Seven CreativeGround Profiles to Explore: Spring 2021

The New England creative economy is germinating, stirring, growing, resting, blossoming beneath the topsoil of the current reality. Here is a fresh-picked bouquet of CreativeGround featured profiles, newly posted on the Home and About pages of New England’s free online cultural directory. While the creative economy is being dramatically impacted by the pandemic and the ongoing work for social justice, creative work continues to bring value to our communities, places, relationships, and ourselves. New England’s creative economy is still here, and there is no recovery without the arts!

Read on to discover how these freshly featured creatives and organizations are doing important work. Then click on the respective links to dig deeper into their profiles.

Want more? Search by keyword and Explore your locale on CreativeGround to find resources you can engage with from your community: the creative businesses, cultural nonprofits, and artists.

Psst. How are you envisioning your own robust, feature-worthy profile? Follow these steps to make it happen.

Asian Sound Revolution (Bridgeport, Connecticut)

Innovative musician Jin Hi Kim presents her live interactive performance with computer programs on the world's only electric komungo and visual media. She also collaborates with Asian American virtuosi musicians who are immigrants from Korea, China, Japan, the Philippnes, Vietnam, India, and Indonesia. Using traditional instruments, her Asian Sound Revolution ensemble captivates the musical world by bringing ancient aesthetics as well as highly original innovations in new sound. View CreativeGround Profile

Chris Battaglia (Belfast, Maine)

Chris Battaglia is a multidisciplinary artist. In 2011, he responded to an ad to be a “badass digital storyteller” for a nonprofit, which led him to live and work in Laos, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and subsequently New York. In 2017, he was the documentary filmmaker for an 1,150-mile canoe-paddling expedition down the Lower Mississippi River for the Lower Mississippi River Foundation. In 2018, he founded the Village Canoe, an artist residency and exhibition program at the intersection of arts and the outdoors in Maine. In 2020, he worked remotely with artist Harrell Fletcher in a series of directed studies, supported by a grant from the Public Art Learning Fund. View CreativeGround Profile

Fabiola Méndez (Quincy, Massachusetts)

Fabiola M. Méndez is a Puerto Rican cuatro player that has taken part in a musical movement, crossing over the lines of genres such as folkloric, jazz & Latin. A graduate from Berklee College of Music '18, Fabiola has worked and performed for artists such as: Totó La Momposina, Eddie Palmieri, Puerto Rican Symphony Orchestra, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Cucco Peña, and Pedro Capó, among others. She was a luminary at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and currently works as an independent artist all around New England, collaborating with organizations such as Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA), Celebrity Series of Boston, Hyde Square Task Force, PR Veterans Monument Association, and Agora Cultural Architects. View CreativeGround Profile

Ko Festival of Performance (Amherst, Massachusetts)

Going virtual for this summer season, the Ko Festival presents innovative theatre that is curated on a theme such as "Stories of Illness & Healing," "Courage," or "The Immigrant's Journey. " Performances are accompanied by facilitated discussions that contextualize the ideas presented in the work in an effort to engender inter-audience/artist exchange and opportunity for civic dialogue. The Ko Festival also offer workshops for adults, internships, and rehearsal residencies where individual artists or ensembles can develop new work. Off-season, the Ko Festival provides administrative residencies where they help artists and ensembles strengthen their organization infrastructure. And if that’s not a wide enough resume - they provide design, technical, touring, production/stage management services and consulting! View CreativeGround Profile

Mixed Magic Theater & Cultural Events (Pawtucket, Rhode Island )

Mixed Magic Theatre develops performing arts projects that forward its mission to "present a diversity of ideas and images on stage and use the theatre, and its related art forms as a way to build stronger, more literate, and arts-active communities" We "first think diverse" in our efforts to be inclusive. Mixed Magic Theatre has developed and presented a wide variety of work including original adaptations of classic literature such as Moby Dick, Don Quixote, and Frankenstein, to dramatic interpretations of speeches and letters by Martin Luther King. The company has also staged acclaimed original productions about iconic African American figures such as Zora Neal Hurston, Maya Angelou, Bessie Smith, Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King. Check out their profile to learn about their choir, new plays, and poetry efforts! View CreativeGround Profile

Vermont Dance Alliance (Burlington, Vermont)

The Vermont Dance Alliance (VDA) is a springboard for Vermont dancers and a public platform for dance in Vermont. VDA acts as an agency that plans and produces events, cultivates depth in relationships between dance artists of all genres, educates the public, and brings high quality events to our communities statewide. Because of the interests of the participating volunteers, the focus was primarily on contemporary dance. After a year of successful networking, gathering, and producing as a team, the vision expanded to include all dance forms that are represented throughout the state; VDA found that Vermont dancers represent over 30 different genres of dance, from Ballet to Breaking, from Improvisation to Brazilian dance. VDA was founded to unite dancers across the state and prove the power of dance in bonding people and connecting communities. View CreativeGround Profile

Zdzislaw Sikora (Manchester, New Hampshire)

Zdzislaw Sikora maintains a professional practice as a print artist working primarily in large-scale Color Etchings and Monotype. With a 30 year record of exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including 40 one and two-person shows, Sikora gives to the emerging generation of artists through holding various professorships over the years. Dig into Zdzislaw’s profile where you can discover how and where the work has been included in public collections all over the world. View CreativeGround Profile