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Our instructors are drawn from a wealth of talented teachers, including nationally known artists from across the country and across the street. They are innovative craftsmen and artists who enjoy trying new techniques and love sharing what they do with their students.
If you are an experienced art, craft, writing, or performing arts instructor and are interested in teaching at Shake Rag Alley, click here for more information.
A Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, Sheree L. Greer is a text-based artist and educator living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms.…
Read MoreA Milwaukee, Wisconsin, native, Sheree L. Greer is a text-based artist and educator living in Tampa, Florida. In 2014, she founded The Kitchen Table Literary Arts Center to showcase and support the work of Black women and women of color writers and is the author of two novels, Let the Lover Be and A Return to Arms. Her work has been published in First Bloom Anthology, LezTalk Anthology, VerySmartBrothas, Autostraddle, The Windy City Times, Bleed Literary Journal, and the Windy City Queer Anthology: Dispatches from the Third Coast. Sheree has received a Union League of Chicago Civic Arts Foundation award, earned her MFA at Columbia College Chicago, and is a VONA/VOICES alum, Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice grantee, Yaddo fellow, and Ragdale Artist House Rubin Fellow. Her essay, “Bars,” published in Fourth Genre Magazine, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and notably named in Best American Essays 2019, and her latest essay, “None of This Is Bullshit” was published at The Rumpus and featured in “Memoir Mondays.”
Workshops
Intersections: How Research Informs Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
Matthew Guenette grew up in New Hampshire. He earned an MA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in creative writing from Southern Illinois University. He is the author of four poetry collections: Doom Scroll (2023), Vasectomania (2017), American Busboy (2011) and Sudden Anthem (2008). He lives in Madison, WI, with his wife, their two children, and a couple of mischievous cats.
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Darla is a self taught wreath maker. She started a business creating wreaths using straight and curly willow and dried flowers that are grown by herself and her sister.
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Rebecca Hutchinson received her MFA from the University of Georgia (Athens) and her BFA from Berea College. An award-winning sculptor, she was one of 12 recipients of the 2015 ‚”Women to Watch” award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC. A dedicated educator of over 20 years, she currently serves as full professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth teaching undergraduate and graduate ceramics.
Hutchinson’s sculptural work is informed by observations of the natural world, drawing inspiration from what she sees as its resilience and resourcefulness. Ranging in scale from site-installation museum projects to gallery sculpture, the work is a profusion of color harmonies, floral textures and absorbing detail. Found embedded in her work are locally sourced materials‚Äînative and natural as well as industrial and domestic cast-offs. The work is attentive to the emerging concerns of the Anthropocene: sustainability as an ethos, hybridity as a strategy, and growth as a set of negotiations. Her current work explores the theme of navigating boundaries both conceptually and aesthetically.
Hutchinson’s work has appeared in prominent national and international venues such as the Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, the Everson Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Craft and Design, the National Museum for Women in the Arts, SOFA (now Intersect Chicago, represented by Duane Reed Gallery), the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, the Vendrell Biennale (Spain), the Danforth Museum of Art, the Lowe Museum of Art, the Canton Museum of Art, and the Fuller Craft Museum, among many others.
Hutchinson’s work has been published in over 80 publications nationally and internationally—notably, Sculpture, Surface Design, Orion, Huffington Post, American Craft, Ceramics Monthly, La Ceramica, Ceramics Ireland, Ceramics Art and Perception, New Ceramics, Korean Ceramic Art Monthly, Women in the Arts, and Revista Ceramica Contemporanea.
She has been awarded numerous grants, fellowships, and awards—notably from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as Artist of the Year by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston and as Distinguished Artist by the James Renwick Alliance in Washington DC. For teaching and research, Hutchinson is highly-awarded by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has been nominated three years in a row for the Outstanding Educators Award of the International Sculpture Center (Sculpture Magazine).
Prominent collections which hold Hutchinson’s work include: the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Maldives Waldorf Astoria, the Boston Children’s Hospital, the Yingge Museum (Taiwan), the Perlman Museum, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Canton Museum of Art.
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Rebecca Jamieson’s writing has appeared in publications such as Entropy, Mid-American Review, The Offing, Hunger Mountain, and Rattle, and includes a chapbook of poetry, The Body of All Things. She is the founder of Contemplate Create, where she teaches creative writing with a mindfulness lens. Rebecca holds an MFA in Writing & Publishing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives on Ho-Chunk land in Madison, Wisconsin.
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Retired Youth Program director for Shake Rag Alley Center for the Arts, Elizabeth did not have art classes at school when she was young. Enthralled by watching Jon Gnagy on television, she enjoyed getting one of his “Learn to Draw” kits from her mom. “Since then I have explored many art materials, but the current material I work with is handmade paper. I got into making paper first as a sculptural medium because the clay pieces I was making became too big to fit into a large kiln. After making large paper structures, I then discovered how much I enjoy making imagery with colored paper pulp.”
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I’m Lynn Kaufman, and I am obsessed about food! Being a retired culinary instructor plus dietitian, I have plenty of adventures with cooking to share. Sharing my time between small town USA and Chicago, I’ve been working for years on making cooking fun and easy to learn. Follow my recipes for easy, step-by-step instructions!
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Cathy Kitto is a retired educator with 40 years of experience in six states and England as a teacher and school principal. Since retiring she has been able to pursue her interest and develop her skills in fabric art, specifically painting on silk and nature printing on shirts and other fabrics. When not enjoying her new-found hobby, you can find her in her garden playing with her flowers.
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Jenny Knavel received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1997. She is a professor of art at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, where she teaches primarily design and digital photography classes. In addition to teaching, she is an active artist. Her work has been juried into numerous regional and national and international juried exhibitions.
In 2021, her artwork was selected to be on the cover of the SAQA Journal (Studio Art Quilt Associates), 2021, Volume 31, No. 2. She had a piece included in the Second Biennial of Natural Dye exhibition, China Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China. She participated in the 40th annual Contemporary Crafts, Mesa, Arizona.
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Raki is a first generation American, queer, Jewish writer. She is the author of The Things You Left and The Memory House, both Minnesota Book Award finalists. Her work has appeared in numerous publications and has been shortlisted and nominated for several other awards, including the Pushcart Prize for Fiction and the Pen Faulkner Award in Fiction. Her queer travel novel, No One’s Leaving, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2025. She lives in Minneapolis and teaches creative writing at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
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Jim Kostohrys from rural Mineral Point is an artist of the age-old art of drawing on animal bones. This art form predates Neolithic times.The bones are found and carefully cleaned prior to applying pen.
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Christina Kubasta is a poet and fiction writer who also explores collaboration and connection with the visual arts — she also once worked at a small press and book bindery. Her most recent book is the short story collection Abjectification (Apprentice House, 2020), and her next poetry book is forthcoming in 2025. She posts and writes about writerly things on Twitter and Instagram @CKubastathePoet.
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Creative Play: Collage, Paper, & Text
KT moved to Mineral Point in June of 2023 to begin a new journey with Shake Rag Alley. She believes that the universe opened the doors for her to take that leap. KT is always working on her “BE BRAVE” badge (self-rewarded!) & has a love of solo traveling, camping, hiking, all things creative and ice cream. KT is a Certified Yoga Instructor through Perennial Yoga in Fitchburg & is Reiki II Certified.
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Megan Kulick’s artistic credentials revolve around years spent on staff at Shake Rag Alley. She is a stay-at-home mom who loves coming back to teach soaps and scrubs as well as other fun and fanciful Shake Rag Youth Program classes!
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Laurie has been doing some sort of handwork since her Mother handed her a needle and thread at age 5. While still in school and with limited resources, she began designing and hooking rugs in 1970 after seeing an article in Early American Life magazine.
Known for her keen sense of color and whimsical, folk art designs, Laurie has been teaching rug hooking and various fiber arts around the Twin Cities for over 30 years. Laurie’s classes are casual, warm and as colorful as the materials she works with. Packed with tips and tricks even the most experienced students will find useful, she helps each student develop their skills and find their own style.
2022 marked the 35th anniversary of L. J. Fibers, her fiber arts business that became The Wooly Red Rug in 2002 when Laurie opened the doors of her studio to the public. Her museum quality hooked rugs, wool applique, stitched and needle punched pieces are part of private collections across the country and have earned her recognition as one of America‚Äôs top traditional craftsmen by Early American Life magazine‚ where her passion began.
Laurie has been featured in many publications including ATHA’s Art of Rug Hooking, Rug Hooking Magazine, Wool Works, Punch Needle & Primitive Stitcher and The Wool Street Journal. She is currently a Faculty Artist/Instructor at Minnetonka Center for the Arts and has taught at both From Our Hands Creative and Sauder Village Rug Week in Ohio, and many other regional rug camps.
Specialties: color planning; dyeing, especially with sustainable natural plant dyes; rug hooking; punch needle; wool applique and embroidery
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Rug Hooking Retreat: Folk Art Rug Hooking
I’m a veterinarian who recently learned the joys of pounding on hot metal. I started taking evening blacksmithing classes four years ago at the Kenosha Public Museum. I’ve taken two weekend courses at Shake Rag Alley with Hal Aavang. I’m still learning new techniques myself but I’d love to introduce more people to blacksmithing.
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Glass art has unlocked a door for Artwork in any medium is born from a spark of intention like a dance fully emerging from thought, passing through hands, and eyes. Torch fired glass has been with me for over 24 years. It has taught me focus, given me happiness and failures, challenges and successes. Meticulously constructed, I use the torch to melt the glass layer upon layer, reading the heat and applying ancient techniques and skills. I strive to capture beauty within my glass art. Glass art has unlocked a door for me. In 2014, Beadazzled By Julz, LLC was born out of the desire to teach the ancient art of glass bead making skills and art jewelry. I’ve since expanded to include glass blowing and enameling.
What sets me apart as a creator and teacher is my 29 years of experience working in public education. I am grateful for the opportunities to foster creativity, make friends, and share my skills. My charitable donations include “Beads Of Courage”.
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18 Shake Rag St.
Mineral Point, WI 53565
(608) 987-3292
