Abbey Andersen, Board Co-President
Abbey Andersen has made a life out of following her nose and tastebuds. She is an illustrator and ceramicist, holding a BA in studio art and creative writing from Humboldt State University, but her favorite medium is food—farms, foraging, setting tables in beautiful spots, and gathering people around them. Originally from the Northwest, and after many years of teaching art and working in the food realm across the country, Abbey arrived in Paonia for a residency at Elsewhere in 2019 and set up shop. Here on the Western Slope, she teaches seasonal classes with Arts For All, makes pottery and popsicles, periodically illustrates for High Country News, and coordinates farm harvest events for hunger relief through her work with UpRoot Colorado.
Jessica Miller, Board Co-President
As a member of the development team at Outright International, Jessica (she, they) leverages her corporate background to build and strengthen relationships with Outright's partners to accelerate momentum in advancing LGBTIQ human rights at the United Nations and globally. Through various avenues of advocacy and volunteering, Jessica believes in the power of altruism. She works to increase nutrition security, artistic freedom, educational equality, and resource conservation throughout her home state of Colorado. Jessica also harnesses the selfless energy of others as volunteer director for a number of organizations on the East Coast. As a musician and event promoter, Jessica creates safe spaces for all to share in the power of dance, community, and self-expression. Jessica holds degrees and certificates from the University at Buffalo and the University of California, Berkeley.
Alicia Toldi, Board Vice President
California born & raised, Alicia Toldi is currently based on unceded Ute land in Paonia, Colorado, where she is on a constant quest to make a life out of adventuring and working with her hands. She is a creative organizer, artist, aspiring permaculturist, and traditional craft enthusiast. She is 1/2 of Piney Wood Atlas, a collaborative project that visits and catalogues small and unconventional artist residencies, creating regional field guide publications and strengthening a country-wide network of alternative residencies for artists and facilitators alike.
Rebecca Worby, Board Secretary
Originally from New York, Rebecca Worby is a writer and editor currently based in Austin, Texas. She is the editorial director of Reasons to be Cheerful, a nonprofit online magazine. Her two Elsewhere residencies were way back in 2012 and 2013, but the pull of Paonia is strong: Becca returned as a High Country News fellow for all of 2017. Her writing has appeared in Outside, Orion, Guernica, Catapult, Lit Hub, and elsewhere. She received her MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University.
Summer Ester Orr, Board Member
Summer Ester Orr is a Honduran-American creative practitioner and educator living in Paonia, Colorado. Orr is active in the southwest (NV, UT, CO) and in various rural arts organizations such as Epicenter, Elsewhere Studios and Paonia Clayworks. She frequently organizes workshops and classes to further arts education outside of academia. Alongside design and sculptural work, Orr makes functional pottery using local resources and fires them wherever there is access to a kiln. She is an active bird-watcher, frog-catcher, and observer of the natural world. For business inquiry email orrsummer@gmail.com.
Madison Rubenstein, Board Member
Madison Rubenstein (she/zey) is a visual artist living in Minneapolis, MN. She paints abstract and figurative works that reflect her experience living with chronic illness, being queer, and how they intersect with her Jewish identity. Rubenstein has exhibited her work in several galleries and public spaces throughout Minnesota, including Co-Exhibitions, Anderson Center, Gamut Gallery and Public Functionary. In 2013 Rubenstein earned her BFA in Drawing and Painting from Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She completed her first artist residency at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, CO fall of 2019. Rubenstein now serves on Elsewhere’s board of directors. Rubenstein works in studio 207B in the California Building of the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District.
Carolina Porras, Board Member
Carolina Porras Monroy (she/her/hers) is a Floridian Guatemalan-American currently living in North Adams, Massachusetts where she is Studios Residency Manager at MASS MoCA after four years of managing Elsewhere Studios. She is co-founder of Piney Wood Atlas, a country-wide artist residency research project highlighting radical and DIY spaces through publications and online resources. Currently, her creative practice involves working with her hands in any way through drawing, textile work, and repairing bikes.
Photo by Freddie Rankin II
Carol Flueckiger: Art, Environment, and Sustainability Program
Carol Flueckiger, makes mixed-media bicycle paintings that evoke the sensory experience of west Texas weather. Her signature technique Solar Powered Painting builds on cyanotype, a light-sensitive process that she blends with painting and drawing. She is a Professor of Art at Texas Tech University and her work is represented by Charles Adams Gallery in Lubbock, TX. She continues the work she started as a board member (2018-2021) which entailed connecting universities to Elsewhere studios via the Art, Environment, and Sustainability residency.
Mitchell Oliver, Executive Director
Mitchell Oliver (he/him) is a new media artist with extensive experience in residencies, academia, and community organizing. His work has been shown internationally in film festivals, books, dumpsters, deserts, refrigerators and museums, including the Kemper Art Museum, Krannert Art Museum, SECCA, International Civil Rights Center, ACRE TV, the8fest, G-CADD, Ninth Letter, Bridge PAI, 1067 Pacific People, The Wrong TV, Hairpin Arts Center, the Hemispheric Institute, and Cucalorus Film Festival. Before joining Elsewhere Studios, Mitchell worked for the Education Justice Project in Illinois, the Ox-Bow School of Art in Michigan, and the “other” Elsewhere residency in North Carolina.