Wayfinding
Wayfinding is an ongoing collaborative project instigated by Sharon Mansur and Meryl Zaytoun Murman in 2022. Wayfinding centers questions of home, place, and migration, as well as bodies of water and intersections between environment and social justice through a SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic lens.
Wayfinding: an evening of SWANA films
curated by Sharon Mansur
featuring a new film by Sharon Mansur & Meryl Zaytoun Murman
plus work by Yara Boustany, Sarah Abdel-Jelil, Brianna Johnson
May 30, 2026
Winona Arts Center, Winona, MN, Dakota homelands
Wayfinding (for one)
via SHIFT~ performance salon
with Sharon Mansur
June 27, 2026
Prairie Island Campground, Winona, MN, Dakota homelands
Sharon Mansur is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and culture heritage fund.
2024 McKnight International Choreographer Residency
with Meryl Zaytoun Murman
Residency partner: Sharon Mansur/The Cedar Tree Project
www.mcknightdancechoreo.org/international-artist
Meryl Zaytoun Murman is a Lebanese American choreographer and filmmaker, and a permanent resident of Thessaloniki, Greece. www.merylmurman.me/
This unique and dynamic creative residency included a research lab with five Winona based creatives along and in the Mississippi River in Winona, at Prairie Island Campground, as well as community workshops, a guided somatic nature walk. a SWANA focused film screening and conversation including Leila Awadallah, Sharon Mansur and Meryl Zaytoun Murman, and a closing community sharing at Engage Winona in lieu of a site-responsive performance due to the Mississippi River flooding during the final week of the residency.
Residency creatives: Gloria Alicia Alatorre, MaryLee Eischen, Sharon Mansur, Marcia Ratliff, Zil Ricker.
Meryl's Residency in Minnesota was made possible by the McKnight International Choreographer Residency Program, funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts.
Research for Mansur and Murman was supported by a 2023 Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Professional Development grant.
Winona community partners: Art of the Rural, Theatre du Mississippi.
Images
Below: Meryl Zaytoun Murman, photo credit: Craig Mulcahy
Header: Sharon Mansur, photo credit: Sharon Mansur
[Image: Sharon's left hand is horizontal holding seven white Jordan almonds and around her wrist is a blue and white bracelet with a hamsa, or palm-shaped amulet.]
Wayfinding is an ongoing collaborative project instigated by Sharon Mansur and Meryl Zaytoun Murman in 2022. Wayfinding centers questions of home, place, and migration, as well as bodies of water and intersections between environment and social justice through a SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) diasporic lens.
Wayfinding: an evening of SWANA films
curated by Sharon Mansur
featuring a new film by Sharon Mansur & Meryl Zaytoun Murman
plus work by Yara Boustany, Sarah Abdel-Jelil, Brianna Johnson
May 30, 2026
Winona Arts Center, Winona, MN, Dakota homelands
Wayfinding (for one)
via SHIFT~ performance salon
with Sharon Mansur
June 27, 2026
Prairie Island Campground, Winona, MN, Dakota homelands
Sharon Mansur is a fiscal year 2025 recipient of a Creative Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and culture heritage fund.
2024 McKnight International Choreographer Residency
with Meryl Zaytoun Murman
Residency partner: Sharon Mansur/The Cedar Tree Project
www.mcknightdancechoreo.org/international-artist
Meryl Zaytoun Murman is a Lebanese American choreographer and filmmaker, and a permanent resident of Thessaloniki, Greece. www.merylmurman.me/
This unique and dynamic creative residency included a research lab with five Winona based creatives along and in the Mississippi River in Winona, at Prairie Island Campground, as well as community workshops, a guided somatic nature walk. a SWANA focused film screening and conversation including Leila Awadallah, Sharon Mansur and Meryl Zaytoun Murman, and a closing community sharing at Engage Winona in lieu of a site-responsive performance due to the Mississippi River flooding during the final week of the residency.
Residency creatives: Gloria Alicia Alatorre, MaryLee Eischen, Sharon Mansur, Marcia Ratliff, Zil Ricker.
Meryl's Residency in Minnesota was made possible by the McKnight International Choreographer Residency Program, funded by the McKnight Foundation and administered by The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts.
Research for Mansur and Murman was supported by a 2023 Forecast Public Art Mid-Career Professional Development grant.
Winona community partners: Art of the Rural, Theatre du Mississippi.
Images
Below: Meryl Zaytoun Murman, photo credit: Craig Mulcahy
Header: Sharon Mansur, photo credit: Sharon Mansur
[Image: Sharon's left hand is horizontal holding seven white Jordan almonds and around her wrist is a blue and white bracelet with a hamsa, or palm-shaped amulet.]
