Premier artist-in-residency program welcomes eight new artists to first-of-its-kind creative community – The Lucy – in vibrant Downtown Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (Sept. 1, 2020) – Since launching with its inaugural roster of artists in 2019, The Rogers Art Loft at The Lucy, has welcomed numerous artists from a variety of disciplines and locations to share their creative insight and practice with the Las Vegas community. Even throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, The Rogers Art Loft maintained its steadfast commitment to the support of the arts and artists and successfully pivoted to a virtual format. Today, The Rogers Art Loft is set to announce its 2021 roster of impressive artists. Adhering with the appropriate health and safety directives of the time, the Artist-in-Residency program will continue as announced either virtually or in-person.

A multi-disciplinary artist-in-residency program dedicated to inclusivity, originality, and empowerment of artists, The Rogers Art Loft has selected eight inspiring artists to immerse themselves with the Las Vegas community in creative collaboration. Hailing from throughout the United States as well as internationally, each Artist-In-Residence brings something unique to the program.

“Sharing and collaboration through creativity, art, passion and inspiration is perhaps more important
now than ever,” said Ryan Reid, Residency Director. “We have welcomed amazing talent since first
launching. Throughout the pandemic, we have seen adeptness and creativity from our artists in the virtual residency format. We are thrilled about the talented roster of artists we have secured for 2021 as well. This program aims to continue to uplift and elevate Las Vegas with the creation of dialogue, community engagement, and new collaborations.”

Upcoming 2021 Rogers Art Loft Artists-In-Residency Include:

Zhiwan Cheung 

Zhiwan Cheung first got a taste of performing in front of a camera as a book reviewer for Reading Rainbow, the 1990’s television show advocating reading for children. Since then, Zhiwan has continued to probe the intersection of national identity and the personal psyche, focusing on how and where they join and diverge.

Christopher Salvito and Nicoletta Favari 

Passepartout Duo is a music group comprised of pianist Nicoletta Favari and percussionist Christopher Salvito. Making music that escapes categorization, the duo’s ongoing travel around the world informs the multi-disciplinary collaborations, instrumental compositions, and evocative music videos that constitute their body of work. The musical events they create focus on reconsidering the modalities in which people listen to and connect with music and are cast from a wide range of aesthetics and disciplines.

Anton Dudley

Anton Dudley is a playwright, director, and librettist for both opera and musical theatre. His Off-Broadway productions include City Of (Playwrights Realm), Substitution (Playwrights Realm), 17 Orchard Point (co-written with Stephanie DiMaggio, Beckett Theater featuring Tony-winner Michele Pawk), Getting Home (Second Stage Theater), and Slag Heap (Cherry Lane Theater featuring Vincent Kartheiser).

Jean Fineberg

Jean Fineberg is a professional musician, composer, and educator, with a master’s degree from Penn State University and post-graduate study with David Baker at Indiana University. She has been awarded multiple Music Composition Residencies and has received several composition grants and fellowships. She served on the San Francisco Arts Commission Cultural Equity Panel, and is profiled in eight books, including "Feminists Who Changed America.” She appears on more than 50 albums.

Susannah Bielak

Susy Bielak’s art and writing respond to issues including migration, displacement, and the relationship between domestic life and disaster. In the process, she mines personal and political histories, texts, and archives to find the allegorical possibilities and poetics of people, places, and materials. Her projects have ranged in form from itinerant sculpture, to mural-scaled drawings, to artist books.

Mitsu Salmon

Mitsu Salmon creates performance and visual works that fuse multiple disciplines. She was born in the melting pot of Los Angeles to a Japanese American mother and Caucasian American father. Creating in differing media—translating one medium to another—is connected to the translation of differing cultures and languages. Her recent work draws from familial and personal narratives and then branches out to speak to contemporary issues such as diaspora, labor, and the environment.

Mariana Newhard

Mariana Newhard is a creator/writer/performer specializing in hybrid/devised new work. She has been a member of the Dorset Theater Festival’s Women Artists Writing Group (DTF WAW) since 2017. Her hybrid operetta, Queen of the Nile was presented July 2020 as part of HERE Arts Center’s livestream series #STILLHERE. An excerpt was presented in 2019 as part of the DTF WAW’s Sanctuary event.

While participating in the multi-disciplinary Rogers Art Loft program, each artist prepares and offers an introductory Artist Talk event and a Culmination Exhibition – either live or virtually and engages the community in an element that is paramount to their work. Each artist residency opportunity is approximately four-six weeks long, depending on artist’s needs and art practices.  If appropriate based on safety and health, Artist-In-Residency participants are lodged in the Rogers Art Loft residence at The Lucy, designed by Cindy Reid. Additionally, all the visiting artists are provided with access to the new Rogers Art Gallery studio space nearby to work and to hold exhibitions. 

For more information and to learn more about each artist, sign up for the Rogers Art Loft email blast at www.rogersartloft.com and follow on Facebook and Instagram. 

The brainchild of local philanthropist and patron of the arts Beverly Rogers, the Rogers Art Loft is made possible by The Rogers Foundation, dedicated to transforming lives through arts and education in Southern Nevada.