Jenna Bench

Visual and Media Arts Department Assistant

Office: 1105 Alexander Calder Fine Arts Center
Phone: (616) 331-2566
E-mail: [email protected] 

Jenna is the Department Assistant for Visual and Media Arts. She began as the Department Secretary, was promoted to Academic Department Coordinator, and has now advanced to the role of Department Assistant. Jenna joined Grand Valley with over 15 years of experience in PK teaching and education broadly. She also brings extensive administrative experience from the West Michigan medical industry. Some of her professional passions include student success, advocacy for marginalized communities, and the arts, all of which she is actively engaged in at GVSU. She is deeply committed to creating a space where everyone feels accepted and valued.

In her free time, Jenna enjoys spending time in nature along the shores of Lake Michigan, being an avid "Swiftie", attending concerts with her husband, and taking family vacations to Walt Disney World with their five children."

Primary Responsibilities: Budget & Finance, Faculty Academic Support, Program Assistance, Clerical 

Alicia DeLaCruz

Visual and Media Arts Department Academic Coordinator

Office: 1105 Alexander Calder Fine Arts Center
Phone: (616) 331-2567
E-mail: [email protected] 

Alicia DeLaCruz joined Grand Valley in 2021 as Department Secretary and transitioned to Department Academic Coordinator in 2024. Alicia comes to the VMA Department with a background in Art Education and Management of School-age Childcare Programming throughout the state of Michigan. Alicia is a strong advocate for lifelong learning through Art Experiences and Art Education, and is very happy to be actively working to assist students and faculty at the collegiate level of education.

In her free time Alicia enjoys being a member of the Grand Rapids Moms of Multiples, painting, and traveling with her family.

Primary Responsibilities: Academic Support, VMA Student Employment, Clerical 

Dulcee Boehm

Curator of Visual Resources

Office: CAC 1409
Phone: (616) 331-3486
E-mail: [email protected]

Dulcee Boehm is an artist, organizer and advocate for contemporary art in nonmetropolitan areas. Through the use of video, performance and sculptural works, she applies a critical academic lens to rural life. She has exhibited her artwork in a variety of contexts including the Krannert Art Museum in Champaign, Illinois, and an old cattle barn in Grinnell, Iowa. Boehm has also co-organized several programs including Beyond Alternatives in 2018, which was a symposium on artist-run projects outside of large cities in the United States. Before completing her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign in 2018, she worked for many years as a staff member at Ox-Bow School of Art & Artist Residency where she received a Fellowship in 2010. In 2019 & 2020, Boehm received funding from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts for her work with collaborator Ruth K. Burke. Boehm was a Visiting Professor at Grand Valley State University from 2018-21, and currently is the Curator of Visual Resources there in the Visual and Media Arts Department. 

Jerod Christy

3D Technical Supervisor

Office: 1105 Alexander Calder Fine Arts Center
Phone: (616) 331-3615
E-mail: [email protected] 

J.C. is the 3D Technical Supervisor for the Visual and Media Arts Department and coordinates safety training and access for the 3D area facilities. A sculptor and craftsman, J.C. has twenty-five years of dedicated experience in arts education, mentorship, community outreach and advocacy. He has worked in communities across the country as a carpenter, mason, fabricator, foundryman, blacksmith, and handyman in new construction and historic preservation projects.

Prior to joining the GVSU community in 2022, J.C. was an active part of the arts community in Toledo, Ohio where he served as 3D Technical Assistant and Adjunct Faculty for the University of Toledo Department of Arts and Letters, Blacksmithing Instructor for The Toledo Museum of Art, and Exhibits Technician for The Toledo Zoological Gardens and Aquariums.

As a professional studio artist, J.C. was a collaborative member of Toledo’s Historic Warehouse District, and a team recipient of The Arts Commission’s Accelerator and Inter/Active community arts grant programs. While completing his BFA in Sculpture at Bowling Green State University, he worked as a mentor for the Young Artists At Work apprenticeship program. After completing his MFA in 2005 at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, J.C. joined the Metal Arts team at Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama as a Resident Artist, Blacksmithing Coordinator, and mentor for the Sloss Metal Arts Summer Youth Apprenticeship program. In 2007, he taught foundry and blacksmithing community classes at Smartshop Metal Arts Collective in Kalamazoo, MI while concurrently working as a Tulikivi masonry heater and fireplace technician.

J.C. maintains a private sculpture studio in southwest Michigan, applying values of environmental sustainability, permaculture, and good stewardship into his artistic practices. He is a loving father to a loving daughter, and spend their time together nurturing imagination and kind-heart creatures.

Evan D'Orazio

Ceramics Technician

Office: 1406, Calder Fine Arts Center
E-mail: [email protected]

Evan D’Orazio is a contemporary visual artist and educator. Primarily working in clay, he views the ceramic object to be not just about formal considerations, but his lived experience in the world. He has exhibited his work around the U.S. and abroad in cities such as Milan and Barcelona. In 2018 he was a speaker at the National Council on the Education for Ceramic Arts along with Andrew Casto and Jean-François Charles for the experimental project “A Device for Measuring the Sonification of Everyday Things.” In 2021 he was invited to exhibit his small-scale ceramics for ArtPrize at Muse Gallery. After finishing a year as visiting artist and instructor at Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa, he has relocated to Grand Rapids to continue a life in the arts. He keeps an active studio practice and has taught ceramics of all levels. D’Orazio received his M.F.A. from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016.  

Evan spends his free time building his collection of pop-culture memorabilia, playing video games, and hanging with his cat, Smokey. He also loves films and a good Vanilla latte.

www.evandorazio.com

Jim Schaub

Communication Systems Technician / Part-time faculty

Office: 104 Lake Superior Hall
Phone: (616) 331-3633
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.upfromthebottoms.com
 

Jim is a Systems Technician for Production Support Resources serving the Dept. of Visual and Media Arts and the School of Communications. He also teaches courses in special effects and editing for the Film and Video Production major, specializing in Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

Jim has been producing films since the early 1990s. One of his first films, An Interview with Lou Raynor, resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Jim works in a variety of genres from non-profit and corporate to documentary and narrative features and shorts. His 2009 documentary Up From the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream won five festival awards in 22 festivals and aired on PBS nationally from 2011 to 2014.  The documentary also aired on television in the UK and South Africa and is in every major university library in the United States.

Jim is currently in production on Buster Keaton: Home, a documentary about the film legend's early years as a child star in vaudeville and his time at an Actors' Colony in the town he called home - Muskegon, Michigan. In recent years, Jim has also produced and edited six projects for Nutrilite, a division of Amway Inc., countless projects for the Richard M. DeVos Foundation and co-produced the narrative short Moths, a graduate thesis project from Columbia University MFA student, Andy Fortenbacher, which was a semi-finalist for an Academy Award in the Short category.

Jim was a presenter at the 2013 Postapalooza Editing Conference where he taught several sessions on Adobe After Effects. Jim spends his free time volunteering in the community, taking photographs, golfing, and playing with his two adorable granddaughters.