The ArtStart roster of artists for our 2012 summer programming includes both artists and arts educators who represent diverse cultural backgrounds and art forms. All have a deep commitment to the arts and nurturing each person’s creative artist within. ArtStart artists and staff cordially invite you to start your summer with the arts!
Generally, an ArtStart residency consists of 20 student contact hours over the equivalent of 5 days with at least one core group of students who work with the artist daily. Each residency includes a teacher staff development component and a celebration of student work at the conclusion of the residency. In addition, many unique art-making materials are provided by ArtStart from its ArtScraps Creative Materials store. For the cost of a residency, please contact Cindy Smith, Events Coordinator or call 651-698-2787. Cindy Smith will work with your school to develop a residency to fit your specific needs.
If a school is unable to follow this model, we recommend selecting an ArtStart Community Workshop, which involves less contact time with an artist and flexibility of grouping. Community Workshop pricing is available upon request.
Felice AmatoVISUAL ARTIST/ART EDUCATOR
Felice is a community artist with Eastside Arts Council and ArtStart. As a professional artist, she makes detailed tiles and collages out of clay. She likes to “explore an interior story on the quiet stage of the heart”. She has exhibited her work at the Katherine Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, The Swedish Institute, and other local galleries. She has created two clay installations, “Celebraciones” with students at Adams Spanish Immersion and “Hexagons in Nature” for the Minnesota Children’s Museum. She currently is teaching in the Fridley School district.
Batucada do NorteBRAZILIAN DRUM ENSEMBLE
Batucada do Norte Brazilian Drum Ensemble is a community group dedicated to studying and performing the many street drumming styles found in Brazil during Carnival. Founded by brothers Tim and Pat O’Keefe in 2006, the group has performed at many events throughout the Twin Cities. Pat O’Keefe is professional musician with over 20 years of performing and teaching Brazilian music since 1996. He received his doctorate in music from the University of California, San Diego.
Julie Kastigar BoadaVISUAL ARTIST/ PUPPETEER
Julie is an Anishinabe artist, storyteller, puppeteer and art educator. She has worked regionally and nationally for the past 18 years, both with Heart of the Beast Masque and Puppet Theatre and independently. She has worked with include the L.A. music Center, The Minnesota History Center, and The Fergus Falls Center for the Arts. Recent work includes A Company of Angels, La Bafana, On the Day You Were Born, Coyote Stories, Retelling the World and May Day. Julie has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Jerome Foundation. Julie has a B.A. in Studio Arts and American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about work that fosters cultural pride and value.
Gustavo BoadaVISUAL ARTIST/ PUPPETEER
Gustavo is a theater-based multidisciplinary artist with more than 20 years of working in professional theater in Peru, Chile, Puerto Rico, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is well known for his work with traditional dance and performance masks, as well as designing and building puppets, performance structures and set design. While living in Peru, Gustavo had the opportunity to be part of one of the most important Peruvian and Latin American theater groups of the last century, Yuyachkani. In 1997-1998 he was invited by Peter Schumman to work in Bread and Puppet Theater. In 2003 he founded the NAYLAMP Street and Puppet Theater in North Philadelphia. In 2007 he was invited by Heart of Beast Masque and Puppet Theater to be part of their May Day staff. He has settled in Minneapolis and is working as an artist in the community and schools.
Stacie Forbes
VISUAL ARTIST/ART EDUCATOR
Stacie has a B.A. in Studio/Art History from Middlebury College and a graduate certificate in K-12 art education. She has been teaching art at the elementary level for the past 15 years, ten of which were at the American School in Singapore. Since moving back to the United States, she teaches for ArtStart throughout the Twin Cities focusing on the art of reuse, as well as other arts orgnizations/schools. Her own art work reflects her love of reuse and remaking jewelry from discards.
Robin GetsugVISUAL ARTIST
Robin Getsug, textile artist, has worked in schools as a resident artist and with ArtStart for over 10 years. She is currently working on a degree in art therapy from the Alfred Adler Institute. In her role as arts advocate, Robin conceptualized and coordinated the Children’s Healing Arts initiative (CHAI) project, a partnership between Gillette Children’s Hospital, artist Ta-coumba Aiken, and ArtStart.
Brian GrandisonACTOR
Brian A. Grandison, has worked as an actor, director, writer, and educator, for many years. Most recently, his play, “Adrift on the Mississippi” premiered at History Theatre in St. Paul. As a Director, Brian has worked with several theatres in the Twin Cities. As an Actor, he has been a company member at the Guthrie Theater and worked at most of the professional theatres in the Twin Cities, as well as Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, and the Mark Taper Forum of Los Angeles. As an Educator, he has taught residencies and master classes all over Twin Cities, greater Minnesota, and the upper Mid-West. He has recently accepted an “adjunct” position at Northwestern College in Roseville, and spends his summers working with young people at Plymouth Christian Youth Center in north Minneapolis, and with Arts-Us, in St. Paul. In addition Brian works with ArtStart in their residency and summer programs.
Linda HashimotoDANCER /FOLK ARTIST
Linda Hashimoto is the founder and instructor of Sansei Yonsei Kai Japanese children and adult dance group. She is very active in the community serving as vice-president of Saint Paul Nagasaki Sister City Committee and she serves on the advisory board of the Pan Asian Dance Festival and the St. Paul Foundation Asian Pacific Endowment. She is the cultural performance chair of the Dragon Festival and performs each year with Sansei Yonsei Kai at ArtStart’s Children’s EcoArts Festival.
Kitty KremerVISUAL ARTIST
Kitty is a full-time art specialist at Battle Creek Middle School. She has worked with ArtStart for two years in our Signatures for Teens program. Her own art work has been recognized locally and nationally. Her most recent public work of art was the painting and scrapping up of ArtStart ArtScraps ScrapMobile, a portable art car that brings art to underserved communities.
Louise MaderVISUAL ARTIST
Louise has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Art and Design. Ms. Mader has had 16 years of experience teaching K-6 visual arts in Hopkins Public Schools. She has worked at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the Reference Library, and runs a small family business raising corn, tomatoes and bedding plants on the family farm outside Minnestrista, Minnesota.
Anne Sawyer-AitchVISUAL ARTIST/ PUPPETEER
Anne is a free-lance artist who teaches for Steppingstone Theatre, Yinghau Academy, ArtStart and the Hennepin Libraries. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Latin American Studies, with emphasis in Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Graduating with Distinction. She is currently a member of the Minnesota State Arts Board roster and the lead designer for shadow puppets for production of “The Other Shore”, by Gao Xingjian at Gustavus Aldophus, as well as serving as an instructor in shadow puppetry.
Christopher YaegerDANCER
Christopher has played a variety of roles in dance and theater since his early school days. As an independent teaching artist, he works in schools and performs on stages across the globe including the Twin Cities, Budapest, Prague, Las Vegas, and Seoul. He is an ACE dance specialist with the Perpich Center for Arts Education. The ACE Dance Program trains teachers to use dance as a distinct area of study, as well as integrate it with other subject areas. He is also the Director of Dance Hall Days Dance Company and is a featured artist on the Young Audiences and Minnesota State Arts Board rosters, as well as ArtStart.
Laurie WatsonVISUAL ARTIST
Laurie Wason is a multidisciplinary artist with ArtStart and the Twin Cities public schools. As an art educator, she has worked with adults and children in a variety of diverse communities for the past 15 years. As a professional artist, her work includes painting, printmaking and ceramic mosaics. She has a B.A. in art from Southern Illinois University with continuing education from M.C.A.D.
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