CREATE!

Richelle Scales is a classically trained pianist with a love and passion for all styles of music. Since the age of 5, Richelle has developed an intricate relationship with the 88s, and as the instrument of choice, uses the piano to express her love for hip hop, classical, rock n roll, blues, and just down right jammin'. Richelle has worked on many projects with various artists in Atlanta, GA and Oakland, CA--ranging from studio productions to live performances at small venues and festivals. Blending styles from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and today’s hits, Richelle’s stage presence and piano style captivates audiences of all ages.

She has opened for artists such as Robert Glasper, Gil Scott-Heron, and The Last Poets. She is currently the pianist for several groups in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as musical director for her own group, The Richelle Scales Project.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, they started their  gift at a very young age of two years old. They grew up playing in a gospel church, and got their  first break playing in the choir at the age of five years old. From then, Jae continued their gift and played with numerous bands and groups throughout the Bay Area as a teenager.

As Jae attended college, they played in many churches and for many groups and artists throughout the Southern states. After completing college studies and obtaining a teaching degree, they returned home to focus more on music. Jae has done many projects such as, live concerts, stage plays, open mics, festivals, touring and group/private drumming lessons. Jae has starred in commercials, on TV and online; and recently was casted in a Netflix movie; “The Harder They Fall” 

Founder, Audette Sophia

I am a multi-faceted Creative, experience designer, & the CXO of Catalyst Arts.

I have extensive experience on both sides of events– as both performer & creative producer.

Working thousands of events over 20+ very colorful years I have figured out how to not just entertain but to Enchant.

To invite interaction & to Dazzle.

I have thousands of costumes, hundreds of performers, endless ideas, & a passion to push the envelope through artful experiences.

I am an Ace up my clients' sleeves.

Ever craved a one-of-a-kind poster, made right before your eyes? Experience the wonder of live screenprinting with Lords of Print! Witness the magic unfold as skilled artists transform blank canvases into vibrant masterpieces.

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Your Lords of Print are Matt and his jaunty crew of rapscallions.

Since 2008 we’ve printed all manner of apparel, posters, and more. We’re a full-service shop specializing in screenprinting, sublimation printing, and live event printing. We offer custom graphic design and branding consultation services. We even host workshops and demos for team building adventures.

Once provided with a brief prompt by attendees, poet Silvi Alcivar will use her vintage typewriter to create on-demand poems for attendees.

How the poetry store works:

• You want a poem.
• You select a beautiful piece of paper on which your poem will be written.
• You tell Silvi what you want your poem to be about & who you want it to be for.

In three minutes or less, you will have your poem—as spontaneous as combustion and as original as bergamot and balsamic on your ice cream.

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Since 2008, Silvi, The Poetry Store poet, has written and sold thousands of poems throughout the Bay Area and beyond (including Antarctica!). In addition to creating on-the-spot poems, Silvi’s one-of-a-kind artwork has shown at Secession Art & Design, Collector Gallery, Femina Potens Gallery, SOMArts Ramp Gallery, The Goods Gallery, Philz Coffee, La Boutique, and Steelgrass Farm in Kauai. Her work has been featured in 7×7 magazine, Daily Candy (three times, including being named one of the 10 best discoveries of 2010), the San Francisco Chronicle, Style Me Pretty, Weddings Unveiled Magazine, as well as various other local blogs. Past and current clients include The California Academy of Sciences, SFMOMA, Google, Levi & Strauss Co., Benefit Cosmetics, The Conservatory of Flowers, IDEO, and others. The Poetry Store is also a regular vendor at well-known craft fairs such as Bazaar Bizarre, The Maker Faire, The Renegade Craft Fair, Noise Pop, and (the DIY mecca) Indie Mart. The Poetry Store has been a proud sponsor for WIPA (Wedding Industry Professional Assoc.), ISES (International Special Events Society), worked with Amorology Wedding Events, and is an official partner of Locally Grown Weddings. She’s also a current member of City Art Gallery and shows work there often.

Silvi loves to practice her craft, share her art, meet people, and bring poetry into the world. She’d love nothing more than to do this more with more people. She’s so grateful to every one who supports her work and she looks forward to being in touch with you.

CREATE! offering:

Join us for a groundbreaking performance by MoToR/Dance, an all-female percussive dance company, at 4:30 PM (show runs until 5:30 PM). These powerhouse dancers redefine movement, transforming their bodies into percussive instruments that create a captivating symphony of sound and motion. Witness the power of the "sonic body" as they explore space with electrifying energy. Prepare to be not just a spectator, but a potential participant in this immersive experience!

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Under the Artistic Direction of Evie Ladin, the all-female MoToR/dance creates powerful interlocking percussive dance arrangements with layered vocal harmonies and large group choreography, in a moving choir. Creating emotionally in-depth works, MoToR/dance pushes the envelope in Body Music and Contemporary Dance. Artistic Director Evie Ladin is a percussive-dancer, choreographer, singer, songwriter, banjo player and square-dance caller with a lifetime of experience in traditional American cultural arts and intercultural music/dance performance and education. The company performs ensemble choreographies, inclusive jam sessions and participatory Body Music entertainment. 

“A virtuosic command of the interplay between physicality, rhythm, and musicality.” - Molly Rose-Williams

“Stunning work and performing, as always, with such integrity and artistry.” – Randee Paufve, Producer 8x8x8

MoToR/dance works harmonize Appalachian and related songs layered with African-diaspora rhythmic systems, elucidating elements of this tradition’s genesis.  The large ensemble works are evocative and moving works of music/dance, and resplendent dance films.

Jackie discovered her passion for music when her grandmother showed her the basics of guitar playing. she worked on teaching herself on how to pick up melodies and notes by ear and hasn't stopped ever since. Jackie describes herself as a versatile artist whose musical interests range from R&B to Country. She wants to be known for her original songs in both English and her native language, Tagalog. Jackie has amassed a following that adores her sweet nature and heartfelt renditions of today's popular music and OPM (Original Pilipino Music), with a voice and style that are easy on the ears.

His musical journey began at a young age, fueled by a “toy guitar” gifted by his grandfather. Learning on his own, he played his first paid gig when he was in the seventh grade as a rhythm guitarist at a high school dance.

During his time in the US Air Force, stationed across diverse locations, music remained a constant companion. After college, he got a job in the corporate world to support his music habits and got back to playing again as a soloist, in a duo, in a trio and in bands. Most nights he spent paying his dues in dive bars, biker bars, smoky bars, clubs, restaurants, birthday parties, weddings, association dances, at a fancy setting, island setting at the beach, by the river, someone's backyard, on the street and still going.

YouTube: @gonybsbcglobalnet

Combining beats with bass lines, vocal harmonies and acoustic guitar, all at the same time while singing, is a sight to behold! Similar to Ed Sheeran in style, but unique in the choices of covers and mashups he puts together, you won't have seen anything quite like this before!

CREATE! offering:

Witness a painting of the event brought to life brushstroke by brushstroke! Jeremy Sutton, CREATE!’s live event painter, will capture the very soul of the artistic activation on a massive canvas. As the evening unfolds, attendees will be able to watch the scene captured before their eyes on a giant screen – a mesmerizing convergence of art and atmosphere.

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Jeremy Sutton was born in London, U.K., in 1961. He has always loved drawing. Whilst studying physics at Oxford University, Jeremy attended life-drawing, print-making and sculpture classes at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, and developed black and white photography in the Pembroke College darkroom. After completing his degree he moved to The Netherlands where he studied lithography and life drawing at De Vrije Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten, The Hague, while employed as a sales and marketing manager with a British scientific instruments company.

Jeremy loves to share his creative process as a live event painter, performing all over the world at corporate events, conferences, private functions, arts festivals and museums. Jeremy, founder of the PaintboxTV.com online learning resource, is also an art educator, writing books, producing video tutorials, and teaching workshops internationally.

As a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary artist, Yifan Shao tirelessly seeks diverse voices and has collaborated with Peter Shaw, Matin Boulos, etc. His work has been performed or exhibited all over the world, including but not limited to Carnegie Hall, San Francisco Center for New Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Foreign Cinema Modernism West Gallery, Blank Wall Gallery, Huntington Beach Art Center, Artly Mix Espaço Cultural. His poems have been published by Columbia Journal of Asia and Beyond Words Literary Magazine. 

Yifan Shao is the recipient of the Emerging Composer Award from Tribeca New Music, and has been in residence at Nordingrå Konstby in Sweden and Musical Life Foundation in Carnegie Hall, United States. He is a PhotoVogue photographer and a member of ArtSpan and San Francisco Center for New Music.

Yifan Shao is currently pursuing his bachelor of music in composition at San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

BFA, Ontario College of Art, SFAI, and MA, Psychology New College of CA

Local Bay artist. Exhibited locally, nationally and internationally.

Sofia’s paintings are concerned with color, rhythm and movement of energy expressed in abstract forms capturing the landscape memories of different places and the Bay Area. They show a passion for spontaneity and deliberation. Balance is achieved through repetition of color, form and pattern. She introduces shapes with regular and irregular contours in my many color field paintings.

San Francisco based (but always current passport holding) professional photographer, Misti Layne, specializes in authentic storytelling with deeply contrasted and documentary wedding photography, meaningful and intimate family and personal portraiture, connected and genuine portraits for professionals, and corporate events from the standard conference to the eclectically crazy and adventurous event. You will find her on many “Top Ten Photographers in San Francisco” lists. Lastly, on a more personal passion, she captures vibrantly live and loud music shows and their creatively passionate musicians. It’s a relationship she treasures. 

MGP Andersen is an oil painter based in San Francisco.  She has been juried into numerous shows, and has received many awards for her work.  A former Adjunct Professor of Art at Ohlone College in Fremont, she now paints full time at her studio in Dogpatch.  She believes that an artist’s job is to listen to the Universe, then make what they hear accessible to others. 

As a proud San Francisco native, I'm a mixed media artist specializing in illustration and intricate hand-cut paper art. I experiment with color, layers, texture, and detail to play with positive and negative space and challenge you to reimagine the world more vividly. I’ve exhibited my artwork at The Drawing Room SF and Kearny Street Workshop's APAture showcases. In addition to inspiring you with my art, I'm also the Property Manager for The Mills Building, a venerable San Francisco historical landmark and architectural gem.

BFA Photography | Shepherd University

San Francisco-based photographer Denise Barnhart focuses on documentary street and trail photography throughout her northern California home. She creates photo and music mash-ups called photosounds that encourage viewers to see scenes in a new way and hopefully inspire them to look and listen for the musical stories in their worlds.

Denise has exhibited locally at STUDIO Gallery and San Francisco Women Artists Gallery, where she is an active member. She has also published several monographs and created a line of hiking apparel and accessories called “Rock Out San Francisco”. You can view her work at DeniseBarnhart.com and RockOutSF.com. 

An Irish immigrant in San Francisco, Jennifer pours her lifelong love for art into vibrant acrylic paintings, seamlessly melding abstraction and portraiture to evoke profound human emotions and experiences. With a background including childhood art camps, modeling in Ireland, and volunteering at the Creative Growth Art Gallery, Jennifer's artistic journey is rich and diverse. Her work delves deep into the interplay between consciousness and subconsciousness, inviting viewers on a reflective journey through each brushstroke. Informed by her psychology background, her art is imbued with layers of meaning and complexity, resonating authentically with audiences. Jennifer also lends her creative talents to her professional career as a visual designer in education technology, where she combines her passion for art with cutting-edge digital innovation. Through her art, Jennifer offers profound insights into the human experience.

The Museum of Craft and Design (MCD) makes creativity accessible to everyone.

The Museum of Craft and Design is the only museum in San Francisco devoted to craft and design. Founded in 2004, MCD showcases designers, makers and artists through an exciting and distinctive series of craft and design-focused exhibitions and public programs. As a non-collecting institution, the museum actively collaborates with artists, designers, museums and universities, as well as design venues and practitioners to create inspirational experiences in the world of craft and design for visitors of all ages.

Manifesto
You’re bold. You question the conventional notion of art. You are inspired by creativity that stirs the soul. And you value designers, makers and artists who are risk takers and seek to inspire the world. Visual culture thrives at the Museum of Craft and Design. We bring you the work of the hand, mind and heart. We are building a path to the future of creative expression.

Rae Lanzerotti

Rae Lanzerotti is an artist and somatic teacher from San Francisco. They make zines and comics as well as tactile art, using mixed media to expand disability access and aesthetics. Fascination with “access as art” since vision loss led Rae to graphic memoir, bookmaking, collaborative audio comics and zines, puff painting, and experiments with hardware. 

https://www.rlanzerotti.com

Nonprofit organization Blue Bear School of Music was founded as “Blue Bear Waltzes School of Genuine Music” in the summer of 1971 by a rock band called “Wolfgang & Strauss” – “Wolfgang” was a dog, and “Strauss,” two brothers in the band.  Before moving to San Francisco to make their fame and fortune (and to found a music school), they lived in Northern California on the Bear River.  When naming the school, the brothers Strauss whimsically recalled Johann Strauss’s “Blue Danube Waltz,” substituting the Bear River for the Danube, and the rest is history.

For a period in the mid-’70s, when the founding members moved on, Blue Bear was run by a co-operative of teachers and students.  In 1978 operations moved from the original storefront on Ocean Avenue (photo, right) to Fort Mason Center, where Blue Bear has thrived and evolved to its current state of more than 850 music-loving students per quarter.  Blue Bear’s current Board of Trustees and Staff includes former “Wolfgang & Strauss” members Steve Savage (ED and Board President) and Richard Strauss along with Electric Orchestra & Folk Chorus (and Blue Bear Association) member Bonnie Hayes.  Day-to-day operations are under the direction of Dennis Criteser, a former student who has been associated with the school since 1979.

Laura Gallmeyer is a pioneering artist at the forefront of integrating artificial intelligence into her creative expression. Her works push the boundaries of traditional art while offering a glimpse into a future where everyone's unique creative potential is exponentially expanded and enhanced through technology.

Her AI assisted visual compositions are a mix of the real and surreal, where nature's beauty entwines with technological and enigmatic elements. Each piece invites the viewer to consider their own identity and purpose in an evolving tomorrow.

Laura's musical compositions feature synthetic voices that reveal imagined contemplations of AI existence, drawing inspiration from the vast spectrum of human discourse.

Laura advocates for the transformative power of AI in art. She believes it is a key to unlocking new dimensions of creativity and innovation.

Her AI-generated album, "Echoes of the Algorithm" is a pioneering journey to the crossroads of human creativity and artificial intelligence. While the spark and inspiration behind each song stem from the deep well of human experience, every element—from the poignant lyrics and intricate musical compositions to the rich instrumentation and expressive voices—is crafted by artificial intelligence. This statement album delves into themes of love, isolation, decision-making, identity, and growth, while exploring the question, “What would sentient AI think and dream about?” 

While AI takes center stage on the creation of songs, the album's concept, coaxing, and editing are credited to my human touch. As artist and curator, I have woven together AI's outputs, shaping a cohesive and sometimes humorous narrative inviting listeners to reflect on the parallels of our worlds.

"Echoes of the Algorithm" is not just an album; it's a groundbreaking reflection on the symbiotic relationship between humanity and the technology it has birthed.

Curated Entertainment is a national company based in the San Francisco Bay Area, specializing in high touch, experiential team building programs and corporate entertainment.

We’re a women-owned business founded in 2017 by best friends and business partners, Heather Rogers and Velia Amarasingham. We have a need to deeply move people by bringing them together with heart and humor and our goal is to make participants feel truly seen.

Esteemed clients include: Apple, Google, Slack, Intuit, Uber and Genentech.

HEATHER ROGERS
Co-Founder, Speaker, Corporate Magician

Heather has performed at venues ranging from Barack Obama’s inaugural ball in D.C. to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She has been named a 2022 recipient of the prestigious Eugene Burger Legacy Award by the Magic and Mystery School in Las Vegas, and has performed alongside legendary artists such as Joan Baez and Rita Moreno, and appeared with Hillary Clinton at San Francisco’s “Innovation Hangar”. 

Heather ran away with the Pickle Family Circus when she was young, and it was there she discovered her love of performing and honed her magic and juggling skills. She has the distinction of being the one and only female, comedy magician in the Bay Area and has performed for corporate clients such as Google, Intuit, Hewlett Packard, Oracle and has spoken at TEDx.

Heather is an active member of MPI-NCC. She served on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee in 2020 and currently volunteers on the Education & Programs Committee.

Learn more about Heather’s illustrious career in this brief video.

VELIA RIZZO

Co-Founder, Producer, Performer

Velia is an award-winning, meeting and events industry leader. She served on the ILEA-NCC Board of Directors from 2018-2021 and was the recipient of four Heart and Soul awards during her tenure. Additionally, Velia has been an active committee member of PCMA NCC since 2020, earning her a Bay Area Meeting Industry Excellence (BAMIE) award in the Member of the Year category, and a total of four nominations. She joined the board of PCMA NCC in 2022 and served as the chapter’s Director of Social Media that year.

In her hometown of Sydney, Australia, Velia received vocal training from Australian superstar, Marcia Hines and studied drama with the prestigious Australian Theatre for Young People.

After relocating to the San Francisco Bay Area during the dot-com boom, she founded the critically acclaimed musical theatre troupe, Her Rebel Highness. Career highlights include opening for Australian Top 40 artist, Margaret Urlich, performing live on ABC7 News and appearing as Cher, in San Francisco’s longest running show, Beach Blanket Babylon.