Creative Process
The Cedar Tree Project has been evolving since 2016, organically rooted in an initial family research project performance/installation titled Off White (2002-2005). CTP has also has been residing in the collective cells, bone marrow, blood and DNA of Sharon and other participants throughout their lives, connecting back to their ancestors and homelands and forward into future imaginings. Sharon's creative practice encompasses embodied research, collaboration, discussions, and interviews as well as interactive workshops and guest artist collaborations and residencies. This project supports and responds to artists' interests as well as current events, and will continue to grow and evolve.
In 2017 visual artist Sara Valeri invited Sharon to write about her solo Dreaming Under a Cedar Tree which she was creating with support from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, with additional support from Art of the Rural. In this writing Sharon describes her creative research and process.
Sharon also took part in Project FINE's Hearing the Voices: Digital edition project in 2018. Project FINE is a non-profit serving refugees and recent immigrants in Winona County. Hearing the Voices is an annual event collecting immigration stories from the community, intended to build understand and relationships across cultural lines. Sharon shared the story of her paternal grandmother coming to the U.S. from Lebanon and bringing clippings of a grape vine that has lasted through the Mansur generations.
https://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/project-fine-to-share-immigrants-stories-hearing-the-voices-event/article_aafe1aba-0430-5683-a6a4-1dafca53c331.html
In 2021 Matthew Fluharty, from Art of the Rural interviewed Sharon
about 1001 Arab Futures and The Cedar Tree Project:
High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-visibility-on-location-in-rural-america-and/id1557965863?i=1000525761277
"My artistic practice is how I ask questions and better understand myself and the world I live in."
~ Sharon Mansur
In 2017 visual artist Sara Valeri invited Sharon to write about her solo Dreaming Under a Cedar Tree which she was creating with support from the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, with additional support from Art of the Rural. In this writing Sharon describes her creative research and process.
Sharon also took part in Project FINE's Hearing the Voices: Digital edition project in 2018. Project FINE is a non-profit serving refugees and recent immigrants in Winona County. Hearing the Voices is an annual event collecting immigration stories from the community, intended to build understand and relationships across cultural lines. Sharon shared the story of her paternal grandmother coming to the U.S. from Lebanon and bringing clippings of a grape vine that has lasted through the Mansur generations.
https://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/project-fine-to-share-immigrants-stories-hearing-the-voices-event/article_aafe1aba-0430-5683-a6a4-1dafca53c331.html
In 2021 Matthew Fluharty, from Art of the Rural interviewed Sharon
about 1001 Arab Futures and The Cedar Tree Project:
High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-visibility-on-location-in-rural-america-and/id1557965863?i=1000525761277
"My artistic practice is how I ask questions and better understand myself and the world I live in."
~ Sharon Mansur