The Jasper Project Welcomes New Members to the Board of Directors

We’re excited at the Jasper Project to welcome the following new members to our Board of Directors! These seven new members bring a wealth of experience and new energy to our board and they have already gotten to work doing their parts in helping Jasper meet our four integrated priorities:

• Process – illuminating the unique processes endemic to all art forms in order to provide a greater level of understanding and respect for these disciplines.

• Community/Collaboration – nurturing community both within and between arts disciplines.

• Narrative – creating a more positive and progressive understanding of SC culture.

• Economy – being efficient stewards of arts funding committed to creating more with less.

Help us welcome Meeghan Kane, Rhodes Bailey, Pam Bowers, Lauren Casassa, Stan Conine, Dick Moons, and Liz Stalker who join our already assembled board members Wade Sellers (president), Keith Tolen (vice president), Emily Moffitt (secretary), Kristin Cobb, Libby Campbell, Kwasi Brown, Jon Tuttle, Bekah Corbett (operating director), and Cindi Boiter (founder, executive director).

Currently, Meeghan Kane leads community engagement efforts at the South Carolina State Museum, developing public programs and supporting and fostering community relationships and partnerships with fellow cultural institutions and organizations. Prior to joining the museum team, Meeghan taught history at Benedict College for over a decade, where she specialized in African American history, 20th century cultural history, and the history of the American South. She moved to Columbia, South Carolina, from Tampa, Florida, in 2006 to join USC’s graduate program in history after completing her B.A. and M.A. at the University of South Florida. These days, if she’s not at the museum, you’ll likely find her and her family enjoying nice meals in local restaurants, day tripping to the mountains, camping in SC’s state parks, road-tripping back home to Florida, and, most importantly, enjoying the arts and culture of the Midlands. Meeghan is excited to be a part of the Jasper board. She hopes to help artists and arts supporters build new ways to connect and reach new audiences.

Rhodes Bailey is an attorney and the owner of Rhodes Bailey Law, LLC, and a long-term member of the Midlands-based band Whiskey Tango Revue with whom he plays guitar and pedal steel. A graduate of the College of Charleston and the University of SC School of Law (2007), where he received the Trial Clinic’s Professionalism Award, Rhodes is married and has two children. Rhodes says he is “looking forward to collaborating with like-minded artists and fostering talent in our state.” He somewhat jokingly continues, “I hope to help solve problems as needed and keep my fellow artists out of Jail!”

Pam Bowers is a Chicago native, but for the past 20 years she has divided her time between Columbia, South Carolina, the Umbrian hill town she calls her second home, and her world travels. Pam has exhibited her work internationally at venues that include the Guilin Academy of Chinese Painting in China, the University of Fine Arts in Budapest, numerous venues in Italy, University of Newcastle in Australia, and the Ecole Nationale in Rabat, Morocco. Nationally she has exhibited at the Bowery Gallery, New York, Blue Mountain Gallery New York, ARC and WMG galleries in Chicago, and many other university or museum venues including the State Museum of South Carolina, City Gallery at Waterfront Park In Charleston, the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and St. Mary's College of Notre Dame, among others. Pam has lectured on her work and conducted numerous workshops both here and abroad.

Lauren Casassa is originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma. She received her BFA in Painting at the University of South Carolina and has been awarded the Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key Award for excellence in Visual Arts, the Yaghjian Studio arts scholarship at USC, and the 2018 Artfields Solo Award Exhibition at Jones-Carter Gallery. She has been featured in Garnet and Black, Daily Gamecocks, The State, Free Times, and Susie Magazine. She has lectured for classes at USC, SC State University, and spent a summer residency in Monte Castello, Italy. Exhibitions include group shows in Italy, New York, South Carolina and solo shows in Iowa and South Carolina. 

Stan Conine is the retired President and Broker-in-Charge of The Conine Group, Inc. and the former Campus Director of Birchwood Campus, SC Department of Youth Services (currently SCDJJ) and a Life member in the Circle of Excellence of Central Carolina Realtors Association. He has a B.S. in Sociology from Georgia College, an M.Ed. in Counselor Education from University of South Carolina, and a M.C.J. in Criminal Justice also from USC. Stan says, “I have long respected The Jasper Project for promoting and supporting local artists of all genres, and for creating and promoting events which make it acceptable, normal even, for folks from all neighborhoods, all backgrounds, and all educational levels to access, enjoy, and appreciate the creativity in the works of these artists.” He continues, “I hope that I will be able to help Jasper expand and extend its support to more people with artistic dreams, including the very young and the very old, and I hope that I will be able to help spur an effort to bridge the gap and encourage more cooperation and coordination among different arts organizations with common goals in the Midlands area.”

Dick Moons says he is a “retired corporate flunky,” certified sound practitioner, professional drum circle facilitator, dad, and grandfather. Dick says he joined the Jasper Project board of directors because he believes “in what Jasper is about, its mission, and the way Jasper has gone about implementing and fulfilling its vision.” He continues to explain that “being a part of a talented bunch of folks who donate their time and energy for nothing more than their love of the arts – and thereby making Columbia a far cooler place” is reason enough to join the Jasper team.”

Liz Stalker is a 2024 graduate of USC with honors and a bachelors degree in English. The winner of the 2023 Havilah Babcock scholarship for poetry, Liz enjoys poetry and filmmaking when she isn’t serving up caffeine at Curiosity Coffee Bar. A former intern with the Jasper Project, Liz says, “I joined the Jasper board because Jasper opened a world of local artists to me, and I would love to help do that for others.”

The Jasper Project Mission Statement

The Jasper Project is a project-oriented, multidisciplinary arts facilitator serving the greater Columbia and South Carolina communities by providing collaborative arts engineering and community-wide arts communication.

Jasper Galleries presents a New Exhibit by Lauren Casassa (nee Chapman) at Motor Supply Co. Bistro

Jasper is privileged to support and promote SC Midlands-area visual artists by adopting gallery spaces around town and installing exhibitions curated by some of the members of the Jasper Project board of directors. Our newest exhibit features the work of Lauren Casassa (nee Chapman) at Motor Supply Co. Bistro, 920 Gervais Street in Columbia, SC’s historic Vista and was curated and installed under the guidance of Laura Garner Hine.

“The Swan Princess and Other Magical Beings” features Casassa’s images of an enchanted forest, most of which were created during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the artist, “This exhibition is a combination of thickly textured oil paintings and saturated watercolor pieces. The work is influenced by early Italian frescos, European royal portraits, and more contemporary artists such as Allison Schulnik, Staver Klitgaard, and Jaime Misenheimer. Each piece is detailed with floral arrangements and patterns, some scattered throughout landscapes, others displayed on fabrics of the figures. Throughout this exhibition the figures take on the challenges of growing up and finding independence through the life they choose for themselves, the severity of discovering the depth of confidence within themselves, and the attraction they possess. However, whether through choice or circumstance this newly found independence, confidence, and attraction may manifest itself as a power or a curse.”

When asked if her Swan Princess was a nod to the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan (in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, rapes Leda), Casassa responded, “Yes, but oddly enough I am just connecting those dots now. I saw the swan as a dark creature of comfort in isolation, an attachment of sadness and was thinking more of the ‘swan princess.’ But the symbolism works perfectly with Leda and the swan.”

Casassa continues, “Almost all of this work was made during the pandemic. I spent a large chunk of time working on my mural and then a piece that was too large for this specific show. The little works I have done were mainly happier pieces full of nostalgia and landscapes of places I wanted to go. The watercolors have been more of me experimenting/ trying out new medium as I’ve tired a bit of oil especially during this time in isolation. The swan princess was the last piece I did on oil. It was a quick piece I only worked on for two days and I didn’t really fully understand the meaning until after it was finished.”

In her artist’s statement Casassa writes, “I create immersive environments via vibrant saturated romantic paintings telling short stories, in the forms of fables, folklore, and fairy tales challenging our current cultural climate through the eyes of feminine figures and personified creatures. The narrative of the work promotes lesson from my personal experiences and questions dangerous themes within American society.”

Visit Motor Supply at 920 Gervais Street for a fine meal and artisanal cocktail and to check out this beautiful new collection of work.

CB