In January 2008, The Cliff Dwellers will begin its eighth Artists-in-Residence Program. The purpose of this program is to facilitate meaningful artistic dialogue between younger members of Chicago's arts community and the membership of The Cliff Dwellers, as well as introducing these individuals to one of Chicago's historic arts organizations. The Artists-in-Residence Program Selection Committee invites club members to nominate qualified applicants for the program.

 Individuals between the ages of 24 and 38 who are working professionals in one of the following artistic categories will be considered: Architecture, Time Arts (including film, video, and sound), Graphic Arts, Criticism, Curatorial Practice, Dance, Graphic Arts, Literature, Music, Painting, Photography, Poetry, Theater, and Sculpture.  Full-time undergraduate students are not eligible to apply.

Individuals selected for this program will be granted a one-year, dues-free guest membership in The Cliff Dwellers. Resident artists will have full privileges for the length of the program in exchange for agreeing to present one lecture or performance, attend at least five others over the course of the year, and display support for the club’s activities. Participants will also be honored at a recognition dinner at the end of the year's residency.  The Artists-in-Residence programs will be open and promoted to the membership of The Cliff Dwellers.

Membership in a private club is an increasingly difficult expense to justify, particularly for those younger individuals pursuing a career in the arts. Yet, for a club dedicated to furthering the arts, a steady influx of new, younger artists is the key to fulfilling some of our objectives. This program was developed to allow its participants to exchange ideas with others in the program and the membership of the club. In so doing, it is hoped that the participants will recognize the value of the club, both as a meeting place for artists and those with a serious interest in the arts, as well as a valuable cultural institution.

CLASS OF 2008

Heather Boehm, Music

Heather Boehm is a native Chicagoan who began violin studies at the age of three with Barbara Bredemaier and is an alumna of Midwest Young Artists.  She received a double major in violin performance and music business from DePaul University and has studied with renown violinists and pedagogues Mark Zinger, Elaine Skorodin, Joseph Genualdi, and Ani Kavafian.  Heather has performed with the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Lake Forest Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Northbrook Symphony,  New Philharmonic, and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra.  In February of 2008, Heather appeared in chamber music recitals at the Music Institute of Chicago and the Arts at Large noontime concert series.  She was recently featured as the solo violinist in Stephen Sondheim's Passion at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in the Fall of 2007 and can currently be seen as concertmaster for Carousel at Chicago's Court Theatre.

Michelle Bolinger, Painting

Bolinger's recent works combine the language of painting and drawing to create imagery layered with the familiar and unnameable. By reconciling memories with objects she creates ethereal and feminine works. In 2005, she received her MFA from the University of Washington in Seattle.

Wesley Drake, Painting

From a young age, Wesley Drake moved frequently to different cities due to his father’s work; which seems to be the root of the strong sense of wanderlust that he possesses today. His travels have taken him to China, Argentina, Italy, France, Seychelles, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Costa Rica and more, supplying an endless source of subject matter for his highly accomplished figurative and landscape paintings. “Travel opens the door to discovering different cultures, architecture, culinary experiences and ways of life that I can’t help but want to translate onto canvas,” Wes says.

Rebecca Duff-Campbell, Literature and Painting

In her paintings and writings, Rebecca Duff-Campbell offers an insight into her observations of the world she lives in as well as her memories, sometimes real and sometimes fictional. Her narrative is built through layers of scraped paint and the emotions of everyday life.

Jeff Abbey Maldonado, Painting

“My work reflects various concerns and interests from the female form to abstract linear compositions. I may be on an ever exploratory trip and approach art making as a form of documentation. I tend to work in series form to explore an idea. Currently I'm working on a series of etchings continuing from an artist residency in San Cristobal de Las Casa, Chiapas, Mexico.”

Aliza Morell, Painting

“Looking can transcend a mode of information, to provide sensational experience in every frame. Drawing on the tradition of landscape painting, existentialism, and the sublime, my abstractions derive from interactions of light, awareness of space, and color, in moments of the shifting daily landscape that surrounds me. My imagery refers directly to outdoor landscapes, as well as the subjective emotional experiences I find inseparable from the phenomenon of visual perception.”

Eddy Ocampo, Dance

Ocampo’s professional performing credits include the Joel Hall Dancers, River North Chicago Dance Company and Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. He has served as school director for the Giordano Dance Center and currently directs two non-for-profit dance organizations, Forum Jazz Dance Theatre (youth organization) and Black Box Dance. Mr. Ocampo works have been set on such companies as Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, Thodos Dance Chicago, Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, Odyssey Dance Theatre (Salt Lake City), & Kanon Dance (St. Petersburg, RU). Eddy keeps himself busy with his independent teaching and choreography career as well as co-directing his own production company Bento Box/Flirt Productions.

Georgia Pichinos-Anderson, Music

Georgia Pichinos-Anderson began to study music when she was six years old. During her musical journey, she has been a part of various musical organizations, the most recent having been a violist with the Trinity Philharmonic Community Orchestra at its inception under the direction of Bruce Fowler. She currently is returning to school to pursue her Masters Degree in Teaching.