Director: Vanessa Garcia
http://www.vanessagarcia.org

Vanessa Garcia
contact@vanessagarcia.org
Vanessagarcia.org
Thekrane.com
Phone: 305-450-9931

Education

Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY Bachelor of Arts, 2001
Graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa
Double Major: English (concentration in Writing)
and Art History (concentration in Visual Arts)

Studied Under:  Mary Gordon, Caryl Phillips, Peter Carey, Elizabeth Peyton, Archie Rand and others (references available upon request).

University of Miami, Fl.
MFA Creative Writing, 2009
Studied Under: A. Manette Ansay, Edwidge Danticat, and Jane Alison (references available upon request).

University of California, Irvine
PhD, Literature with a focus in Creative Non-Fiction
Currently enrolled
Expected graduation, 2014/2015     

Freelance Writing

• Copywriting -- Republica Ad Agency, Miami Fl. As well as other agencies. 2008- present.Copy includes work for Burger King; Pepsico; Adrienne Arsht and the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, as well as The Children’s Trust, and AcuMedSpa,etc.
• Freelance Journalism – Miami, Fl & NYC. 2004-present Articles featured in The Miami Herald; The Miami New Times; Florida Inside Out    
  Magazine; Miami Art Guide; NYArts Magazine www.nyartsmagazine.com ; House King Magazine; The Southern Arts Journal; Irreverent Homemaker http://irreverenthomemaker.com; Cravings of South Florida; The Rumpus; The Lead Miami Beach www.theleadmiamibeach.com; Travel Writing for www.mondoexplorer.com; The Southern Humanities Review http://media.cla.auburn.edu/english/shr/index.cfm, etc
  Write about Art, literature, lifestyle, culture, travel, and other beats. Also write Websites for Design Companies like Gianfranco.us.
• SparkNotes, New York, New York. 2001-2002. Wrote Study Guides for Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis; The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler; and The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, among others.

Teaching

• First Pages Workshop, Instructor. Miami, Fl. Nov. 2009 - present. Teach one month Intensive workshops for  beginning and intermediate writers. Sponsored by AE District in Miami as well as by The Krane, Inc. More info here: http://thekrane.com/first-pages.html
• Johns Hopkins CTY Program, TA. Lancaster, PA. Summer 2009. Assisted in teaching a course called Crafting the Essay for talented youth during a summer intensive sponsored and created by Johns Hopkins University.
• University of Miami, TA. Miami, Fl. 2007-2009 Teach Eng. 209: Intro to Creative Writing.
• Belen Jesuit Preparatory School, Miami , Fl. 2006. Taught High School Art History and  Middle School Visual Art.
• Miami Dade Community College, Miami, Fl. 2005 Taught writing and composition at the downtown Wolfson Campus Writing Center.
• Tutoring, Miami, Fl. 2004-present. Tutor students in Writing, Art, History, Humanities, English Literature, and other subjects. One and one, as well as in small groups.

Other Work

• Luis Adelantado Gallery, Miami, Fl. 2006. Worked as a Gallery Assistant for contemporary art gallery in the Wynwood Art District. Helped construct shows and with administrative work.
• Princeton Harvard Cuba Conference , Princeton, New Jersey. April, 2006. Invited to Princeton to participate and take part  as an artist/journalist/observer.
• Frieze Magazine, Art Basel, Miami Beach, Fl. Winter 2005.  I worked their booth for them. www.frieze.com. Magazine is based in London.
• Personal Assistant to Caryl Phillips (http://www.carylphillips.com), New York, New York & Delray Beach, Fl. 2001- 2004. Assisted with research, teaching, conference planning, etc. Worked particularly on research for his novel Dancing in The Dark about Black Vaudeville Star Bert Williams, which was short-listed for the Booker and won the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for best book. Also helped to plan, as well as attended the following programs while working for Phillips:

•  Literature of the Middle Passage, Ghana, Africa. Assisted in taking a college course to Accra and Elmina to study where the Middle Passage, and the literature that arose out of the forced African Diaspora, began.
• Bellagio Writers and Scholars Conference 2003, Bellagio, Italy. Participant in conference entitled: The Caribbean in New York and Paris.

Published Fiction & Other Lit Journal Publication

• Review of Sherman Alexie’s War Dances, Southern Humanities Review (Auburn University). Spring/Summer, 2010.
• Sticks & Stones -- (Poetry) Shady Side Review, Fall 2009, 1st Issue (The Whirligig Installment). www.shadysidereview.com
• Canopies – (Poetry) Damselfly Press, Oct 2008, Fifth Issue http://www.damselflypress.net/

Theatre

• Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts – Miami Made Project: Model City,Miami, Fl. March 6 &7 2010. Invited as part of Miami Made Festival to present performance Project called Model City for “Incubator” portion of the show.
• The Krane – Based in Miami, Works Globally, 2007 – Present.Founder and Artsitic Director.  Company merges visual art and theatre; We create events, and productions around the US and abroad. www.thekrane.com. Have produced, with the Krane, a number of shows: Pink Zebras; Post-Secret, Miami; Shoes & a Show: Miami
  Vignettes; Monologus Lingus; Shake it Up and many more. Please see website for details.  We take commissions, as well as initiate projects. .
• Parked – a Play about two architects constructing a Park – it is also a political parallel of Palestine and Israel.Production at Just the Funny Theatre, Miami Fl Dec. 27, 2009 The Chameleon Theatre, Amsterdam, Netherlands. May 2008.  http://www.decameleon.nl/ Reading at The Rep, Little Rock, Arkansas. August 2007.
• Cloudcuckooland – A play about the city of Miami with all of its complex layers. Production at Abanico Theatre, Miami, Fl. March 2008.Staged Reading at Books & Books, Miami, Fl. 2005.
• Raw Impressions, New York, NY, 2002 & 2003. Worked as writer/director for two shows for them:
  • RIOT – Raw Impressions Out of the Box Theatre — My Piece entitled: “My Life as a Stairdweller and the Secrets of Aviation." Produced at TIXE in Times Square, New York, New York, October 2003.  Also worked another piece for them called “The Meaning of North.

Painting Exhibitions/Murals

• Divine Debris & Glorious Trash – Miami, Fl. June 2009. Group show sponsored by Arts at St. Johns and The Miami Beach Botanical Garden. Show was dedicated to using recycled materials and “trash” in art.
• Vivid, Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. – Feb – March 2009. Group show at New Light Studio/Gallery (Lauderdale by the Sea).  A joint community project between professional artists and high school students to encourage artistic growth.
• The Black Valentine Day Art Show, Miami, Fl. Feb. 13, 2009. Group show sponsored by KraveArt and Wallove.
• Last Picture Show, Miami, Fl.  March – April 2008. Group show at Artformz in Design District of selected Miami artists.
• Women and War, Miami Women’s Club, Miami, Fl. March 2008, Miami.  Group show on the subject of women and war for a conference called “Reflections on War,”   
  sponsored by Arts at St. Johns.
• EXPOSED! Miami, Fl, Art Basel, 2007. Juried Group Show at Artformz.  
• Locust Projects Raffle, Miami, Fl. Nov 2006 - 2008. Sold “La Girafa,” “The Flowers Are More Interesting Underground” as well as a Series called “Journal Drawings.”
• Off the Wall, Miami, Fl May 12, 2007. Wynwood One Night Happening @ 310 NW 26th street, curated by The Krane. Other artists included Aleksandar Kirilov, Rachel Hoffman, Yoshimitsu Takano, and Madame Gremalkin, along with Wize Foolz Muzik, Gatoe, and Nikki Garcia.
• Fast – Miami, Fl. Wynwood. April 2007. Group Show @ 370 NW 24th street, curated by Jordon Massengale.
• Intimate Bodies, Public Spaces, San Francisco, March 1-31st 2007. Group show at The Mina Dresden Gallery  http://minadresden.com
• Intensely Superficial, Miami, Jan. – March 2007. Group Show at Artformz in the Design District
• Pregon, Miami Dade Public Library Call and Response Series #1, Miami, Fl. Oct. – Dec. 2006 – invited to be a part of a series of work that responds to the library’s collection. Artists included: Ernesto Burgos, Teo Castellanos, Carlos de Villasante, Christian Duran, Beatriz  Monteavaro, and Angela Valella.
• Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. March 2006 -- invited with Miami Gallery, Edge  Zones, to participate in an exhibit and series of performances at the Museum of Modern Art,  Santo Domingo. Project was entitled “Reassessing the Diaspora”
• Imaging Ourselves. http://imow.org/June 2006. Juried Exhibition, chosen as featured artist for online exhibition.
• HGTV commission, Miami, Fl.  2006. Commissioned to paint a mural for “Mission Organize”. 
• Tactics and Strategies, San Francisco, March 3 - April 1, 2006. Group Show at The Mission Cultural Center for Arts. Juried Exhibition.
• Doodle, Soho, New York, New York. Sept 1-15, 2006. Group Show at The Broadway Gallery.
• Restructured Reality, Miami, Fl. Feb-March 2006. Group show at edgezones in Wynwood.  http://www.edgezones.org
• Secrets of Aviation, Coral Gables, Fl. Oct. 2005. Solo Show at The Gilded Hand.
• THE DISTRICT, Miami, Fl. Sept. 8- Oct 13, 2005. Solo Show.
• The Miami Paintings, Miami, Fl. Summer 2005. The Four Ambassadors Hotel Lobby. Solo show.
• Beyond All That, Miami, Fl. Jan 8th – Feb 26, 2005. Edge Zones Gallery, World Arts Building. Group show about the relationship of art and social transformation.
• Puntos de Vista, Queens, New York, May 6, 2004 .Queens Council on the Arts benefit and auction of work by contemporary New York Latino Artist.
• Visual Mnemonics, Miami, Fl. April 17-June 14, 2004. Edge Zones Gallery, World Arts Building. Group show suggesting art as a device that triggers the power of memory.
• Night of 1,000 Drawings, New York, New York, 2003.  Group show at Artist’s Space, Soho.
• National Academy of Design, New York, New York, Aug- Sept. 2001. Group show.
• Miller Theater, New York, New York. April –May 2001. Group show.
• Leroy Neiman Center for Print Studies, Columbia University, New York, New York. April- May 2001. Group Show.
• National Arts Club, New York, New York, 2000. Group show of Muralists. 

Honors and Awards

• Schaeffer Fellowship in Creative Non-Fiction – awarded in 2010. Given for PhD studies and to write a book of Creative Non-fiction (Statements) at the Univeristy of California, Irvine.
• Vermont Studio Center Writing Residency – April 2010. Received Fellowship to write at the center and work on a play called Island Blogosphere.
• Phoebe Winter Fiction Contest – May 2009. Finalist for story entitled 33.
• NYC Midnight Short Story Challenge, March 2009. Story entitled FedEx To Denmark placed in the Top Five. http://www.nycmidnight.com/
• Nomination for Best New American Fiction Prize, May 2008. For short story Shells in Manhattan. Winners TBA. Nominated by Edwidge Danticat.
• Graduate Fiction Prize, University of Miami, Fl. May 2008. For short story Shells in Manhattan. Judge: Chauncey Mabe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
• New York State Summer Writers Institute, Saratoga Srings, NY. July 2008. Full tuition scholarship to study with  Margot Livesey & Jim Shepard in the genre of Fiction.
• The Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative, 2008.  Finalist for literature protégé to work with Wole Soyinka. One of four finalists world-wide. Visited Soyinka in his home in Abeokuta, Nigeria, and in Lagos for one week.
• Voices at the River Residency at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Little Rock, Arkansas. August. 6-19, 2007. Two week residency for play “Parked.” Public reading at the end of residency. www.therep.org
• James Michner Fellow, University of Miami, Fl. 2007-2009. Full Fellowship/Tuition Scholarship for Graduate Studies/ MFA in Creative Writing from with grant for Teaching Assistantship during MFA
• Grant from The City of Miami, Commissioner Johnny Winton,  Miami, Fl. 2002 to launch a project entitled Model City. Grant for $1,400.
• Edward Austen Abbey Mural Workshop Scholarship, New York, NY. 2001. Scholarship to study the art of mural painting at the National Academy of Design, NYC.
• Time Grant for Visual Arts, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, NY.  2001
• The Doris E. Fleischman Writing Award, Barnard College, Columbia University, May 2000. For best piece of Writing fiction or non-fiction.
• International Library of Photography Editor’s Choice Award, 1998
• Miami International Bookfair Award in Writing, 1997. For new Voices.

In Collections of:

Ramon Balboa – Katrina; Heartbreak; Skirt Train (long drawing/installation)
Mary Danguillecourt – Trickle Down Economics is Bullshit
Melissa Krinzman, Miami – The Journal Drawings
Paul and Estelle Berg, Miami – The Flowers are More Interesting Underground
Stephen Gamson, Miami – The Flower Women
Law Offices of Inaqui Saizarbitoria, Miami – A Trip to the Moon
Olga Marie Saizarbitoria (Discovery  Channel), Miami – Virgin Mary Series
Digna French (lawyer), Miami – La Girafa
Caryl Phillips (writer), New York/London/Delray Beach -- Delray
Pioneer Commodities, Boca Raton – This is What I Know For Sure & Drawings
Doug Harris, Bisazza – Byzantium
…And Others

Art Books Featured In:

Wet2
Published 2006
(ISBN: 0-9778621-0-0)
Edgezones Press Miami; Edited by Charo Oquet and David Vardi

Supermix: Union of the Diverse Contemporary Art in Miami
Published November 2008
Edgezones Press Miami; Edited by Charo Oquet and David Vardi
http://web.me.com/charooquet/edgezonespress/Home.html