Opportunities
Buffalo Arts Studio partners with a wide variety of education, social, and human service organizations to engage meaningfully with individuals who may have special linguistic, physical, intellectual, and/or emotional needs. Much of this programming was made possible NYSCA Regrowth and Capacity grant designed to increase arts access by restoring educational and audience development programs that reach traditionally underserved communities.
Expanding the Leadership Pipeline (ELP)
A number of national diversity studies and surveys within the arts field offer stark statistics regarding racial representation. The Atlantic ranked Arts & Entertainment as the third least diverse profession, only behind Legal and Social Scientists. A 2015 report from Nonprofit Quarterly found that the 181 art museums that responded to their survey had “…no sign of a leadership pipeline for museum staff from historically underrepresented minorities. Among those highly paid positions of curators, conservators, educators, and leaders, four percent are African American, three percent are Latino, and Asians account for six percent. Whites hold 84 percent of these high-level jobs.” Other studies also show consistently a bias for women in leadership and the socio-economic hardships for low and moderate-income individuals trying to get into the arts field. This lack of diversity impacts what artists are selected for exhibitions and what artwork gets collected, thus perpetuating the cycles of discrimination and disparity. Buffalo Arts Studio’s Expanding the Leadership Pipeline (ELP) program offers three avenues for talented young people to access arts training, participate in professional development, and develop long-term relationships that will help individuals find success within the arts field. Curatorial and Arts Management internships offer a combination of training, mentorship, and hands-on experience working in a professional arts center. Teaching Assistantships provide meaningful experience alongside world-class teaching artists who effectively share their process and engage students. Artist Apprenticeships strategically pair ELP participants with mid-career working artists willing to share both their process and their learned experiences along their own professional journey. ELP candidates are guided along the path that best suits their individual creative and career goals, and Buffalo Arts Studio assesses the efficacy of the ELP program by collecting participant surveys, outcome data, and personal narratives, which we use to refine our practices. Curatorial and Arts Management Internships introduce students to the skills needed to work in a variety of arts and cultural institutions. We actively recruit intern candidates from underrepresented populations at area high schools, colleges, universities, and partner service organizations such as Aspire of WNY. The staff constructs individualized, focused projects and meaningful learning opportunities that fit within the students’ interests and demanding schedules. All interns reflect on their learning regularly and are guided as they translate their experience into the proper resume format. Teaching Assistantships provide talented young artists paid opportunities to work and learn alongside professional teaching artists, helping them manage supplies, achieve learning outcomes, and engage with students. Teaching Assistants are exposed to innovative concepts like creating site-specific installations with reclaimed materials and state-of-the-art processes like using polytab fabric to paint panels that are later installed onto building exteriors. Teaching Assistants also learn important transferable skills such as effective communication, project scheduling, and team management. Artist Apprenticeships give young artists the opportunity to develop new skills and techniques as well as form professional networks. Apprentices work under the mentoring guidance of professional artists who serve as role models and help them to experience art as a realistic profession or course of study. Apprentices learn important transferable employment skills including problem solving, creative thinking, collaboration, and project management. Buffalo Arts Studio is working to effect change across the spectrums of gender, race, class, as well as physical and developmental disabilities. Through the ELP program, we work to be responsible stewards of tomorrow’s arts leadership by breaking down systemic barriers and increasing diversity within the predominantly white, upper-class arts field. The empowerment, mentorship, leadership, and learning opportunities for underrepresented communities will help us fulfill our mission of arts access, community engagement and development, and building the ladders of opportunity for arts professionals across every stage of their career.
Expanding the Leadership Pipeline is made possible through the generous funding of New York State Council for the Arts.
Jump Start
Buffalo Arts Studio works with high-school students who show a strong ability and interest in the visual arts and guides them along their college and career path.
Buffalo Arts Studio’s Jump Start program features four parts:
- Advance Classes – Coursework includes drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture and digital media (financial assistance available for students on free or reduced lunch programs).
- Inspiring Fieldtrips – Students visit a variety of museums, galleries, and art spaces, and interact with artists and arts professionals to learn about careers in the visual and creative arts.
- Portfolio Preparation – Instructors and the Education Director help students create, collect and present high-quality work, including an artist statement, in a polished, professional, and meaningful way.
- Individual Support – Arts and education professionals guide students through their artistic development, college and internships applications, and throughout the college experience.
For more information, please visit our Jump Start page, under Education.
Curatorial and Arts Management Internships
Curatorial and Arts Management internships introduce students to the skills needed to work in a variety of arts and cultural institutions. We actively recruit intern candidates from underrepresented populations at area high schools, colleges, universities, and partnering service organizations such as Aspire of WNY. The staff constructs individualized, focused projects and meaningful learning opportunities that fit within the students’ interests and demanding schedules. Interns can work directly with the Curator to select, install, and present exhibitions, with the Marketing and Communications Coordinator to develop program support materials and the Education Director to build arts education programming that reflects students’ professional goals and lived experiences. All interns reflect on their learning regularly and are guided as they translate their experience into the proper resume format
Open Buffalo Emerging Artist Series
Buffalo Arts Studio provides additional support to young artists after college through the Open Buffalo Emerging Artist Series. In its third year, this ongoing, annual exhibition dedicated to an emerging artist whose work relates to and reflects the mission of our community partner Open Buffalo continues to make major, long-term improvements in justice and equity in the City of Buffalo. Together, Open Buffalo and Buffalo Arts Studio provide substantial support for additional administration, curation, and marketing of these young artists and their six-week exhibition. This support can be leveraged by the artist to secure future exhibitions both regionally and nationally. As 2017 Open Buffalo Emerging Artist Julia Douglas noted, “My experience with Buffalo Arts Studio was truly transformative. Their stewardship not only guided me through the exhibition process, but they even secured funding for me through a partnership with Open Buffalo. This partnership’s value has extended well beyond the monetary contribution; it has opened the door for deeper community engagement…Because of their investment in me I have gone from a relatively underground artist in Buffalo, to creating art for the internationally acclaimed Albright Knox Art Gallery’s Public Art collection. All of this in the span of 6 months, and all because Buffalo Arts Studio and Open Buffalo made the investment.”
Fall/Winter 2023 ELP Fellow
Helen Lin
Helen Lin, a 2023 Buffalo State University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Arts and Photography, worked as a Gallery Assistant building storage units, repairing and painting walls, and photographing artwork for print and digital media. Lin is a first-generation American and the first of her family to attend college.
Lin continues to work as a freelance photographer and digital artist for individuals and organizations. She hopes to forge new connections with potential clients through the Buffalo Arts Studio community and ELP Program.
Fall/Winter 2023 ELP Fellow
Stephen Forman Jr.
Stephen Forman Jr, aka Paulie!, is a Christian, African American illustrator born and raised in Buffalo, NY. He seeks to express his faith, the Black experience (whether that’d be the struggle or the joy shown), and love for storytelling all through a marker, paint brush, stylus, and/or ballpoint pen. Figures and visual analogies are his main vehicle to convey his ideas and thoughts through: with each piece’s goal being that of starting a dialogue, sparking conversation amongst the most esteemed critical to the greenest of gallery-hoppers.
As he grows in his creative exploits, he hopes to reach out and create works inspired by the Western New York community to give back what it has shared with him with the overwhelming help of Buffalo Art Studio and through the ELP program.
Winter/Spring 2023 ELP Fellow
Isaac Vazquez, Daemen College
Isaac Vazquez, aka Mojo Banjo, is an emerging dark fantasy artist born and raised in Buffalo, New York. He is passionate about mixing unconventional elements to create character/creature designs exploring the human condition. As a result, he produces art pieces that invoke the fantastical and unsettling.
Mojo has high interests in both the illustration field and gallery showings. As he continues to seek opportunities, he hopes to make a name for himself in the WNY art community with the help of Buffalo Arts Studio and the ELP Program.
Madeline Bartley Gambacorta
Mixed Media Instructor
Madeline Bartley Gambacorta was born in Louisville, Kentucky and attended Murray State University where she received her B.F.A. in printmaking and drawing. She earned her M.F.A. in studio arts from Syracuse University’s College of Visual Performing Arts. She has exhibited her work in solo and group shows including exhibitions at the Hand Held Gallery (Melbourne, Australia), Walnut Ink Projects (Michigan City, IN), The Rogue Space (New York, NY), and the Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA).
website: madelinebartley.com
Jan Dylewski
Mixed Media Instructor
Jan Dylewski is an art teacher in the Buffalo Public School district. She received her Bachelor of Art degree from S.U.N.Y Fredonia, and her master’s degree from Buffalo State College. Using both her sculptural background and love of mixed media, her work is sprinkled with whimsy, bold colors and a sparkle of joy. She believes in the intuitive nature of materials and strives to help her students develop their inner voice.madelinebartley.com
website: https://www.jdylewski.com/
Clarimar Galarza
Youth Ceramics Instructor
Clarimar Galarza is a high school art teacher in Buffalo New York. She attended Buffalo State College where she received a BFA in Art Education with a concentration in Ceramics and Painting. Her work consists of functional ceramics with a focus on surface design.
Nicole Galuszka
Youth Drawing Instructor
Nicole Galuszka is a mixed media artist, designer and illustrator based in Buffalo, NY. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts: Communication Design (Minor: Art History) from Pratt Institute. With six years in educational technology as a visual designer and illustrator, her creative journey bridges art and design, utilizing digital as well as physical media.
Bree Gilliam
Painting Instructor
Bree Gilliam is a figurative painter from Buffalo, NY. She attended SUNY Buffalo State College where she received a B.F.A. in painting and a minor in art therapy. In her work, she addresses social issues and the experiences that people face daily. She uses bold symbolism and expressive brushwork to provoke emotion from her audience in an attempt to spark introspection and conversation. She believes that conversations are the first step to creating solutions to the problems in the world.
website: www.breegilliam.com
Shanel Kerekes
Painting Instructor
Shanel Kerekes is a painter from Buffalo, New York. As a graduate of Villa Maria College, she majored in Integrated Arts and obtained a BFA degree in 2019. Photorealism is the style that she continuously aspires to achieve in her work. Kerekes was exposed to a culturally diverse environment early in life, which later instilled a fascination with individuality, preestablished societal standards, and the ever-changing dynamic between the two. By having the position of being a woman in today's world, Kerekes uses the tribulations that they are commonly confronted with and attempts to build a visual representation of the many obstacles women may face within their lifetime which can include objectification, sexualization, and exploitation.
website: www.shanelkerekesart.com
Bethany Krull
Pottery Instructor
Bethany Krull has been working in clay for over twenty-five years, having received her BFA from the State University College at Buffalo and her MFA from the School for American Crafts at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her practice is expansive and has led her to the exploration of many other materials that often make their way into the work, which is rooted in formal aesthetics, love of nature and the fears and desires around the ways in which our species impacts the environment and other creatures. She loves to teach in both community and academic settings, and she maintains an active home studio and exhibits nationally and internationally.
website: www.bethanykrull.com
Brianne Nightingale
Drawing Instructor
Brianne Nightingale earned her B.F.A in Art Education at Daemen University and her M.S.Ed in Art Education at Buffalo State University. She is currently an art educator in the Ken-Ton school district. Her work explores traditional drawing and painting with a focus on photorealism.
Laike Palermo
Drawing and Painting Instructor
Andrea Pawarski
Ceramics Instructor
eAndrea Pawarski is a ceramic studio artist at the Buffalo Arts Studio and elementary art teacher at the Charter School of Inquiry. She earned a BFA in Art Education and Ceramics from Syracuse University and a MA in Multidisciplinary Studies from SUNY Buffalo State College. Her ceramic work is inspired by geological formations and can be found on her website or Etsy account.
website: andreapawarski.com
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/AndreaPawarskiClay
Darcie Rosinski
Pottery Instructor
Darcie Rosinski is a Buffalo-based artist who primarily focuses on clay. After graduating from Buffalo State College in 2015, she has continued to develop a collection of work and is the maker behind potsbydjr—decorative porcelain pottery, functional art that can be used everyday. She finds inspiration from the natural world, the spiritual world, and everything in between.
website: djrhandmadegoods.com
Deborah Stewart
Ceramic Instructor
Deborah Stewart is a sculptor primarily working in clay. She has in the past been a biologist, modern dancer and choreographer, and studio potter. She has a BFA in Ceramics and an MFA in Visual Art/Sculpture. She has taught Ceramics and Three-dimensional Design in a variety of WNY colleges. Her work has been exhibited locally and nationally, and is in several public and private collections.
website: DebStewartClay
Laura Valkwitch
Painting Instructor
Laura Valkwitch is a multimedia artist with a focus on oil painting. She studied fine art at Niagara County Community College and recently finished a residency at Hunt Gallery in Buffalo, NY.
website: lauravalkwitch.com
Contact Us
Buffalo Arts Studio
Tri-Main Center
2495 Main Street, Suite 500
Buffalo, NY 14214
info@buffaloartsstudio.org
(716) 833-4450
