Jesse Blumenthal

He/him

Performances Director

Jesse Blumenthal is an internationally exhibited, museum collected Artist and Educator residing in Missoula, Montana. In 2019 Blumenthal’s work received a permanent collection purchase award from The Yellowstone Art Museum, was awarded a Montana Arts Council Artists in Schools and Communities Grant supported by The National Endowment for the Arts, and received four separate regional grants to support community based foundry events. Recent public sites have included Salem Art Works, Bozeman Sculpture Park, The International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art, Sculpture in the Wild, and Open AiR. Jesse was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended UMass Amherst, earning a BFA in Sculpture in 2007, and completed his graduate work at The University of Montana, earning an MFA in 2019. Jesse's work will be featured as a fellow at Franconia Sculpture Park and Burning Man Arts and Music Festival in 2021 as well as a solo exhibition at The Holter Museum of Art in 2022.

David Marquez

He/him

Exhibitions Director

David was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised primarily in the rural farm areas of the commonwealth. He is an explorer and maker of things. He received a BFA in graphic design from Western Kentucky University and a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the University of Iowa. An avid maker, builder, mold maker, and metal caster, his work has been exhibited in national exhibitions throughout the east coast and midwest. He has shown internationally in group exhibitions in Australia and Germany. His series, entitled Germination, was presented in a solo exhibition in South Korea. He is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at his alma mater, Western Kentucky University. He is a board member for Sculpture Trails Outdoor Museum and founding mentor to the WKU League of Sculptors. David's passion for metal casting stems from his desire to connect to a larger art community.

Hannah Hirsekorn

She/her

Panels and Presentations 
Director

Hannah is an artist, fabricator and herbalist living on Vashon Island in the Puget Sound. Originally from California, Hannah received her BFA from the University of Oregon. Hannah worked as a fabricator and moldmaker at a bronze art foundry in Chicago. She then managed the light metals facilities and foundry at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago while simultaneously getting her MFA from the Fibers Department. A recent artist-in-residence at Mildred’s Lane, the Chicago Public Library and the Mobile Moon Coop, she is currently co-founding an artist residency on Vashon Island and continues to work in community herbalist care. 

Al Johnson

He/him

Guest Furnaces Director

Alex “Al” Johnson was born and raised in Macomb, Illinois. After high school, he attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, completing a Bachelors of Fine Art in Photography in 2010. During his time at NIU, he gained exposure to sculpture and metal casting, shifting his artistic interests. In 2012, he was accepted into the graduate program at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi in sculpture. After completing his MFA, he accepted his current position at Collin College in Plano, Texas. As the Art Labs Coordinator, he oversees multiple studios in addition to the sculpture and foundry areas.

Kaleigh Suddarth

She/her

Demonstrations Director

Kaleigh is a Chicago based Artist, working primarily in cast Iron and Bronze. She draws inspiration from her coastal hometown, and the movement of the ocean in correlation with human emotions. Kaleigh grew up in Destin, Florida and later moved to Chicago and completed her BFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2017.  For the past five years Kaleigh has worked as a Glass and Metal Artisan, at a Glass Shop and Bronze Foundry called West Supply, in Chicago.

Ivan Berejkoff

He/him

Student Coupla Contenst Director

Ivan is an artist and educator who’s main purpose in life is to help people make things that look cool.

After bouncing around colleges in the San Francisco bay area and Charleston, SC, he was awarded an undergraduate degree in studio art with an emphasis in sculpture after also completing a few lesser diplomas and certifications in industrial maintenance, machine, and welding technologies. Outside of his academic training, he has journey-level recognition as a Foundry Patternmaker from the California Department of Industrial Relations and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) following an 8,000 hour apprenticeship at a cupola iron casting plant in Oakland, CA. As a result, he’s achieved a well rounded skillset working with building materials and tooling while furthering his art practice and professional studio operations, manufacturing, and industrial arts faculty roles.
 
Between attempts at art making, Ivan manages the fabrication shops at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in addition to his role as Foundry Department Head at The Crucible in Oakland, CA. 

Robin Baker

He/him

Workshops Director

Robin Baker is an artist and educator working in Oklahoma. My explores the connection
between civilization and the planet. Through juxtaposition of human and natural forms using
industrial and natural materials, He investigates this disconnection and add to the
conversation about the destruction necessary to sustain the industrial way of life. Baker is
part of Green A Studios, a collaborative project with his spouse Christyn Overstake. They
create works elucidating the human actions causing the current mass extinction crisis as
well as efforts to mitigate humanity’s effect on planetary biodiversity. Baker has shown,
given talks, and taught workshops throughout the United States, and is currently Teaching
Assistant Professor of Art at Oklahoma State University.