The Kirk Newman Art School Post-Baccalaureate Program is in its seventh year, and more than 50 artists have completed the program. The nine-month residency is designed for aspiring artists who want to grow and strengthen their art practice in a supportive community, with access to professional studio facilities and guidance. At each of these ARTbreaks, KIA guests will hear from the KNAS residents about their experiences and artistic pursuits.

Zan Knecht’s sculptures invite people to think and feel their part in the landscape, and to consider how they may move purposefully through the world. Zan especially likes to bring color to grey winter; still, potential energy to dawn; a warm embrace to dusk; and stark definition with an expanse of water or the night sky as backdrop. Zoë Valette’s work focuses on textiles and exploring the grey area where other mediums can be combined with and stretched to work as textiles. As a trained fashion designer, she utilizes a variety of media such as paper, plastic, clay, and found items to create garments that exist somewhere between sculptural and wearable. Printmaking resident Hana Holmgren is a graduate student in English at Arcadia University. Most of her focus lies in typesetting and historical methods of printing.