Introducing Arts Mentoring Fellow: Beth Nixon

Beth Nixon is the human behind many Ramshackle Enterprises. She creates puppet shows, piñatas, parades, pageants, clown acts, suitcase theaters, illustrations, masks, magical lands and other spectaculah- on her own, and in collaboration with other humans of all ages, abilities and persuasions. Mostly she uses cardboard, science, and the imagination. Her performances and installations occur in galleries, garages, street corners and stages.

Since 1999, Beth has been a teaching artist and an artist-in-residence at museums, libraries, schools, senior centers, and at addiction recovery and mental health programs. She was awarded a 2010 Leeway Transformation Award for her art and social change work. She has had the opportunity to hone her artist educator/ human chops by participating in The Artists in Communities Training Program at The Asian Arts Initiative, Undoing Racism Trainings with The Peoples Institute for Survival and Beyond, and other ice-breaker filled learning labs. Beth has an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College; her thesis work was entitled "Navigating Curious Terrain: An Illustrated Field Guide to Ethics, Power and Imagination in Community-based Puppetry and Personal Practice.”

She and her family have recently relocated from Philly, unable to resist the pull back to Beth’s RI homeland. Beth believes in the power of bike helmets, cornstarch, tide pools, emancipatory pedagogy, utopian performatives, and snacks. She builds portals and gives guided tours to places that don't yet exist. About her new role as an Arts Mentoring Fellow at New Urban Arts Beth declares:

I am eager to provoke and engage in unfolding conversations with other artists who are interested in navigating the complicated and rewarding process of witnessing, nudging, questioning, and working alongside teenagers as they discover who they are, what they want to say, or what mediums and methods get them fired up!