Lynn Cazabon has been CIRCA Director since 2020 and is a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts where she works with undergraduate students in the Photography and Cinema concentration and with graduate students in the Intermedia and Digital Arts MFA Program. She is also Affiliate Faculty with the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education (CUERE). Her creative projects are scalable, site-specific, and employ participation as a strategy to deepen public engagement with topics at the interface between environmental and social issues. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including with Witte Rook, Breda, the Netherlands; Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore, MD; National Museum of Contemporary Art, Bucharest, Romania; Tsung-Yeh Arts and Cultural Center, Tainan, Taiwan; South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, IN; WRO Art Center, Wrocław, Poland; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand; The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta, GA. She has received grants and fellowships from the Fulbright Scholar Program, Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund, The Puffin Foundation, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, Franklin Furnace Archives, The Camargo Foundation, MacDowell, and Yaddo.
CIRCA Advisory Board
Dustin Donahue is an Assistant Professor of Percussion at UMBC. He holds a DMA from the University of California, San Diego where he studied with Steven Schick and a BM from the University of Wisconsin. He has performed with many of North America’s top presenters of chamber music, such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella series, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Monday Evening Concerts, the Ojai Music Festival, the Park Avenue Armory, La Jolla Summerfest, and the Festival Internacional Cervantino. His research investigates forgotten and under-performed works of the percussion repertoire, such as a 2022 lecture recital at the Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium on the music of Netty Simons and her percussion work, Design Groups 1 (1967).
Shaness Kemp is an Assistant Professor of Dance at UMBC. She is a native of Nassau, Bahamas and holds both a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and a Master of Fine Arts from Temple University. Most recently, Kemp was invited to be a guest performing artist with the Tabanka African & Caribbean Peoples Dance Ensemble which is Northern Europe’s largest all black professional dance company. As Master Teacher of the Umfundalai technique, she has taught at various institutions, festivals and intensives, both nationally and internationally. Kemp has trained and performed with several notable artists and professional dance companies, including Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, Kariamu & Company: Traditions, Kun-Yang Lin/Dancers, Eleone Dance Theatre, Philadanco! The Philadelphia Dance Company, Urban Bush Women, Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Rennie Harris Puremovement, The Katherine Dunham Seminar and The American Dance Festival.
Nigel Semaj (they/them) is a director, movement director, and educator originally from Washington, D.C. As an Assistant Professor of Theatre and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies at UMBC, Nigel’s work is rooted in fostering inclusive and equitable theatrical spaces through anti-racist pedagogies and restorative practices. Nigel’s directing career spans a wide range of work, including the Off-Broadway premiere of Bloodshot by Elinor T.Vanderburg, Ntozake Shange’s Spell #7, and most recently Bryony Lavery’s Slime. Nigel’s work speaks to those who have let the sadness in—for those who have been attuned to the haunting wail of the banshee. Often exploring themes of grief, violence, and the hardships of life, their work seeks to embrace the darkness from within. Nigel is a board member of the American Alliance for Theatre Education and co-chair of the Irene Ryans Acting Scholarship for Region II’s Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.
Sarah G. Sharp is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and is currently the MFA Graduate Program Director. She is an artist and curator whose studio practice and research cuts across and brings together interests in alternative social histories, language, place, technology and craft. She is the recipient of a Getty Library Research Grant, a BRIC Arts Media Fellowship and residency awards at Cortijada Los Gázquez in Almeria, Spain, The Vermont Studio Center, and ESKFF at Mana Contemporary Art. Sharp has exhibited widely including The Aldrich Museum, The Hampden Gallery at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Frederieke Taylor Gallery and Momenta Art in New York.
Graduate Assistant
Elle Jones is a first year student in the Intermedia & Digital Arts MFA program. She holds an MA from Towson University and a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art. Prior to joining UMBC she served as the Assistant Director of Graduate Studies for MICA and spent the past 5 years supporting the graduate art student experience. She serves as an assistant for both CIRCA and the Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture (CADVC). She is an intermedia artist, researcher, and independent curator. Her work links fiber, craft, photography, digital processes, painting, and creative writing. She is greatly interested in cultural and critical perspectives, particularly the separation between fine art and craft. She has most recently been the recipient of a Community Engagement Grant from MICA’s Office of Research for her curated show, What the Hands Remember, at Gallery 410 in Baltimore. Her work has been shown locally in and outside of Baltimore including at Spare Room Gallery, Toni B. Stuart Young Gallery and Open Space.
Accounting Associate
