Following graduation from the Kansas City Art Institute with a degree in printmaking and creative writing in 2002, artist and educator Ted Lee Nathanson began teaching art classes to at-risk and adjudicated youth through the Sentenced to the Arts program at Kansas City’s Chameleon Inc. While in Kansas City, Ted worked extensively with Waldron Boy’s Home and St. Vincent’s Center for Families teaching classes for children and adolescents. In 2003, Ted co-opened aAlice Gallery for emerging artists and performance. During that period, he showed his art at aAlice as well as in several galleries in Kansas City and Chicago. For the touring production A Road To Paris, Ted designed and illustrated educational materials as well as designed and performed shadow puppets to work in conjunction with the live actors.
After receiving a fellowship to the Ox-bow Summer School of The Art Institute of Chicago, and spending a summer as the printmaking technical assistant in 2001, Ted was invited to teach several two-week children’s workshops between 2004 and 2006.
Since returning to Louisville in 2004, Ted has taught extensively for the southern Indiana libraries, Frazier International History Museum, Speed Art Museum, Louisville Visual Art Association, Brown School, Kentucky Center for the Arts, Preston Arts Center, and Bellarmine University. With Squallis Puppeteers, he was the recipient of a Kentucky Arts Grant.
Ted acted as artist liaison and camp director for The Speed Museum’s Summer Fun Art Camp in the summer of 2006, and returned as an instructor for the 2008 session. Since the summer of 2007, Ted taught multiple comic book workshops at each of the Jefferson County public libraries, and has returned to teach at various branches regularly. In October 2008, as a guest speaker at the Fall Spectrum Of The Future conference, Ted gave a talk on ways to create effective workshops to assembled librarians from across the country. In February 2009 he continued training librarians across Kentucky , and as a result is driving across the state teaching at different libraries including Bardstown, Berea, and Frankfort. Ted has also lectured at the University of Louisville.
Ted’s artwork uses bookbinding, painting, and printmaking to create original and surprising narrative transitions. He has shown in solo and group exhibits in Louisville, Chicago, Michigan, and Kansas City. In summer 2012 his solo show at the Jane Chancellor Moore Gallery in Frankfort featured his comic ‘The Dragon and The Deep Sea. Recently he participated in shows with the Louisville Visual Art Association and will be involved the ‘The Forest’ show at Forest Giant design studios later this year.
In between workshops and classes, Ted has created GUMPOP!, an ongoing comic book adventure, and started the Louisville Cartoonist Society, a gathering of artists and writers. Ted edits the weekly LCS Cartoonist Spotlight in Louisville paper The LEO, and contributes the strip ‘Starbound’.
Ted finished his Masters Degree in Art Education at the University of Louisville in Spring 2013, and is eagerly anticipating working in a ongoing educational environment and having his own classroom.
I recently heard about your organization and was wondering what it would take to join and be part of some of your events. I am 25, live in Louisville, and graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design with a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts, the major being Sequential Art. I have several comic projects I am working on my own and would love to hear feedback on them and such.
Good to hear from you. It sounds like you should come to a meeting or two. I’ll add your name to the email tree and you’ll hear about our next meeting!
Hey I go to Louisville Collegiate School, and every year the seniors get the chance to intern for three days for a person of our choosing. I’ve read Gumpop and I think that I would really like to see how you go through doing that sort of illustration, and I was wondering if I could follow you for that time. It is from March 7th to 10, and i hope to hear from you soon!