Here are the eight artist-entrepreneurs spending nine weeks with us at Generator.
A panel of retailers, curators, and art professionals selected these talented artists to participate in the JumpStart Business of Art program and receive:
- free access to Generator’s tools, resources, and shared workspace
- free public lectures and group coaching from established artist-entrepreneurs and industry professionals
- free expert mentoring and technical assistance
- an artist-entrepreneur stipend
We’re so excited to help these folks strengthen existing business and launch new ones.
Meet the artists below and be sure to mark your calendars with the upcoming Business of Art lectures and panels.
Kristin Silverman, Silverhill Creative Millinery
Kristin Silverman is passionate about hats — both the artistic design in creating them and as a means of self-expression when people wear them. She designs and hand-makes one-of-a-kind hats and headpieces under the label Silverhill Creative Millinery. Using traditional millinery techniques, Kristin’s designs often incorporate other artistic mediums, such as extensive beading, hand embroidery and origami ribbonwork.
Haley Fenn
Haley Fenn is a jewelry designer and visual artist. Curious by the relationship between form and function they are driven by creating interesting interactions between their pieces and the space they occupy. Whether it is the human form or an open room the artwork is made to highlight its surroundings and make the viewer take a closer look.
Nikki Laxar
Nikki Laxar blends her talent of detailed ink illustrations with watercolor pigments to create a whimsical animal-inspired line of reproductions and stationery goods. She is currently exploring a series of scientifically accurate nebulas and other out of this world discoveries. Nikki has participated in a handful of local gallery exhibitions. Her ultimate dream is to participate in an artist residency so she can build a body of work to share as a solo show.
Mats Thureson
Mats moved to Vermont in January 2019 to pursue his goal of self-employment as a professional bladesmith. He’s a carpenter by day and runs a side-hustle Etsy shop called TBsmithy where he sells small hand forged items. He wants to shift his main focus into professional violin making tools and one-off kitchen knives. He’s mostly self-taught, though he attended a continuing education course in bladesmithing at MassArt with JD Smith, a mastersmith of the American Bladesmith Society.
Gahlord Dewald
Gahlord Dewald is a creative musician devoted to experimentation in acoustic, electric, and synthetic bass frequencies. He works seamlessly through the spectrum of composed and improvised musical expression, often blending acoustic and synthetic sound worlds to create complex textures and soundfabric.
Ashley Wilkinson, Wit and Woven
Ashley Wilkinson is a Burlington based-artist who graduated from University of Vermont in 2014, where she received a B.A in Studio Art and Art History and a B.S in Art Education. Today, she channels her creative energy into her sewing business, Wit and Woven, a product line of gender-neutral and organic clothing for babies and toddlers. Ashley looks forward to participating in the Jump Start Business of Art program where she plans to systematically develop her business into a sustainable career.
Lauren Larken Scuderi
Lauren Larken Scuderi is a vocalist, performer, mother and Artner who uses the tools of theatre, music, local plants and interdisciplinary arts to encourage healing and freedom of expression. She has stewarded many creative arts and activism campaigns, including the new young adult STEAM arts musical, Will and Whit, through the not-for-profit organization she founded and runs: ArtEvolve.org She and her husband Stephen offer dance and music jam events locally at 365songbird.com
Carrie Root, Root Studios
After many years of being a lead merchandiser and buyer for several catalog companies, Carrie left the corporate world to focus on her dream of being a professional artist. Looking for something new and inspiring to rekindle her passions, she remembered the stained glass window she made over 20 years ago. Carrie dug out her soldering iron and some dusty pieces of glass and retaught herself the art of stained glass. Inspired by nature, her current work includes colorful feathers, ferns, birds and mountains.
