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FACULTY & STAFF
The animation faculty and staff bring to the classroom award-winning and professional expertise in the field of animation.
As multidisciplinary artists their studio practices span film, sound art, electronic gaming, material culture, site specific installation and sculpture.
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Nadia Hironaka, Chair
Kathryn Freeman, Program Coordinator
Adam Davies, Manager/Faculty
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Faculty
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NADIA HIRONAKA / CHAIR
Nadia Hironaka creates films, videos, immersive installations and environments, and public artworks. Working across moving-image culture and mass media idioms, Hironaka builds counter-mythologies, alternate or parallel realities, and forward-looking visions of the world around us. Her collaborative practice embraces research and experimentation, encompassing historical fact, popular fiction, and creative speculation. Hironaka is a recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, and Fellowships from CFEVA and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. Her work has been widely exhibited both domestically and abroad at venues including, Fondazione MAXXI (Rome), New Media Gallery (Vancouver), The Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia), UCLA Hammer Museum and Arizona State University Art Museum. She has been an artist-in-residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts, the Banff Centre, Marble House, Interlude, and the Millay Colony for Arts.
KATHRYN FREEMAN / PROGRAM COORDINATOR
LAURENCE ARCADIAS / FACULTY
Laurence Arcadias is a French-born animation filmmaker. She has taught at UC Berkeley, California College of Arts and Crafts, and the San Francisco Academy of Art before joining MICA. She moved to the US with a Lavoisier Scholarship from the French government as Animator in Residence at Apple's Advanced Technology Group. Her animation films have been awarded and toured in numerous international film festivals around the world. Her stop motion film Tempête Dans Une Chambre à Coucher (co-directed with Juliette Marchand) was short-listed for a 2013 César Award, the French equivalent of an Academy Award. Her previous work includes being an illustrator and animator for French television programs, and directing an animation show called Alex, which was awarded the prize for Best Short Animation TV show at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival
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ALBERT BIRNEY / FACULTY
Albert Birney is a Baltimore based filmmaker. He has directed four feature films, The Beast Pageant (co-directed with Jon Moses), Sylvio and Strawberry Mansion (both co-directed with Kentucker Audley) and Tux and Fanny. Sylvio was named one of the ten-best films of 2017 by The New Yorker. His films have premiered at Sundance, SXSW, the Maryland Film Festival, Slamdance and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. He recently finished making a Tux and Fanny video game with Gabriel Koenig. He is currently animating part two of Tux and Fanny.
LOWELL BOSTON / FACULTY
Lowell Boston is an animator, filmmaker and award winning producer and college professor who lives in Collingswood, N.J.
Born in upstate New York, he discovered an interest in art from an early age. Pursuing a love of drawing, writing and works of the imagination upon graduating high school, he attended the University of the Arts as a double major in live-action filmmaking and animation in 1988. He earned his MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Experimental Animation in 1991. He currently teaches Animation at the University of the Arts, Jefferson University, and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) and conducts animation and art workshops across the Delaware Valley.
His personal and professional work has been shown in regional, national and international film festivals, and on WYBE/MiND TV 35 Philadelphia, PhillyCAM, and nationally on ABC, Fox and ESPN.
FRANK CHO / FACULTY
ERIK DILLINGER / FACULTY
JAY FRIEDLANDER / FACULTY
Mr. Friedlander has over 25 years of computer based Graphics, video, and image- processing experience. This is combined with over 25 years of film based photography and photo processing experience. Mr. Friedlander also creates, consults on, and assists on Graphic arts, animation and video projects. Mr. Friedlander is well versed in video production and editing as well as 3-D graphic generation and animation. He has been involved with the design and construction of several Web based catalogs and image sites. He continues aid in the distribution, digitizing and storage of NASAs' film based archive.
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LORRAINE DARROW / FACULTY
The French screenwriter and director Lorraine Darrow came to the United States eight years ago for an English-language film project under the supervision of the noted filmmaking Wachowski brothers.
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ERINN E. HAGERTY / FACULTY
Erinn E. Hagerty is an interdisciplinary artist employing animation, film, video, kinetic sculpture, microscopy, and installation. She is a full-time faculty member in MICA’s Animation department, focusing on 3-Dimensional topics, VR, digital & analog integration, and professional practice. While developing her own films, she has also created animations for children’s series, operas, museums, and exhibitions. Her personal and group productions have been exhibited and screened internationally, including at Slamdance Film Festival, Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Victoria Film Festival, Paris International Animation Film Festival (PIAFF), Pori Film Festival, Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival, Filmfest Dresden International Short Film Festival, Boston Short Film Festival, cellu l’art Kurtzfilmfestival Jena, Indie Memphis Film Festival, GRRL HAUS CINEMA, and Light City Baltimore.
Hagerty earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She is the co-founder of the artist collective, Unfolding of the Wave, with her collaborator Adam Savje. Together they develop films and installations, which implement abstract visuals to create a space for reflecting on the nature of relationships. Their roving studio thrives between Boston, MA, Philadelphia, PA, and Baltimore, MD.
ANDREW PAUL KEIPER / FACULTY
Andrew Paul Keiper (he/they) is an artist and educator based in Baltimore, Maryland and teaches in MICA’s Animation and Film & Video programs. Working in sound, image and installation, Andrew's work dances across the boundaries of sound art, experimental music and sound design.
Field recordings, drones, drumming and sound designed evocations of places remote in time and place commingle in Andrew’s work, inviting the audience to listen in ways they may not be accustomed to listening. Much of Andrew's work contemplates the legacy of his grandfather's role in the creation of the atomic bomb, and the ramifications of atomic weaponry past and present. Andrew also maintains a practice as a sound designer for film, as a musician and audio engineer, and as a video editor.
Andrew received his BFA in painting from the Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2002 and his MFA in Photographic and Electronic Media from MICA in 2016. He has exhibited nationally, including in Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, New Jersey and Washington DC. In 2016 and 2019 Andrew was a Sondheim Prize semi-finalist, and in 2016 won a Rubys Artist Grant along with collaborator Kei Ito to produce a large scale project. In January of 2018 Keiper and Ito presented their Rubys project, Afterimage Requiem at the Baltimore War Memorial. The exhibition received coverage by the Washington Post Magazine, the BBC, the Baltimore Sun and elsewhere. In 2016, they brought this work, along with others to the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where they exhibited their first large-scale art museum exhibition, Archives Aflame.
Andrew has recently exhibited work in New York state at galleries including Ethan Cohen KuBe and apexart, at ArtYard in Frenchtown, New Jersey and at Florida State University’s Museum of Fine Arts in Tallahassee, Florida.
MAY MCKERNAN / FACULTY
May McKernan is an animator, editor, and musician based in the DMV area. In the corporate sphere, her motion graphics and video editing are noted for their precise timing, rich color, and keen sense of heart. She has worked for clients such as Amazon, Docusign, No Kid Hungry, FCC, and more.
As an independent animator, her work often explores metamorphosis, identity, and family history using a variety of multimedia techniques— from dissolving hues of color to replicate stained glass, to photographing fiber textures to create prescient, political landscapes. May’s work has screened in-competition in the United States and abroad.
She currently works full-time as a motion graphics artist and editor at LAI Video in Washington, D.C. and lives in Baltimore, MD with her cat Sola.
STEVE MENEELY / FACULTY
Department Chair Steve Meneely (MICA '99) is an artist and independent animator who grew up in a small village in Central Africa.
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Previously, he worked as technician and adjunct faculty in the MICA Animation department for 11 years. He has 20+ years of experience with working with 3D software, specializing in 3D animation and modeling. His work includes animated live performances with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Steve also helped to establish the digital fabrication studios at MICA. When he's not plugged in he can be found wandering around the great outdoors.
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SEAN MILLER / FACULTY
KAT NAVARRO / FACULTY
Kat Navarro (MICA ‘16) is a Baltimore-based animator and interdisciplinary artist. She often experiments in mixing analog with new media techniques and she’s passionate about exploring spontaneous and memory-based narratives. She works closely with Baltimore School for the Arts in developing and teaching animation and new media curriculum. She has also created and managed several collaborative animations encompassing traditional screen, full-dome, and live-performances.
JACKIE ROSS / FACULTY
Jackie Ross is an award winning artist and animator from Baltimore. She has created
several personal films, which have won numerous awards. These screenings include Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Sinking Creek Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Utah Short Film Festival, the Henri Langlois International Film Festival and the Barn-och Ungdomsfilmfestivalen in Sweden. The awards given include a CINE Eagle, Bronze plaques from the Columbus International Film Festival, Prize of the President from the Hiroshima International Amateur Film Festival, First Prize at the Hopes and Dreams Film Festival, Silver Prize at the Empire State Exhibitions International Film Festival, and Honorable Mention at the Atlanta International Film Festival. Her most recent film “Mimi’s Good Night” was released in 2020.
Jackie has worked for MicroProse Software, Klasky-Csupo, Duck Soup Produckions, Playhouse Pictures, and Palomar Pictures. She was Lead Artist for Sesame Workshop in their Interactive Division creating box and online games. In 2013 she and her husband, Eliezer Medina, released an app “Puma Punku Totems” for iphones & ipads. Jackie illustrated ,”Nana and the Banana” written by Brad Burgunder as well as “Modern
Jewish Mom’s Guide to Shabbat” written by Meredith L. Jacobs. She was an artist for the “Video Game Wizards – Transforming Science and Art Into Games” exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Industry 2016- 2020 and illustrated the various plaques with quotes on the Chizuk Amuno Wagner Brill Playground. She is Lead Animator for PariMax and teaches animation at MICA.
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ISMA SANZ PEÑA / FACULTY
Ismael Sanz-Pena is an animaton filmmaker currently living in Baltimore, MD. After receiving his Postgraduate Diploma in Character Animation at Central Saint Martins London he moved to Los Angeles to study Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts. Ismael has since worked on music videos, commercials, promotional videos and independent films across the globe. Among other screenings his work has been exhibited in the National Gallery London, Annecy, Hiroshima, Zagreb, Ottawa and Questors Theatre, the largest community theatre in Europe.
RYAN THURBER / FACULTY
STEPHANIE J WILLIAMS / FACULTY
Stephanie J. Williams is a tinkerer and doodler.
Her work primarily navigates hierarchies of taste, unpacking how “official” histories are constructed in order to understand contemporary social coding. She received her MFA in Sculpture from RISD under a Presidential Scholarship, has shown in Fictions, part of the Studio Museum in Harlem’s F-show exhibitions, as well as with Washington Project for the Arts, Lawrence University, the Delaware Contemporary, and the Walters Museum as a Sondheim Finalist, with residencies at the Corporation of Yaddo, Sculpture Space, Williams College, the Nicholson Project, VCCA, and ACRE. Recent projects have screened at the New Orleans Film Festival (Best Animated Short, 2022), Sweaty Eyeballs Animation Festival (Jury Citation, 2022), the Atlanta Film Festival (2023) and Outfest LA LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (2023). She has received support from the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund in Media Studies at Johns Hopkins University and multiple DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities Fellowships. She is based in DC/Baltimore and currently teaches stop motion as Full Time Faculty for Maryland Institute College of Art.