Sheela Das
Music: Multi-Instrumentalist & Songwriting
Sheela Das is the artistic director and founder of Creative Concepts in Music which expanded to include art, playwriting, puppetry, and virtual class options in 2020.
With more than a decade of teaching through the arts, she has directed, produced, and delivered compelling workshops and original stage and video productions for students, community members, and professional venues alike.
From songwriting workshops, instrumental music, playwriting and puppetry camps to classroom residencies and rock shows, Sheela brings her multi-instrumental talent to the joy to several hundred audiences each year. She has composed more than 350 original, interactive songs and 52 Youtube videos to teach the curriculum in grades PreK-12 in subjects ranging from social emotional learning to language arts and science.…
_ ESQYRE
Music, String Quartet, Classical Music, & Orchestral Performance
The Escher String Quartet has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
The Escher Quartet tours the U.S. extensively, performing in numerous cities and venues including New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Rockefeller University, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, La Jolla Music Society, Savannah Music Festival, and Chamber Music Society of Detroit.…
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 38 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. He has created a major body of work for which he has received eight Individual Excellence Awards in choreography.…
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.
For more than 30 years, Lyn has provided stories for libraries and schools, keynote and closing presentations, workshops at universities, education and literacy conferences, and featured programs at some of the most prestigious storytelling conferences and festivals in the United States, Australia, and Ireland.…
Jennifer Hambrick
Poetry
A poet hailed for her “brilliant” imagery, “masterful” craftsmanship, and “uniquely musical voice,” Jennifer Hambrick brings to her work as an Ohio Arts Council Teaching Artist a broad range of teaching experiences with learners of all ages and from all backgrounds and a genuine love of inspiring others to share their stories in the written word. Joining her work as a writer of free verse and prose poetry, haiku, haibun, and non-fiction prose, Jennifer joyfully shares the beauty of poetry with writers of all ages in learning experiences that honor every writer’s unique voice and empower individual expression.…
Kimberly Jarvis
Dance/Movement
Kimberly Crislip Jarvis is a professional choreographer, educator, and teaching artist known for her interdisciplinary approach to dance and education. With degrees and certifications from the Scandinavian Institute for Physical Culture (Viborg Idrætshøjskole) in Denmark, the American College of Sports Medicine, Malone University, and the University of Akron, Kimberly has blended academic rigor with creative innovation across her career.
From 1993 to 2010, Kimberly served as the artistic director of the Living Fountain Dance Company in Canton, Ohio. During this time, she led more than 55 dance and multimedia productions—including five live music projects and three works accompanied by symphony orchestras—and designed the JOYDANCE program for Community Health Services in Summit County through support from the Ohio Criminal Justice grant and the Ohio Arts Council.…
Douglas Laubacher
Visual Arts, Comics & Cartooning
I’m a cartoonist from Northeast Ohio. My comic strip “Unbound” runs in a handful of papers spanning Stark, Carroll and Tuscarawas Counties. I have nearly a decade of experience teaching every age group the art of cartooning and cartooning adjacent classes. I’ve taught students as young as 3 and as old as 93. I’ve taught in libraries, senior centers, museums, schools and community centers. I pursued Fine Art and English in College because ever since I was twelve I knew, this is what I wanted todo. I hold a BA in Fine Art from the University of Mount Union, am a certified substitute teacher and a member of the National Cartoonist Society.…
Sara Lawrence-Sucato
Dance/Movement
Sara Lawrence-Sucato (BA Dance & MS Organizational Leadership from Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA) hails from Columbus, Ohio and lives and works in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Sara has worked in various capacities with The Dancing Wheels Company & School since 2006. She danced in the company for sixteen seasons performing works by noted choreographers Marc Brew, Nai Ni Chen, David Dorfman, Christopher Fleming, Catherine Meredith, Stuart Pimsler, David Roussève, Ginger Thatcher, Mark Tomasic, Michael Uthoff and Robert Wesner as well as by internationally renowned choreographers Donald McKayle and Dianne McIntyre. She served as the company’s Tour Manager for thirteen years and as Rehearsal Director for three years.…
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?…
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.…
