Artist INC Peer Facilitators

Beau Bledsoe’s performances have been described as “pointedly musical” by Paul Horsley The Kansas City Star.  He regularly performs and records with some of the greatest artists in Tango, Flamenco and classical music as he seeks to integrate different musical cultures with diverse audiences. Beau studied classical guitar at the UMKC Conservatory of Music under Douglas Niedt where he received a Master of Music. It was at this time that Beau met many of the musicians that he still performs with today such as tenor, Nathan Granner, classical violinist, Elizabeth Suh Lane, soprano, Victoria Botero, composer/pianist, Brad Cox, and Argentine Tango quintet Tango Lorca. He has served as music faculty at both Baker University in Baldwin City, Kansas and Rockhurst College in Kansas City, Missouri and has continued his own musical studies with such masters as Antonio Andrade, Pedro Cortez and Luis Heredia of La Repompa de Málaga. Through his many diverse projects and ensembles, Beau has had the great fortune of performing in almost every state in the United States. In addition, Beau has toured extensively in Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Turkey and Russia. Beau has become an avid student of Ottoman Classical Music and was recently invited to perform at the Flamenco en La Frontera Festival in Morón de la Frontera, Spain.

Chris Dahlquist learned to use a camera and the darkroom as she was learning to ride a bicycle and write in cursive. She has held a camera in her hands ever since. 

Chris spent the early part of her career in commercial photography, film, and teaching kids photo basics. Her innate tendency to question the status quo has led Chris to pursue an artistic career outside of the traditional. Since 1998 she has participated in top national juried art festivals from Miami to Seattle. Chris’ photographic mixed media has won many awards, is in hundreds of private collections, and is in many corporate and municipal collections, including Winter Park, Florida, Pacific University, and H&R Block.

Chris is a former board member of the National Association of Independent Artists and has served as a juror for national art festivals, including the Plaza Art Fair and the Original Ann Arbor Fine Art Fair. She participated in the Creative Capital Professional Development Workshop, received an Inspiration Grant from the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City , and is the cofounder and former owner of Locust Factory LLC, a collaborative studio and gallery. Chris is represented by Perlow Stevens Gallery in Columbia, MO.

Jose Faus is a native of Bogota, Colombia and a long time resident of the Kansas City area. He is a visual artist, writer and teacher. He received degrees in Studio Art/Painting and Creative Writing/Journalism from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He has been involved in a series of mural projects locally and internationally. He recently completed a project in Bolivia as a cultural envoy of the State Department. Last year he was chosen as the Poetry Winner of Poets &Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange contest for the state of Kansas. He is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective and sits on the boards of Nuevo Eden and The Writes Place.

Nathan Granner, a Sony/BMG Masterworks recording artist, has received critical acclaim from The Boston Globe, The London Times, The New York Times, Opera News, Washington Post, and USA Today for his appearances as a solo artist as well as for his leading role portrayals with the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Irish Radio Orchestra, the Tulsa Philharmonic, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Tampa, and the Tulsa Opera.

During the 2005 – 2006 season, Nathan produced a successful double national tour, performing for nearly 33,000 patrons in 35 American cities, with classical guitarist Beau Bledsoe to support their CD “Departure,” and with Soprano Lisa Williamson in their “Waiting for Guffman”- meets-Anna-Russell-type comedic opera concert, “I Dolci Canti.”

Mr. Granner has also been a force in the Kansas City metropolitan area, working and collaborating throughout the community as an artistic director, a general manager and as an entrepreneur. He is co-founder and President of KCMETROPOLIS.org, Kansas City’s online journal of the Performing Arts, an answer to the shrinking press coverage of the print media industry.

Jeff Harshbarger.  Voted 2011 Person of the Year by Plasticsax.com and Best bassist by Pitch Magazine, Jeff Harshbarger has had quite an eclectic career. A prolific composer and bandleader in his own right, Jeff has recorded and performed across the globe with such varied artists as Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Bobby Watson, Allison Miller, Curtis Fuller, Forever Tango, Eugene Chadborne, Milt Abel, Tango Lorca, Jimmy Carl Black, Krystle Warren, Snuff Jazz, Brad Cox, Nathan Granner, Ghosty, The People's Liberation Big Band of the Greater Kansas City Area and Forrest Whitlow. He is a co-founder of Tzigane Music, an artist-run collective and record label, and is the curator of Jeff Harshbarger Presents: An Alternative Jazz Series, promoting new improvised music in Kansas City. An Artist in Residence for Escape to Create, Jeff has received numerous grants and awards, including The Kennedy Center's Betty Carter Fellowship, the Steans Institute Fellowship and the Professional Development Grant from the Creative Capital Foundation.

Grant Miller received his MFA in Drawing and Printmaking from Washington University in St. Louis. He has participated in several national shows, international shows and art fairs, which include the London Art Fair, NEXT Art Fair, SCOPE Basel & Miami, The Museum of Fine Arts at Florida State University, Byblos Art Gallery in Verona, Italy, and the AR Contemporary Gallery in Milan, Italy. He is currently represented by the Byron C. Cohen Gallery in Kansas City, and the Black & White Gallery in New York City. Grant has also participated in several artist residencies including the Urban Culture Project Studio Residency, Vermont Studio Residency, Artists’ Enclave at I-Park, Djerassi Residency, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the Cite Internationale des Arts Residency in Paris, France. In 2007, Grant received the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program travel grant. Grant is currently working as an artist in Kansas City, MO.

Erin McGrane has been an active performing artist in the KC arts and music scene for many years.  Erin is a film, theater and commercial actress; a musician and songwriter; and one of the co-hosts of the TV program CINEMAKC. Most notably, Erin appeared in the Emmy-winning web series THE UNREAL HOUSEWIVES OF KANSAS CITY and in the Oscar-nominated film, UP IN THE AIR alongside George Clooney.  Look for Erin this year in the award-winning thriller feature film NAILBITER and several short films by local KC luminaries.   As chanteuse Ruby Falls, she fronts the cabaret act Alacartoona who was awarded a 2009 Inspiration Grant from the Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City.  Her current project is Victor & Penny, a 1920s-30s jazz duo with Blue Man Group guitaritst and KC native, Jeff Freling.  Victor & Penny are currently touring the US.  Erin was honored in KC Magazine’s 2012 “The 100”: People who make Life Better in KC.  She is proud to say she mis-spent her youth singing in a rock band.

Larry Thomas received a Master of Arts degree, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking from the University of Iowa. He has been in over seventy regional, national, and international exhibitions, including one-person, two-person, invitational, competitive, and group exhibitions. His work is in more than 50 corporate, university, and public collections, including the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, and numerous private collections. He is currently Professor and Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Johnson County Community College.