Artists-in-residence at Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo
Robin Bishop
Dancer
Robin Bishop has been a lifelong dancer studying tap, jazz, ballet, modern, ballroom & musical theater. She has performed in and choreographed many local high school, college, community and professional pieces and shows. Her 15 minutes of fame came when she was part of the 2000 Buffalo Jills NFL cheerleading squad. She graduated from the University at Buffalo with dual degrees in danc and social science interdisciplinary. she then furthered her education receiving her Master's degree and licensing in Social Work and has completed her graduate coursework in dance movement therapy.
Robin's past work has included work at Catholic Charities, Renaissance Campus and most recently as a grief therapist with Hospice's Life Transitions Center. Robin has also spent the last 6 years teaching dance to children and adults with special needs, and was an instructor at the University at Buffalo teaching the Arts for Special Learners course in the Department for Learning and Instruction. Robin is most proud to have combined her love of social work and dance as a co-founder of danceability, Inc., a dance and movement program which caters to children and adults with special needs, while also providing support for their families. She is especially thrilled to be sharing her love of dance at Women & Children's Hospital through UB's Arts in Healthcare Initiative.
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Colleen Darby
Visual Artist
Colleen Darby is a lifelong Buffalonian. She is a graduate of the University at Buffalo with a BFA in Communication Design. The majority of her career has been in the advertising field working as an Art Director and Creative Director. Today she works as a Marketing Director for a local company and as a Freelance Illustrator in the children's market. Colleen's artwork appears in children's books, magazines and on clothing and signage.
Colleen wrote and illustrated her first book at age ten and caught the writing bug again after having kids. She has two books in print and a stack of manuscripts waiting to find a home. She visits area schools doing author/illustrator presentations.
www.colleendarby.com |
Margo Davis
Actor/Storyteller
Margo Davis is a Buffalo native who returned to Buffalo a decade ago for all the same reasons she left. She holds advanced education degrees in Theatre, Art, English, and Gifted and Talented Education, and has taught and acted on the regional theatre stages throughout the country and Off-Broadway. Since returning to Buffalo, Margo has created characters on nearly every theatre stage in the area. You may have seen her portraying Sara hinsen or Louise Bethune as part of the Forest Lawn Cemetery Summer Sunday Tours or on a TV commercial or two, bus she will insist that it is her evil twin. Among her film credits are Ron Howard's Night Shift, Woody Allen's Zelig, and Barry Levinson's The Natural.
Margo has over 200 regional and national voice credits, including the revived "Hey, Culligan Ma-an!" Other voice credits include everything from Fisher-Price talking toys to Grandma Brown's Baked Beans. She has studies privately with Sandy Dennis at H.B. Studio in NYC, and Liz Kegly, Tom Babson, and Lee Gallup and Pat Fraley of LA. She has chaired the Department of Theatre at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts for 12 years, directs plays for The Park School of Buffalo, is a member of The Benched Players School Improvisational Group, and serves on the New York State Department of Education Theatre Curriculum, Assessment, Teacher Certification committees and Buffalo's Artvoice Artie Selection committee. She volunteers for several Western New York organizations, including the Olmstead Parks Conservancy, The Western New York Reading Service, The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site, Buffalo ReUse, and AARP. She also enjoys sailing, architecture, tagging, and singing harmony.
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Leah Daniels Houghtaling
Visual Artist
Leah Daniels Houghtaling is a graduate of Buffalo State College (BS, Art Education). Ms. Houghtaling has experience as an art educator in area schools and in Tokyo, Japan. She is currently completing her MS, Ed. in Art Education, researching student engagement, interdisciplinary and holistic approaches to art education.
As a visual artist, Ms. Houghtaling ahs focused primarily on photography and mixed media. She is a member of the National Art Education Association (NAEA), and has a long history of coordinating art programming for summer camps and community service work as well. Ms. Houghtaling is extremely delighted to be collaborating with the Center for the Arts and Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo. |
Cristina Pippa
Writer
Cristina Pippa is a winner fo the National Playwriting Award from Wichita State and finalist for the David Mark Cohen Award. Cristina completed her BA at Columbia University and her MFA at the University of Iowa Playwright's Workshop, where she received the Iowa Fellowship to attend Sundance Theatre Lab. Cristina's latest play, LITTLE BOSNIA, was commissioned and produced by Avalon Theatre Company. ORANGE ALERT, a musical Cristina wrote with singer-songwriter Sharon Kenny, was a finalist for the 2008 O'Neill Music Theatre Conference and was nominated for the Weston Playhouse Musical Theater Award.
Cristina's work has also been developed and produced by Six Figures Theatre Comany, The Hangar Theatre Lab Company, Hubris Productions, Gallery Players, The Looking Glass Theatre in New York, This Woman's Work Theatre Company, Axial Theatre Company, Darwin Turner Action Theater, and by members of the Bedlam Faction and the Rude Mechanicals. Cristina's play, CELL CYCLE, was published by JAC Publishing and in "Scenes and Monologs from the Best New Plays." She is proud to be a contributor to Crucial Minutiae and the Huffington Post, and enjoys teaching playwriting at Buffalo State College.
www.cristinapippa.com
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Susan Reedy
Visual Artist
Susan Reedy is a SUNY graduate (MFA, Painting) and an award-winning studio artist and arts educator who has taught undergraduates for many years. She is an active volunteer in the arts community and is currently serving on the Roswell Park Alliance Art Committee. As a professional artist, her paintings have been in NYC at OK Harris Gallery, Hewitt Gallery, Pleiades Gallery, Gallery 84, and may be seein on The Drawing Center's Online Registry. Her work was included in the Visual Aids fundraising exhibition "Postcards from the Edge" at the James Cohan Gallery in Chelsea. Solo and group museum exhibitions include the Amherst Museum, Castellani Art Museum, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Butler Institute of American Art, and Memorial Art Gallery.
Her work is included in museum, private and corporate collections in the WNY area. Her next exhibition will be participation in an installation at the Museum of the National Library of Spain, a project coordinated by NYC-based curator Luis Camnitzer
| Artists-in-residence at Roswell Park Cancer Institute
Ann Frank
Visual Artist and Arts Educator
Ann Frank earned a BFA in technical theater design and production from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1988. She has worked as a theatrical scenic artist and properties artisan for theaters in Ohio, Massachusetts, and New York. Ann also has extensive art education training from Buffalo State College, the Arscura School for Living Art in the Healing and Social Fields, and the High School Teacher Training program at the Center for Anthroposophy in New Hampshire.
Ann runs Art Works Studio in East Aurora where she offers classes, sees private students of all ages, and teaches off-site for various local educational and health organizations. In addition, she has served with Explore & More Children's Museum as their exhibits coordinator since 2004. At present, in her own art, Ann is working mainly in charcoal, pencil and watercolor.
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Stuart Fuchs
Musician
Stuart Fuchs is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer, actor, and teaching artist based in Buffalo, NY. In 2005, he formed the acclaimed gypsy jazz band BABIK (bah-beek), which has been voted "Best Jazz Act in Buffalo" for three years running by Artvoice and Buffalo Spree magazine. Babik recently performed arrangements of the music of Django Reinhardt with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and perform regularly at music festivals.
Stuart performs assembly programs as an artist with Young Audiences of America, teaches a youth Ukelele orchestra, and facilitates the creative arts in a variety of different scenarios - from sing-alongs with special needs populations to facilitating clingics on using yoga and mindfulness for free improvisation. Stuart teaches Guitar at Canisius College and is a certified Music for People improvisation facilitator. Stuart is honored to be an artist-in-residence at Roswell Park Cancer Institute as part of the Arts in Healthcare Initiative launched by UB Center for the Arts. |
Barbara Murak
Visual Artist
Barbara Murak is a studio textile artist for over 35 years. Barbara has exhibited her work in juried and invitational exhibitions both nationally and internationally, with work in public and private collections in the US as well as in nine countries. Her work hangs in permanent collections including the Burchfield-Penney Art Center and the Textile Traces Collection
Barbara's fiber work explores layering of fabrics with intensive hand or machine stitching. Her current three-dimensional sculptural vessal forms involve the theme of fragility found in nature and in human relationships. She also enjoys painting on fabric and giving workshops, and will be a presenter at the upcoming American Art Therapy Association Conference in November.
Barbara's work has been featured in several textile and art therapy publications, and she is currently a member of the Buffalo Society of Artists, American Art Therapy Association, Surface Design Association, and the Fibre Design Forum.
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Pragna Hathi Wood
Visual Artist
Pragna Hathi Wood is a graduate of the University at Buffalo (MA, Geography). Ms. Wood is a studio artist/painter and also a graduate of the Arscura School for Living Art in the Healing and Social Fields. Using predominantly her fingers, Ms. Wood works intuitively with color and movement using various media including watercolor, oil and acrylics. Currently, she is exploring colors and tension of "turning inside out" as expressed in an inner landscape. Active in various multicultural community settings, Ms. Wood is an art facilitator and conducts workshops with adults and children. An upcoming exhibition of her work can be seen at Studio Hart. | |
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