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Mara Alper's affinities with dance, animation, film and video as expressive media have shaped her life. Her themes focus on social issues, older traditions and questions about people's similarities, differences and motivations.
These questions led Mara to study world mythologies and religions, particularly the work of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Her enthusiasm for first-hand experience of the wisdom of older traditions has led her to study sacred dance from around the world and to unique travel experiences in Europe, Asia and Central America.
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In Mexico, she has interviewed shaman and tribal leaders in the native Huichol tribe, descendants of the Aztecs. They discussed forgiveness and attitudes toward aging and death. Images include traditional music, scenes from daily lives and sacred arts. In Bali, she studied the art of shadow puppets and dance, intrinsic elements in the Balinese Hindu religion. On the Greek island of Crete, she wrote and painted for several months in a mountain cave facing the Mediterranean Sea, influenced by their ancient Minoan culture. These experiences have helped her learn to recognize and respect the many values humans share, and to focus on our similarities rather than our differences.
Mara teaches digital video, media art and animation at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY as an Associate Professor. |
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MacDowell Colony Fellowship (2)
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'85, '93 |
Millay Colony Fellowship
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'86 |
Yaddo Colony Fellowship
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'87 |
Sundance Institute Screenwriting Finalist
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'88 |
Creative Projects Grant, SUNY New Paltz (3)
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'89, '92, '95 |
National Educational Film & Video Gold Medal
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'90 |
NEA/Rockefeller Foundation Inter-Arts Grant
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'90 |
Dance Film Association Gold Medal
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'91 |
Axe-Houghton Foundation (2)
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'93, '95 |
Folkwang Museum, Dusseldorf/Films for Art
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'93 |
Dallas Museum of Fine Art
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'94 |
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
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'96 |
Museum of Modern Art, NYC
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'97 |
Wexner Center for the Arts
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'98 |
Johnson Museum of Art
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'00 |
AIVF Pitch to PBS National
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'01 |
Experimental Television Center/NYSCA (13)
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'90 – '04 |
Pendleton Grant (3)
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'00, '02, '03 |
New York State Council on the Arts Grant
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'04 |
B.A. Harpur College, SUNY Binghamton, Theater/English
Magna Cum Laude
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M.A. New York University, Educational Theater
Summa Cum Laude |
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