FILM AND VIDEO
Abigail Satinsky has a degree in video and electronic media from Carnegie Mellon and is currently a graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying Art History and Art Administration and Policy. Before coming to Chicago, she worked in Boston at the Harvard Film Archive, Art Interactive, and taught sculpture, video production and printmaking in an arts afterschool program. She is a Board member of Harold Jeffers Memorial Residency Program and is one of the founding members of InCUBATE, a research institute and residency program dedicated to challenging current infrastructures for arts production.

Catherine Forster is a filmmaker, artist, curator and educator. Her artwork explores themes of identity, social development and the impact of pop culture on individuality. She completed her artistic training at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Catherine Forster exhibits internationally, recent screenings and exhibitions include: the South Bend Regional Art Museum, Orange County Contemporary Art Center, Exit Art (NY), Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius, Lithuania), Hyde Park Art Center (Chicago), Liverpool Biennial The Projection Gallery, Kasia Kay Art Projects (Chicago), San Diego Women Film Festival, Magmart Film Festival, Casoria International Contemporary Art Museum, and the Portsmouth Film Festival. Forster is the founder and director of LiveBox Gallery, a not-for-profit focused on filmic and new media art. Curatorial projects in 2007 include programs for The Directors Lounge, Berlin; Three Walls, Chicago; Kasia Kay Art Projects, Chicago; and the Around the Coyote Art Festival, Chicago.

GALLERY LITERARY READING SERIES
Margot Bordelon is a Chicago based writer and director. She has worked for such companies as Steppenwolf, Collaboraction, Timeline, Serendipity, Pavement Group, Live Bait, Around the Coyote, Bailiwick, Hell in a Handbag and Appetite Theater. Before moving to Chicago in 2004, Margot lived in Seattle where she worked with Seattle Repertory Theatre, Empty Space, University of Washington PATP, Live Girls! and Double Shot Productions. She is a founding member of Theatre Seven of Chicago and currently serves as the Literary Associate at Lookingglass Theatre Company.

J. Adams Oaks is the author of the novel, Why I Fight (Simon and Schuster, 2008). His short stories have appeared in Sleepwalk, The Madison Review, and River-Oak Review. His work has won the National Society of Arts and Letters regional competition and Chicago Public Radio's “Stories on Stage: Now Hear This” contest. He is both a storyteller and a member of the story development team for Serendipity Theatre's “2nd Story Festival.”

LITERARY
Kristi McGuire collects master's degrees from local institutions (the University of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute) en route to retheorizing the theory of the critical space-out. A native Detroiter  transplanted to Chicago via New York , she's an associate editor at Chicago Review, a worker bee at the University of Chicago Press, and the writer of more than one impenetrable thesis.

MUSIC

Homeroom believes that collective effort amplifies a project's impact. We partner with a range of local organizations to feature the best of Chicago's jazz/improv, pop, folk, rock, spoken word, hip-hop, literary readings, film, and art. We currently work with several local venues to provide diverse arts programming, with the ultimate goal of establishing a physical space for the Homeroom network.

PUBLIC ART
Ben Schaafsma studied Art History and Urban Planning at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. While in Grand Rapids, Schaafsma was the co-founder of the Division Ave Arts Cooperative and G-RAD.org, the acting curator of music at the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, and a member of Civic Studio. Schaafsma's interest in the relationship between art and site and public places has resulted in several public art projects, as well as participating in conferences such as Provflux in Providence, RI and Conflux in Brooklyn, NY. Since moving to Chicago Schaafsma has also co-founded InCUBATE [Institute for Community Understanding Between Art and The Everyday], a working group and artist residency program dedicated to challenging current infrastructures that support artistic production. Currently, Schaafsma is a MA Arts Administration and Policy student at the School of the Art Institute and will be working on a thesis about artists who have reacted against the increased privatization of public sites.

THEATRE
Oriana Fowler, Festival Theatre Curator, has worked in Chicago arts management since 2002. She is currently the managing director for Blair Thomas & Company, a touring visual theater & puppet company. She produces, markets, and raises funds, and has worked with several Chicago groups, including Redmoon Theater, Lookingglass Theatre, the Neo-Futurists, Manifest Theatre, and the Chicago Green Party. Particularly interested in public art, Oriana has co-produced outdoor events such as Heroes of Wicker Park , and was the co-curator of the Outdoor Festival for Coyote in Fall 2006.

Megan Shuchman, our new Third Thursday Theatre Reading Series curator, graduated in 2005 from the University of Michigan- Ann Arbor with a Bachelor of Arts in Drama and Women's Studies.  Her university directing credits include several student productions and showcases, culminating in an award-winning production of Eve Ensler's FLOATING RHODA AND THE GLUE MAN . In addition to active participation in a variety of campus theatre groups, Megan piloted a creative arts program, directing and producing plays in prisons and juvenile detention centers across Michigan.  In relationship to this organization, upon graduation, Megan accepted a job with Big Brothers Big Sisters, managing a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents. After moving to Chicago in September 2007, she began serving as the Literary Department Apprentice at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Currently, she is assistant directing and House Managing at Steppenwolf, and is thrilled to be working with Around the Coyote.