Jojin Van Winkle

Jojin Van Winkle is a filmmaker, visual artist, writer, and assistant professor of art, teaching foundations, and new media. Her film/video and audio research centers around this practice of listening. This listening focuses on resilience, environmental stewardship, and human rights issues, including the often overlooked aspect of children’s/youth’s rights. She has participated in artist residencies internationally and nationally. She exhibited large-scale installation art across the United States before working in video and film. She has been active in higher education since the early 2000’s.

Prof. Van Winkle was an associate producer for the documentary, “The Land Beneath Our Feet” (2016, 60 min.). She has additional camerawork in this film. The documentary screened in 2017 at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, DOK.fest München (Germany), RAI Film Festival (Royal Anthropological Institute) (Bristol, UK), and over thirty international and national festivals, winning several awards.

Prof. Van Winkle was the USA-based cinematographer for PBS/Independent Lens documentary, “In the Shadow of Ebola,” (2015, 27 min.). It played at the National Museum of Australia (Canberra, Australia) and at several medical-based events, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, GA) along with international and national film festivals.

From 2006-2008 she directed the Education Department at the University of Virginia’s Fralin Museum of Art.

Prof. Van Winkle has a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and a Master of Arts (MA) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both focused on film and video. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has a passion for running, swimming, and being outdoors.

To learn more about Van Winkle’s work, visit her website at www.jojinprojects.com.  

• M.A. — University of Wisconsin-Madison (Art/video and film focus)
• M.F.A. — University of Wisconsin-Madison (Art/video and film focus)
• B.F.A. — The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art/sculpture and painting focus)

• ART 200D-01 4D Video
• Art ART 1070 Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design
• ART 1071 Introduction to Three-Dimensional Design 
• ART 2400 Introduction to Sculpture
• ART 3400 Advanced Sculpture

The world is vibrant with stories. Some stories are crafted from memory and some tales echo the dramas and joys of everyday life. While still other stories emerge from dreams as metaphors for the complex human experience shaped by inner conscious and unconscious terrain. The shifting through all of these possibilities for me as an artist involves deep listening. My film/video and audio research centers around this practice of listening. This listening focuses on resilience, environmental stewardship, and human rights issues, including the often overlooked aspect of children’s/youth’s rights. The listening is connected with compassion building and the longing to increase empathy and potentially motivate positive change.

Most of the large-scale work I am involved with choreographing or participating in has strong roots in collaboration. Whether I am working as a lead artist facilitating projects with community members, children and youth, college students at galleries, art centers, or children’s museums, or on films along side and in tandem with colleagues, it is the active ability to listen deeply to others which makes these multi-dimensional and multi-media projects essentially possible. My role is often like a composer, weaving together dynamic visual and auditory spaces.

Documentary Films Awards


Prof. Van Winkle was an associate producer for the documentary, “The Land Beneath Our Feet” (2016, 60 min.).
She has additional camerawork in this film.

• Best Feature, Documentary or Animated Film Award, International Competition – 2017   
  Festival De Ceine Verdede, Barichara, Columbia
• Best African Film Award – 2017 San Francisco Black Film Festival, USA
• Global Insights Award – 2017 Black Maria Film Festival, USA
• Best Documentary Award – 2017 Hobnobben Film Festival, USA
• Second Place Documentary Award – 2017 Denton Black Film Festival, USA
• Honorable Mention – 2017 Houston Black Film Festival, USA  

Individual Grants

2000, 1999 & 1998

Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Grants, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL

Faculty Grant

2002

Piedmont Virginia Community College Education Foundation Faculty Grant, Charlottesville, VA

Screenwriting (Narrative) Award

2017

Finalist Award - “Tanked” (32 pages, 2016)/ ReelheART International Film and Screenplay Festival, Toronto, Canada

Artist Residencies

2016-17

Madison Children’s Museum, a 9-month residency, Madison, WI

2013

RDG Design Residency, RDG-design, architecture and planning firm, 3-day interdisciplinary residency DesMoines/ IA

2011

Fitton Center for Creative Arts, A a 6 ½-week residency, Hamilton/ OH

Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art/ University of Oregon, a 5-week on-site residency, Eugene, OR

2010

Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry, a 3-month residency, Charleston, SC

East Central College, a 3 ½-week on-site residency, Union, MO

Hambidge, a 2-week residency, Rabun Gap, GA

2009

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, a 3-month residency, Pittsburgh, PA

2008

Hambidge, a 6-week residency, Rabun Gap, GA

Young Harris College, a 10-day residency, Young Harris, GA

Prairie Center of the Arts, a 4 ½-week residency, Peoria, IL

Ragdale, a 2-week residency, Lake Forest, IL

Artist-In-Residence Art Education Programs

2002 to 2013

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Statewide Artists Workshop Program, Richmond, VA

2000

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Access to the Arts Program, Artist’s Residency Program, Chicago, IL

1999-2000

Shanti Foundation for Peace—in conjunction with the Gang Crime Prevention Center at Kelly High School, Chicago, IL

Professional Development Grants for Research and Conferences

2016

to attend the Performance Studies International (PSi ) Conference at University of Melbourne (Australia)

Conference Presentation Funds, Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

Professional Development Grant, Art Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

STS Travel Funds Grant (Science & Technology Studies), Robert F. and Jean E. Holtz Center, University ofWisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

2015

Professional Development Grant, Art Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI

Artist Scholarship

2000

Illinois Women’s Works Scholarship, Northwest Area Arts Council, Woodstock, IL

“At the Confluence of Art and Science”, authors. Bullard, Helen, Mikulyuk, Alison, Peterson, Sigrid, Van Winkle, Jojin and Blanke, Chelsey. Edge Effects (online magazine), posted on September 22, 2016. http://edgeeffects.net/confluence-art-science/