SHANNON FINNELL - FOUNDER & DIRECTOR
While strongly believing that the key to social change is compassionate relationships that lead to genuine support, Shannon Finnell’s work attempts to embody that lesson through the exploration and deconstruction of supportive gestures and moments. Pulling from her BA in Studio Art and Peace Studies from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD, the marriage of visual art and questioning oppressive social structures is where Finnell finds inspiration for her work. She received an MFA in Fine Art Photography from the Parsons School of Design at The New School in 2018 and continues to engage with concepts of support through experimentation of video, installation, photographic practices and collaboration with modern and contemporary dancers.
ZOEY HART - CO-DIRECTOR & COLLABORATOR
Zoey Hart is a visual artist and cultural educator based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Inspired by the misadventures of living with a rare autoimmune disorder, Hart’s work reframes the experience of chronic illness as a means of practicing mindfulness and empathy. Combining traditional drawing and soft-sculpture techniques with alternative printmaking and social practice design, Hart creates images, sculptures and multimedia-installations that question our cultural perceptions of imperfection and wellbeing.
Hart has been awarded artist-in-residence positions at NES, Iceland; Arteles Creative Center, Finland; De Liceiras 18, Porto, Portugal; Soulangh Cultural Park, Tainan, Taiwan; Window Studio, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn; and designed a workshop-residency program for The Studios at MASS MoCA. In addition to her mobile-studio practice, Hart is the founder of SEE FEEL CREATE, a series of international art workshops and collaborations, and has worked as a teaching artist with The Studios at MASS MoCA, More Art , Project Art, and private studios throughout NYC and abroad. Hart received her MA in studio printmaking and international art education from NYU, Gallatin (2015), and previously studied Drawing and Printmaking at Brandeis University (2013) and Glasgow School of Art.
ZENKŐ BOGDÁN - EASTERN EUROPE COORDINATOR
With the belief that change begins with young and ambitious participants, international performing arts producer and manager Zenkő Bogdán has dedicated her career to fostering the growth of projects that sustainably create work expressing narratives and stories from a new angle. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre, Film and Media from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. As the Co-Founder of the production company Universal Pleasure Factory, Bogdán invests in the creation of projects such as Trash Songs (Vol. 1&3), there is more than one way to manufacture (2017) , Forbidden Books (2017-2018) a co-production with TESZT Festival, Temps d’Images Festival, the Paintbrush Factory and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and Whale Me - Coming in, coming out (2017). In addition, she has been the project manager for numerous projects with The Center for International Theatre Development, The Trust for Mutual Understanding, Jurány Art Incubator House, and the TESZT Festival.