Founders:

Liz Maugans
Kelly Novak
Bellamy Printz
Joe Sroka

Board:

Bellamy Printz, President
Paula Mindes, Treasurer
Noel Reifel, Secretary

Ben Campbell
Morena Carter
Noelle Celeste
John Corlett
Bruce Edwards
Elisabeth Eitel
Sarah Kabot
Michael Starinsky

Staff/Volunteers:

 

Liz Maugans, Executive Director

Liz Maugans is a co-founder and Executive Director of Zygote Press, Inc.  She received her BFA in printmaking from Kent State University and her MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1992.  She teaches printmaking and drawing at Cleveland Institute of Art and Lorain County Community College.  She is included in the collections of the BF Goodrich(Charlotte, N.C.) and  The Riffe Center for Government and the Arts, (Columbus, OH).  She received an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship in 2000.  She received a 2005 Artist-in-Communities Grant from the Ohio Arts Council for her “Drawing It Out” program, that introduces creative experiences for women (reentering the community from the criminal justice system) in chemical dependency programs towards their recovery. 

Jen Craun, Associate Director

Jen Craun is the Associate Director of Zygote Press, and teaches as adjunct faculty in the Printmaking department of the Cleveland Institute of Art, specifically the Book Arts courses.  Craun also teaches as the lead artist-resident for Progressive Arts Alliance–a nonprofit organization that partners with local schools to provide professional arts integration. Craun was integral in constructing their printmaking and book arts programs, and she functions also as their curriculum development and arts-integration consultant. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Art Education from KSU in 2000. Awarded the Graduate Teaching Assistant position at KSU, in the Printmaking Department,she completed her MFA in 2003.  In 2004, she was awarded an artist in residency to Dresden, Germany through the Ohio Arts Council. 

 

Craun works primarily in wood intaglio, etching, letterpress and collage, creating mixed-media prints as well as book forms. She has exhibited locally at BayArts, Beck Center for the Arts, Cleveland Public Art, HeightsArts, Massilon Museum of Art, Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory, SPACES, and Zygote Press. Craun has also exhibited her work outside of Cleveland in Columbus, Ohio, Lincoln, Nebraska, and in Dresden, Germany. Craun is included in the collections of The Riffe Center for Government and the Arts (Columbus, OH), and the Cleveland Clinic.

Corrie Slawson, Grants Associate

Corrie Slawson was born and raised in Cleveland. She received her BFA in Painting & Printmaking from Parsons School of Design (New York, NY) in 1997. After returning to Cleveland, she co-founded Hotel Bruce.com, an online journal that looked at Cleveland Neighborhoods through the lens of art, socio-politics and planning. In 2006, she completed her MFA in Painting at Kent State University.

 

In 2011, Slawson was awarded an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council. In that same year, she was awarded a five-week printmaking residency at the Grafikwerkstatt in Dresden, Germany (through the OAC and Zygote Press). In 2010, she had the opportunity to create 2 large–scale works on vacant land in Mid Town Cleveland through the SPACELab program at SPACES gallery. Slawson has exhibited her work outside of Cleveland in Dresden, Germany and Nashville, Tennessee. Locally, she has shown at Zygote Press, SPACES, Heights Arts Gallery, Cleveland Public Art and the Beck Center for the Arts.

Elizabeth Emery, Intern + Residency Coordinator

Elizabeth Emery grew up in gritty Philadelphia and pastoral Lawrenceville, NJ . After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with degrees in Art History and Italian Studies, she moved to New York City and became a textile designer. She loved fabric, but decided to make a career change once she discovered her athletic side. For ten years, Elizabeth raced bicycles professionally throughout the United States and around the world. Elizabeth still avidly exercises and is currently obsessed with rowing on the Cuyahoga.

 

Elizabeth earned her MFA from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2008. She focused on ceramic-based mixed media sculpture & collaborative community projects. Currently, Elizabeth teaches a new generation of artists at the Boys and Girls Club after-school program and is the Intern Residence Coordinator at Zygote Press. She has exhibited locally at Spaces and William Busta Gallery and recently won the Hedy and Michael Fawcett Prize for Visual Arts from Syracuse University.

 

Elizabeth has enjoyed living in a wide variety of places including Philadelphia (PA), Lawrenceville (NJ), New York City, Albuquerque (NM), Carmel (CA), western NY State, Switzerland, and Italy. Today, she lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio, where she draws from the rich cultural and industrial heritage of the city.

 

Christi Birchfield, Shop Manager

 

Brian Kramer, Gallery Associate