1st General Session: Nate Powell
General Session
Nate Powell

Nate Powell is a National Book Award-winning cartoonist who began self-publishing as an Arkansas teenager in 1992. His work includes the new graphic novel Fall Through and a comics adaptation of James Loewen’s Lies My Teacher Told Me, civil rights icon John Lewis’s March trilogy, and more. Powell’s work has received American Library Association and Young Adult Library Services Association Awards, the Comic-Con International Inkpot Award, and he is a two-time finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

2nd General Session: Guerrilla Girls
General Session
Guerrilla Girls

The Guerrilla Girls are anonymous artist activists who use disruptive headlines, outrageous visuals, and surprising statistics to expose gender and ethnic bias and corruption in art, film, politics, and pop culture. They work to undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the unfair. The Guerrilla Girls have done hundreds of projects (street posters, banners, actions, books, and videos) all over the world—including retrospectives, traveling exhibitions, and interventions that have attracted thousands.  

3rd General Session: Roberto Lugo
General Session
Roberto Lugo

Roberto Lugo is a Philadelphia-based artist, ceramicist, social activist, poet, and educator who utilizes classical pottery forms in conjunction with portraiture and surface designs reminiscent of his North Philadelphia upbringing and hip-hop culture to highlight themes of poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. His work has been featured in exhibitions and/or has become part of the permanent collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Walters Art Museum, and more. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a Heinz Award, Philadelphia’s Cultural Treasures award, and a Pew Fellowship.

Artist Series: Ed Hamilton
Artist Series
Ed Hamilton

Classically trained, naturally talented, and internationally recognized, Ed Hamilton's passion for sculpture made him a Master of his craft and has given him the opportunity to share his love of art with the World. With a career spanning over 45 years, Hamilton has created a body of work depicting some of the most well-known Americans throughout history. From Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, Hamilton's commissioned monuments, plaques, and personal works tell the story of America and shows the rich diversity represented in our culture.

Artist Series: Jenny Pfanenstiel
Artist Series
Jenny Pfanenstiel

Jenny Pfanenstiel is a world-renowned milliner awarded for her skill of creating and sculpting hats by hand using rare, high-quality materials from across the globe. Taking from traditional millinery techniques, Pfanenstiel is known for her unique process of sculpting hats on a braid machine from the 1800s. As the official milliner of the Kentucky Derby Museum, Pfanenstiel has crafted hats for some of the world's most well-known dignitaries and celebrities including Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, and Neil Diamond. When she is not making hats in her Louisville Hat Shop, you can find her teaching hat-making workshops all over the world. 
  
"A hat can not only change your day, but it can also change your life!" - Jenny Pfanenstiel

Artist Series: Brook Forrest White Jr. 
Artist Series
Brook Forrest White Jr. 

Brook Forrest White, Jr. thrives on the intensity of the hot glass process. His glass art has expanded to include private and corporate commissions, as well as numerous architectural large-scale installations. White’s drive and vision for his studio and gallery has ignited a unique atmosphere of creativity that propelled Flame Run in Louisville’s rise as an art glass destination. White shares his passion for art by welcoming the public to experience the magic of hot glass at Flame Run—the region’s largest privately-owned glassblowing studio. 

Artist Series: Kaviya Ravi
Artist Series
Kaviya Ravi

Kaviya Ravi is an artist, maker, designer and small business owner raised in Southern India. Everything she creates is “unapologetically colorful” and working with her hands brings her the greatest joy. Her motto is to “live a silly, simple life” and this philosophy is reflected in her art, designs, and interiors. Ravi shares glimpses of her colorful life on Instagram at kvyainc, and she also sells her colorful wares in her online store, KHROMOPHILIA. Most days you can find Ravi exploring the world with her partner and her pup or creating colorfully whimsical things in her home studio in Louisville, Kentucky. She was also a contestant on NBC’s Making It and her colorful home has been featured in design blogs and magazines. 

Artist Series: Susanna Crum
Artist Series
Susanna Crum

Susanna Crum lives and works in Louisville, Kentucky, where she nurtures spaces of solidarity and exchange through teaching, collaborations, community-based research, and urban gardening. As cofounder of Calliope Arts, she provides a shared workspace that supports emerging and professional artists working in print media, and as a visual arts teacher at Kentucky Country Day School, she also helps young people build foundations as lifelong learners. Crum’s work in printmaking, drawing, and sculpture investigates archival traces of print culture—from maps and globes to advertisements and illustrations—as messages to the future. Her artwork has been featured at museum exhibitions, universities, and galleries throughout the U.S. and abroad, and she has attended residencies at institutions such as Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, California, and KH Messen in Ålvik, Norway.

Collaborations, Collisions, and Connections: The CAN Model of Professional Learning for Arts Educators and Leaders
Super Session
Josh Streeter, Amy Appleton, Kendall Crabbe, Nicole Robinson

Connected Arts Networks (CAN) support in-service teachers in building vibrant communities and sustainable professional learning models by engaging in ED&I and SEL practices, along with peer-to-peer mentorship. Collaboration across four national arts organizations in visual arts, theatre, music, and dance, as well as NYC Public Schools, provides an opportunity to create unique discipline-specific virtual Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) while collectively moving the field forward. This session explores the following: 

• How can we develop sustainable professional development models to serve fine arts educators in virtual spaces? 
• How can in-service educators engage in innovative models for making, working, playing, and presenting? 
• How might we reimagine and redefine leadership and coaching in preK–12 schools

Reframing That George Catlin Landscape: How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Perpetuating Indigenous Stereotypes in the Classroom 
Super Session
Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission

Through a blend of historical context, interactive discussions, and avenues for classroom resources, participants will uncover the historical roots and evolution of common stereotypes found in American Indian–Alaska Native Culture, art, and corresponding classroom activities. Engage with authentic artistic expressions that challenge and transcend outdated narratives. Learn strategies for fostering a more nuanced, respectful, and accurate appreciation of Western Hemisphere Indigenous Culture and art spanning from Chile to the Arctic.