Our Curatorial Board
Cultivate's exhibition and gallery work is made possible through the collaboration of our dedicated and experienced Curatorial board. A board composed of professional curators, educators, and artists in a wide range of experience, education, and voice. We seek exhibitions that exemplify our mission, amplify voice, and invite conversation.
Dulcee Boehm
Dulcee Boehm (she/her) is an artist, organizer and advocate for contemporary art in nonmetropolitan areas. Through the use of video, performance and sculptural works, she applies a critical academic lens to rural life. She has exhibited her artwork in a variety of contexts - ranging from the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois to an old cattle barn in Grinnell, Iowa.
Boehm has also co-organized several programs including Beyond Alternatives in 2018, a symposium on artist-run projects outside of large cities in the United States. She worked for many years as a staff member at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artist Residency where she received a Fellowship in 2010, and later received her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, Boehm received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her work with collaborator Ruth K. Burke.
Boehm was a Visiting Professor at Grand Valley State University from 2018-21, and currently is the Curator of Visual Resources there in the Visual and Media Arts Department.
Bettina Cousineau
Bettina Cousineau (she/her) was born in New Haven, CT. She received her BA cum Laude in Russian Studies from Hunter College, NYC.
Ms. Cousineau has exhibited her work at galleries around the country. She has had several one-person exhibitions, and attended invitational artist residency programs (Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY and the Ragdale Foundation, Lake Forest, IL). She also received a creative artist fellowship from the state of Wyoming.
Currently, Ms. Cousineau is the Exhibits Manager/Curator at the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Museum and Library, in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, MI.
Tamara Fox
Tamara Fox (she/her) is an artist, freelance writer, educator, and advocate for the arts.
She is a mixed-media artist working primarily with reclaimed materials. Tamara has taught studio art and art history classes at a variety of colleges and art centers in Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan. She was a contributor and editor for Art HACK, a blog dedicated to covering arts and culture in west Michigan. Tamara has been a volunteer with SiTE:LAB for over a decade and is currently a board member.
She received her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has earned Master’s Degrees in studio art and Art History. While studying at the University of Minnesota, she was awarded a Dayton Hudson Partners in Learning Fellowship. Tamara has curated over fifteen exhibits in the Midwest, and has exhibited her work nationally in juried and solo exhibitions.
She is honored to be working with the Curatorial Board at Cultivate.
Maureen Nolette
Maureen Nollette (she/her) lives and works in Michigan (USA). Nollette’s work investigates gender inequity and unjust social constructs in a broad sense. She explores this arena by engaging in labor-intensive tracing, stitching, pinning, and painting, sometimes massing seemingly frivolous materials for careful and intimate consideration.
Her work has been included in exhibitions within and outside the United States, including China, New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Colorado, Georgia, New Jersey, Nevada, New Hampshire, and Ohio. In addition, her work is collected by prominent private and public collections including Detroit Institute of the Arts (Detroit, MI); Yves St. Laurent (New York, NY); MGM Mirage Hotel (Las Vegas, NV); j. jill Group (Tilton, NH); and Gerald R. Ford International Airport (Grand Rapids, MI).
Nollette’s curatorial work includes exhibitions at Cultivate, Grand Rapids, MI; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI; The former Steketee Building, Grand Rapids, MI; and Project 337, Grand Rapids, MI. She was a juror at The Marble House Project, Dorset, VT, Visual Artists’ Residency; Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, Foundation’s Portfolio Review; and Kendall College of Art & Design, Grand Rapids, MI, Distinguished Alumni Awards.
Trained as a graphic designer and a painter, Nollette earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of University, a B.F.A. from Kansas City Arts Institute, and her M.F.A. in Studio Arts from Queens College.
Kae Pershon
Katie (Kae) Pershon (she/her) is a photographer, artist, and curator based in Grand Rapids, MI. Over her artistic career, Kae has worked in a variety of mediums, but is consistently drawn to digital media. Her work often captures the abstract and sublime, as she is fascinated with the way a combination of mundane objects can become beautiful. Much of her work focuses on identity, intersectionality, and her personal experiences of having ADHD and ASD and navigating in a world not built for her.
Kae’s practice is often impulsive and a matter of experimentation through trial and error, which lends well to the immediacy of digital photography. She strives to create work that is, on its surface, broadly approachable. Through her filtered perspectives, Kae’s work also creates a space to educate viewers about being neurodivergent.
Her work has been shown across the Great Lakes region, including the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, the Grand Valley State University Art Gallery, and the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute. Her recent work is an ongoing series, titled (less), a photography exhibit that focuses on representing ADHD symptoms through different photographic styles. Thus far, she has exhibited three collections in the series, time(less) which addressed time blindness, and cease(less) which discussed emotional dysregulation, and mind(less) which deals with the ephemeral nature of memory and ADHD.
Mallory Shotwell
Mallory Shotwell (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and educator. Her artistic practice operates at the intersection of art, storytelling, and community engagement. She lives and works in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mallory also serves as the founder and director of Cultivate.
Mallory has served as a longtime curator at Arts and Literature Laboratory, the Bubbler, Cultivate, and most recently a juror with the Lansing Art Gallery. Her research-based studio practice spans a variety of media, including photography, video, sound, writing, and interactive installation.
Mallory’s current body of work is an international visual study and articulation of the breast cancer experience. She features in-person and written interviews of people in various stages of breast cancer, the art created over this multi-year project utilizes the artifacts of cancer, large-scale paintings, alternative photographic processes, and walking audio tours.
Stephen Smith
Stephen Smith (he/him) is a community advocate who uses art and education to shape the world’s next generation of leaders.
Stephen serves as a liaison between local business, nonprofit organizations and K-12 educators to bridge gaps and establish partnerships that benefit the students he serves.
Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Fisk University and Masters in Education Leadership from Grand Valley State. In 2018 Stephen and his wife opened Muse, an art gallery in Grand Rapids. In 2021 Stephen won the ArtPrize time based award. He recently opened a new space on the southeast side of Grand Rapids.
Stephen and his wife Taylor live to help others pursue their purpose and passion. Stephen also serves West Michigan through his Non profit Muse Ed and various boards and committees.
Danielle Wyckoff
Danielle C. Wyckoff (she/her) is an artist, educator, and advocate. She is an Associate Professor of Art at Kendall College of Art and Design, and her artwork focuses on love, care, and language; her advocacy work involves addressing sexism in art and academia. She's exhibited work or performed across the US and in Denmark, Chile, and China, recently at the Gordon Art Galleries of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and the Morlan Art Galleries at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.
Danielle earned a BA in art and English (1999), an MA in English (2004), both from Georgia College, and an MFA in Art from Ohio University (2010). She serves on Cultivate's Curatorial Board.