JOHN HENRY BLATTER The idea of art as experience is a large part of John Henry Blatter’s work. He uses various forms of video and sound to create pieces as intimate as family photos and as public as virtual gardens to invite viewer participation. He explores topics ranging from the struggle to define and understand self-identity to anxieties and fears of how others perceive us. The artist earned his MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and a BFA from the Ohio State University, Columbus, OH. Blatter’s awards and honors include two Scope Emerging Artist Grants from the Scope Art Foundation and a Jacob Javits Fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education.
JODY BOYER An intermedia artist originally from Portland, Oregon, Jody Boyer is also a fellow and education specialist for theIowa West Foundation, an organization that has targeted 50 sites for the placement of public art in and around Council Bluffs, Iowa. Boyer is a co-founder of Echotrope, a nomadic arts organization that curates experimental video, film and new media in traditional and non-traditional venues across the Midwest. She will be a participant in the panel discussion Creative Age Communities.
ED DADEY As director of Art Farm, Ed Dadey knows that art can find a home just about anywhere. Art Farm is a rarity, a residency program located in a rural setting where the sun and stars measure time and space is shaped by a proximity to the sound of silence. The program in Marquette, NE (Pop. 282) exists to offer artists, writers, performers, and others the studios, time, and resources for pursuing their range of expression. Dadey will be a participant in the panel discussion Art Incubators: Building the Creative Environment.
(DOWNTOWN) OMAHA LIT FEST Nationally renowned novelist Timothy Schaffert is also the founder and director of the (downtown) omaha lit fest. The most recent of his three novels, “Devils in the Sugar Shop,” was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and his “Singing and Dancing Daughters of God” was the work chosen for the Omaha Public Library’s Omaha Reads: One Book/ One City program in 2007. His panel discussion, Cover Me: Authors and Designers Discuss the Art of Book Cover Design will feature area authors and literary professionals in a conversation on the intersection of visual art and literature with a special emphasis on the role of cover art in the world of publishing. Schaffert is also the director of the Nebraska Summer Writer’s Conference and contributing editor for the literary journal Prairie Schooner.
MAGDALENA GARCIA Magdalena Garcia is the executive director of Omaha’s El Museo Latino, the first combined Latino art, history and cultural center in the Midwest. Located in a historic 1887 brick and red tile roof building in the heart of equally historic South Omaha. The museum, in addition to its exhibition programs, develops educational programs that include lectures, slide presentations, films, art classes, workshops, demonstrations, art history classes, gallery talks, guided visits, and dance classes. Garcia will be a participant in the panel discussion Creative Age Communities.
MARK GILBERT A Scottish-born artist and an artist-in-residence at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Mark Gilbert has been involved in two pioneering projects that have been featured on the CBS Nightly News— painting a series of portraits of patients and their caregivers and teaching medical students how to improve their observation skills through drawing. He has been exhibiting in both solo and group exhibitions throughout the UK, Canada and the US since 1990. Gilbert will be a participant in the panel discussion (un)Healthy? Wellness, Creativity and the Arts.
AMY HORST Amy Horst is the Community Arts Department Head for the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, WI, a non-profit organization established in 1967. Its mission is to encourage and support innovative explorations in the arts and to foster an exchange between a national community of artists and a broad public that will help realize the power of the arts to inspire and transform our world. Horst will be a participant in the panel discussion Art Incubators: Building the Creative Environment.
LESLIE IWAI Trained as an architect, Leslie Iwai explores the formation of space as an experiential event and her work often exists between architecture and sculpture. Her public art project, “Sounding Stones,” energized and elevated discourse on the definition and role of public art when a plan to move the work to a new location stirred protests from a group of surrounding homeowners and support from the art community and beyond. In 2005 the Bemis Center selected Iwai for its Community Artist Fellowship, an award that recognizes the local artists who contribute to the community through their work. Iwai earned her MS degree from Wayne State College in Wayne, NE in math and chemistry and her masters in architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. She will be a participant in the panel discussion Creative Age Communities.
RACHEL JACOBSON Rachel Jacobsen is the founder/director of Film Streams, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the cultural environment through the presentation and discussion of film as an art form. She had previously worked In New York City for the Theater for a New Audience, public radio station WYNC, and Miramax. Jacobsen will be a participant in the panel discussion Creative Age Communities.
JASON KALAJAINEN Jason Kalajainen is the executive director of the Ox-Bow school of art and artists residency , which has a campus located in Saugatuck, MI and offices in Chicago. After almost a century, Ox-Bow's mission has remained consistent – to serve as a haven for the creative process through instruction, example, and community. Today, the relationship between Ox-Bow and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, forged by founders Frederick Fursman and Walter Marshall Clute, remains strong. This mutual commitment to preserving and nurturing the artistic process has benefited generations of professional, student, and amateur artists. Kalajainen will be a participant in the panel discussion Art Incubators: Building the Creative Environment.
MICHELE RICHEY In a historic 115-year old building nestled on 50 wooded acres in the Germantown Hills section of Peoria, IL is the Prairie Center of the Arts. Co-founder Michele Richey manages a residency program that attracts emerging and established artists from around the world to provide opportunities for research and development of new work in a facility that embraces the Peoria area community. Richey will be a participant in the panel discussion Art Incubators: Building the Creative Environment.
BILL SEIDLER A developer, community activist and founder of the Bancroft Street Farmer’s Market, Bill Seidler previously participated in the Bemis Center’s Art 4 Omaha Project 3, where Bancroft Elementary School students designed public art banners that were installed on the façade of Seidler’s building on the southeast corner of 10th & Bancroft Street. Seidler will be a participant in the panel discussion Creative Age Communities.
CAITLIN STROKOSCH Caitlin Strokosch is the executive director of theAlliance of Artists Communities, an offshoot of the MacArthur Foundation that was founded in 1992 with seed money from the foundation and from the National Endowment for the Arts. This influential national organization is committed to contributing to America’s cultural vitality by supporting diverse residency programs and advocating for the development of creative environments that advance the endeavors of artists. As a special guest of Bemis08: Creativity Festival, Strokosch will introduce and frame the three-day festival with a keynote address before returning later the same day to moderate a panel discussion on artist-in-residency programs and how they enrich the cultural fabric of America and beyond.
THOMAS SVOLOS M.D. An adjunct associate professor and vice-chair the Creighton University Department of Psychiatry, Thomas Svolos M.D. is a member of the New Lacanian School and the World Association of Psychoanalysis. He also maintains a private practice in psychoanalysis and psychiatry and practices Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry at Bergen Mercy Medical Center. His writings on psychoanalysis and related subjects have been published in five languages. Svolos will be a participant in the panel discussion (un)Healthy: Wellness, Creativity and the Arts.
SUSAN TILLETT Susan Tillett is the executive director for the Ragdale Foundation, the fourth largest writers' and artists' retreat program in the country. Since 1976, Ragdale has provided thousands of writers and artists with an enriching environment free from the interruptions of daily life through its residency program, community arts program, and pristine, historic grounds. The Foundation is located in Lake Forest, Illinois, 30 miles west of Chicago. Tillett will be a participant in the panel discussion Art Incubators: Building the Creative Environment.
