STAFF
Amy Jorgensen is a co-founder of Granary Arts and is currently the Executive Director and Chief Curator. Dedicated to the arts as a facilitator, maker, and educator, she has curated over 35 exhibitions of international artists working in contemporary art and is an appointed member of the Utah Arts Council Board of Directors and Acquisition Committee for the Utah State Fine Art Collection. Jorgensen was the juror for the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art Doctorow Prize and Springville Museum of Art Spring Salon, has presented at the Mountain West Arts Conference, and recently gave the keynote address at the Business of Art Conference. In addition to her role at Granary Arts, Jorgensen is an Associate Professor of Visual Art at Snow College where she is head of photography and works as a practicing artist. Her recent exhibitions include Elizabeth Houston Gallery in NYC, LA><Art in Los Angeles, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), GuatePhoto Festival, AIPAD, and Oceanside Museum of Art. Jorgensen was born in Milan, Italy, she received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tufts University, and an MFA from the University of California San Diego. She lectures and writes regularly about issues related to curatorial practice, arts advocacy, and her work as a practicing artist. Jorgensen wholeheartedly embraces the practice of building the community you want to be a part of.
Adah Bennion is the manager at Granary Arts and a native of Utah’s historic Spring City. Raised by working artists, her life has always been grounded in the arts and creative process. She studied in Sendai, Japan and lived in New York City, where she enjoyed working as a professional barista at a number of the city’s most respected establishments. Returning to Utah in 2012, she was a dorm parent at Wasatch Academy, an international boarding school, where she discovered a passion for working with and teaching teenage girls outside of the traditional classroom setting. Her creative practice is focused primarily in photography and printmaking and her works have been exhibited at Spring City Art Gallery, Hub City Gallery, Annex, Altspace, and Snow Art Gallery. She won several artistic merit awards including Best of Show in the exhibition, Artists in Residence Works in Progress, and self-published two expansive volumes of work Belongs in the Night I &II. Bennion currently shares a home in Spring City with her boyfriend, and dog, Wizard, where she enjoys spending time in her studio, gardening, and practicing yoga.
Kamilla Earlywine is the Programs Coordinator at Granary Arts and a Utah native with generational history in the Sanpete Valley. She is the curator of Lumlux Gallery at Snow College where she also works as the photography area Teaching Assistant, and is currently working on an AFA degree in photography and media. A practicing artist, she recently self-published a book titled That Once Was There exploring the relationship between intimate objects, family, and the history of place. Her selected exhibitions include Annex, Altspace, Lumlux Gallery, Snow Art Gallery, Eccles Art Gallery, The Curated Fridge and South of Center Fest. She lives with her husband and three children in Ephraim, UT where she owns a photography business, Kamilla Earlywine Photography.
COLLABORATORS
Kelly Brooks is a co-founder of Granary Arts and currently directs education outreach. She directed the Museum School at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno and is the former co-director of Granary Arts. Brooks received a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Brigham Young University and a certificate in Art Teaching from Weber State University. Her artistic interests span several media but focus most on painting, drawing, and video art. Selected exhibitions include Rio Gallery, Utah Cultural Celebration Center, Writ & Vision, Smartspace, Alice Gallery, Finch Lane Gallery, Kimball Visual Arts Center and CUAC. She was featured in 35x35 as an artist to watch. She currently lives and works in central Utah with her husband and three children where she teaches for the Department of Visual Art at Snow College.
Elise Boucher Ostraff
Education Instructor
Elise Boucher Ostraff is an education instructor for Workshop Wednesday. She received a BFA in studio art with an emphasis in painting from Brigham Young University. Her recent artwork is centered in finding the sacred in daily repetition and life at home. She currently lives in rural Sanpete County, where she and her family enjoy hiking, exploring, and being in nature.
JARED JAKINS
Curator of Film Series
Jared Jakins curates the Film Series for Granary Arts and is a South African-born documentary filmmaker. He has directed and produced multiple award-winning short films and has worked on several feature-length documentaries, including the SXSW Grand Jury and Audience Award-winning film, Peace Officer (2015). He has served on the jury for the shorts film competition at The Heartland Film Festival. Jakins is interested in stories of cultural intersections, and seeks to document images of community and identity emerging from these collisions.