Mitchel Oliver

Documentary Curator (2014-2015)

Mitch works on visuals, audio, food and land with his cat Mica.

Program & Productions Curator 2013-2015

Jennie was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and came to North Carolina by way of New York, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania.  Her writing and curatorial work focus on the relationship between art and cultural politics in the 21st Century.  She aims to lend ideas a social form by bringing people together to participate in conversations that shape social conditions and the physical and psychological spaces where ideas are shared.  

Jennie oversees Elsewhere’s residency programs and directs artistic processes and project production at the museum.  Additionally, she acts as a liaison between artists and communities and coordinates the production of public programs at the museum.  She is a curator and art historian focusing on situation driven aesthetics and radical ampersanding.  Jennie received a BA in Anthropology and Biology from Mount Holyoke College in 1999 and completed PhD course work in Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2011. Her curatorial projects have included contributions to “More Love: Art, Politics and Sharing,” “Counter Lives: Portraiture in Contemporary Art” and “John Wesley’s Boeing in Context” at the Ackland Art Museum.

Favorite Elsewhere collection:  The Chicken Nuggets.

Operations Curator 2012-2014

Erica is a young social researcher and lifehacker from the Bayou State and a graduate of Centenary College of Louisiana with a BA in Political Science and a BA in Psychology. Her work spans medium divides, bringing her social skills to musicians, filmmakers, public artists and photographers alike. Continuing her studies from the road, she followed the migratory patterns of transient communities to Elsewhere.

Emily Ensminger, born in Durham, NC, is a conceptual artist and advocate for independent multi-use live/work organizations. Through programming, textiles and functional systems, Emily’s work addresses necessity as a creative practice operating at the intersection of admin, art, and daily life. Curatorial, project coordination and presentation focus is on experimental production and organizations outside art centers.

Emily led the organization as Creative Director (2018-2020).

Chris Kennedy is a teaching artist and curator living in Greensboro, NC.  He makes place-based projects that experiment with social learning, queer identity, and civic play. His process is research-based and collaborative. He is currently working through education and the rise of academic capitalism by playing inside a living museum Elsewhere, and pursuing a PhD at the University of North Carolina. At Elsewhere Kennedy directs CoLab a youth-led platform for media experiments and digital storytelling that speaks to peers. His previous projects include an intergenerational free school in an abandoned park in North Brooklyn (School of the Future), a movement research platform exploring fungi as metaphor for connectivity (StrataSpore), and an ongoing investigation into queer identity (Queer Explorer's Club).

Production Curator, 2012

Resident, August 5-31, 2010

Aislinn Pentecost-Farren is an artist, curator, and historian exploring historical and experimental museum design. At Elsewhere, Aislinn supported artists from selection to completion—guiding a site-specific residency process that links artists, objects, collections, and communities through works, events, and public actions. She has worked as Curatorial Design Assistant at the National Museum of American Jewish History, Curatorial Fellow at the Slought Foundation, and Research Fellow at SoundField, all in Philadelphia. She has worked and with for artists Mark Dion, J. Morgan Puett, and Gene Coleman.

She has a background in postal correspondence, documentary, cartography and alternative education. She received a BA in anthropology from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2006, and has worked with the Chicago History Museum, the Raleigh City Museum, Cabinet Magazine. Her work borrows from artistic practice to develop museum exhibits that exploit the vulnerable area between intuitive experience and intellectual consumption to offer visitors an interaction with the polyphonic nature of reality.

Valerie Wiseman

Communications Curator (2012-2015)

Valerie is an artist and administrator interested in the intersection of public programs and creative fields. She also worked with the North Carolina Entrepreneurship Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and holds a BA in Communications & Media and focus in Arts Administration from Goucher College in Baltimore, MD.

Valerie also worked as Operations Curator from 2011-2012 and as a Documentarian Intern and Assistant to the Directors from 2010-2011.

August 28 - September 30, 2010

Resident

blog | cyrus smith dot vox dot com

Portland, OR

An artist and producer in numerous collectives and collaborations, Smith was a cofounder of the Pancake Clubhouse Historic Township and Activity Destination for the Living Arts (welcomes you), an alternative arts space in Portland, Oregon where he coordinated an active exhibition schedule and residency program from 2008-2009. Recent independent projects include The Christmas Time Radio Hour, a weekly program on KPSU dedicated to Christmas and Holiday Music, “Art  Talk AM on the Radio,” a weekly interview show which focused on local, national and international artists and curators, and Neighborhood Projects  Media, which was featured as part of a collaborative project for the 2008 Time Based Arts Festival, sponsored by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. Smith is a recent graduate of Portland State University, where he received an MFA in Art and Social Practice. 

2014-2015

Building Curator

Cyrus is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in sculpture, interactive art, radio, publication, and performance. He was part of the first graduating class at Portland State University to receive an MFA with a concentration in “Social Practice,” a form of art that encourages interactivity, communication, and social engagement. Cyrus also worked on the exhibitions team for the Portland Art Museum and Tacoma Art Museum as an exhibit installer and designer. When he is not making art, you may find him playing music, taking the long way home, or sleeping under the stars.

George Scheer (Co-founder / Board Director) is Co-founder and former Executive Director of Elsewhere. George is a writer, scholar, and artist who fosters creative communities at the intersection of aesthetics and social change. George is also the grandson of Elsewhere proprietress and puzzle maker Sylvia Gray, whose stuff he has been moving around for years! George holds an MA in Critical Theory and Visual Culture from Duke University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Political Communications.