creatives

Born and raised in “DC proper,” A.J. McClenon studied art and creative writing at the University of Maryland and The New School prior to receiving a Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Alongside artistic experiences, A.J. is passionate about teaching and community collaborations with that goal that all the memories and histories that are said to have “too many Black people,” are told and retold again. As a means to uphold these stories A.J. creates performances, installations, objects, sounds, visuals, and writings. These creations often revolve around an interest in water and aquatic life, escapism, Blackness, science, grief, US history, and the global future. A.J. is deeply invested in leveling the hierarchies of truth and using personal narrative to speak on political and cultural amnesia and their absurdities.

Alex Braidwood is a sound artist, media designer & design educator. He maintains a practice centered around a process of play, experimentation and research through making. His work explores methods for transforming the relationship between people and the sounds in their environment. He has been an artist in residence in an Australian National Park, on an Iowa farm and at a mid-western biological field research station exhibiting work, led creative technology workshops, lectured on his research, and performed live at a variety of events throughout the US, Europe and Asia.

He is currently Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design, Masters of Sustainable Design and Human Computer Interaction PhD programs at Iowa State University and is director of the artist-in-residence program at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory biological field research station.

Andy Slater is a Chicago based media artist and disability advocate. Founder of the Society of Visually Impaired Sound Artists and director of the Sound as Sight accessible field recording project, his current work features the sounds of antiquated assistive technology, field recordings, spatial audio design for virtual and augmented reality, video games, and film. Andy has a Masters in Sound Arts and Industries from Northwestern University and a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has performed and exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, University of Chicago, Contemporary Jewish Museum San Francisco, Ian Potter Museum of Art Melbourne, Australia, Critical Distance Toronto, Flux Factory New York City, Art Institute of Chicago, Experimental Sound Studios, and others. Andy was a 2018 3Arts/Bodies of Work fellow at the university of Illinois Chicago and High Concept Labs artist in residence 2016-2020.

Carrie Sandahl is Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago in the Department of Disability and Human Development. She directs Chicago’s Bodies of Work, an organization that supports the development of disability arts and culture, through festivals, advocacy, and an artist residency program. Her research and creative activity focus on disability identity in live performance and film. Sandahl’s publications include a co-edited an anthology, Bodies in Commotion: Disability and Performance, which garnered the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s award for Outstanding Book in Theatre Practice and Pedagogy (2006). Sandahl frequently travels nationally and internationally to speak about her research and arts advocacy initiatives. She collaborated on a documentary, Code of the Freaks, a critique of disability representations in cinema, which premiered in 2020.

Deirdre is a freelance producer, director, performer and arts administrator. Based for years in London, NYC, and Rome, she worked on new plays in development, premieres, classics and musicals at venues including The Almeida, The Royal Court, The Gate, Hampstead, Edinburgh Festival, the West End in the UK; Cucaracha, CSC, Big Dance, The Public in NYC; Portland Stage Company, New Jersey Shakespeare and Williamstown regionally; The Goodman, TUTA, Steppenwolf and Chicago Fringe in Chicago. She appeared on British TV and radio and in films including Gangs of New York, My House in Umbria, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shot at Cinecittà. She sings on the soundtrack of Shining Through and is the voice of Athena on Pete Townsend’s Psychoderelict. In Chicago she was Music Institute of Chicago’s first Director of Community Engagement, was instrumental in launching Global Citizenship Experience High School and in turning around two newly independent progressive schools. She leads development and communications for Rush Hour Concerts/Make Music Chicago while collaborating on music theater projects with Chicago Q Ensemble and composers Jenna Lyle and Christopher Preissing, and is a member of the chamber band The Lucky Trikes.

Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, serves as President of the World Listening Project, President of the Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and President of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology. He is Associate Professor Adjunct in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). As a performer, composer, and sound designer, Leonardson created sound with the Chicago based physical theater company Plasticene (1995-2012). Leonardson performs internationally with the Springboard, a self-built instrument made in 1994 and often presents on acoustic ecology to new audiences beyond art world contexts; engaging and connecting communities in the interrelated aspects of sound, listening, and environment.

Honna Veerkamp is a community-oriented artist and educator. Her specialties include audio and video documentary, painting, and socially engaged art. Honna’s work explores natural and human-made environments and celebrates creative resistance—from tiny interventions to grassroots social justice movements, and the stories in between. Honna earned a Media Arts MFA at Southern Illinois University in 2015 and a diploma in Audio Engineering at the Institute for Audio Research in 2002. She was a CAT fellow in 2017-2018 and currently serves on the alumni advisory board. She has taught audio, video, writing, and fine art at university and community settings.

Hugh Sato is an artist and designer, working at the intersection between interactive experience design and installation art. He graduated with high honors from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a BA in New Media from the School of Art and Design. He has developed numerous 2D and 3D animations for theater as a freelance motion designer and has taught young audiences about tornados and electricity at the Museum of Science and Industry. Son of a puppeteer turned social worker and a mime turned chef, he grew up surrounded by theater, and people bridging creative gaps between various disciplines. Inspired by interactive museum learning environments, as well as artists working with coding and technology as a medium, Hugh works with diverse collaborators to innovate in fantastic large-scale experiences.

Jay Needham is an artist, musician, writer-editor and cultural producer who utilizes multiple creative platforms to produce his works, many of which have a focus on sound and site specific field research. As a hearing-divergent person, Needham makes work that often involves sensing and experiencing sound across many modalities. His sound art, works for radio, visual art, performances and installations have appeared at museums, festivals and on the airwaves, worldwide. Needham is the founding co-editor of Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, published by The University of California Press. He is a Professor in the Department of Radio, Television and Digital Media at Southern Illinois University and he received his MFA from The School of Art at California Institute of the Arts.

Jay Strommen received his MFA degree in ceramics from The School of the Art Institute (2000). After his graduation he was a resident artist at The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural in Japan from 2001 – 2002 and has been a teacher at Park West Ceramics and Lillstreet Art Center for the past 10 years. His work has been featured throughout the United States in association with wood fired ceramics. He was the recipient of The Oppenheimer Family Foundation Teacher Incentive Grant in 2003 and 2004. Jay fires his work and orchestrates instructional workshops in Galena, Il. On December 3, 2010, Pass Through Fire, a documentary that covers the life, work, and philosophies of Jay and the people that have crossed his paths, premiered in Chicago. Over the past two years (2014-15) Jay has been engineering, designing and building the Chicago Ceramic Center in conjunction with the Bridgeport Art Center, with the expected completion and classes beginning in fall, 2015. Currently Jay lives and has a studio in the south side of Chicago, Illinois.

Kameron Locke (he/him) is a classical singer and research-based artist who expresses what he defines as the “facets of Blackness” through music, performance, and study.

Locke navigates cultural, community, and academic spaces as a social justice-centered creative, artistic leader, producer, educator, and musicologist. From within these spaces, he reflects on representation and inclusion, and how to engage and solve challenges that bring equality to continuously evolving communities.

Born and raised in Chicago, he recently emigrated to Berlin after a fulfilling stint in London.

Keith Moore is a composer and sound artist, writer, curator, and community-media maker currently based in Urbana, Illinois. Keith uses the fields of acoustics and psychoacoustics to compose expressive and conceptually rich works that compel listeners to consider the beauty and breadth of perception itself. He has collaborated with numerous distinguished organizations such as musikFabrik WDR (Cologne), Ensemble de l’itinéraire (Paris), Ensemble Modern and the International Ensemble Modern Academy (Frankfurt), PRISM Quartet (NYC), Talujon Percussion (NYC), Ensemble 21 (NYC), and soloists including Tomas Bächli (Berlin), Karen Bentley Pollick (CO), Kevin Boyer (London), Maja Cerar (NYC), Juliana Snapper (LA), Taimur Sullivan (Chicago) and Kelland Thomas (Hoboken). In addition to creating original compositions Keith Moore pursues his research through writing, performance, curating and teaching.

Kristina Isabelle is a dancer, choreographer and teacher who is passionate about exploring the physicality of the body and its story-telling potential. She creates multimedia dance productions that sometimes integrate articulate dancing on stilts. She is the artistic director of Cristina Isabelle Dance Company and director of HighJinks Productions. Kristina has performed nationally and internationally, most recently performing her work stilt dance work The Moving Target at Deventer Op Stelten Festival in The Netherlands. She has performed with Bebe Miller, Stephen Petronio, Jordan Fuchs, Bob Eisen, Earth Circus Productions, and John Jasperse. Ms. Isabelle was one of the Chicago Dance makers Forum Lab Artists for 2012-2013 and a Pentacle Help Desk/Chicago artist 2013. Since moving to Chicago in 2011 she has shown her work at Links Hall, the MCA, and the Ruth Page Dance Center. Her work has also been produced in New York, San Francisco, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Fort Worth, England, Ireland. In Poland her work was shown at the Bytom International Dance Festival. Along side her professional work, Isabelle has also taught dance, composed works, and constructed dance-related events for Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street, Visceral, Outer Space and Aloft Circus Arts.