Co-founders
Iga Puchalska
Iga Puchalska is a Polish-born, research-driven animator and educator hybrid, whose primary research focuses on the impact of teaching digital art and animation in historically underserved, marginalized, and immigrant communities. She most recently lead the Experimental Animation department at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah.
She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Animation from Northern Illinois University and a Master in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Beyond teaching at other universities such as Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University, Iga has also worked in a variety of community settings including, after-school, nonprofit, and summer programs where she continually combined social justice issues with digital art in order to create culturally sensitive students.
Jason Judd
Jason Judd, a Rockford, Illinois native, was most recently Curator of Art at University Galleries of Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois and Co-Founder of Sight Specific, an online platform that documents and supports contemporary art programming in and around the central Illinois region. He previously was Art Editor for Bite Magazine (online, non-profit project) and Co-Director of Make-Space (a Chicago based artist-run organization) from 2010 to 2015. He has also served as Registrar at the Rockford Art Museum, Exhibitions Assistant at Chicago Artists Coalition, and Curatorial Intern at Gallery 400, University of Illinois Chicago.
Judd approaches curating, teaching, organizing and collaborating with a sense of sincerity, inclusion, experimentation, and resourcefulness.
Board of Directors
Verónica Soria Martinez
Born in Spain, Rockford-based artist Verónica Soria Martinez focuses on visual culture and sonic arts. She holds PhD and Masters degree in Visual Arts and Intermedia from Polytechnic University in Valencia, Spain. From 2014 to 2018 she worked in an art collective (Cràter) that focused in community projects and public site interventions in Spain. A portion of her research can be read in English at “Resounding Memory: Aural Augmented Reality and the Retelling of History”, Leonardo Music Journal n. 27 (MIT Press). Martinez has exhibited internationally at places such as Museu de Belles Arts, Castellón, Spain; Ausblick Privat in Meiningen, Germany; and Art Públic, Universitat Pública in Valencia, Spain to name few.
Steve Nofsinger
Steve Nofsinger (KarateHorse) is a lifetime Rockfordian and artist/designer/maker. He is a multi-instrumental artist, whose recent love affair has been digital 3D design and 3D printing. Inspired from creature-feature films of his childhood, he often incorporates monsters and creatures in artwork whether it is digital, 3D, paint, block print, or spray paint. He is a passionate about sharing and teaching the skills that he has learned as a lifelong “maker”!
Linda Dennis
Linda Dennis is the director of development at Shelter Care Ministries, an organization that focuses on individuals with a chronic mental illness and families that are homeless in the Winnebago/Boone county area. Dennis also brings years of museum experience as previously having served as the Executive Director at the Rockford Art Museum.
Emily Porter
Emily Porter is the director of the Byron Public Library District where she has spent the past 11 years doing her best to help people find great books and learn new technology. When she isn’t at the library, she is either on vacation, or planning vacations that she can’t yet afford. She also enjoys spending time with her family and reading. Porter holds a Bachelor of Arts in English Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rhonda Judd
Rhonda Judd works in Specialized Private Placement Services in School District U-46—the 2nd largest school district in Illinois. Judd assists the public by connecting families with a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and necessary related services to all children with disabilities enrolled in her District.
Iga Puchalska
Co-founder of New Genres Art Space
Jason Judd
Co-founder of New Genres Art Space