Day 9- Arts

LAS36-9-Arts

Presenter Bios

Gar Ragland is a producer, musician, and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder of vinylkey™, as well as the founder and CEO of Citizen Vinyl, a music vinyl pressing plant, bar/café, recording studio and record store located in downtown Asheville, NC.

Ragland is also president and co-founder of the NewSong Music Group, an artist development, event production and record label now celebrating its twentieth year.

A native North Carolinian (Winston-Salem), Ragland began his music career while an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, sharing bills with acts that include the Dave Matthews Band, Gov’t Mule and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. After working several years in Washington, DC as a researcher for the environmental economic policy think tank Resources for the Future, Ragland relocated to Boston to study composition and improvisation at the New England Conservatory with MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award winning pianist, composer and educator Ran Blake.

In 2005 Ragland moved from Boston to New York City, working out of his studio in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 2012, he relocated with his wife and three children to Asheville, NC to take up residence at Echo Mountain Recording Studios. In 2020, Citizen Vinyl opened its doors for business. Ragland now produces out of Citizen Studios, an analog recording studio located onsite in the historic WWNC radio station studios.

He is a voting member of the Recording Academy (Grammys), and former board chair of the Asheville Area Arts Council.

Caroline Crupi – Assistant Director, Asheville Area Arts Council

From performer to educator to fundraiser, Caroline has kept the cultural arts at the forefront of her career. Caroline is the Assistant Director of ArtsAVL, formerly the Asheville Area Arts Council. Prior to her relocation to Western North Carolina, she worked for the Museum of New Mexico Foundation as the Director of Leadership Giving for the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before her time in New Mexico, she served as a professor of music, teaching at various institutions in and around the Piedmont Triad region, including University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Averett University, Greensboro Day School and the Music Academy of North Carolina. Caroline holds a BA in Music from Florida State University, and an MM and DMA in Voice Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Candace Reilly is capital campaign manager for the North Carolina Glass Center. She has previously taught and/or curated at numerous organizations including Blue Spiral 1, Asheville Art Museum, Warren Wilson College, Rice University, and the Snite Museum of Art. Reilly holds an MFA in painting and contemporary theory from Savannah College of Art and Design and a BA in art history from Saint Mary’s College, University of Notre Dame.

Daniel Crupi joined the Asheville Symphony as Executive Director in July of 2021. Prior to his joining the ASO, Daniel served as the Executive Director of The Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, where he worked to advance equity and inclusion in concert programming, realign artistic focus with an emphasis on collaboration and cultural relevance, and forge partnerships with diverse organizations. Preceding his tenure in Santa Fe, Daniel served in several roles with the Greensboro Symphony, including Chief Operating Officer and Director of Development and Public Relations. There, he expanded music education programs, created a brewery- based chamber music series in downtown Greensboro, and founded a thriving Young Professionals program.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Notre Dame and a Master of Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife, Caroline, who serves as the Assistant Director of the Asheville Area Arts Council, are happy to be back in NC and particularly in Asheville, where they can apply their experience to Asheville’s vibrant arts & culture scene.

Claude Coleman, Jr, is a musician best known for his thirty years as the drummer for the alternative rock group Ween. Claude is also the singer/songwriter for his own group Amandla. He‘s a veteran multi-instrumentalist, carpenter/builder, graphic designer, and former music school director and teacher who has dedicated his life to artistic expression, community activism and engagement. He is co-creator and co-owner of SoundSpace@Rabbit’s a music rehearsal and art studio facility inside a 1947 Black-owned tourist court and soul food cafe' known as Rabbit's Motel, in the historically African-American district of Asheville’s Southside. He is passionate about serving the arts community. SoundSpace@Rabbit’s is dedicated to honoring a proud and forgotten part of Asheville’s history.

Stephanie Hickling Beckman – Managing Artistic Director, Different Strokes Performing Arts Collective

Ms. Beckman has been active in Asheville’s theatre scene since 1999. She has worked with several local theatre companies as an actor, stage manager, and director, and toured nationally as an actor.

Ms. Beckman is committed to being an active part of her community and seeks every opportunity to champion diversity and inclusion. She fulfills her personal mission to change the world through her art, compassionate leadership, straight-forward communication, and a deep love of storytelling. Ms. Beckman has shared her presence, her voice, and perspective through service on the boards of directors for the Western North Carolina Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The Asheville Area Arts Council. Asheville Writers in The Schools, Montford Park Players, Odyssey Community School, Youth Outright, The Center for Diversity and Education at UNCA, Western North Carolina AIDS Project, The Magnetic Theatre, the Black Mountain Arts Center, and the YWCA’s committee for Stand Against Racism.

Charlie Flynn-McIver is the Artistic Director and co-founder of NC Stage Company. Realizing as a youngster that he had a knack for stage craft, he followed his dream and received his Bachelor of Music in Music theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory of Music and for while taught drama, along with coaching wrestling. He went on to receive a Master of Fine Arts degree in acting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

After plying his craft in New York City and visiting his sister who lives in Asheville, he developed a dream of founding a theatre. When he met Angie, his wife, in NY, he learned that she, too, had the same dream – and they both dreamed of Asheville. The marital and professional deals were sealed.

Charlie and Angie returned to North Carolina in 2001 to create a professional theatre company with the mission of connecting people to plays that illuminate the shared human experience, envisioning a community where every person may experience consequential, entertaining and exceptional theatre.

Charlie’s acting and directing credits are too numerous to list, but I must include that NC Stage has been recognized for multiple awards from the National Endowment for the arts, the American Theatre Wing and the North Carolina conference’s George Parides Award.

Anna Kimmell is an actor, educator, and theatre artist from Atlanta, GA. A graduate of Elon University with a BFA in Musical Theatre, she has performed in regional and touring productions across the country. As an educator, Anna specializes in musical theatre, acting, and dance curricula for students of all ages. She has served as an adjunct and guest professor at Hollins University and the University of Central Arkansas. As a theatre artist and administrator, she served as the Director of Education at Mill Mountain Theatre in Virginia, Arkansas Repertory Theatre in Little Rock, and Flat Rock Playhouse in North Carolina, where she developed and managed year-round theatrical training programs for all ages, designed and led theatre outreach initiatives, and directed and choreographed main stage, black box, and touring children's productions. In 2022, Anna assumed the role of Director of Education and Engagement at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville, North Carolina.

Brian McCarthy

Seduced by Clay in 1970.

Moved to Asheville in 1979.

From 1980, Co-owner Highwater Clays.

Charter Member of the River Arts District.

1994 Co-founder Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts.

1995 Co-Founder Studio Stroll.

Stephanie Monson-Dahl has had the pleasure of helping people in our community make their places and spaces better for everyone- especially greater Asheville's creative sector- for almost twenty years. To do this, she takes her well-seasoned understanding of how public-private partnerships work, layers in lots of rich relationships, harvests as many fresh ideas and quality opportunities as she can, and adds a generous helping of luck. Steph is proudest of her work leading the City's riverfront revitalization initiative, and believes that great public spaces- whether it's a safe and well located bus shelter, a library, or a major recreational park- have the power to significantly improve lives. She's currently leading the City and County's process to document a vision for Pack Square Plaza, including the location of the former Vance Monument.

Kate Faulkner

Working artist and museum educator, Kate Faulkner was born and raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and currently lives and works in Asheville. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Kate has taught studio art, art history, art appreciation and arts integration courses at the University of Tennessee, Tusculum College, Walters State and Roane State Community Colleges in eastern Tennessee. She worked as a Research Assistant at the North Carolina Museum of Art, Assistant Curator of Education at the Knoxville Museum of Art and Public Programs Manager at Cheekwood Estate and Gardens in Nashville. In 2019, Kate was hired as the Director of Public Programs at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, FL, where she managed and lead programs in the museum and community for college and adult audiences while contributing to the vision and content of the Museum’s public programming such as lectures, symposia, art workshops, film, and performance. In 2022, Kate joined the Asheville Art Museum as Director of Learning & Engagement, where she advocates for meaningful, visitor-centered experiences through on-site, off-site, and virtual programs for all ages and abilities.

alexandria monque ravenel, Independent educator & Creative

alexandria monque is a native New Yorker raised in southern charm and has been in WNC since 2016. As a social entrepreneur, she has founded several businesses including a Montessori school, a women focused and empowerment bookstore, and is co-owner of Noir Collective AVL, a boutique shop and art gallery featuring Black artists and creatives which was founded by her brilliant child, Ajax Ravenel. alexandria also spends time at YMI Cultural Center where she coordinates equity partnerships with the community & inspires cultural change. She is also co-owner of Collaborative Organizing, a private social justice firm.

Steven Hunt – Operations Manager, Wortham Center for the Performing Arts

Mr. Hunt received his bachelor’s degree in Theatre from Francis Marion University and his MFA in Directing from the University of Utah. He has worked for professional, academic, and community-based theatres across the country including those in SC, NC, Utah, Iowa, Maine, Colorado, and Alaska. Prior to moving to Asheville in the summer of 2018, he worked as the Conferencing and Events Coordinator for Alaska Pacific University in Anchorage. Mr. Hunt joined the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in the Spring of 2021 as Operations Manager where he works closely with performing arts groups who use the Center for their events.