Miriam Baranov
Visual Arts: Drawing, Painting, & Portraiture
Miriam is a visual artist specializing in classical realist painting and drawing, with additional expertise as a portrait artist, muralist, and educator. She has had multiple apprenticeships with amazing artists, including a rigorous atelier program at the Golden Gate Atelier, which focused on classical training for realist artists. Miriam’s work spans various genres, including still life, landscape, portraiture, and figurative art. Her artwork has been exhibited internationally and nationally in galleries and published in magazines both nationally and internationally.
Miriam’s goal is to influence and educate others in the field of figurative realism, guiding them on a path to success.…
Ginny Baughman
Visual Arts: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Chalk, Ukrainian Egg Decorating, Scenic Painting, & Fiber
Ginny Baughman was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. She received a BFA from the University of Dayton and an MA in art education from the Ohio State University. Ginny 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.
Ginny has been a teaching artist for more than 25 years. She has taught art in many different venues in central Ohio and Dayton. She began her art career almost 30 years ago selling prints of her drawings and paintings in her then hometown of Westerville.…
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. Duarte has also worked as a high school art instructor at the Arts and College Preparatory Academy in Columbus.…
Sara Caplinger
Visual Arts: Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, & Printmaking
Sara Caplinger is a dedicated professional with years of experience as an arts director, teaching artist, behavior management specialist and facilitor of professional development workshops in trauma informed practices, with a passion for supporting at-risk and underserved youth in an educational setting. Sara brings a wealth of expertise in trauma-informed practices to schools across diverse communities, spanning grades k-12.
Sara studied fine arts at Kent State University laying a foundation for her multifaceted approach as a teaching artist, integrating various disciplines into her educational programs and curriculum.
Throughout her career Sara has demonstrated a commitment to empowering students to overcome challenges and realize their full potential by trauma-informed strategies and expertise in behavior management.…
Malik Carrington
Visual Arts: Painting & Mixed Media
I’m a mixed media artist with a passion to showcase feelings of togetherness and family. My parents, born and raised in the US Virgin Islands, instilled this foundational core value into my siblings and me early in our development and it’s stayed with me ever since. Growing up in Columbus, Ohio has encouraged my love for the arts in many ways through working with the community for the past 8 years. I like to hear the feedback, different perceptions, and interpretations of what my art pieces mean to those viewing them.…
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.
Jerzy has drawn special projects for Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Marvel Comics, VIZ Media, and others. His latest middle grade graphic novel is The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue.
Jerzy began work as a teaching artist in 2007 when he served as the lead teaching artist for ArtServe Michigan’s Literacy Arts Comic Book Project, in which he visited 10 Detroit public schools (grades 3-6) to teach students how to make comic books.…
Lori Esposito
Visual Arts and Multimedia
Lori Esposito is an interdisciplinary artist and educator whose work spans painting, drawing, installation, and performance. Her collaborations harness multi-modality to make the arts accessible and integrate with existing ecosystems. Intrigued by dance pedagogy she brings a comprehensive understanding of materials, art history, and performance to her visual work. Through this lens, she collaborates with communities to reimagine how we can move with difference through our day-to-day life. Esposito’s pedagogical approaches aim to validate diverse ways of knowing and responsiveness to what resonates with her students in the moment. She has dedicated many years to neurodiverse arts experiences and has taught in art schools, universities, K-12 classrooms, museums, and arts & health non-profits.…
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.…
Jessica Held
Visual Arts: Painting & Photography
Cincinnati native Jessica Held is an abstract painter, photographer, teaching artist, small business owner, and festival coordinator based in Athens, Ohio. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Photography from Ohio University. Jessica has exhibited nationally and internationally, including her debut exhibition in Prague, Czech Republic, during a study abroad program. She continues to create, exhibit, and publish her paintings, photographs, and collaborative works. Recently, her artwork has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout Ohio, Indiana, and New York.
As a teaching artist, Jessica develops and leads visual arts, photography, art appreciation, and interdisciplinary arts programs for learners of all ages in schools, libraries, museums, art centers, and community organizations.…
Polina Isurin
Visual and Multidisciplinary Arts
Polina Isurin is an artist-teacher with over 15 years of experience in museums, schools, organizations, and universities. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from Tufts University, a PhD in Arts Administration, Education, and Policy from The Ohio State University, and is both committed and interested in how creative and pedagogical practices can coexist. Polina has taught a variety of visual art/culture courses (e.g. drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, digital video, AP Visual Art, International Baccalaureate Visual Art, courses within makerspaces) to middle, high school, and college level students, across four different states.…
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.…
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.…
