Batavia Artists Association

Joi Cuartero - Art Director/Executive Director

Joi holds art, no matter what the form, in high esteem.  From sculpture and painting to music and the theater, she loves it all.  That is why she wanted to help create Water Street Studios.  She believes in the vision of having a place for artists to create, tech and learn; all while giving the community a place to hang out, view art, take classes and be proud of their local talent.  She loves walking into the Art Center and seeing people working in their studio, while someone is playing music in the gallery and others are taking a class.

She comes from an arts background, with a degree in Arts, Entertainment, Media Management.  Her education gives her the ability to be a great liaison between the artistic and business side of this project.  Currently, She works for HD Ready, a music-television production company that co-produces the show Soundstage and is now working in 3D music films.  Her experience in production allows her to engage with this project in order to help Water Street Studios grow even more.

The Art Director is appointed by the Board of Directors to handle and carry out the day-to-day operations of the Batavia Artists Association (BAA), serve as a representative of the BAA, submit any information or reports that may be required, attend Board meetings and supervise staff subject to the control and supervision of the Board of Directors.  The Director helps to implement programs and projects taken up by each committee and helps to oversee progress.

The Director performs all duties incident to such office and such other duties as may be provided by the BAA Bylaws or as may be prescribed from time to time by the Board of Directors.

Steven Lockwood - Gallery Coordinator / Technology Director

Deriving his work from architectural influence, Steven Lockwood likes to organize geometric shapes in a manner reflecting blueprints in relief form on a wall. This allows him to work toward styles reminiscent of both the early 1880-1920 Art Nouveau and the late 1908-1935 Art Deco. Using metal, light, and plastic, he blends these periods' most known characteristics from their geometric and angular shapes to their graceful, elongated, curvy lines, with an industrial twist. He tends to use positive and negative space to interact with each other making a more elaborate surface structure.

Steven's appreciation for art was apparent at a young age. Later on, he was able to cultivate his talent at Northern Illinois University where he received a Bachelors Degree in Art for 3D Studio, Art and Design. He was able to implement his artistic skills at Marshall Fields where he did Visual Merchandising and Window Display for four years. After graduation he wanted to make sure that he always had a studio to create in and further his artistic development. You can view Steven's work here: www.stevenlockwood.carbonmade.com

It was his search for a studio that led him to work in creating Water Street Studios. At first, all he wanted was a studio, but after seeing the potential of what the Art Center could become, he wanted to make sure that he was involved from the ground up. Now, he is not only a co-founder of the facility, along with the rest of the Batavia Artists Association Board, but also the Gallery Director. He found another passion involving the arts through being in charge of the Water Street Studios Gallery. He and his team juries and places the artwork for gallery shows, solicits new artists to show work and implements various ideas involving the gallery to further art in the community. He finds himself lucky that where so many dream of establishing such a facility, he gets to be an integral part of it's existence

The mission of the Gallery is to provide exhibitions that promote the understanding and appreciation of art.  The Gallery Coordinator will develop and oversee an ongoing schedule of exhibits.  The Coordinator will plan and implement all exhibitions including being a curator, soliciting artists, budgeting, and installation of work.  The gallery is open to all renters and the surrounding communities.  Please note, all renters must submit their work into the gallery if they are interested in being considered. Renters are guaranteed one exhibition per year, but not all renters are guaranteed to be accepted into all exhibitions.  The Gallery Committee juries each show, with the Gallery Coordinator overseeing each rotating jury of artists. You can find the Gallery Application under Gallery Submissions.

Kari Kraus - Director of Education

Education is a major element of Water Street Studios in that it will engage the community on many levels.  Our educational program has been tailored to all ages, from 2 to 102.  Kari Kraus, the Director of Education, has a B.A. in Art from NIU and came to WSS with experience as the Assistant Director of a community based art school with a specialization in children's programming.

Art is very important to Kari and that is why she teaches.  She believes art is a constructive way for children to explore and to express their feelings, and gives them another way to think and process information.  She finds that many important abilities can be learned from art education such as technical skills (i.e. painting, drawing, etc.), communication skills, physical hand-eye coordination, as well as improving vocabulary and visualization skills.  Art also exposes children to new ideas, cultures, and other parts of the world that they otherwise may not have seen or been exposed to.  Kari also observes that art helps with a child's confidence because they feel that they create something, literally, that no other child can create. Art teaches kids the process of looking at something, breaking it down and analyzing it, then reconstructing it with a meaning and understanding on the subject.

As a founding artist of Water Street Studios/Batavia Artists Association Kari has established the Water Street School of Art and has developed it to now include not only fine arts, but mind and body wellness, performance arts, and language courses.   Kari also is a fiber artist that has been juried into several shows and continually explores and works in fiber three dimensionally. You can view Sharon's work here: http://wearduringorangealert.blogspot.com/2009/01/artist-of-week_26.html

Sharon P. Sychta - Director of Marketing

Sharon graduated from North Central College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Marketing and a minor in Fine Arts.  She worked full time managing Pilipuf-Grist & Associates - Manufacturers Representatives in commercial and industrial lighting while attending weekend classes to complete her education.  She has continued her education with classes taught by professional artists and she has been juried into several group shows.  Sharon enjoys teaching children and adults the skills that she has acquired over the years.  She appreciates the opportunity to pass on her passion for art to the younger generation. She continued her marketing career calling on and working with architects, engineers, lighting designers, distributors and contractors in the lighting industry as an outside sales position.  Her experience with marketing and her passion for the arts along with the development and co-founding of Water Street Studios/Batavia Artists Association has been the perfect stage for her skills and passion.

Sharon lives in Batavia, IL with her husband, Jim, and her three girls.  She teaches art classes at Water Street Studios, volunteers in the community, works on her art, runs a family while taking her position as Marketing Director of WSS very seriously.  Creating art has become an integral part of her life, and sharing it with others has brought her great joy and happiness.

Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization. This is an integral part of the vitality of each department of Water Street Studios - Education (classes, workshops, teachers), Gallery (exhibits, events, artists), Development/Fundraising (City officials, donors, general public, patrons of the arts, membership) and the Facility (community liaison/relationships.)  The 5 P's of marketing apply to all aspects or our organization -product, price, place, promotion and people.  Anyone interested in being a part of this movement of spreading the creativity throughout the community and within the Water Street Studios community can contact: Sharon P. Sychta  waterstreetstudios@gmail.com .
You can view Sharon's work here: www.sharonmyart.com

Jim Kirkhoff - Director of Development

Jim Kirkhoff graduated from Purdue University with a BS in Industrial Engineering.  For 16 years, he worked in engineering, sales and project management positions at companies who provided capital equipment for the assembly of electric motors and generators.  Since moving to Batavia in 2004 (with his wife Suzy), Jim has been involved with a variety of community groups related to arts, recreation, education and environmentalism.

In April 2009, Jim started to work with joined the board of the BAA to help form the Community Outreach program then began filming the evolution of Water Street Studios for a documentary (to be released September 2010).  In July of 2009, Jim joined the board as Director of Development.  The roll of Development is to find and secure funding opportunities in the form of donations or grants from sources such as citizens, patrons of the arts, community groups, foundations and companies.

Artistically, Jim works in film (in addition to the WSS documentary, Jim is also working on a Star Wars fan film), photography (Jim's work will be in the 2010 Summer Show) and music. You can view Jim's work here: www.artistswanted.org/jimkirkhoff

Since BAA/WSS is a not-for-profit organization, we need to develop funding opportunities from a variety of sources.   The roll of

Development is to find and secure funding opportunities in the form of donations or grants from sources such as citizens, patrons of the arts, community groups, foundations and companies.  As Director of Development, Jim's roll is to lead this effort, but he can not do it alone.  Anyone who is interested in participating in this process is welcome to join the Development Committee.  Also, if you have contacts who would be interested in donating to Water Street or if you have experience in this area, please contact Jim by e-mail at waterstreetstudios@gmail.com.

Facilities Manager

113 year old buildings don't take care of themselves.  Since moving into Water Street Studios, the board has been without a facility manager and this task has been shared among the other board members and some of the resident artists.  Responsibilities of this position are wide ranging from the mundane tasks of obtain building permits and replacing furnace filters to the slightly less mundane tasks of organizing cleaning crews and work sessions.  It is the goal of the BAA to continually upgrade Water Street Studios to meet the needs of our resident artists and the community.