Department: ChiArts Arts Conservatory Faculty

Avery Ferin

Avery Ferin is a creative writing teacher and fiction writer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. She attended Depaul University where she graduated with her BA in English and MFA in Writing & Publishing and served as the Editor in Chief of its art & literature magazine Crook & Folly from 2018-2021. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Kitchen Table Quarterly, Motley Magazine, and The Grand Rapids Press. She is the recipient of the 2022 Story Studio Master’s Award and the 2024 AWP Scholarship. Her short story “Summer on Lloyd’s Bayou” was nominated for a 2023 Pushcart prize.

Greer Hutchison

Born and raised in Chicago, Greer Hutchison studied the majority of her pre-highschool years at Dance and Music Academy under the mentorship and teachings of Krissie Odegard-Geye. In 2011, Greer attended the Chicago High School for the Performing Arts, where she trained and performed works by former director Sarah Ford Thompson, Lizzie MacKenzie, Reginald Harris, and Brian McGinnis; along with guests from Gus Giordano and Hubbard Street. Greer studied summers at Peridance Capezio Center and the Hubbard Street Dance Chicago intensive, with a full tuition scholarship provided by the Anthony Quinn Foundation. Greer graduated with her BFA from UNC School of the Arts in 2019 where she had also served as Student Body President during her senior year. There she had worked with faculty members such as Brenda Daniels, Sean Sullivan, Abigail Yager, Ming Lung-Yang, and Kira Blazek-Ziaii. There she also studied the repertoire of Natalie Desche, Charles Zarney, Martha Graham, Kelly Maxner and Aszure Barton. Greer has had the honor of performing professionally with UNCSA at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre in NYC as well as with Mandala South Asian Performing Arts in Chicago. Post University, she has worked as a teacher and choreographer for Greensboro Performing Arts as well as UNCSA’s Acting Out program in North Carolina. This season, Greer is excited to join her second season with Trifecta Dance Collective as a Principal Dancer and choreographer as well as return to perform and choreograph with Mandala South Asian Arts. Greer is also honored to be teaching at Dance and Music Academy and The Chicago High School for the Arts.

Frank Vega

Frank Vega (b. 1992, Ecuador) is a transdisciplinary artist working with sculpture, painting, and hybrid objects produced from repurposed materials. His practice centers on an archaeological approach to objects that shape our culture and collective knowledge. Different materials, surfaces, and shapes help Vega build objects with unique attributions that coexist creating empowering narratives.

Vega lives and works between Chicago and Ecuador. He received his Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), MDW Fair at Mana Contemporary, (Chicago), El Lobi, (Puerto Rico), The Green Gallery (Milwaukee), Koik Contemporary, (Mexico City), and the Krannert Art Museum, (Champaign). Awarded with a Frankenthaler Scholarship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; the Florence M. House Scholarship and the Helen E. Platt Blake Scholarship from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and a Leroy Neiman Fellowship from Ox-Bow School of Art.

Shawn Wallace

As keyboardist, Shawn has worked with Common, Ice Cube, Little Brother, Bobby Brown, Dwele, Johnny Gill, Jon B., Bilal, Estelle, Julie Dexter, Rene Neufville, Rakim, Eric Roberson, and Maggie Brown just to name a few.

Arrangement/Composition for Theatre includes Red Summer (with Shepsu Aakhu and Andy White, premiering Sept. 2022), Middle Passage (Lifeline Theatre Spring 2022), Shakin’ the Mess Outta Misery (Pegasus Theatre Fall 2017), Lawd the CVS is Burning…a Gospel Musical Stage Play (MPACT 2015) and Warm on the Cooling Board (MPAACT 2014).

Sound Design credits include N (GLP Productions 2019), Single Black Female and Lady Day at Emmerson’s Bar and Grill (Congo Square Theatre 2018-2019). Commercial credits include Jet Magazine, Mississippi Rick’s Restaurant, Huffy Bicycles, Arby’s and Sprint.

Shawn Wallace’s teaching experience includes current work at Storycatchers Theatre, Lyric Opera’s Empower Youth Program, and past work as the Technical Theatre Program Lead at Mayo Elementary School.