Region 2 Arts Council awards this year’s Artist Fellowships toJason Ewert and Duane Goodwin!
The Region 2 Arts Council is excited to announce the recipients of the 2025-2026 Artist Fellowship: Filmmaker Jason Ewert and Sculptor Duane Goodwin. These Artist Fellows were selected on October 16th, 2025 by the Region 2 Arts Council Board. This $6,000 award is intended for dedicated artists who have created a substantial independent body of work, have received recognition for their work, and whose work has been selected for publication, solo exhibitions, commissions, presentations, readings, or performances.
Jason Ewert is a filmmaker and designer from Bemidji, Minnesota. His work spans both documentary and narrative film, often exploring haunting themes of memory, identity, and place. His short films have earned multiple awards and screened at festivals across the U.S. and internationally, including London’s rigorous Straight 8 international film competition, where he proudly represented the Midwest. Ewert has produced documentaries for Lakeland PBS, including The Boys of Bataan, exploring stories of resilience, history, and nature in northern Minnesota. His storytelling is shaped by his Filipino heritage, rural upbringing, and lifelong fascination with obsolete media and analog formats.
“Born and raised in Bemidji, MN, my artistic style is shaped by my rural upbringing, my Filipino heritage, and the charismatic spirituality that surrounded me as a child. Add a healthy dash of ADHD and crippling anxiety, and these influences form a complex foundation for my storytelling.
I work across both documentary and narrative filmmaking, each informing the other. My documentaries preserve stories of community, history, and resilience, creating a record of voices that might otherwise be forgotten. At the same time, my narrative films allow me to approach personal themes—trauma, nostalgia, and the uncanny—through visual experimentation on Super 8mm and 16mm film. In both forms, I am driven by a desire to uncover what lies beneath the surface, whether in a person’s lived history or in the shadow of a half-remembered dream.
My Filipino culture, filtered through my grandmother’s ghost stories, sits alongside my backwoods charismatic indoctrination and the traditions of my Anishinaabe friends. This churning mixture of belief systems and worldviews deeply influences my work. It has given me a fascination with the coexistence of the sacred and the unsettling, the ordinary and the otherworldly.
I am particularly drawn to older film formats, whose imperfections and textures become part of the storytelling. To me, film stock is not just a medium but a physical element vital to the story being told—as essential as an actor, location, or prop. By pairing these older formats with contemporary storytelling, I feel I’m able to unlock a connection to nostalgia, whether overt or subliminal.
At the heart of everything I create is a belief that personal stories—whether inspiring, humorous, humiliating, or terrifying—can resonate far beyond their origins, connecting audiences through shared emotion and experience.”
Duane Goodwin is a renowned sculptor, the winner of many awards throughout the country. Duane has awards such as Best of Show at the Heard Museum in Arizona in 1978, Best of Show at the Great Lakes Woodland Expo in 2003, and Best of Show at the Gift of Mother Earth and the Sea Art Show at Crazy Horse Memorial in 2017. While these are a few of Duane’s awards, he has received many others in recognition for his talent and works.
“Creating art needs to be nurtured with patience; it provides an outlet for thought and compassion. Creativity nourishes my soul with happiness and contentment, keeping me focused on what’s important in my culture, family and artistic expression.
My philosophy is empowering the spirit with beauty, vision and strength. These values are translated into my work, by capturing the elegance of an eagle or the beauty of the horse. A legend of the Anishinaabe inspires me to create sculptures of vision and strength. My inspirations are also discovered in simple everyday experiences, my home, studio have been a great source.
I feel stone is the right medium for I enjoy the challenge, each stone has its qualities and flaws. Experience has taught me to appreciate the variety of stone that I work; I select rock for its sculptural consistencies and beauty. Stone comes in many different colors and degrees of hardness, the harder the rock the more difficult. I prefer a medium hardness found in many types of alabaster and marble, I experienced Minnesota limestone a few years ago and discovered the sculptural qualities plus the good thing it’s found here in Minnesota.
My approach or carving style is basic, a method that was taught to me by the great sculptor Allan Houser who was my teacher while attending the Institute of American Indian Arts. Allan’s authority and teaching style was easy to understand, he emphasized drawing your subject for visual contact, create a clay model visual reference. Put chisels and hammer in hand and start learning from trial and error as you progress. His guidance was well received; the value of this great experience has shaped my life as an artist and as a person. Equipment and tools, such as air hammers, diamond saw cutters and grinders have been advanced over the years, allowing me to be much more efficient. Good tools are necessary for carving and the cutting of stone, sculpture requires all types that will make the job easier.
Most days you can find me in my studio creating and working on new sculptures and on my beadwork. I’ve many honors come my way in the line of sculpture, the most honorable to this day was the Monument I carved depicting the boarding school era at the University of Morris Minnesota. I also have two monumental limestone sculptures, one at Mounds Park in St. Paul and one in Grand Rapids near the river. My latest piece is a bronze statue of a voyageur located in Moorhead, MN near the new library. I currently have a display showcase at the Bemidji Library, in the foyer, of some of my beadwork and ivory carvings. You can also view my work online at www.deweygoodwin.com I have a variety of sculptures for sale in my studio at my home, you can call for an appointment.”
The Region 2 Arts Council Board of Directors and Staff would like to thank each of the Artist Fellowship nominees and congratulate Jason and Duane as our 2025-2026 Artist Fellows!
The Region 2 Arts Council Artist Fellowship Award is made possible through the generous support of the McKnight Foundation