Mandate

Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre is a non-profit organization facilitating the presentation, interpretation, and production of contemporary visual, time-based and interdisciplinary arts. Modern Fuel aims to meet the professional development needs of emerging and mid-career local, national and international artists, from diverse cultural communities, through exhibition, discussion, and mentorship opportunities. Modern Fuel supports innovation and experimentation, and is committed to the education of interested publics and the diversification of its audiences.

• History
• Policies

Current Board of Directors 2013 - 2014

• Melinda Richka (President). Melinda Richka is an artist born, raised, BFAed and living in Kingston. While installation art is her forte, she is fundamentally a painter at heart. She is fascinated with artwork that can critique, aesthetically please and spark curiosity at the same time. Richka is a longtime local radio host at CFRC Radio and a founding member of the Artel. She has a habit of whisking herself off to Vienna, Austria as often as possible where she reconnects with her cultural roots and muses with the Austrian art-theory-technology collective, monochrom.

• Sunny Kerr (Vice President). Sunny Kerr makes art and curates exhibitions for galleries and other spaces; he is a founding member of several artist’s collectives. He thinks and works within broadly defined publics and employs media and modes as they serve each project, ranging from video and site-specific intervention to conceptual, research process-based approaches, and relational and collaborative ways of working.

• Phoebe Cohoe (Secretary). Phoebe Cohoe is a local artist who works primarily in printmaking, drawing and installation media. She completed her BFA at Queen's University, and is currently completing her B.Ed at Queen's in the Artist in Community Education program. 
  
   
• Jenny Stepa (Acting Treasurer). Jenny Stepa is an arts administrator at the Museum of Health Care and an independent filmmaker. She holds a BFA degree with a minor in Communication from the University of Ottawa, where she worked mainly in photography and video installation. She has exhibited work in Ottawa, Montreal, and Kingston.

• Kelley Bolen is chair of the Membership and Volunteer Growth Committee and would like to hear more about YOU. Please email any of your feedback to the MF office on how we can make Modern Fuel a more welcoming and beneficial organization for you. 

• Julia Krolik is currently completing her MSc in Pathology and Molecular Medicine at Queen's University. Drawing from an active practice in both the sciences and the arts, she believes they can be stripped down to the very same atom that defines them. Her artistic practice is comprised of many mediums including performance, photography, sonic experimentation, video and bioart. She also co-created Decomposing Pianos, an experimental music project that represents freedom within the confines of a structured system. 

• Kate Yüksel received her MFA from Minneapolis College of Art & Design and BFA Degrees in both Photography and Graphic Design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a recipient of a 2010 Ontario Arts Council (OAC) Emerging Artist Grant as well as an OAC Exhibition Assistance Grant and her work has appeared in various publications and museums.

• Brent Nurse is an experienced filmmaker who lives and works in Kingston.   Over the years Brent has worked on many different film projects in various key roles.  They include, MILO (Canada Council grant) an experimental animated short, Do the Right Thing/Sesame Street which has garnered over 670,000 views on You Tube, and An Undertaking, which was made possible by an Ontario Arts Council grant and was a Local Short Selection at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. Brent was the producer and assistant director on his latest film, 21 Brothers, which now has a distribution deal with eOne.  

• David Woodward (Student Representative)

Staff

• Kevin Rodgers, Artistic Director
• Megan McNeil, Administrative Director.  Megan moved to Kingston in fall 2012 after studying Arts Management at Western University and starting a bakery cafe in Port Stanley, ON. She earned a combined Honours B.A. in Music and Film Studies from Carleton University and has experience working at various arts organizations such as Museum London, Forest City Gallery, The Canadian Screen Training Centre, and HMV for over ten years. She enjoys exploring the city with her basset hound/black lab, Henry and engaging with the creative community. 

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