Artists with Impact
A gaffer finds her light in Pittsburgh
the gaffer lamplighter chief lighting technician the DP’s go-to guy dispenser of gaffer’s tape brute arc myths day for night & the anti-auteur theory transposer of sun/shadow nuancer of mood…
Francis Grunow leads the charge for Detroit to "blame it on the Nain"
It's an idea that was born over beers, as the greatest ideas so often are. Somewhere in the cold winter months between 2009 and 2010, Francis Grunow took a break from writing a paper…
Haleem Rasul is teaching the world to Jit
Haleem "Stringz" Rasul is a dancer, designer, and filmmaker born and raised in Detroit. The dancers in his family were on his father's side, and Rasul was inspired by his late cousin who, he says,…
Hattie Mae Williams brings guerrilla dance performances to public places with Tattooed Ballerinas
Hattie Mae Williams grew up in Miami and attended the New World School of Arts magnet high school where, she says, she learned a lot about how to use art as a way to promote social change. She then…
Liz Miller creates installations that explore the beauty in devastation
Liz Miller is a Minnesota-based artist who describes herself thusly: "I'm an artist who is currently fascinated with weapons, invasive species, and pattern/ornament/decoration. My installations…
David Swirsky has such Big Love for Akron, he's even leading an Intervention
David Swirsky is the Chapter Leader of the Akron League of Creative Interventionists, a global network that creates shared experiences in public space that break down social barriers and catalyze…
Start With Art gives Pittsburgh newborns a baby step toward culture
Most adults could tell you where they acquired their first piece of art: a local shop, a tiny gallery in a seaside town in Italy, the IKEA clearance bin. Not many people began their collections as…
Lenka Clayton, An Artist in Residence in Motherhood
Since 1860, in the afterglow of the Industrial Revolution and on the eve of the Civil War, the number of working mothers has risen 800 percent. For as long as women in contemporary Western society…
100 Words Film Festival is a democratizing film fest for the Twitter generation
In today's 140-character cultural climate, it can be quite a challenge to hold an audience's attention. The 100 Words Film Festival in Charlotte, which made its debut last November, is a film…
Joi Sears leads the Theatre for the Free People on the world's stage
Joi Sears is a lot of things; stationary isn't one of them. She started out as a dancer, starting with the Cincinnati Ballet then moving on to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in New York and…
Reach Studio reaches artists homeless and in transition, treating them as artists first
Art therapy is a well-established practice that uses the creative process to help improve a person’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. RedLine Denver, an "urban laboratory" that fosters…
Jonathan Harwell-Dye helps the Macon Arts Alliance get a seat at the table
Jonathan Harwell-Dye's career in the arts didn't start out in the most obvious way. The Director of Communications for the Macon Arts Alliance began as a science illustration major at the University…
iMPeRFeCT Gallery celebrates artists with commitment and the collision of high and low art
The concept of "perfection" in the art world is almost impossible to attain, yet that doesn't stop artists from trying or critics from criticizing. It was the rejection of this nebulous idea of…
Sam White makes the Bard's enduring themes on the human condition relevant to Detroiters
Shakespeare…in Detroit? Sam White not only thought it could happen, but also that it should. So, in 2012, she founded Shakespeare in Detroit. White – an actor, comedian, journalist, marketer,…
Pilar Agüero-Esparza is an artist, teacher, and mother who explores themes of labor and domesticity
It is natural for artists to continuously return back to recurring themes in their work throughout their career, and Pilar Agüero-Esparza is no exception. Agüero-Esparza is a visual artist based in…
HICCUP creates positive disruption to bring visibility to Hialeah
The souvenir is as much a time-honored vacation tradition as is taking photos standing awkwardly next to world-renowned historic landmarks and tuning out the kids in the backseat as they continually…
TU Dance makes modern dance accessible to a diverse community in St. Paul
TU Dance, a professional dance company and dance education center located in St. Paul, was founded by Uri Sands and Toni Pierce-Sands in 2004. Initially called Space TU Embrace, the organization…
Antonio Cosme is a young artist, activist, and social organizer in Southwest Detroit
Antonio Cosme is working on a mural. But before any brush touches paint, before any pencil hits a pad, Cosme has meetings to attend, books to read. The new mural will go up in Delray, “essentially…
Mother and daughter Dell and Sharon Pryor are among Detroit's earliest art and cultural ambassadors
Tulani Rose and the Del Pryor Gallery occupy the large, orangish brick corner of Willis Street and Cass Avenue, an original anchor of now hip Willis Street, in Midtown. With few…
N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art is dedicated to enlightenment through the arts
Art doesn't follow development, says George N'Namdi. Development follows art. And he should know. In addition to running his N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art, George N'Namdi has been steadily…
Marsha Music is a writer, community organizer, and lifelong Detroiter
An interesting counter-story has emerged to the national cliché of Detroit-as-post-industrial-wasteland recently – one of a "new Detroit" rife with young, educated, well-off techies…
Olayami Dabls is the owner of the MBAD African Bead Museum, a major repository for African artifacts
Olayami Dabls hardly needs to give visitors directions to his MBAD African Bead Museum, although its Grand River and Tireman location is tucked away off I-96, a short drive from the city's…
Erik Urycki of The Speedbumps bolsters Northeast Ohio's singer-songwriter community
Erik Urycki is a singer, songwriter, and guitarist with the Akron-based indie folk band The Speedbumps. That's his "day job," at least; when he's not writing for, playing or recording with the band,…
The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh creates a world of immersive, interactive installation art
The Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh is a museum dedicated to installation art. But to put it that succinctly doesn't nearly do it justice. More fittingly, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh is a…
Bach and Boombox declassifies the classics, mixing the Beastie Boys with Beethoven
Nathaniel ("Nat") Chaitkin grew up in the music world. Both of his parents were musicians and he grew up about a mile from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. "My idea of living…
M12 Collective brings experiential art to the American High Plains
M12 is an artists' collective based in Byers, Colorado, a rural town in the American High Plains. The work of the collective inhabits rural places, and explores the aesthetics of those rural cultures…
Asian Arts Initiative shepherds community engagement and integration in Philly's Chinatown North
Gayle Isa started working at the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia in 1993. This was in the aftermath of the infamous Rodney King verdict and the riots in Los Angeles that followed. Racial…
Charles Ladson is a painter who rediscovered his home in Macon
Like so many other artists, Charles Ladson had an interest in art and painting at an early age but didn't think it was something he could pursue as a career. Ladson's granddad and mom were both…
Erik Howard brings the corner and the community together in unlikely ways through The Alley Project
To read the abundance of news coverage coming out of Detroit over the last few years heralding the downtrodden city as a hotbed of creativity and innovation, attracting young creatives and start-up…
Nikiko Masumoto cultivates connections between the art of food and farming and stories of place
Nikiko Masumoto is a farmer, and also an artist. Contrary what people might assume about these two different aspects of her life, they are not at odds with each other. In fact, each one informs the…