Faculty

Whitney Bradshaw is an artist, curator, teacher and social worker. She trained as an artist at Columbia College Chicago where she received an MFA in photography in 2001. While in school, Ms. Bradshaw taught at Columbia College and the School of the Art Institute in addition to working at the Museum of Contemporary Photography as the assistant registrar and curatorial assistant. She received 3 Weisman Scholarships and in 2001 was named one of the top 10 MFA Candidates and awarded the College Art Association Regional M.F.A Exhibition at Gallery 400 in the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2003, she had a solo exhibition at the International Museum of Surgical Science. Her photographs can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography as well as numerous private collections, and have been published in the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Ms. Bradshaw was formerly the assistant curator of the renowned LaSalle Bank Photography Collection and the curator of photography for the Bank of America Collection. As a curator, she developed more than 40 exhibitions, which have been loaned to museums and cultural centers throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. In addition, she has published a number of books and essays on the collection’s holdings and currently serves on the editorial board of the Columbia College Press. Prior to her graduate studies, Ms. Bradshaw attained a BA in Sociology with a minor in Women’s Studies from Eastern Illinois University. She has also worked, in various capacities, as a social worker across the city of Chicago. Her artwork can be viewed at www.whitneybradshaw.com.

Originally from North Florida, Kayce received her BA in Studio Art and a Minor in Music from Florida State University. She went on to earn her MFA from the Memphis College of Art in Tennessee before moving to Chicago in 2005. An interdisciplinary artist working in drawing, objects, video, and performance, she exhibits nationwide and performs locally. Her biggest project to date combined many of her creative interests to revisit the vaudevillian form. The Great Fire: A Traveling Truck Show toured Chicago neighborhoods in October 2012 with a moving truck as a pop-up stage, engaging audiences with a bit of Chicago history, storytelling, music, and other wackiness. Kayce has over 10 years experience as an arts and design educator working with students of all ages. She is the other half of musical project Jacques Hammer & Wanda Drug and curatorial/production experiment Good Stuff House.  www.kaycebayer.com

Born in Denver, Colorado, Rebecca Beachy is a recipient of both an MFA in Studio Arts and an MA in Art History from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has taught at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and tutored students in art history, English and the humanities through Supplemental Instruction, Educational Endeavors and the LINK scholarship program. She is a member of the small staff of 8550OHIO (formerly Harold Arts), and is actively collaborating towards the development of a new Chicago residency for German artists through Chicago Sister Cities & Hamburg’s Department of Culture. She recently exhibited work in Hamburg’s Altona as a December/January resident of the FRISE Künstlerhaus. In Chicago, her ephemeral sculptures, interventions and installations have been exhibited at Iceberg Projects, 6018NORTH, the Southside Hub of Production, and Gallery 400, among other spaces. Her written work has been published with literary journal Puerto del Sol and will be included in the Center for Humans & Nature’s upcoming City Creatures. As a volunteer specimen preparator and educator, Beachy also demonstrates taxidermy to the public at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum for the Chicago Academy of Sciences, Department of Collections.
www.rebeccabeachy.com

Jeanne Donegan is an image based artist and educator living in Chicago. She received her BFA from the University of Connecticut, her home state, and her MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago. In 2016/2017 she held an artist residency at Lillstreet Art Center, where she is now the Director of the Photography Department and runs a photographic artist lecture series titled, Discourse. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as Hyde Park Art Center and Woman Made Gallery in Chicago, IL; The Pitch Project in Milwaukee, WI; The Madison Public Library in Madison, WI; and Honolulu Art Museum School in Honolulu, HI. She has been interviewed by various online and print publications such as Sixty Inches From Center, Wave-pool, Fotographia, Facets Features, and Art Ascent: Art & Literature Journal. Her experimental film works have screened in the Chicago Underground Film Festival at Logan Theater and Chicagoland Shorts Vol. 3, which premiered at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017.

Megan Kalmes is an artist and educator living and working in Chicago. Megan works traditionally with oil on canvas. Her paintings are figurative and often depict a feminine protagonist entranced within her own psyche – a sort of psychological landscape. Megan loves art history and embraces the fundamentals of painting and drawing. She believes that figuration can be more than a reflection of the self or of society; transcending beyond mere representation to a place of greater sensitivity and call upon the nature of being. The act of self-reviewing is present in Megan’s personal work and in her teaching. Her painting practice informs her communication with students providing enrichment and development from a place of emotional investment. Megan has taught with the Early College Program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa. Megan also has experience with after-school programming working with vulnerable and at-risk youth groups. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and Minor in Art History from Clarke University. Megan also holds Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio and an MFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Chris Lin is an interdisciplinary artist based in Chicago, working in media including films, books, puppetry, music, and installation. Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, he moved to British Columbia, Canada and received his BFA with honor from University of Victoria in 2005. After relocating to Chicago, Mr. Lin pursued an MFA in Fiber and Material Studies from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and graduated in 2008. His exhibition history includes Contemporary Art Workshop, Eel Space, and OP Shop in Chicago, Verge Art Fair in New York, Deluge Contemporary Art and 50/50 Arts Collective in Victoria, BC, and Atlantic Centre for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, FL. His visual art and short stories has been published in Fiction At Work and Balliwik. Mr. Lin is the co-founder and collaborative director at Good Stuff House, a performance and publishing art collaborative, and the founding member and ukulele player of the folk-thrash-hop duo Hannis Pannis. www.cardboardish.com

Kera MacKenzie is an interdisciplinary artist who works with moving images, photography, sets, installations, performance and live broadcasts. She has screened and exhibited her work at spaces including the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Edinburgh Artists’ Moving Image Festival, MassArt Film Society (Boston), Aurora Picture Show (Houston), High Desert Test Sites (New Mexico), The Luminary (St Louis) and the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago Underground Film Festival, and Links Hall (all Chicago). She received her MFA in Moving Image from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013. Additionally, Kera is a Founding Co-Director of ACRE TV, an artist-made livestreaming tele-vision network (ACRETV.org), an educator, and a recent recipient of a UIC/UofC/SAIC Consortium Fellowship for the trans-disciplinary program Field Trip / Field Notes / Field Guide. keramackenzie.com 

A son of several places, Devin Mawdsley is proud to call Chicago home. He is a painter and a drawer who received his B.A. at the College of William and Mary in Chinese and an M.F.A in Studio Painting from Indiana University. He has experience in the visual arts, including drawing and digital photography, as well as language instruction, both Chinese and English. His recent exhibition history includes the Momenta Art Gallery in New York, Buy Art Not People in Chicago, as well as the Department of State, Art in Embassies program (Suva). You can find his work at www.devinmawdsley.com/.

BFA, 2011, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL; MFA, 2016, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Exhibitions: NURTUREart Gallery, NYC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Parson Paris Gallery, Paris; VideoFag, Toronto; Defibrillator, Chicago; Enemy, Chicago