Cynthia Amoah
Creative Writing, Poetry & Spoken Word
Cynthia Amoah is a spoken word artist, educator, and mentor originally from Ghana. Since the onset of her career, Cynthia’s dynamic voice has captured diverse audiences and her authentic stage presence has left them inspired after every performance. Her literary pieces often highlight the forgotten stories of the world, while transcending the oftentimes marginalized groups she delineates in her work.…
BalletMet
Dance/Movement
BalletMet inspires and educates Central Ohio youth to excel – in school studies including dance, health and wellness, and in life. Dance-in-Schools programs invite students and teachers to experience dance in meaningful and culturally relevant ways through:
The Wiggle Jig PreK classroom residencies with professional development for teachers
Moving Into Literacy grades 1-5 classroom residencies
Yoga, Meditation and Mindfulness classes for middle and high school students
Movement Makers interactive, in-school lecture performances
Morning at the Ballet theatre performances for K-12 students and teachers
Availability
Upon request
Videos courtesy of BalletMet.
Miriam Baranov
Visual Arts, Drawing, Painting, & Portraiture
Miriam is a visual artist specializing in classical realist painting and drawing. She has been fortunate to study apprenticeship style under master figurative painters in California. She went through a rigorous atelier program ‘Golden Gate Atelier’ that focused on classical training for realist artists. Miriam works in genres like still life, landscape, portraiture, and figurative art.…
Ginny Baughman
Visual Arts, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Chalk, & Fiber
Ginny Baughman was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. In 1981 she received a BFA from the University of Dayton and in 2004 received an MA in art education from the Ohio State University. She has also attended a variety of professional workshops, seminars, and conferences including the Kennedy Center’s National Seminar for Teaching Artists in Washington, D.C.…
Michelle Boerio
Visual Arts, Drawing, Painting, Collage, Printmaking, & Bookbinding
Michelle Boerio is a visual artist and educator with over a decade of experience working with arts learners in museums, schools, community centers, libraries, and other arts organizations. She loves to make art that combines multiple mediums to highlight the weird, wonderful parts of the natural world. In 2012, she earned a BFA at The Ohio State University with a focus in painting and drawing, and in 2018 earned a MA in museum education at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.…
Alan Bomar Jones
Drama/Theatre, Film/Video/Media
Alan Bomar Jones is a professional international actor, teacher, director, and Artist-in-Residence for Ohio Arts Council-supported programs. He has 30 years combined teaching experience at Dayton Public Schools, Greene County School District, Sinclair Community College, and Wright State University. Alan is also a Resident Artist with the Human Race Theatre Company. He is currently the Producing Artistic Director for Town Hall Theatre in Centerville, Ohio.…
Terry Boyarsky
Music, Dance/Movement
With over 45 years of experience as a teacher of Dalcroze Eurhythmics and a lifelong performer of chamber music, pianist Terry Boyarsky believes that every person is musical. Her thirst for musical collaboration led to chamber music, choral singing, improvisation, folk dance, accompaniment, and creating ceremony. She specializes in integrating music and movement into the curriculum.…
Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld
Integrated Arts Experiences
Born and raised in New York City, Mimi Brodsky Chenfeld has been teaching people of all ages and backgrounds for her whole teaching life—through programs such as Headstart and Upward Bound—from early childhood programs to senior communities, from prisons to hospitals, elementary schools, high schools, and higher education institutions. She has presented programs in creative education in 45 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Great Britain.…
Karol Brown
Drama/Theatre, Spoken Word, & Storytelling
Karol Brown was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She lived in the Seattle area for over 28 years before returning to Dayton in 2015. She has a Bachelor of Science in nutrition from the University of Dayton and a masters in public health education from Loma Linda University. Karol retired after 30 years with the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center as a dietitian and health education program manager.…
Richard Duarte Brown
Visual Arts, Design, & Creative Writing
Richard Duarte Brown, known as Duarte, is a master artist with the TRANSIT ARTS Youth Arts Program and the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education’s Art in the House program. For more than 30 years, Duarte has dedicated his talents to helping young people in Columbus, Ohio, through countless programs including CAPACITY (CAPA’s youth arts program), the Short Stop Youth Center, the King Arts Complex, Ohio Alliance for Arts Education’s (and formerly GCAC’s) Artists-in-Schools program, GCAC’s Children of the Future, Ebony Boys, Art Safe, and VSA Ohio.…
Joanie Calem
Interactive Music & Storytelling
Joanie Calem has been a performing musician, music teacher, and storyteller since 1983. She graduated from the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem, Israel, with a major in piano and went on to study music education at the Levinsky Teaching Seminar in Ramat Aviv, Israel. She studied composition with Israeli composer Hagar Kadima in Tel Aviv, Israel, and completed her degree, music in community building, at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.…
Sara Caplinger
Visual Arts, Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, & Printmaking
Sara Caplinger lives in Northeast Ohio and is a multidisciplinary artist that is continually seeking out new forms of expression through the visual arts. Sara’s background as a teaching artist is in the area of trauma. Sara has several years under her belt teaching grades K-12 through the trauma informed lens and working with at-risk youth.…
Padma Chebrolu
Indian Dance/Movement
Padma Chebrolu is an accomplished teaching and performing dance artist and is the artistic director of the Cultural Centre of India (CCI) which she founded about 30 years ago in Cincinnati. Her exemplary artistic abilities, leadership, and creativity have created tremendous impact on the arts education and public appreciation for the heritage arts in Ohio’s schools and community organizations.…
Diana Chittester
Music, Singing/Songwriting, & Guitar
Diana Chittester has been building a reputation as one of the area’s most gifted guitar players, intimate songwriters, and forceful vocalists over the past decade, releasing a series of albums that display her growing confidence and ability to communicate feelings that are deeply personal yet universal. Diana has shared the stage with Lyle Lovett, Gin Blossoms, The Accidentals, Joan Osborne, Peter Mulvey, Chris Trapper, Lisa Loeb, and Colin Hay; performing at performing arts centers (PACs) and venues across the eastern U.S.…
Keri Chryst
Music, Jazz, Improvisation, & French Culture
Ohio native, Keri Chryst (Olentangy High School, class of 1992), has been living and working as a professional vocalist, composer- arranger, and educator in Paris, France since 2003. She specializes in both vocal and instrumental jazz music (Bachelor of Music in jazz studies, 1997, and masters in jazz pedagogy, 1998, Northwestern University) and is also well versed in a variety of styles including Broadway, pop, soul, gospel, and classic choral literature.…
Kimberly Crislip Jarvis
Dance/Movement
Kimberly Crislip Jarvis is a teaching artist, choreographer, and consultant. Kimberly has degrees and certifications from the Scandinavian Institute for Physical Culture in Denmark, the American College of Sports Medicine, Malone University, and the University of Akron. Her collaborative experiences are with Kent State University; Ballet Magnificat! in Jackson, Mississippi; Jacob’s Pillow in Massachusetts, (Merce Cunningham, Meredeth Monk, Craig Patterson, Patricia Lent, Susanna Chaffey, Jennifer Way, Milton Myers, Dianne McIntyre); Wayne Center Ballet in Wooster, Ohio; and Dancing Wheels in Cleveland, Ohio.…
Sheela Das
Music, Multi-Instrumentalist & Songwriting
Sheela Das is the artistic director and founder of Creative Concepts in Music. With more than a decade of teaching through the arts, she has directed, produced, and delivered compelling workshops and original stage productions for students, community members, and professional venues alike.
From songwriting workshops, instrumental music, and playwriting and puppetry camps, to classroom residencies, Sheela brings her multi-instrumental talent to the joy of hundreds of audiences each year.…
Richelle Denes
Visual & Traditional Arts, Printmaking, Illustration, & Ceramics
Printmaker, ceramicist, and illustrator, Ricki Dénes was born in Columbus, Ohio, but spent time spilt between there and Marietta, Ohio. Recently graduated, she attended Ashland University to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts and Art Education degree. While not taking many art classes growing up, once she got to university, she took a variety of art classes and fell in love with printmaking, ceramics, and storytelling.…
Amy Dennison
Music, Wind Instruments, Instrument Making, & Active Music Making (preschool – seniors)
Amy Dennison retired in September 2021 from the University of Cincinnati (UC) College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). During her 20-year tenure at UC she held the positions of program manager, director, director of education and assistant dean. She is the coauthor of “One Voice – Music and Stories in the Classroom.” Primarily a woodwind specialist, Ms. Dennison also plays several string instruments including the mountain dulcimer, the cello, and most recently, the ukulele.…
Jerzy Drozd
Visual Arts, Comics & Graphic Novels
Jerzy Drozd leads cartooning workshops for children and teens in libraries and schools, as well as for teachers who want to bring comics to the classroom. He wrote and drew Science Comics: Rockets with his wife, Anne Drozd, and is one of the artists of The Warren Commission Report. He also podcasts about comics and how to make them.…
Tom Evert
Dance/Movement
Tom Evert has been a creative force in creating and performing original choreographic works with a company of dancers, working intensively in arts-education programming and creating festival-like community events in Ohio for 33 years.
Tom currently serves as artistic director of DANCE EVERT, which he founded in 1986. He holds BFAs in both painting and dance from Ohio University and has enjoyed a world-class touring career with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City.…
Lynette Ford
Storytelling & Spoken Word
Fourth-generation storyteller Lynette (Lyn) Ford is a teaching artist with the Ohio Teaching Artists Roster and the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, a Thurber House mentor to young writers, a storytelling and story-writing coach, a certified laughter yoga teacher, and a great-grandma. Lyn has also offered storytelling/story-writing residencies for the Ohio Arts Council’s Creative Aging Ohio Initiative.…
Jennifer Hambrick
Poetry
Poet Jennifer Hambrick is the four-time Pushcart Prize- and Best of the Net-nominated author of the free verse poetry collection In the High Weeds, winner of the Stevens Manuscript Award of the National Federation of State Poetry Societies; the acclaimed haibun collection Joyride (Red Moon Press), winner of the Marianne Bluger Book Award from Haiku Canada; and the free verse poetry collection Unscathed (NightBallet Press).…
Gary Harwood
Photography
Gary Harwood has worked as a photographer and teacher for more than 30 years. He teaches Visual Storytelling and is a resident teaching artist supported by the Ohio Arts Council’s TeachArtsOhio program. He is the co-author of Tiger Legacy: Stories of Massillon Football and Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community.…
Nancy Kangas
Poetry
Nancy Kangas is a poet, filmmaker, and teaching artist based in Columbus, who often combines written and spoken word with other media. In the 1980s and 90s, she edited Nancy’s Magazine, an intimate mix of poetry, comics, and advice; the full run of this zine was recently selected to be archived in the Rare Books & Manuscripts Library of The Ohio State University.…
Sara Lawrence-Sucato
Dance/Movement
Sara Lawrence-Sucato, from Columbus, OH, graduated with honors from Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, with a degree in dance and is currently working in Cleveland, OH. She is the Dancing Wheels Company and School’s director of outreach and community engagement, rehearsal director, a 10-year-plus company member, and served as the company’s tour manager for over a decade.…
Sierra Leone
Entrepreneur, Poet, Wholistic Urban Creative Arts & Theatre
Poet, producer, activist, educator, and entrepreneur Sierra Leone captivates audiences with her unassuming ingenuity, profound insight, and comedic sense of “knowing.”
A Governor’s Award winner and writer, Sierra is the president and artistic director of OFP Theatre and Production Company. For more than a decade, Ohio has benefited from Sierra’s vision of creative urban arts as a powerful artistic medium to bring communities together across racial, cultural, ideological, and economic divides.…
Eric Marlow
Visual Arts, Painting, Sculpture, Jewelry, & Recyclable Materials
Eric Marlow is a visual artist: painter, sculptor, jewelry designer, craftsman, and inventor. He has his mother to thank for her encouragement early in life in helped make him the artist he is today.
While in high school he won free art classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design. In 1960 Eric attended the Ohio State University where in he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and while in graduate school taught beginning drawing and sculpture classes.…
Candace Mazur-Darman
Drama/Theatre
“You use a glass mirror to see your face. You use works of art to see your soul.”
George Bernard Shaw
For more than 35 years, Candace Mazur Darman (MEd, Univ. of Northern Colorado) has been a successful teaching artist in central Ohio. She is the founder of Dramatic Impact, a nationally acclaimed children’s theatre company.…
Andrea Belser McCormick
Musical Theater, Dance/Movement, & Acting
Andrea McCormick is a performing artist and instructor from Cleveland, Ohio who has received her Bachelor of Arts from Wright State University in Theatre Studies, with an emphasis on Dance and Applied Voice. Beginning with ballet at three years of age, she also continued her studies in various dance forms, including tap, African folk dance, liturgical/spiritual, jazz, musical theatre dance, modern/contemporary, hip hop, and Latin ballroom.…
Jim McCutcheon
Music, Guitar
Jim McCutcheon, “The Guitar Man,” earned the Ohio Governor’s Award for the Arts in Arts Education (2017) as well as two awards from the Parents Choice Foundation for his recordings for children. With teaching experience ranging from Montessori (24 years) through colleges (he teaches at the University of Dayton, Wright State, and Miami University), Jim has engaged enthusiastic audiences of all ages for decades.…
Ray McNiece
Theatre, Performance Poetry & Storytelling
Ray McNiece is the author of eight books of poems and monologues, most recently Breath Burns Away, New Haiku. He has created two solo theatre works: Dis – Voices From a Shelter and Us? Talking Across America; two music/poetry collaborations: “Mouth Music” and “A Rust bowl Hootenanny;” and an autobiography on stage: The Lives of A Poet.…
Zak Morgan’s sense of humor and penchant for wordplay are gifts passed down from his grandpa George. Zak and his siblings grew up hearing wonderful stories about magnetic feet, kissing the Blarney Stone, and catching a lion with bare hands. Zak began writing his own stories in elementary school and honed his writing skills at Kenyon College.…
Vicki Murphy
Visual Arts, Mosaics
Vicki Murphy is a mosaic artist who works primarily in Ohio and New Orleans. She has trained extensively with master mosaic artist Laurel True of True Mosaics Studio for many years focusing on studio work and professional development in large scale public art. She worked with True on multiple projects in New Orleans including the Global Mosaic Project and Universal Garden’s Lotus Fantasy Bench, the Green Project, and the Edible Schoolyard murals.…
Pamela O’Loughlin
Multidisciplinary, Dance, Creative Writing, & Visual Arts
Pamela O’Loughlin is a gifted creative, avid learner, and passionate teacher.
She is an innovative, thoughtful, and skilled educator; from budgeting supplies for activities to last-minute changes that tend to come up when dealing with multiple groups, classes, and organizations, Pamela handles any adverse situation seamlessly.
Pamela is passionate about brainstorming with teachers, students, and administrators.…
Suzanne Ondrus
Creative Writing, Poetry
Suzanne Ondrus’ work explores cultures, identity, history, gender issues, racism, and women’s sexuality. Her first book, Passion Seeds, won the 2013 Vernice Quebodeaux Pathways Poetry Prize for Women, and its contest judge, Richard Harteis, in an introduction to the book writes: “These poems speak to both what we want to keep invisible, such as shame and racism and speak to what we want visible, desire and love.…
Stevens Puppets
Puppetry
Stevens Puppets teaches workshops and tours fully-staged productions of fairy-tales and classic children’s literature, featuring hand-carved wooden marionettes in front of colorfully hand-painted scenery. The charming puppets come alive in their miniature worlds, transporting their audiences through magical journeys of endearing stories, raucous laughter, and artistic beauty. The puppeteers give life to their little actors, weaving a spell of childhood over audiences of all ages, as they invite everyone along for a trip through “once upon a time.” Stevens Puppets was founded in 1933 by the Peabody Award-winning Martin Stevens, preeminent American puppeteer and founder of the Puppeteers of America.…
Rikki Santer
Creative Writing, Poetry, & Film Studies
Rikki Santer has worked as a journalist, magazine and book editor, co-founder and managing editor of an alternative city newspaper in Cleveland, poet-in-the schools, high school teacher of English and film studies, and director of a student writing center. Currently she is serving as a vice-president of the Ohio Poetry Association, education consultant for Film Columbus, member of the performing poetry troupe, Concrete Wink, and she holds an Ohio Department of Education Lead Professional Educator teaching license as well as National Board teacher certification.…
Mansee Singhi
Indian Dance/Movement
“To dance is to express!” is the mantra of Mansee’s life.
Mansee Singhi is a Columbus, Ohio-based Indian classical dance performer, choreographer, and teacher. Her artistry has been shaped profoundly by renowned Gurus from India since the age of seven, performing experiences in various countries such as Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and various places in the U.S.…
Klaire Smith
Visual Arts, Printmaking
Printmaker and collaborative artist, Klaire Smith was born in the hills of Southern Ohio and raised in Portsmouth, Ohio, the region and its beauty having always been a point of inspiration. Attending the University of Rio Grande, Klaire graduated with honors in 2016 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. While in college they took a special interest in supplemental education methods and collaboration.…
Stephanie Stewart
Visual Arts, Acrylic, Mixed Media Collage, & Bookmaking
Stephanie Stewart is the artist and owner of P31 Art & Design. She has been a contributor to the arts and culture sector for many years and has built a creative business from the ground up. Stewart consistently produces original works of art that are used as a central point of inspiration for all of her handmade products and print goods.…
Fariha Tayyab
Storytelling, Creative writing, & Photography
Fariha Tayyab is a multidisciplinary artist hailing from Houston. As a writer and photographer, she often identifies as a storyteller who uses her creative writing and documentary photography to create and share narratives with others.
After completing her Creative Writing degree from the U. of Houston, Fariha pursued a teaching license and has been practicing both her art and teaching for more than a decade.…
In Harmony Therapeutic Services
Music & Music Therapy
In Harmony Therapeutic Services harnesses the power of music as a vehicle for children and adolescents to process information and emotions, express themselves, learn, create, and heal. As an organization, they believe in teaching through a therapeutic lens and use musical interventions and experiences linked to Ohio Content Standards to address academic and social-emotional goals. Their services are provided by highly qualified, board-certified music therapists, and their programs are developed so that children and adolescents are able to achieve individualized goals and live in harmony with themselves and the world around them.…
Demetrius Thomas
Music, Rap & Hip-Hop
I am Demetrius Thomas, also known to the world as Nova The Rebel. I am a Cleveland native and active hip-hop artist signed to the legendary rap group Bone Thugs N Harmony (BTNH). I have been actively creating and recording music since I was seven years old.
Traveling with BTNH, we’ve been on tour with everyone from Snoop Dogg (Puff Puff Pass 2 Tour) to TLC (Crazy Sexy Cool Tour) to Dave Chapelle (Documentary Tour) and the list goes on.…
Carol Tyler
Visual Arts, Comics & Graphic Novels
Carol Tyler is an influential pioneer of American Comics, known for her beautifully written and drawn by hand autobiographical stories.
Carol was born and raised in Chicago, received her Masters from Syracuse in 1983. After some years in NYC, she moved to San Francisco and began getting her comics published in R. Crumb’s Weirdo. In 1988, Carol received the Dori Seda Memorial Award for Best New Female Cartoonist.…
Verb Ballets
Dance/Movement, Ballet, Contemporary, Creative Movement, & Modern
Verb, “Ohio Contemporary Ballet” connects with community in meaningful ways to develop appreciation for dance through performances and outreach programs that promote learning and nurture wellness. The company cultivates dance appreciation through community dance classes, school residencies, senior movement classes, library programs, master classes, and college course partnerships.
Education is integral to the mission of Verb.…
Errin Weaver
African, African Contemporary & Black Spiritual Dance
Errin Weaver is a teaching artist, wellness advocate, and community activator. She began her dance training in African dance as a company member of Dance Afrika Dance of Cleveland, OH. Errin attended Tennessee State University on a university performing arts scholarship and then relocated to Chicago where she performed with the renowned Muntu Dance Theatre, under the direction of Amaniyea Payne.…
Kerri Wilde
Dance/Movement
Kerri Wilde firmly believes that dance builds community and that each dancer brings energy and creativity to each class, allowing them to collaborate to create a dance that is uniquely theirs. Kerri views her role in the dance process as to encourage the development of ideas, to encourage dancers to tell their stories through movement, and to provide a safe environment where all ideas are welcomed and encouraged.…
Tiffany Wilson
Film/Video/Media, Video Production & Photography
Tiffany Wilson has taken a unique approach to finding her life’s purpose and has sought to find ways to constantly reinvent herself. She has held positions from working in the news industry to owning a business, to now her current passion of being an educator.
Raised in a military family, Tiffany understands what it means to be resilient and wants to inspire her students to do the same as life can be challenging.…
George Woideck
Visual Arts, Ceramic Tile & Glass Tile Mosaics
George Woideck trained as a painter and took time off to tour and record as a rock musician before launching a career as a ceramic artist, learning from national master ceramic artists. Since then he has been an artist-in-residence in schools throughout Ohio and Michigan.
George has been named a National Young Audiences Artist of the Year and his work as a teaching artist has been recognized by the Ohio Art Education Association.…
