Dutch Senft (b. 2002, Baltimore, MD) is an artist working across painting, drawing, and sculpture. Shaped by a business education, fraternity life, and constant screen dependency, he works from within the very systems his work presses against—capitalism, masculinity, art history, and digital culture. Rather than attempting to stand outside these conditions or resolve them conceptually, he uses painting to work through their friction. The studio becomes a site where his contradictions are not explained away but made physically present.
Bella Bailey is a transdisciplinary artist from Akron, Ohio, where she studied painting and metal smithing at the University of Akron before moving to Baltimore, MD to pursue her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work displays found objects and nested systems as a way of reckoning with the cyclical and emergent behavior of the universe. She orchestrates specific circumstances that return information, which then become base components in another specific circumstance, mirroring emergent behavior and giving a visual language to the forces of nature.
Assembly Performance: Little Hawk and the Magic Quest
Our story takes us to the faraway lands of Halconcito Pichón or Little Hawk, who is a bird that can’t yet fly because she doesn’t know her song. For her wings to take flight, she must go off on a magic quest to find it! She’ll need to call on assistance from different helpers to find her way and it won’t be easy, but Halconcito Pichón is determined to take to the skies.
In this musical journey, we'll experience the fascinating sounds of a diverse collection of musical instruments made across the Americas for thousands of years while we participate in a mythical story of challenge and persistence that ultimately leads to triumph and celebration. Instruments to be shared will include working recreations of Pre-Columbian ceramic instruments like Whistling Bottles, Noise Generators and Polyphonic Flutes, as well as folk instruments that continue to shape Latin American music to this day like the Charango and Caja.
Duration: 45 min - 1 hour
Intended Audience: Pre-K through 5th grade
In this musical journey, we'll experience the fascinating sounds of a diverse collection of musical instruments made across the Americas for thousands of years while we participate in a mythical story of challenge and persistence that ultimately leads to triumph and celebration. Instruments to be shared will include working recreations of Pre-Columbian ceramic instruments like Whistling Bottles, Noise Generators and Polyphonic Flutes, as well as folk instruments that continue to shape Latin American music to this day like the Charango and Caja.
Duration: 45 min - 1 hour
Intended Audience: Pre-K through 5th grade
Mud to Music Residency: Instrument-Making with Clay
Students are introduced to musical instruments that have been made across Central and South America for thousands of years and learn through a step-by-step process with simple pottery techniques to construct their own one-of-a-kind rattles or flutes with clay. Together we navigate between the functional and visual aspects of Pre-Columbian instrument-making through a STEAM approach, exploring the interconnectedness of scientific and artistic disciplines while students investigate how sound and physics, design and personal story can shape the instruments they create. Throughout the process experimentation, individual expression, creative decision making, and problem solving are emphasized.
Residency options:
Rattle building: 2nd - 12th grade, minimum of 5 sessions
Flute building 6th - 12th grade, minimum of 8 sessions
Residency options:
Rattle building: 2nd - 12th grade, minimum of 5 sessions
Flute building 6th - 12th grade, minimum of 8 sessions
Mud to Music Residency: Music-Making with the Ocarina
In this residency we take a journey back in time through the Ocarina, a type of ceramic flute that has been made across Central and South America for thousands of years. We begin the residency working with rhythm sticks to build confidence as we progress towards the Ocarina, a fun and intuitive instrument. We use simple rhythmic call and response, guided exercises, and improvisation to awaken our creativity in an encouraging and play-filled environment. The unique sounds of this ancient flute awaken the memory of our common ancestry, recalling the songs of the birds and animals that inhabit our most sacred natural landscapes.
Duration: Residencies between 3 and 6 sessions
Intended Audience: Grade Levels K through 12
Duration: Residencies between 3 and 6 sessions
Intended Audience: Grade Levels K through 12
VILLAGER is formally trained as a Water Microbiologist and Environmental Researcher, earning a B.S. in Environmental Chemistry from Towson University, stepping away from their Master's program in Marine Estuary Environmental Science at UMBC in 2022 to pursue a dedicated and directed studio practice. VILLAGER has been the subject of solo exhibitions–"Devotion, Dreams, and Destiny" at the Eubie Blake Cultural Center (2025), "(O)KAN: recent works by VILLAGER (2025) at Motor House Baltimore, ÀṢẸ: Embodying the Divine (2024) at Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower, and BUSH BOY!