Scott Thorp is an artist, writer and educator specializing in creativity. As Chair of Augusta University’s Department of Art and Design, he’s actively working to bring national recognition to the university through arts and culture, and to build a creative community within the City of Augusta. He’s a contributing writer and consulting editor for ArtPulse Magazine, an international magazine covering the state of contemporary art.
Brian Rust is a sculptor of large-scaled sculpture and temporary installations as well as doing extensive work with drawing and collage. Brian was born and raised in Washington State. He received a bachelor's degree in fine arts from the University of Washington in Seattle and a master's of fine arts from the University of California in Berkeley. Professor Rust has exhibition record, including his site-specific sculpture and installation work in venues throughout the United States including the Henry Lay Sculpture Park in Louisiana, Missouri.
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Chadwick Tolley teaches Printmaking and Drawing at Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. He has exhibited widely across the United States and has won various awards for his work including a Purchase Award in the Atlanta Print Biennial, a Purchase Prize in the “Ink and Clay” exhibit in Pomona, California, the C.G. Metals Purchase Prize from the Boston Print Biennial and a Best in Show award from the Oso Bay North American Printmaking Exhibition. His work is included in several public collections in the United States and in the Guandong Museum of Art in China and the Jordanian National Gallery of Art in Amman, Jordan.
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Anila Agha works in a cross disciplinary fashion with mixed media, creating artwork that explores global politics, cultural multiplicity, mass media as well as social and gender roles. In her installation projects, Agha masterfully uses light and shadows to create intricate patterns that evoke an emotional experience for the audience. She has a vast record of prestigious national and international exhibitions. Recently, she was named as one of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s fellows for the 2020–2021 academic year.
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Jennifer Onofrio earned her B.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in sculpture and painting and an M.F.A. from the University of California, Davis in sculpture, photography, and drawing. Onofrio has exhibited nationally and her work is housed in numerous museum, public, and private collections. Exhibition venues have included The Arts Center in St Petersburg Florida, The Belger Art Center in Kansas City, MO, Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia, PA, Thomas Barry Gallery in Minneapolis, MN, and Exhibitions in Chicago, IL, and New York City, NY. She is represented by Sherry Leedy Contemporary Art in Kansas City and Gravers Lane Gallery in Philadelphia. Currently, she is working on a series of sculptural pieces addressing issues of mortality and remembrance. She teaches three-dimensional design, sculpture, and world humanities at Augusta University.
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A.B. Osborne is a creative professional and educator in almost every media platform. His work has been featured in CGWorld Magazine and he was a 2015 Silver Telly Award winner, CA, USA. His experience ranges from technical and medical animation to classic cartoons. His expertise includes everything related to animation: pre-vis, 3D modeling, texturing and lighting, rigging, character performance, rendering, 2-D animation, motion graphics, and compositing. He holds an MFA in Animation from the Savannah College of Art and Design and a BA in Broadcasting: Film Techniques and Technology from Eastern Kentucky University.
Randy Pace is a professional photographer who has lived and worked in New York City, Miami and Washington, D.C. He specializes in Fine Art Portraiture, and enjoys capturing the character of each person he encounters. His latest portraits capture the essence of the South, highlighting the impact that economic and social norms have had upon younger generations.
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Dr. Michael Schwartz earned his doctorate at Columbia University. He teaches a sequence of transdisciplinary-based academic classes to students in studio art. He is co-founding executive officer of the Comparative and Continental Philosophy Circle, an international professional organization with both a peer-reviewed journal and book series. Michael has curated and commented on over 50 online integral art galleries at Integral Life as well as published in the areas of art history, art criticism, art education, continental philosophy, comparative spirituality, critical social theory, integral theory, critical realism, comparative metatheory – including co-editing and co-authoring the first professional academic volume on integral as philosophy (Dancing with Sophia, forthcoming). He is curator of the international art exhibition In the Spirit of Wholeness: Integral Art and its Enchantment Aesthetic.
Raoul Pacheco is a Professor of Art in Ceramics. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. in such prestigious galleries such as Mary Pauline Gallery in Augusta, Georgia, Hang Art Gallery in San Francisco, and Boontling Gallery in Oakland, California. His work is also currently housed in many collections around the globe in such cities as St. Petersburg, Russia, Reykjavik, Iceland, Amsterdam, Holland and Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Shannon Morris joined the Department in 2016. In addition to her role as Gallery Director, which provides Shannon with the opportunity to serves as curator for Westobou Gallery, she has also enjoyed serving as curator for Georgia College and on the educational staffs of Alabama Contemporary Art Center, Mobile, Alabama; Telfair Museums in Savannah and the Birmingham Museum of Art.
Cyndy Epps holds an MFA in Studio Art from Georgia Southern University, and a BFA in Graphic Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She exhibits regularly at regionally and nationally recognized galleries to include the Averitt Center for Art, Statesboro, GA, The Jones Gallery in Kansas City, MO; and the Dalton Gallery at Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA. Recent commissions include Augusta’s Art on the Wall, Art the Box and It All Flows to the Savannah.
Ghazal Foroutan is an Assistant Professor in graphic design at Augusta University. She holds an MFA in graphic design from Oklahoma State University and a BFA in graphic design from Alzahra University in Tehran. In 2012, she was the recipient of the 13th Khawrizmi Youth Awards for her outstanding illustrations. Her recent work is a collection of visual explorations in response to Iranian women’s rights.
Matthew Buzzell is an award-winning, Emmy®-nominated filmmaker. He holds a BFA in Drama from the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts and an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute. Matthew's films have screened at festivals the world over including the AFI Fest, BFI London Film Festival, Slamdance, SXSW, and the Tribeca Film Festival. His films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and Turner Classic Movies and distributed internationally on home video and via Netflix. In the Department of Art and Design, Matthew instructs a variety of courses including Cinematography, Film Appreciation, and Screenwriting. Matthew also serves as the Director of Augusta University’s Cinema Series, our on-going screening series dedicated to providing rarefied filmgoing experiences for students, faculty, staff, and the Augusta community.
Dr. Melanie Kitchens O’Meara is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Design at Augusta University, where she teaches Performance Studies and Theatre courses. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Performance Studies from Louisiana State University. She regularly presents her scholarship by staging performances at conferences, festivals, and workshops. Her research has been published in Text and Performance Quarterly and Liminalities: A Journal of Performance Studies.
Doug Joiner received his Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Augusta College and his Master of Fine Arts in Directing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Doug has directed throughout the U.S. as well as in Romania, at the Sibui International Theatre Festival. As a recent Porter Fleming grant recipient, he collaborated with Mark Swanson in the stage adaptation of Louise Shivers’ novel Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail, which he also directed. Doug has directed over 40 plays including Every Brilliant Thing, The Amish Project, The Effect, Smokefall, The Bacchae, TRIBES, Julius Caesar, Tartuffe, Amadeus, Keeley and Du, Killer Joe, The Madman and the Nun, The Good Father, and Wit. Doug has also acted in numerous productions. Some of his most memorable roles are Russ/Dan in Clybourne Park, Dave Moss in Glengarry Glen Ross, Alan Simon in Torch Song Trilogy,Walker in Two Rooms and Katurian in The Pillowman. As a recent transplant into scene design and construction, his credits include The Amish Project, Smokefall, The Effect, Goblin Market, Medea, and The Little Prince. Doug teaches Theatre at August University.
Janice Whiting’s paintings, drawings and sculptures have been included in exhibitions at the Boston Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Columbus Museum of Art (Ohio), the Tennessee State Museum, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, the Hudgens Center for the Arts as well as the Istituto D’Arte Dooso Dossi in Ferrara, Italy. Her work is included in the collection of the Morris Museum of Art, the City of Takarazuka Major’s Collection in Japan, is on the National Episcopal Church’s Café ongoing web exhibition as well as many private collections. Whiting’s honors and awards include a Baird Gallery Resident Fellowship in Painting, St. John's, Newfoundland and two additional Canadian residencies at The Pine Resident Fellowship in Painting in Trepassey.
Tom Nakashima is an internationally exhibited artist who has had over 30 major solo exhibitions. He has had solo shows in New York, Washington, and Japan. His work has appeared or been reviewed in Art in America, Artforum International, Art News, The Washington Post, The Paris Review, The New Art Examiner, Southern Accents and Elle Magazine. He has received numerous awards and fellowships including: The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award for Painters & Sculptors, The Mayor Award for Excellence (DC), The Awards in the Visual Arts 11, The Southeast Center for Contemporary Art 7, The Virginia Art Commissions Individual Arts Fellowship, The Mid Atlantic Arts Fellowship (2 times) and The DC Arts Commission Fellowship (3 times). The KOAN poll (artist vote) rated him DC’s #1 printmaker and # 2 painter.
