Ann Heckler
Dance/Movement, Ballet, Yoga & Meditation, & Adaptive Dance
Ann earned her degree in both Education and Dance in west Michigan, where she began her teaching career in 1985. She joined the faculty of The Toledo Ballet in 2007, then shortly after created the first adaptive dance program in the Toledo Area. She is grateful for the training the Boston Ballet Adaptive Dance directors offered her through the years, allowing her to grow the Toledo Ballet Adaptive Dance program to the level it is today. Ann enjoys collaborating with local art organizations, such as Unruly Arts at the Toledo Botanical Gardens as well as The Toledo City Parks, to further the opportunities for the dancers she serves.…
Nancy Kangas
Poetry
Nancy Kangas is a poet, filmmaker, and teaching artist based in Columbus. 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. She’s written and performed poetry-theater pieces, including a selection for the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and paired family slides with flash fiction for the online magazine, Ohio Edit. Her poems have appeared books and journals including Plume, Rattle, and Forklift, Ohio.…
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. Her project “The Signature: A Poetic Medley Show” presents a hybrid of urban poetry, music, dance, and visual arts from local, regional, and international talent.…
Ami Majmudar
Dance/Movement: Classical Indian Dance, Creative Writing, & Storytelling
Ami Majmudar inhabits many crossroads: Indian-American, first generation, multilingual, cultural, and ethnic minority. Ami’s work as dancer, teacher, storyteller, and author is an ongoing effort to connect her many paths and to share her experiences, her art, and her stories with others.
With a degree in English Literature from the University of California-Berkeley, followed by a Master’s degree in Education, Ami began her career as a high school English teacher. While raising her three children, Ami began writing short stories and then books. Her debut novel, The Torchbearers, published by Penguin India, was shortlisted for the Neev Book Award for Distinguished Children’s Literature.…
Eric Marlow
Visual Arts, Painting, Sculpture, Jewelry, & Recyclable Materials
Eric Marlow is a visual artist-painter, sculptor, jewelry designer, craftsman, and inventor. He thanks his mother for her encouragement early in life which evolved to make him the artist he is today. While in high school he won free art classes at the Columbus College of Art and Design. Eric attended The Ohio State University where he received his degree in Fine Arts and while in graduate school taught beginning drawing and sculpture classes. He has also taught jewelry making classes at the Columbus Cultural Arts Center.
As a teaching artist he begins his workshop by showing examples of his artwork and explores with students where his ideas comes from.…
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. As a teaching artist for VSA Ohio, the Ohio Alliance for Arts Education, and for education programs supported by the Ohio Arts Council, Darman works in inclusive classrooms to enhance teaching and learning through arts-integrated residencies and differentiated curriculum.…
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 University and Miami University), Jim has presented his interactive `Fretted-Instrument Family’ programs for decades to audiences of all ages. Armed with a Bachelor of Science in Physics as well as a Master of Music in Music Education, Jim’s `Guitar Man Does Science’ shows combine these diverse skill sets for all ages in stimulating, participatory presentations for small or large groups.…
Ray McNiece
Drama/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. The Orlando Sentinel reporting on Ray’s solo show at the Fringe Festival called him “a modern day descendant of Woody Guthrie. He has a way with words and a wry sense of humor.” In a review of Us?…
Zak Morgan
Music & Creative Writing
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. He did this while having adventures of his own, including ascending Mt. Rainier and sailing across the Atlantic. After college, Morgan moved to Wyoming where he entertained children during the day and adults at night.…
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. Vicki’s combined years as artist, educator and licensed social worker give her a unique perspective regarding the healing power of art and the beauty of creative expression.…
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. Believing that if she understands what needs to be taught, a creative activity can be developed. Grounded in her early efforts centered around social emotional work that pairs well with Ohio’s Social Emotional Learning Standards, she believes she can teach to any standard of which she has a clear understanding.…
Hyacinth Paul
Visual Arts, Mixed Media & Fiber
Dr. Hyacinth Paul is a retired scientist and professor who started her career as an artist later in life. Her art works are both abstract and realistic; mostly done in oil’s, acrylics, and mixed media. Her paintings are very colorful because she believes color sparks synesthesia and involuntarily evokes feelings of joy. Her mixed media work is done in fiber and textiles from India. Sculptures made out of Recycled Saree Fabric are a new passion of hers. She is telling the stories of the immigrant Indian women and their contributions in almost every field in Dayton, OH.…
