts and religious communities were hungry for
dialogue," according to Morstad. "Through the process of producing this
documentary, I have felt like a spiritual anthropologist. In my
interviews, I have found that while some people may have an aversion to
the term 'religion,' everyone wants to talk about spirituality! There
are cultures that can't separate art and religion - everything is an
act of creation. My program offers inroads into the hearts and minds of
a cross-section of artists and spiritual seekers in our community --
it's an interfaith, cross-cultural look at matters of art and spirit."
M. Morstad

Her work inspired the visual "Discovering Origins" published on mnstories.com, April 2006!

For further information, contact Marya Morstad:

E-mail: mgm@bitstream.net.