Artists in Residence – Lawrence Arts Center

Danielle C. Wyckoff
2018 Project-based Artist in Residence

Danielle C. Wyckoff combines her backgrounds in literature, technical theatre, and visual art to create installations, works on paper, and performative and participatory artworks. With the Lawrence Art Center, she will collaborate with the Department of Performing Arts and Lawrence community members to produce a theatrical production, its set, and a corresponding installation. Danielle holds an MA in English from Georgia College and an MFA in Studio Art: Printmaking from Ohio University. She teaches as an Assistant Professor at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, MI.

TUG Collective | Gaelyn and Gustavo Aguilar
2018 Project-based Artist in Residence

Gaelyn and Gustavo Aguilar (TUG Collective) will use their time and resources at the Lawrence Arts Center to design and printEthnographic Contrafacta, a collection of short essays/poems and graphic sound scores that will join six other works as part of Border, Corridors, and Lines of Desire. Emerging out of TUG’s three-year engagement with individuals and communities across the National Historic Lewis and Clark Trail, this multi-media installation deals with the interlocking dynamics of colonialism, immigration, and social race in U.S.-American history, and how these dynamics continue to resonate with a range of critical themes: Socio-economic mobility; movement and borders; assimilation and appropriation; and cultural citizenship.

TUG is an interdisciplinary arts collective that creates contact zones where people can generate insights about, and produce actions around, contemporary social issues. Since 2006, TUG has focused on participatory, problem-based interventions related to borders, borderlands, and other fuzzy frontiers, and their relationships to the global processes that put people, ideas, media, technologies, and capital into circulation with one another. TUG’s work has been presented in such creative spaces as the Luminary Center for the Arts, Charlotte Street Foundation, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Holter Museum of Art, FrontierSpace, Galería 409, Guapamacátaro Center for Art and Ecology, ARX Fest, Green Corridor, Guelph Jazz Festival and Colloquium, and the Center for Ethnographic Research and Exhibition in the Aftermath of Violence. In 2017, TUG received an Artist-in-Residence Fellowship from The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts to work on Borders|Corridors|Lines of Desire, an installation dealing with the contradictions of US-American history. Summer 2018, TUG will be joining the faculty of the MFA Art Practice program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

Nate Ditzler
2018/19 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Nate Ditzler grew up on the island of O´ahu, Hawai´i. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Hawai´i at Manoa. In 2016, he completed a Master of Fine Arts degree at West Virginia University. He has shown in galleries, solo shows, juried exhibitions, and group shows nationally and internationally. His art explores nuances of the human condition, while constantly expanding on his material investigations and means of fabrication.

Nate’s work explores the seemingly trivial and overlooked moments of everyday life. Using a combination of ceramic forms and fabricated mixed media elements, he gives a visual presence to these phenomena. His visual language is derived from the simplicity and playfulness of the illustrations found in children’s books and single panel comics. The amorphous form in his sculptures represents the philosophical idea of the perpetually unresolved individual as being and in a constant state of becoming.

Johanna Winters
2018/19 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Johanna Winters hails from Minneapolis, MN where she served as the Education and Community Programs Manager at Highpoint Center for Printmaking. Johanna received her MFA from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and was the 2017-18 recipient of the University of Tennessee College of Arts and Sciences Thomas Fellowship. She has taught printmaking as an Associate Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, and recently completed a residency at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, Poland. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally.

In Spring 2018, Johanna designed, directed, and produced a live shadow-puppet performance and video projection that addressed the lack of popular understanding of female desire, and how it is enacted, inhibited, sustained, and diminished over a lifetime. In her current work, Johanna explores the anxieties of aging women and their shame, vanity, restraint, disappointment, and pleasure and confronts the social conditioning that perpetuates the repression of female sexuality, empowerment, and agency.

Maura Garcia
2017 Project-based Artist in Residence

Dancer/choreographer Maura Garcia collaborates within communities to create stories of identity and place. She is fascinated by stories that have been hidden and the unexpected connections that arise when they are rediscovered. Originally from North Carolina, Maura is an Indigenous woman (Cherokee/ Mattamuskeet) who brings her own mixed-blood southern story to all of her work. She has … Continued

Kevin Benham
2017 Project-based Artist in Residence

Kevin Benham is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Design at South Dakota State University. He received his MLA from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University and his M.Arch. at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, The University of Michigan. He has taught interdisciplinary studios at several … Continued

Shiyuan Xu
2017/18 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Shiyuan Xu is originally from Hangzhou, P.R. China and has an MFA in ceramics from Arizona State University. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Shiyuan is a 2017 Ceramics Monthly Emerging Artist and has been awarded multiple prestigious artist residencies.

Michael Benedetti
2017/18 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Michael Benedetti is originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and he has an MFA in printmaking from the University of Georgia. Michael has been awarded multiple residencies, including a residency in Ghent Belgium where he studied low-toxic and sustainable options for printmakers. He also has exhibited his work throughout the world.

Tressa Jones
2016/17 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Tressa Jones, artist and printmaker, was born and raised in the Greater Boston Area. After studying fine art and printmaking in Boston, and then in New Mexico she relocated to Missoula, Montana to pursue a MFA in Studio Art at the University of Montana, which she completed in 2016. As a graduate student Tressa held … Continued

Carly Slade
2016/17 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Carly Slade is a Canadian artist who grew up in “Big sky Alberta” and spent her working life in the trades. From carpentry to concrete, she is most at home in a shop. Her work is heavily influence by her childhood in a blue collar home where work ethic and craftsmanship were highly valued. Using … Continued

Amanda Maciuba
2015/16 Printmaking Artist in Residence

A native of the Buffalo, NY, Amanda Maciuba graduated from the University at Buffalo in 2009 with a degree in Visual Studies and a concentration in Print Media. Amanda completed a Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2015. Alongside her MFA, she also received a Certificate of the Book … Continued

Christy Wittmer
2015/16 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Christy Wittmer received a BFA in painting and sculpture from Miami University. She has studied ceramics at San Diego City College and The Ohio State University and earned her MFA in ceramics from the University of Cincinnati in 2014. Since then she has been working as a glaze chemist at Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, OH. … Continued

Eleanor Goudie-Averill
2015/16 Dance Education Artist in Residence

Eleanor Goudie-Averill is currently the Associate Director of Dance at the Lawrence Arts Center and a professor of Modern I-III at the University of Kansas. She initially returned to Kansas as an Artist-in-Residence at the Arts Center in 2015, providing dance outreach to over twenty local schools and organizations and choreographing for many productions, including … Continued

Gunyoung Kim
2014/15 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Gunyoung Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea. She received her BFA from Kook-Min University in Korea in 2010 and came to the United States to pursue an MFA in ceramic art. Gunyoung received her degree from The Ohio State University in 2014 and won the 2014 NCECA Graduate Award for Excellence. Following her residency … Continued

Tonja Torgerson
2014/15 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Tonja Torgerson has her M.F.A. in Printmaking from Syracuse University and B.F.A. in Studio Arts, with a minor in Art History, from the University of Minnesota. She was the 2014/15 Arts Center Printmaking Artist in Residence, and has accepted the inaugural position of Print Studio Fellow at the Lawrence Arts Center.

Valerie Campos
2014 Artist in Residence

Valerie Campos, originally from Mexico City, spent her early years in Los Angeles where street art and culture influenced her aesthetic. At age 22, she began teaching herself how to paint and moved to Oaxaca, Mexico which is known as a city of Mexican painters. Her work has garnered international attention, being exhibited in China, … Continued

Aaron Hughes
2014 Project-based Artist in Residence

The Tea Project A short term residency and installation providing uncommon perspective on politics, art, and Guantanamo Bay detainees. Artist Aaron Hughes began the Tea Project as a response to his military deployment to Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 and his return trip in 2009 as a peace delegate to the First International Labor Conference … Continued

Kyla Strid
2013/14 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Kyla Strid has a BFA in Ceramics from the University of Alaska Anchorage and an MFA from Ohio University. She worked as a technician for Easy Ceramic Decals and in multiple galleries as an Assistant Manager, Manager, Concept Designer, and Curator. She has been awarded residencies at the Clay Studio of Missoula, Red Lodge Clay … Continued

John McCaughey
2013/14 Printmaking Artist in Residence

John McCaughey holds a BFA in printmaking from Rhode Island College and his MFA in printmaking from Ohio State University. John is interested in knowing more about the things people frequently ignore during their daily “point A to point B” routines. He works with commonly overlooked objects, such as advertisements, public bulletin boards, QR codes, surveillance … Continued

Monika Laskowska
2012/13 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Monika Laskowska was born in Bydgoszcz, Poland. She earned her MFA from The Ohio State University and BFA in Ceramics from the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Galway, Ireland. Laskowska studied at The National Art Academy in Sofia, Bulgaria and holds a BA in English from the Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan, Poland. She recently … Continued

Patrick Vincent
2012/13 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Patrick Vincent received his B.F.A. from the University of Minnesota and his M.F.A. in printmaking from Arizona State University. He has worked for the design/letterpress workspace Studio on Fire, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Pyracantha Press. With this foundation in books, printmaking, and design, Patrick creates original works of art as well as … Continued

Kristi Arnold
2012 Project-based Artist in Residence

Kristi Arnold received her B.F.A. in painting from the University of Kansas in 2001. In 2005, she earned her MFA in painting and printmaking from The University of Connecticut. She is currently a visual arts candidate for PhD at the University of Sydney in Australia. Her work has been exhibited across the United States, and … Continued

Allen Chen
2011/12 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Allen Chen was born in 1979 in Taiwan and immigrated to California in 1991. He received his BFA in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University in 2005 and MFA in Studio Arts from the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Allen has since completed artist residencies at Mendocino Art Center in California, the Red … Continued

Carla Aspenberg
2011/12 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Carla Aspenberg, printmaker and sculptor, was born in 1980 in New York City. She received an MFA in Sculpture from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 2006 and a BA in Studio Art from Bard College in 2002. Her prints have been included in exhibitions such as “New Prints 2011 / … Continued

Willy Chyr
2011 Project-based Artist in Residence

Willy Chyr is interested in generative art, storytelling, and the intersection between art and science. He holds a BA degree in physics and economics from the University of Chicago. While in college, Willy joined Le Vorris & Vox Circus and performed as a juggler, unicyclist, and magician. He also learned to twist balloons. Chyr’s art, … Continued

Akiko Jackson
2010/11 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Akiko Jackson holds an MFA (2009) from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MA (2006) from California State University Northridge. Jackson has been the recipient of multiple awards and artist residencies including the Louise Bourgeois Endowed Fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center; the Art Bridge Fellowship from the Pratt Fine Arts Center; and a Roswell Artist in Residence … Continued

Nicolette Ross
2010/11 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Nicolette Ross holds a BFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from the University of Central Florida, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Fine Arts from Washington University in St. Louis. Her work is included in several private and public collections including the Special Collections at Olin Library, at Washington University, the University of Milwaukee-Wisconsin, the SCGI … Continued

Aaron Storck
2010 Project-based Artist in Residence

The Lawrence Arts Center has awarded its first Project-based Residency to Lawrence artist, Aaron Storck. The goal of this new program, funded in part by a grant from the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission, is to help support, sustain, and foster growth in local arts and artists by providing material support for development of special projects, with … Continued

Sarah Gross
2009/10 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Sarah was born and raised in New York City and has done artist residencies at the Greenwich House Pottery in New York, the Lawrence Arts Center in Kansas, and Grand Valley State University in Michigan. She received a BA in Studio Art from Carleton College in Minnesota and an MFA in Ceramics from the Rhode … Continued

Alison Filley
2009/10 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Alison Filley is currently the Coordinator of Studios and Outreach at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, IA. She received her MFA from the University of Iowa and her BFA from Washington University in St. Louis. Her work combines the artificial glitziness of popular culture with elaborate ornamental patterning and photographic imagery. She creates two-dimensional prints, … Continued

Hak Kyun Kim
2008/09 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Hak Kyun Kim is originally from Seoul, South Korea. He studied ceramics at Seoul National University of Technology and went on to receive his MFA from the University of Montana in Missoula. Since his residency at the Lawrence Arts Center, he has gone on to curate international ceramic competitions, work as the director of The … Continued

Donika Wiley
2008/09 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Donika Wiley received her BFA in Sculpture with Honors from the University of Kansas. Donika’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Her work was also featured in “New American Paintings in 2009. Through meditative and delicate moments in the studio, Donika conveys a gesture of exultation. Fully embracing subtle nuance, her drawings are carefully … Continued

Jennifer Holt
2007/08 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Jennifer Holt’s porcelain, mixed media sculpture and installation art revolves around concepts of time, place, and memory. She has been an artist in residence at the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, the Lawrence Art Center, and attended an international residency at Flicam/FuLe International Art Museums in Fuping, … Continued

Brian Stuparyk
2007/08 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Brian Stuparyk is the founder of Steam Whistle Letterpress in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has been collecting and restoring letterpress equipment since buying his first press in 2000. Originally from Grande Prairie, Canada, he holds a BFA in Photography Studies from Ryerson University in Toronto and an MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art … Continued

Taryn McMahon
2006/07 Printmaking Artist in Residence

Taryn McMahon received her BFA from The Pennsylvania State University, and an MA and MFA from the University of Iowa. She has received numerous awards for her work including the Southern Graphics Council International Graduate Fellowship and fully funded residencies at Anderson Ranch Art Center, Snowmass Village, CO; Anchor Graphics, Chicago, IL; and Women’s Studio … Continued

Jessica Conner
2006/07 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Jessica Conner came directly to the Lawrence Arts Center from Fort Hays State University after earning her MFA in 2006. She is a Western Kansas native growing up on her family’s farm as part of the fifth generation to participate in farming practices there. After spending a few years as the Lawrence Arts Center’s studio … Continued

Stacy Barnes
2005/06 Ceramics Artist in Residence

Stacy Barnes is originally from Greensburg, Kansas. After she received a BFA in ceramics from Kansas State University, she was awarded the first year-long residency at the Lawrence Arts Center. After her residency she returned to her hometown to set up a studio. She is also the Director of the 5.4.7 Arts Center in Greensburg.