Artist Residencies
The Curb Center hosts artists for campus visits throughout the academic year. Visiting artists speak to Vanderbilt classes, offer public programs and talks, and support ongoing programs and initiatives at Vanderbilt. To inquire about scheduling an artist-in-residence for a class visit, please contact Rachel Thompson.
Fall 2024 Visiting Artists:
Eliza Evans
September 3–6, 2024, in conjunction with Extraction/Interaction
Eliza Evans experiments with data, archives, and bureaucracy to identify and exploit disconnections and contradictions in social, economic, and ecological systems. She locates the points where the logic of these systems is vulnerable to pressure and collapse.
Her work has been exhibited at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA; Lamama Galleria/New Museum, New York, NY; the Bronx Museum; Missoula Art Museum; Austin Peay State University, Clarksville TN; Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY; Alexey von Schlippe Gallery, University of Connecticut; Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY; Edward Hopper House Museum, Nyack, NY; and BRIC, Brooklyn. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and Dissent Magazine. Residencies include the LMCC Art Center, the Art Law Program, National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara, the Center for Art Activism, and Bronx Museum AIM program. She is currently a member of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator.
Evans holds an MFA in visual arts from SUNY Purchase and a Ph.D. in economic sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Forklift Danceworks | Allison Orr and Lisa Byrd
September 9–11, 2024
For over 20 years, Forklift Danceworks has created inclusive, one-of-a-kind performance projects that share stories, build understanding, and create community. With a mission to activate communities through a collaborative creative process, Forklift has reached over 50,000 people with free performances that typically feature the people whose work sustains our everyday lives. Additionally, Forklift Danceworks partners with different communities across the world to train local artists and government staff on the unique Forklift collaborative creative process. Through artistic programming and coaching, Forklift builds capacity for more informed civic dialogue, greater collaboration between individuals, and stronger connections and leadership across communities.
Allison Orr, Founder and Artistic Director of Forklift, creates award-winning choreography with the people whose work sustains our everyday lives. Inspired by the beauty and virtuosity in the movement of labor, and building on her background in anthropology and social work, Allison has honed a methodology of ethnographic choreography that engages community members as co-authors and performers in the creation of large-scale civic spectacles. Challenging audiences to expand notions of dance and performer, her dances have been performed for audiences of 60 to 6,000+.
Lisa Byrd, Organizational Strategist for Forklift, has a 30+ year career in the arts with roles ranging from audio engineering and production management to providing organizational leadership as production director for dance companies and executive leadership for community-based arts organizations. Lisa has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy from Penn State University and a Master’s Degree in Theater History and Criticism from Texas State University. She continued her studies in leadership and organizing with Marshall Ganz’s Leadership, Organizing and Action, an Executive Education program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Public Policy.
Kristin Idaszak and Gina Femia
September 26–27, 2024, in conjunction with the Vanderbilt Eco-Grief Initiative
Gina Femia is an award-winning playwright and performer whose work has been seen/developed at The Goodman Theater, MCC Theater, Playwrights Horizons, EST, Page 73, New Georges, The Playwrights Center, CTG, Theater of NOTE, Rivendell Theater, Cape Cod Theater Project, Bag&Baggage, Mirrorbox Theater, among others. Selected honors include The Kilroys List, Leah Ryan Prize, Doric Wilson Award, the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award and the Neukom Award in Playwriting, nominations for Drama League and NYIT. Gina is a former Core Writer with the Playwrights Center, and an Alum of EST Youngblood, Page73’s Interstate 73, Pipeline Theatre’s PlayLab, New Georges’ Audrey Residency, the Ingram New Play Lab at Nashville Rep and Parsnip Ship’s Radio Roots Writer’s Group. Gina’s a New Georges Affiliated Artist and has received residencies with Page73, Powerhouse, NTI at the O’Neill, SPACE on Ryder Farm, and Fresh Ground Pepper. As a teacher, Gina has worked with The Playwrights Center, Primary Stages ESPA, and TDF in addition to running independent classes that focus on writing your first novel as well as writing autobiographical stories for the stage. Gina’s debut YA novel, Alondra was named a Best Book for Teens in 2023 and is a Finalist for a Golden Kite award.
Kristin Idaszak is writer and culture maker working across disciplines whose artistic practice includes text and live performance. She is an internationally produced playwright, essayist, cultural critic, dramaturg, director, and academic. Kristin’s recent work focuses on the intersection of the climate crisis, gender, and chronic illness.
Her work has been seen at or developed through the Goodman Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, La Jolla Playhouse’s WoW Festival, SPACE at Ryder Farm, Williamstown Theatre Festival’s Directing Studio, The Drama League, Pasadena Playhouse, and the State Theatre of Turkey (Ankara), among others. She has received support from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, and was a finalist for a Creative Capital grant and the Princess Grace Award. Idaszak is adjunct faculty at The Theatre School at DePaul University (where she previously served as Acting Head of Dramaturgy/Criticism BFA program) and Northwestern University. She was a Visiting Scholar at FLAME University in Pune, India. Idaszak’s creative nonfiction and cultural criticism has appeared or is forthcoming in Fourth Genre, Multiplicity Magazine, HowlRound, Rescripted, and elsewhere. MFA: University of California, San Diego.
Reynaldo Piniella and Jaymes Sanchez
October 17–18, 2024, in conjunction with the Vanderbilt Eco-Grief Initiative
Reynaldo Piniella is an actor, writer, activist, and educator from East New York, Brooklyn. His co-created bilingual Spanish-English Hamlet has been developed at the Public Theater, Folger Theatre, the Acting Company and the Classical Theatre of Harlem. As a playwright, his work has been commissioned by Baltimore Center Stage and has been produced by Ars Nova, San Diego Rep, Single Carrot Theatre, the Lee Strasberg Institute at New York University Tisch, the Center at West Park, Harlem9, the 24 Hour Plays, and Pioneer Theatre Guild. His plays have been developed by the National Black Theatre, the Lark, the Billie Holiday Theatre, Egg & Spoon Theatre Collective, Skeleton Rep, HB Studio, and the Public Theater’s Shakespeare Initiative. He received the Thomas Barbour Award for playwriting for his play Black Doves. He has received fellowships from Theatre Communications Group, the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, Weeksville Heritage Center, and the All Stars Project. He is an alum of All for One Theater’s Solo Collective, the Civilians R&D Group and New Victory Theater’s LabWorks. Former artist-in-residence at Culture Lab LIC and Abingdon Theatre Company. Faculty member at NYU Tisch and AMDA. www.reynaldopiniella.com. @Reynaldorey
Jaymes Sanchez is a Texan playwright, actor, and educator living in Brooklyn. Jaymes’s plays have been developed with The Lark, Broadway Podcast Network/Rattlestick Theater, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Company One, Teatro Vivo, San Diego REP, and Artists’ Theatre of Boston. He was an Inaugural Fellow of the Latinx Playwrights Circle Summer Jam in 2023. Jaymes was also the recipient of the 2020 Keene Prize for Literature and the second place prize of Playing on Air’s James Stevenson Award. Jaymes has been a finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, SPACE on Ryder Farm, the Latinx Theatre Commons Carnaval and the Kitchen Dog Theater New Works Festival, as well as a semifinalist for the Princess Grace Award. MFA: The Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas at Austin.
John Sabraw
November 18–20, 2024, in conjunction with Extraction/Interaction
Artist John Sabraw was born in Lakenheath, England. An activist and environmentalist, Sabraw’s paintings, drawings, and collaborative installations are produced in an eco-conscious manner, and he continually works toward a fully sustainable practice. He collaborates with scientists on many projects, and one of his current collaborations involves creating paint and paintings from iron oxide extracted in the process of remediating polluted streams.
Sabraw’s art is in numerous collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Honolulu, the Elmhurst Museum in Illinois, Emprise Bank, and Accenture Corp. Sabraw is represented in Chicago by Thomas McCormick.
Sabraw is a Professor of Art at Ohio University where he is Chair of the Painting + Drawing program, and Board Advisor at Scribble Art Workshop in New York. He has most recently been featured in TED, Smithsonian, New Scientist, and Great Big Story.