Training to do the Work: Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute

Elizabeth (Shelly) Goebl-Parker is Program Director of Art Therapy Counseling Program in the Department of Art and Design at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is also an alum of the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission’s Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute and is faculty for the Institute’s Graduate Education and Research Program. Shelly is active in her St. Louis neighborhood, local public schools and community arts network helping to build, develop and support community arts initiatives and collaborations.

Nathan Graves holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy Administration. He has worked as Youth Specialist for at-risk teens with the Division of Youth Services at a residential treatment facility where he helped develop outdoor-based programs and served as the Med-Aid. As Program Coordinator at the St. Louis City Juvenile Detention Center for the past 8 years, he is responsible for creating, maintaining, and evaluating the overall program for youth who temporarily reside at the Center, coordinating over 250 personnel in more than 5,000 hours of programs annually.

Nathan is a 2004 graduate of the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute.

Kathryn Bentley is a professional actor and director and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She has worked with theater companies such as the St. Louis Black Repertory Company, HotCity Theatre, New York based Blackberry Productions, Portland Stage, Cleveland Playhouse and Buffalo Studio Arena. Kathi was instrumental in developing the CHIPS In Motion program in St. Louis that utilizes the arts to teach the community about health and wellness. She is currently a consultant for that program. Her performing and scholarly endeavors have allowed for her to travel to Prague in the Czech Republic and to Suriname in South America. Currently, she is researching the Du Theatre of the Afro-Surinamese and is engaged in collaborative research with Anthropology Professor Aminata Cairo on the intersection of Theatre and Anthropology. Kathi is 2002 graduate of the Community Artist Training Program and she is currently part of the esteemed faculty of the TIGER program.

Sue Greenberg has been the part-time executive director of the St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts since 1986 and has been a CAT adjunct faculty member since 1997. During the summer, she is the company manager at The Muny. Sue teaches legal issues in the arts for Webster University’s Arts Leadership graduate program. Also a freelance writer and playwright, she is a graduate of Washington University where she majored in Arts History and Urban Studies.

Roseann Weiss is Director of Community Art & Public Art Initiatives at the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC). In this position, she serves as director of the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute – an innovative program centered on the belief that art can amplify the voices of communities, regenerate neighborhoods and be an agent for positive social change. Roseann also leads RAC’s public art initiatives, which include identifying resources for new projects. Roseann has 25 years of experience in arts administration in both nonprofit institutions and gallery settings.

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Jane Ellen Ibur, poet/ arts educator, is Lead Faculty for the Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute and serves on the faculty for the CAT graduate program TIGER. Ibur received a Visionary Award from Grand Center for Outstanding Arts Educator, has twice been honored by the Missouri Scholar’s Academy, and received a World of Difference Award from the Anti-Defamation League. She is an award winning poet who for the past 25 years has taught writing to all ages in jails, homeless shelters, public schools, residential schools, residences for teen mothers, museums, social service agencies, Alzheimer patients and elders, to name a few. She is a pioneer in creative education with prisoners. She co-directs the Gifted Writers Project for middle and high school writers (giftedwriters.org). Her commissioned site-specific poetry stands on the floodwall along the Mississippi River. She writes like her hand’s on fire; she thinks everybody should.