Our Directors and Partners
Grayson Cox
DirectorGrayson Cox is an artist, educator, and organizer whose work explores how place, context, and social structures shape the ways we make and experience art. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, including at the New Museum, and has received support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the New York Foundation for the Arts.
Cox has taught artists for more than twenty years and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Pratt Institute, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate students. His approach to teaching emphasizes conversation, experimentation, and helping artists identify what is most vital in their own work.
He is the founder of The Clearing, an artist-run project in Cragsmoor, New York, where he organizes exhibitions, workshops, gatherings, and other opportunities for artists to spend time together outside traditional institutional settings.
Hollis Witherspoon
Hollis Witherspoon is a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist, psychotherapist, Registered Drama Therapist, artist, performer, and educator living and working in Brooklyn and the Hudson Valley. Her practice brings together improvisation, performance, creative experimentation, and therapeutic approaches to create spaces for curiosity, reflection, and connection.
Before becoming a therapist, Hollis worked extensively as an actor, improviser, director, and collaborative performance artist. She has developed artist-centered improvisation workshops and curriculum at Columbia University, NYU, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, SVA, and Pratt Institute, where she has taught in the Fine Arts department. Her longstanding interest in improvisation—as a practice of spontaneity, curiosity, and mental freedom—led her to pursue a Master’s in Drama Therapy at NYU.
Hollis is a co-founder of The Clearing, where she brings together her experience as an artist, teacher, and therapist to develop workshops and gatherings centered on creative practice, conversation, experimentation, and time spent together.
Director
Mid Career Merch and Mid Career Consulting
Need Help applying for your MFA? Are you an artist that needs coaching help? Interested in workshops with other artists and curators? looking to join our community?