People

The OSU Urban Arts Space relies on the strengths of a variety of people, ranging from dedicated staff to high school interns, from special projects staff to OSU student assistants, from graduate fellows to volunteers, all contributing to a diverse learning laboratory and a wonderfully vibrant arts space. Meet some of the people that make the UAS possible.

Administrative Staff

Valarie Williams
Director

Valarie Williams serves as Associate Curricular Dean for Arts and Humanities, Director of The Ohio State University’s downtown Urban Arts Space, and is Professor of Dance. She received her B.F.A. from The Juilliard School, her M.F.A. from Texas Woman's University, and is a Certified Professional Notator and Teacher. She studied at the Paris Opera Summer Study in Evian les Bains, France; toured with Lincoln Center Institute Touring Programs for four years serving as dance captain; and performed with The Dallas Opera and Sharir Dance in Austin, Texas. She has set works on the national dance companies of Peru and Ecuador, Repertory Dance Theater, and the Jakarta International School in Indonesia, as well as Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Emory University, and University of Texas at Austin. Valarie has directed works from score by Taylor, Humphrey, Momix, Sokolow, Morris, and Petipa and has received grants from National Endowment for the Arts to restage, notate, and design content for CD-ROMs/DVD-Videos. Valarie also received the first of The Ohio State University’s Multidisciplinary Arts and Humanities Awards with ACCAD and Near Eastern Languages to design a prototype and work on a digital library interface for documented dance works using notation, video, and motion capture. In 2009 she was selected as a fellow in the OSU-CIC Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Academic Leadership Program and selected as a Rising Star Fellow at the International Council of Fine Arts Deans (ICFAD). At Ohio State she teaches repertory from score, ballet technique, grant writing, and Labanotation.

Kelly Stevelt Kaser
Deputy Director

Kelly Stevelt Kaser was appointed to the position of Deputy Director for the OSU Urban Arts Space in 2007. In this capacity, she helped transform the 10,000 sq feet historic Lazarus Building into a vibrant downtown arts space. As the deputy director Kelly oversees everything that occurs in the Space, including strategic planning, staffing, policy and process creation, operations, exhibition planning, and event coordination. Her primary responsibility is to work closely with the Arts and Humanities faculty and staff, students, and alumni as well as community leaders and nonprofit organizations to create a vibrant downtown presence through arts exhibitions, performances, and events, resulting in more than nineteen exhibitions, 175 events, and thousands of visitors since the doors opened in February of 2008. Prior to coming to the Space, Kelly was the Director of Research and Programs for the Jefferson Center for Learning and the Arts’ Academy for Leadership and Governance where she fulfilled two distinct roles. She was primarily responsible for the Center’s finances as well as administering lease arrangements with resident organizations. Kelly also managed educational programs and retreats, coordinated events and conducted literature reviews and background research for leadership publications. She received her B.A. in English literature and economics and M.A. in arts policy and administration from The Ohio State University. Recently accepted as a doctoral candidate at Ohio State, she is continuing her academic studies in arts administration with an emphasis on organizational development and relationship building. Kelly's service to her community includes serving as vice president for Glass Axis, a nonprofit public access facility that engages new audiences and fosters professional glass artists’ careers. She previously served on the Board of Trustees for the Columbus Metropolitan Club, an organization dedicated to furthering diversity, discussion, and debate, and was the founding chair for CMCp.m., a program series developed to attract a younger and more diverse audience to CMC. For the past two years she was a member of Mayor Coleman’s Create Columbus Commission, established to attract and retain young professionals to Columbus, and served as vice chair for the Columbus Arts Marketing Association, a membership organization dedicated to promoting the arts in central Ohio. One of Kelly's favorite activities is working with her husband, artist Adam Kaser, in his glass blowing facility, Kaser Glass Studio.

Eva Ball
Communications and ADA Coordinator

Eva Ball has worked in the Columbus arts community for almost 10 years. She has curated three exhibitions: Joy Divisions, Time Machine, and 20/20: Twenty Artists Twenty TVs. She has worked with a variety of local arts organizations ( BLD, Skylab, OAL, MadLab, and now the OSU Urban Arts Space) in a plethora of capacities, including communications, accessibility, development, operations, and exhibition design, not to mention everything else from building walls to program planning. In 2007, she graduated from The Ohio State University, with a B.F.A., summa cum laude and honors distinction in Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited nationally and in Europe. She has received numerous awards including GCAC Franklin County Nieghborhood Arts Grant, two Undergraduate Research Scholarships, the 13th Annual Fergus-Gilmore Scholarship and two Paid Fellowships to study in Paris and Bucharest. Besides art-making and curating, she has a special interest in post-structuralist theory. She lives with her daughter, Xiu Xiu, in downtown Columbus.

Student Staff
The OSU Urban Arts Space creates professional development opportunities for Ohio State students and community high school interns by using a teaching model similar to that of a hospital. Much of the administrative work that keeps the space vibrant is performed by undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in various programs throughout the university.


The Barnett Fellow
On May 7, 1993, Lawrence R. Barnett and Isabel Bigley Barnett in support of the Arts Policy and Administration Program established two endowed funds. The Lawrence and Isabel Barnett Fellowship Funds provide tuition, fees and an annual stipend for selected incoming students. The Art Education Department has designated one of these fellowships for work in the OSU Urban Arts Space, providing the student selected with hands on arts management experience.

Ray Smith
Idea Lab Coordinator

Ray (Rachel) Smith is a second year graduate student in the Master's of Arts Policy and Administration program. As an undergrad she majored in Art History specializing in the Italian Baroque period with the intention of being a curator. She solidified her interest in this period by studying in Rome but found she was more interested in administration and advocacy roles. One of Ray's many research interests is how the arts effect urban redevelopment. She is very excited to be at the intersection of the arts and urban environment at the Space. In her scant free time she goes to as many concerts as she can.

Administers the Idea Lab program, a student-run entrepreneurial program that aims to be a creative incubator for OSU students’ original and impact-making ideas. In order to run the program, the Idea Lab Coordinator conducts, markets and manages call for proposals and selection process; works with Deputy Director to match Space student assistants with individual projects during fall quarter. The assistant works with contacts from projects selected to refine proposals, make campus and community contacts, and prepare for implementation; organizes workshops on areas of interests for program participants during winter quarter. To see the program fulfill its projects, the coordinator works with project contacts; plans final reception for all Idea Lab awardees; coordinates and collects final reports on all projects; prepares annual evaluation of program during spring and summer quarters.

Student Assistants
All current, full-time students at The Ohio State University, our Student Assistants are responsible for the daily operations of the gallery and serve as docents for visitors. Each Student Assistant is responsible for a unique administrative project.

John Also Bennett
Events Assistant

John Also Bennett is an artist, curator, and a student at OSU majoring in Environmental Policy and Management. He is the lead curator at Skylab Gallery in downtown Columbus, where he has hosted more than a hundred performances from experimental musicians, artists, theater troupes and the occasional punk marching band from around the country and the world. He has curated several art exhibitions, and encourages up and coming young artists to produce work. As an artist, he works primarily with sound, performance, and installation, performing and recording under his own name as well as various other monikers and with several groups. He has completed several national tours and has exhibited sound installations at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts (El Paso, TX), The OSU Urban Arts Space and Skylab Gallery. He aims to encourage all people to live a sustainable, creative and productive life through example and the use of art. After completing his undergrad, he hopes to pursue a Masters of Fine Art degree in sound after several years of travel and work

Brianna Dance
Exhibitions Assistant

Brianna Dance is a senior, double majoring in fine arts and philosophy at the Ohio State University. Although specializing in sculpture, most of her recent work is in the medium of video. She is currently doing research, examining the idea of absurdism through video art that will culminate into an Honors Thesis. She has received numerous awards, grants, and scholarships with the university and has been featured as "Outstanding Art Student" in Art Calendar magazine. Recently, her work was selected to be in the 2009 Undergraduate Juried Exhibition and the 2009 Fergus-Gilmore Scholarship Exhibition. In the future, she hopes to continue her fine arts studies in graduate school. She is excited to be a part of the Urban Arts Space and hopes to contribute to the unique opportunities the space brings.

As an art gallery, exhibitions keep our Space vibrant and connected to the global art community. Exhibition Assistants can expect to be involved in almost every step of holding an art show in the Space. Students create and maintain exhibition materials for each show, including: pricelist, informational binder, exhibition documentation, and exhibition archive. Our Exhibition Assistant also oversees handling of loan agreements and intake/outtake process. They also create wall labels, correspond with artists and organizers, and researches and gathers information on artists and work.

Students are expected to coordinate with the Accessibility Coordinator to maintain a working knowledge of all accessibility best practices for exhibitions and ensure they are followed. Part of following a best practices model includes working with artists to gather items for touch, audio and visual description tours. In addition to accessibility, sustainability is built into our philosophy and students work with the Operations Assistant to adhere to current policies.

Nicole Eggert
Operations Assistant

Nicole Eggert is a senior, double majoring in the Film Studies and English programs at The Ohio State University. Her current focus academically and in the OSU Urban Arts Space is technical communication. With time and money, she travels whenever possible. She has been from Maine to Hawaii, all over the East Coast of the U.S., and Texas. She hopes to travel internationally. She lives in Grandview with her three year old bunny, Nanook.

The Operations Assistant works behind the scenes at the Space creating instructions, manuals, guides, and training materials for Space staff members. The assistant is also charged with developing systems and streamlining processes, managing fiscal processes, and is responsible for paperwork. The Operations Assistant ensures the Space is following green practices by overseeing the recycling program and making sustainable purchases whenever possible. The assistant performs a variety of tasks to keep the Space running on a day-to-day basis from purchasing office supplies to tracking daily and event guest attendance.

Zach Glueck
Media Assistant

Zach Glueck is from Cincinnati and currently in his senior year studying English at The Ohio State University. While his academic pursuits have emphasized writing skills, his primary focus has been an independent study of film production. Zach has directed a number of short films on his own and in association with Ohio State’s film production club, Reel Buckeye Productions. While Zach hopes to someday produce more serious dramatic works, he’s mostly defined himself in the writing and directing of comedy. He’s performed in several Internet sketch comedy projects and was a three-year member of OSU’s now-defunct improv comedy troupe, The Talking Monkeys. Zach is currently looking forward to his upcoming graduation, and the following mysterious future.

Our Media Assistant creates, edits, archives and organizes all media for the Space, including but not limited to: video, audio podcasts, and digital photo archive. We rely on our Media Assistant to synthesizes information for use in exhibitions and on the website. Any student is welcome to fill the position of media assistant, as long as they possess experience with Final Cut Pro, iTunes, YouTube, Photoshop CS2, and iMovie. Additional experience with Quick Time Pro and Studio Pro are also desired for this position.

Julia Harrington
Events Assistant

Julia Harrington is a senior at Ohio State University about to complete her History of Art Degree. For the time that she has attended the university, she has been working hard at becoming involved in a variety of art and museum related activities. Julia hopes to someday work in a museum of art where she can serve as an educator to youth and families. She has had the opportunity to volunteer and work at institutions such as the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus and the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia where she learned a lot about the field. Julia is excited to start her involvement at the OSU Urban Arts Space and is looking forward to the experience she will get at this unique and innovative space.

Jasmine Hamilton
Program Assistant

Jasmine Hamilton is a sophomore at The Ohio State University, majoring in both Sociology and Psychology. She participates in many campus organizations including: an honors society, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, P.A.S.S - an advising, service, and scholarship program, and others. Her family is her priority and her grandmother, an exceptional painter, was one of many who pushed her to do her best at everything and peaked her interest in art. She is the oldest of several siblings with the youngest being 2 years old. She considers herself an open book. You can catch her doing all types of things including reading, writing essays, and hanging out with friends.

Our Program Assistant is behind every program and event happening at the OSU Urban Arts Space. Students are responsible for coordinating, documenting and assisting all programs and events and work with the Deputy Director for scheduling. As with exhibitions, the Program Assistant works with the Operations Assistant and the Accessibility Coordinator to keep happenings in the space with all best practices standards for sustainability and accessibility. Assistants are also expected to field phone and online requests to use the Space and create a written plan for all events, including all logistics, staff assignments, catering arrangements for use by the day of the event. While working with contacts, the Program Assistant gathers promotional images and materials for use by the communications team. All events and programs are also archived by the student electronically and in print.

Lisa Hohman
Promotions Assistant

Moving from Warren, Ohio, Lisa Hohman came to Columbus, Ohio in autumn of 2006 to study at The Ohio State University. She is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Communication Technology with a minor in Design. She has always had a strong interest in communication and art, especially in their relation to and expression of social and political issues in the global society. She is strongly drawn to mixed-material artwork, and over the years, has created several of her own large-scale collage pieces. In her free time, she enjoys swing dancing, practicing the piano, and participating, as a spectator, in local theatrical events.

To get the word out about the Space, the Promotions Assistant creates and submits press releases, submissions to OSU Today, OnCampus, and Image of the Day. The assistant researches advertising opportunities, maintains a press archive for online and hardcopy materials, and maintains a list all free online listings. Works with Communications Coordinator to create and edit copy.

Shannon Lieberman
Design Assistant

Shannon Lieberman is a junior at The Ohio State University studying Visual Communication Design and pursuing a minor in Comparative Studies. Originally from Cincinnati, OH, her artistic focus (in high school) was Fine Arts, specifically painting and collages. She realized that she brought a lot of "foundry craft" aspect to her designs (staring at a computer for too long makes her eyes pixelated!). Shannon is also extremely interested in documentaries, specifically about exposure of identity, and the whit and style of French films. She strongly believes that art is an amalgamation of all disciplines and is the best medium to spread awareness. She also is a poster designer for Promowest and works for the Lantern in the ad design department. Community and locality is important to her, which is the main reason she works for the people that she does.

Designers for the Space are assigned projects varying from the development of t-shirts to brochures, from posters to signage, and much more. They are charged with developing concepts, gathering feedback, and consistently tweaking designs to meet the Spaces growing needs. Students are expected to create finished, polished products during their employment.

Design Assistants are also responsible for the understanding of The Ohio State University and OSU Urban Arts Space brand and logo use policies. Although, Visual Communications Design majors are desired for this position, students from any major with exceptional experience with Photoshop CS2, Illustrator, and InDesign are welcome to our staff.

Leigh Lotocki
Social Media Assistant

Leigh Lotocki is a senior at the Ohio State University, majoring in Dance and English. She has been interning and working for the OSU Urban Arts Space in summer 2009. Leigh loves being involved with the OSU Dance community, performing with friends in various student and faculty works. She is most invested in discovering the creative tissue that connects. choreography and improvisation in dance with interpersonal communication and text. Leigh will be working this year on her distinction project in Dance, culminating in a production this spring at the Advanced Computing Center for Arts and Design.

The Social Media Assistant creates and maintains on a weekly basis email blast, constant contact database, blog, Facebook and MySpace accounts. Students with experience with Constant Contact are preferred for this position.

Lacey Majors
Design Assistant

Lacey is a third year Visual Communication Design student at the Ohio State University. A native of Swanton, Ohio, she enjoys photo manipulation, branding, print, and marketing projects for her major, with her favorite Adobe program being InDesign. Also, she works part time as a Server at LongHorn Steakhouse, and in Guest Services at the Schottenstein Center. Furthermore, Lacey is also an active member of Alpha Phi Omega, the co-ed service fraternity who rings the Victory Bell after home football games. With all of this, Lacey manages to stay busy, but in her free time, she likes to watch classic movies, eat massive amounts of ice cream, run, and spend time with friends and family.

Designers for the Space are assigned projects varying from the development of t-shirts to brochures, from posters to signage, and much more. They are charged with developing concepts, gathering feedback, and consistently tweaking designs to meet the Spaces growing needs. Students are expected to create finished, polished products during their employment.

Design Assistants are also responsible for the understanding of The Ohio State University and OSU Urban Arts Space brand and logo use policies. Although, Visual Communications Design majors are desired for this position, students from any major with exceptional experience with Photoshop CS2, Illustrator, and InDesign are welcome to our staff.

Sean Moore
Photography Assistant

Sean is currently in his fourth year at The Ohio State University pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography with a minor in Women’s Studies. His work often utilizes the language of fashion photography to communicate social inequalities. Working with models (most often members of his family), he creates images that explore themes of body image, adolescence as compared to adulthood, and gender socialization. A native of Columbus, he is proud of the strides the city has taken to encourage, develop, and accommodate the arts. He is extremely excited to be apart of The OSU Urban Arts Space staff, to be surrounded by a wide array of artwork and artists, and to meet new people within the Columbus community.

Scott Neal
Events Assistant

Max Plona
Exhibitions Assistant

Max Plona is a sophomore at The Ohio State University perusing an undergraduate degree in fine arts with minors in both music and design. Originally a violin performance major, Max is focusing on his passion for art while continuing to keep music in his life. He enjoys being with art, making art, and meeting new people, and is excited to see what the future holds. He is fond of exploring environments and discovering new places to influence his attitude and to allow him to keep things fresh in all aspects of his life.

As an art gallery, exhibitions keep our Space vibrant and connected to the global art community. Exhibition Assistants can expect to be involved in almost every step of holding an art show in the Space. Students create and maintain exhibition materials for each show, including: pricelist, informational binder, exhibition documentation, and exhibition archive. Our Exhibition Assistant also oversees handling of loan agreements and intake/outtake process. They also create wall labels, correspond with artists and organizers, and researches and gathers information on artists and work.

Students are expected to coordinate with the Accessibility Coordinator to maintain a working knowledge of all accessibility best practices for exhibitions and ensure they are followed. Part of following a best practices model includes working with artists to gather items for touch, audio and visual description tours. In addition to accessibility, sustainability is built into our philosophy and students work with the Operations Assistant to adhere to current policies.

Joanna Emily Reed
Exhibitions Assistant

Joanna Emily Reed has been a student assistant at OSU Urban Arts Space since it’s opening in February 2008. Joanna is currently pursuing a dual degree in dance and history of art at The Ohio State University. She is interested in what happens when visual art and dance collide. Joanna dreams of working with visual artists to create installation art pieces that incorporate dance. Other future plans include: working in the arts whether at a contemporary arts center, dancing in small projects, or doing programming/curating for a visual and performance arts space. Joanna is fascinated with the evolution of the OSU Urban Arts Space from its opening day until now and is excited to see the future of UAS during the upcoming years of her college experience and beyond.

As an art gallery, exhibitions keep our Space vibrant and connected to the global art community. Exhibition Assistants can expect to be involved in almost every step of holding an art show in the Space. Students create and maintain exhibition materials for each show, including: pricelist, informational binder, exhibition documentation, and exhibition archive. Our Exhibition Assistant also oversees handling of loan agreements and intake/outtake process. They also create wall labels, correspond with artists and organizers, and researches and gathers information on artists and work.

Students are expected to coordinate with the Accessibility Coordinator to maintain a working knowledge of all accessibility best practices for exhibitions and ensure they are followed. Part of following a best practices model includes working with artists to gather items for touch, audio and visual description tours. In addition to accessibility, sustainability is built into our philosophy and students work with the Operations Assistant to adhere to current policies.

Rachel Ross
Website Assistant

Rachel Ross has been with the OSU Urban Arts Space as a student assistant since October of 2008. She is a student at The Ohio State University pursing a major in Art & Technology and minor in Design. Rachel’s passion for the arts has always been present, but it wasn’t until recently that she began to take more active roles in integrating art into her daily life. The creativity and beauty that is experienced through observing art is what drives her and inspires her to have an open mind and embrace the rich diversity found among people’s perspectives. Rachel is enjoying the focus of her classes in school and hopes to have a future career in a design related field.

Maintains and continually updates website content, images and organization. Monitors internal calendar to create pages for upcoming exhibitions and programs. Receives, sorts, and prioritizes all request for additional content on website. Works with Coordinator for content and images and Media Assistant for videos. Ensures uniform appearance and brand integrity by regularly reviewing all pages.

Shawna Schornauer
Education Assistant

Shawna Schonauer is pursuing a degree in Fine Arts with a focus on Painting and Drawing. She has been working as an art educator for the last four years in the way of after school, summer school, and community art center programming. Shawna is passionate about making art available to all people, especially those who suffer from economic, physical, or mental difficulties. She worked in Chicago, Il and Mansfield, Oh to teach art to city school children who receive little or no art education at their schools. As the Education Assistant, Shawna will work to design tours and programming suitable for the Urban Art Space’s diverse array of visitors. In this way she will reinforce the goals of OSU Urban Art Space to be Accessible to everyone, a Cultural destination, and a Connection between Ohio State University and the community.

Our Education Assistant works with the Deputy Director to develop and maintain K-12 partners. Like all of the student assistants at the Space, the Education Assistant is kept busy with many projects and tasks such as: creating a bimonthly email blast highlighting upcoming events that is sent to educators mailing list, maintaining and growing a list of educators in Franklin and contiguous counties, developing tours, and more. Students at the Space working in education must be familiar with and use the Ohio Fine Arts Academic Content Standards when planning programs, workshops and tours for K-12 groups.

Cameron Wiliamson
Media Assistant

Cameron Williamson is a Theater major at OSU. A self proclaimed “Jack of all Trades, Master of a few.” Cameron is a DJ/Actor/ Hip-Hop Dancer/Fire Spinner/Lighting Designer/ Video Gamer and Anime fanboy, to check out his rants on anime pop culture: hit up AniLogTV for tasty anime morsels. He picked up his A/V skills at The International Academy of Design and Technology. After directing short films and editing Cosmetic surgery videos for a few years, he joined the Media Team here at UAS. And is feverishly shooting video for the OSU Urban Art Space as we speak.

Our Media Assistant creates, edits, archives and organizes all media for the Space, including but not limited to: video, audio podcasts, and digital photo archive. We rely on our Media Assistant to synthesizes information for use in exhibitions and on the website. Any student is welcome to fill the position of media assistant, as long as they possess experience with Final Cut Pro, iTunes, YouTube, Photoshop CS2, and iMovie. Additional experience with Quick Time Pro and Studio Pro are also desired for this position.

Xu Tong
Events Assistant

Xu, Tong is an international graduate student majoring in Early Childhood Education. She's originally from Beijing, China and has just finished her undergraduate study at Beijing Film Academy majoring in Sound Recording and Designing for films. She's interested in both arts and education, which is one of the reasons why she decided to switch her former major into the present one. One of the most rewarding things she's ever done is making a documentary as her graduation project which tells about the social ballet classes she was having in Beijing with other female members who are all in their forties or fifties. In addition, she enjoys working with children a lot as it can be told from her experience of doing research on the living condition of left-behind children in south China and being a volunteer teaching primary school students from the migr! ant worker families. She hopes to take better education methods back to China some day and carry them on to help improve the condition of childhood education in China.

High School Interns

Meena Oberdick
Exhibitions support

Meena Oberdick is a sophomore at Columbus Alternative High School. She enjoys learning and her favorite classes are humanities, art history and orchestra. She is currently unsure of what she would like to do after high school but she plans to use the next couple of years to explore her many interests. Meena is an avid reader and enjoys playing many instruments. These include the piano, mandolin, electric bass and cello. She likes to compose her own pieces and has performed for small audiences on a few occasions, including at the Wehrle Art Gallery at the Ohio Dominican University. Meena is excited about to begin her internship at the OSU Urban Art Space.

Olivia Wallace
Press Release

Olivia Wallace is a sophomore at Columbus Alternative High School. She is interested in the specialized writing internship. Currently, she is a resident of Clintonville with her mother. Her college aspirations include studying photography and journalism. In 2007 Olivia went on a weeklong trip to Thailand, where she studied to be a junior mahout. A mahout is a person who cares for, and rides elephants. During this time Olivia starred on the television show If I Could Talk to the Elephants with Linda Ellerbee on Nickelodeon. Olivia hopes to be successful at her internship with OSU Urban Arts Space.

Volunteers

Susan Srikonda

Visit our Archive showcasing former staff members. We could not have done it without them.

Staff Meeting Minutes