Nicole Rupersburg
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…
John Haywood re-paints the narrative of what it means to be Appalachian and to be an artist
John Haywood grew up in the Appalachian region of southeastern Kentucky with dreams of becoming a rock star. But mountain folk don't become rock stars. Mountain folk don't even go to college.…
It takes a ballet company: Thomas Armour Youth Ballet teaches life skills along with dance
The Thomas Armour Youth Ballet (TAYB) was established over 60 years ago in 1951 by renowned classical ballet dancer, Thomas Armour. Originally called the Miami Ballet, the for-profit school and…
Joan Vorderbruggen is the one-woman powerhouse behind Minneapolis's Made Here
There's really no better word that can be used to accurately describe Joan Vorderbruggen than "dynamic." Vorderbruggen has a dynamic personality that she is able to use to lead dynamic public art…
PAR Projects is building a home for arts education and programming in Cincinnati's Northside
Things don't always work out the way you plan, but they do tend to work out the way they're supposed to. Jonathan Sears is the co-founder of Professional Artistic Research (PAR) Projects, though he…
GroundWorks builds movement from the ground up
GroundWorks Dance Theatre is a contemporary dance company founded in 1998 by Artistic Director David Shimotakahara. The company primarily splits its performance time between Akron and Cleveland with…
Bunker Projects is an experimental gallery and live/work space for artists to engage the community
Artists Jessie Rommelt, Abagail Beddall, and Cecilia Ebitz all graduated from Penn State University in 2011. The three friends decided to head over to Pittsburgh afterwards, the closest city with an…
April Denée is the mother of BUSK!
"Busking" refers to artists performing in public places for tips. Unfortunately, "busking" all too often gets mistaken for begging, and buskers are treated by the police and public alike as…
Viviane Le Courtois creates processes and Processus
Viviane Le Courtois is a Denver-based multi-media artist from Brittany, France. Her work ranges from etchings and drawings to video to interactive installation pieces that go outside of the studio…
Artists U teaches artists how to make a life
The hardest thing about making a life as an artist is actually making a life as an artist. That's where Artists U comes in. Andrew Simonet is a choreographer and a writer who directed the Headlong…
Floco Torres is a self-made man in Macon
What do you do on your lunch break? Rush out the office door to grab something from the nearest fast food joint or food truck you can find? Order take-out from a nearby restaurant to eat at your…
Gonna Make You Sweat: Sweat Records promotes Miami's independent, local music scene
It's impossible to talk about the arts in Miami without mentioning Art Basel – how does this or that scene/event compare to Art Basel and how does it contrast; does it "fit in" with the culture…
Terry Blackhawk teaches Detroit kids the power of poetry through the InsideOut Literary Arts Project
InsideOut Literary Arts Project started out as so many other well-intended projects do: as an idea that didn't quite seem realistic enough to become reality. Until it did. It is worth quoting…
Of corn and men: Yvonne Escalante explores themes of social and environmental justice through corn
Corn: it's a rather pedestrian agricultural product. Chances are, you probably don't think too much about corn as you go about your daily life. You buy ears of corn for your summer barbecues. You…
Public art as social activism: Ta-coumba Aiken creates art that heals the heart and soul
Ta-coumba Aiken grew up in Evanston, Illinois during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement, the rise of the Black Panther Party and Black Power, and the prominence of the NAACP's civil rights…
The McColl Center offers urban residencies to socially-conscious artists
What is "environmental art"? Specifically, environmental art is public art that mitigates some sort of environmental issue at its location site. But in a more general sense, environmental art…
The Porch Light Program takes the transformative power of art to the streets
The Porch Light Program is a program of the City of Philadelphia's Mural Arts, a citywide transformative arts project that has been ongoing for 30 years. Porch Light takes the idea of the…
Joey Stuckey is a blind musician who teaches people how to hear
Joey Stuckey is a recording artist, a recording engineer and producer, a radio personality, a television host, and an educator. He is also blind. The latter part is important not because it impairs…
A new rep for rap: Keepers of the Art educates as it entertains
Rap has a bad rep. What started out as a way for young black and brown kids in the Bronx in the 1970s to have a voice and share what was going on in their community has been co-opted and diluted by…
Say hello to my little film festival
Certain cities become victims of their own representation in the press. Right or wrong, when a story sells, the media will tell it. For the city of Miami, the story that has historically sold best is…
The media is the message: Guante uses hip hop culture to educate and engage the community
Canadian philosopher and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan coined the expression "The medium is the message" in 1964 (long before the creation of the Internet), implying that it's not so much…
Swaraj Yoga teaches self-rule to those in recovery
The image you might conjure of a "stereotypical" yoga devotee – thin, probably affluent, likely to be white and even more likely female, any age but with a decided youthfulness – is in direct…
Grizzly Grizzly is an artist collective focused on citywide collaboration
When it comes to identifying which arts organization is behind what art project in the city of Philadelphia, attributions can get a little tricky. While artists today are generally known to proffer a…
ZERO1 is where art and technology converge
ZERO1: The Art & Technology Network in San Jose is where art meets technology to shape the future. It is a nonprofit art and technology organization with the mission of providing a platform for…
Betsy Fitzgerald is a classical musician who doesn't take "no" for an answer
Betsy Fitzgerald knows that the world of the classically trained musician doesn't always intersect with the world of arts advocacy and community engagement. In fact, at the time she attended the…
Akron Film+Pixel is creating a local culture of independent film one movie screen at a time
Steve Felix has been making movies since he was a kid. At 19 he began working as a wedding videographer and also made his own short films. Now he is the Executive Director of Akron Film+Pixel, a…
Don't call it graffiti: Daniel Fila is a professional fine artist who paints murals all over Miami
Before Art Basel made Miami Beach a world-renowned destination for modern and contemporary art, artists like Daniel Fila were laying the groundwork for Miami's exploding street art scene. "In the…
A picture is worth a thousand words: Jai Tanju gives a personal touch to digital works
If you scroll through photographer Jai Tanju's tumblr page, you'll find exactly the kinds of images you would expect to see from someone who got his start in skateboarding photography: boards in…