2023 Artist Launchpad Cohort

Dance expresses an incredible sense of life and movement. Observing and drawing from dance has been a focus of my art for over 49 years and has evolved many styles and iterations. Capturing the gesture and pose of human movement is challenging. Freezing the body’s form to capture its essence with just a few abstract […]

Newhem is a veteran writer, author, ghost, and literature/writing professor who’s written 100+ books, articles, stories, essays, etc. for major publications and publishers. He’s interviewed and/or written bestselling books for countless notable people in business, medicine, entertainment, and politics on his radio show, The Operative Word, on KABC Los Angeles, he interviewed cultural icons about

Angel Newhem Valenzuela is an Akron-based performer who’s played Trixie in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Angel in Rent, Woof in Hair, and Nicky in Avenue Q, all with the Millennial Theater Company [MTP]. He’s a member of Cleveland’s LatinUS Theater Company, the only Spanish-speaking theater in Ohio, for which he’s played Samuel in Tiempo

Shannon is a mixed media artist.  She uses paper scraps, old hardware, wood and discards of all kinds to create whimsical characters, prints, cards, coasters, apparel and more! She sees beauty in the brokenness and loves sharing her passion for making things from practically nothing with others.  She runs workshops and art camps that provide

Georgio Sabino III is a highly acclaimed multi-disciplinary visual artist, photographer, designer, author and educator.  He was twice an official photographer at The White House for President Obama’s invitation to photograph Two National Champions, current director at Hector Vega Studio. Georgio Sabino III continues to consistently create magic at not only Cleveland and Ohio but

Katherine’s professional life has been non-linear. She’s worked in finance, journalism, logistics, and perhaps her hardest job, being a full-time parent. Like it did for many people, the pandemic generated a personal shift on many levels for her, one of which was getting in touch with and exploring her artistic side. In Katherine’s family, her

Juniper is an artist, singer-songwriter, and poet who creates imagery inspired by mystical and imaginative themes. She likes to describe her work as a sacred journey to open portals of the imagination and self-healing. Some have called it Visionary Art and some refer to my work as Medicine Painting. Using a process called Intentional Creativity

Daryl Largent is the author and cover illustrator of James the Third, a surreal and comic coming of age novel. He writes literary fiction, YA fiction, and children’s fiction (picture books). He is currently working on illustrating children’s books. He draws the Lonely God comic strip, and runs atari365.com, a blog covering retro games and

Jack was born and raised in the Cleveland area, and currently lives and maintains a studio in Bedford, Ohio. After a brief career as an engineering student at Case Western Reserve University, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Kent State University, with a concentration in painting, benefiting in particular from the insight

Chey became an artist to delve deeper into the creativity and energy they have to make and explore through visual, auditory and multitudinous means. They have worked on the margins of artistic creation through several roles as an arts administrator and have always found inspiration in the world and artists around them. It was only