Sharon M. Louden is an artist, educator, advocate for artists, editor of the Living and Sustaining a Creative Life series of books, and the Artistic Director of the Visual Arts at Chautauqua Institution.  Louden's work is held in major public and private collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, National Gallery of Art, Neuberger Museum of Art, Arkansas Arts Center, Yale University Art Gallery, Weatherspoon Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, among others. Louden is also active on boards and committees of various not-for-profit art organizations and volunteers her time to artists to further their careers. Sharon is a consultant for Creative Capital and the Joan Mitchell Foundation, and currently a faculty member in the MFA Fine Arts program at the School of Visual Arts in New York as well as Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. She is also a member of the Artist Advisory boards of the New York Foundation for the Arts, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency and the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation. Sharon is also the editor of the popular Living and Sustaining a Creative Life: Essays by 40 Working Artists and The Artist as Culture Producer: Living and Sustaining a Creative Life, published by Intellect Books and distributed by the University of Chicago Press. 

Website: www.sharonlouden.com | www.livesustain.org

Twitter:  @LoudenStudio

Instagram: @SharonLouden

Julia Bloom is an artist who makes paintings, drawings and sculpture. She is also the creator of Freight Gallery, a small pop-up exhibition space in a freight elevator. She studied at Berklee College of Music, Boston Museum School, and Maryland Institute College of Art.  Her work has been exhibited at Addison Ripley Fine Art in Washington, DC; Greater Reston Arts Center in Reston, VA; Lucky Street Gallery in Key West, FL; Salzland Museum in Schoenebeck, Germany; the Katzen Arts Center at American University in Washington, DC; along with other regional and national galleries. Bloom was awarded Artist Fellowship Program Grants from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2014, an Individual Artist Grant from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, a fellowship from the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and seven fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Publications and articles about Bloom’s work are in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Northern Virginia Magazine, Poet Lore, Southern Accents and New American Paintings.  Bloom’s work is in several public and private collections, including the University of Virginia School of Law, Wheat First Securities and the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru. Bloom lives and works in Washington, DC and is represented by Addison Ripley Fine Art.

Website: http://www.juliabloom.net/

Twitter: @juliasbloom