In partnership with the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, A4A is pleased to announce the 2023 Business of Art Cohort. Now in its second year, this opportunity will help individual artists strengthen their creative practice, and build mutually-supportive networks. We are thrilled to welcome these 19 Worcester County based artists into our Capacity-Building Grant Program.

AiCO (SHIKAKIBITO-AICO) (Berlin)

Shikakibito-Aico is a painter and illustrator who has been a practicing artist for several decades. Her whimsical style draws from words and stories in her own life and she works across many mediums. Aico moved to Worcester County over ten years ago from Kyoto, Japan where she had a successful career as a commercial illustrator and gallery owner.

Angel Geronimo/DOS (Worcester)

Born and raised in the City of Worcester, DOS is a Hip-Hop musician that became fascinated with rhymes at an early age through borrowed cassettes and cd’s passed down from cousins. By memorizing lyrics of his favorite rappers, he developed an ear for vocal rhythm, wordplay, and rhyme patterns and, at age 13, wrote his first original rhymes. Since then, creating music has served as a catharsis to express pain, joy and loss. DOS is currently working on two new projects while also running the Worcester Hip Hop Congress, an emerging non-profit that celebrates Hip-Hop culture through live performances, breakdancing, and graffiti workshops.

Cedric “Ced Boogie” Arno (Worcester)

Cedric Arno is a producer, director, playwright, and storyteller with deep roots in Worcester. He is the Executive Producer of Music Mania Television which began in the late 90s as a half hour television show designed to create a platform to amplify hip hop culture. Through Cedric’s leadership, Music Mania Television has since expanded into a multi-media production company producing various events including the popular reading of Frederick Douglass’ speech “What Does 4th of July mean to the Slave?” In the summer of 2016, Cedric wrote, directed and produced the interactive one act play, “Frederick Douglas Vs. the Auld Family”, a scripted mock trial that pushes viewers and participants to re-examine the history of slavery in America.

Cesar Rodrigues (Worcester)

Cesar Rodrigues is a Worcester-based abstract painter who responds to the material properties of acrylic paint. Through explorations in color, texture, gravity, and viscosity, his paintings are recognized for their sophisticated and vibrant palettes. Taking a satellite's perspective as if floating in space, Cesar’s paintings evoke undiscovered lands or planets and express a sense of freedom. At an early age Cesar was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy which causes progressive muscle weakness. When he could no longer hold a paintbrush Easterseals Massachusetts helped Cesar engineer the “Abstract Beast”, a custom-built painting system that pours paint onto a rotating canvas using Bluetooth technology. Cesar is currently fine tuning the prototype and working on creating a 501c3 to help support getting this assistive technology to young folks who are physically limited.

Charles Ketter (Worcester)

Charles Ketter is a song writer and musician performing Jazz, Blues and other folk styles of African American music. First mentored under famed Worcester musician, Rich Falco, Charles went on to study bass at the Berkeley School of Music and studied jazz trombone with Rich Arrdizone, Mark Hamilton, and Jeff Galindo. He began his career playing with Reggie Walley at the famed Hottenttote Lounge in Worcester. Charles has developed the ability to play bass lines and chords on a seven string guitar. By performing and educating young musicians on the work of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington and others, Charles' goal is to bring Black history and Black excellence to life

Christian Bachez (Worcester)

Christian Bachez is a mixed media artist currently based in Worcester, MA. He was born and raised in Alphabet City, the heart of New York City, and moved to Worcester to attend the College of the Holy Cross. He specializes in bright, colorful and imaginative digital depictions of mystical scenes. Many times he includes his signature character, a bear-cat named SNAX, or incorporates funky, hip-hop influenced words and phrases. His goal as an artist is to depict his art in a fun, playful way appropriate for all ages, prompting his viewers to ask questions relating to self identity. Through continuing to create works of art, he hopes to not only inspire children around the world but also make art more accessible to people of all backgrounds.

Claude Eshun (Worcester)

Claudio Eshun received his MFA degree in Photography from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in the fall of 2021. In his practice, he reflects on and reimagines scenes from his own history, using images from Ghana and Italy and more recently from America. By assembling photographs -- found, collected, and made -- Claude explores his multiple pasts and possibilities for the future. A character in his own work as “Don Claude”, the tableaux approach sets the stage on which several characters are able to elicit emotional registers of experience, regarding the specific concerns of black individuals from a multiplicity of backgrounds. His conversations remind him to challenge, yet be sensitive to, the stereotypes in Western, African and afro-descendant portraiture.

Cyrille Vincent (Worcester)

Cyrille Vincent is a storyteller and filmmaker interested in uncovering stories of marginalized communities in America and around the world. He is currently working on “Whirlwind,” a documentary film on the life and achievements of 1899 World Bicycle Champion Marshall W. “Major” Taylor. Major Taylor was the first Black American cycling champion and broke numerous world records and racial barriers in the field of cycling, despite facing severe discrimination throughout his career.

Derek “YDD” Craig (Fitchburg)

Derek “YDD” Craig is a hip hop artist, podcaster, and event producer based in Fitchburg. He has released two albums, one on vinyl titled “You Been Knowin” and hosts the podcast The Yo Daddy Doe Sho. In the summer of 2022, he launched Fitchburg’s first ever hip-hop focused festival to great success and is eager to build off this momentum by pursuing more ways to help fellow artists find their voice and create more space for hip hop culture to thrive in the region

Jayme Hibbard (Sutton)

Jayme Hibbard is a painter, sculptor, multi-media & mixed media artist. Her Indigenous family roots and upbringing on a small farm in Sutton, MA, has influenced her work, which draws from a deep connection to nature and spirituality. Jayme’s work often incorporates naturally sourced items from the land and sea, including glass, wire, wood, and broken objects. Jayme is also a creative expression coach and founder of PerfectlyFlawed Productions, a grassroots collaborative community which seeks to create opportunity, resources, access, support, and platforms to elevate voices, reclaim commerce, and engage communities through art.

Jim Scott (Worcester)

Jim Scott has made it his business to create and perform music that celebrates peace, justice and the earth with lyrical melodies and memorable verses. From his work with the Paul Winter Consort where he co-wrote their celebrated “Missa Gaia/Earth Mass” and many other pieces, Jim has gone on to create an extensive body of work, recording seven albums of original music, and compiling and editing “The Earth and Spirit Songbook,” an anthology of 110 songs of earth and peace, as well as a growing line of choral music.

Jennifer Carey (Worcester)

Jennifer Carey’s creative work employs a variety of techniques and materials. She began taking classes in enameling at the Worcester Center for Crafts in 1992 with noted enamellist Judith Daner and has studied with Tom Ellis, Jessica Calderwood, Barbara Seidenath, Bill Helwig, Avery Lucas, Merry Lee Rae, and Tanya Crane. Since then, her practice has expanded to include a variety of different mediums. Jennifer’s work is informed by themes of childhood, mythology, history, religion and spirituality, African American culture and the African Diaspora, and neolithic art. Her work has appeared in numerous gallery shows in Worcester. She has also shown at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the Salmon Falls Gallery in Shelburne Falls, and the Museum of Friends in Colorado.

Kate Egnaczak (South Grafton)

Kate Egnaczak is an interdisciplinary artist whose place-based work engages design, sculpture, fitness and performance. She develops long-term, site-specific projects in public spaces focusing on waste and eco-systems. Her practice contrasts mobility and locality, generating sculptural repurposed trash installations placed back into the origin site. In collaboration with local youth and community members, Kate is currently developing a mobile foundry where she publically melts found metals and glass collected from urban sites like Elm Park in Worcester, MA.

Khalil Guzman-Jerry (Worcester)

Khalil Guzman-Jerry is an emerging artist and longtime resident of Worcester. His art is colorful, bold and heavily influenced by American/Japanese pop style. This fall, Khalil is having his first solo exhibition at the JMAC Popup in Worcester. In addition to focusing on his art, Khalil is also the brains behind TheWorcesterWorkshop, a local start up specializing in clothing, graphic design, prints, murals, and animations.

RONALD BURGESS, Jr. (Worcester)

Ronald Burgess, Jr. is a motivational speaker; strategic storyteller and presenter who runs an empowerment speaker series through The Ronald A. Burgess Jr. Foundation, Inc. Focusing on underrepresented and at-risk teens ages 12-19, Ronald empowers youth to reach their full potential through workshops, mentorship, and story-telling conferences. His motivational intervention programs work to improve the self-esteem, academic success, and resiliency of young people residing in low-income communities.

Savonne Pickett (Worcester)

Savonne Pickett is a painter and fashion designer. Her art is versatile, mixing and matching different mediums and styles evoking emotional connections inspired by the beauty of nature, thoughts, music and interactions with those around her.

SHARINNA TRAVIESO (Worcester)

Sharinna Travieso is an emerging mural artist whose love for community-based work began in 2016 when she worked on her first mural project, “Maiden Mother Crone” at the YWCA in Downtown Worcester. Since then she has worked on a variety of different projects that are inspired by her love of nature and her interest in climate justice. In addition to her mural work, she creates sustainable art made from recycled materials and is developing ways to incorporate climate justice education with local youth and adults. Her vision is to use art as a catalyst for community engagement, place keeping and social transformation.

SHARON AMUGUNI (Worcester)

Sharon Amuguni is a poet and creator whose practice includes fiber art, papier mache, craft, and paper arts. She sees her art-making as an extension of her poetry and a way to make meaning of and reflect on the world she moves through. Her work has been featured in Mass Poetry’s Raining Poetry project, where an excerpt from her poem, Ghost, was stenciled outside the JP Public Library. She has an MA in Civic Media Art and Practice from Emerson College and works professionally as an arts administrator supporting New England’s creative economy.

Yasmine Ameli (Shrewsbury)

Yasmine Ameli is an Iranian American poet and essayist based outside Boston. She holds a BA in English from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Virginia Tech. She has received support from Poets and Writers, Reese’s Book Club, MASS MoCA, the Edith Wharton House, the Straw Dog Writers Guild, the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Poetry, The Sun, Ploughshares, Narrative, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She teaches creative writing through the Loft Literary Center, Grub Street, and Hugo House as well as works independently as a holistic writing coach.