Jennifer Reis

Jennifer A. Reis, assistant professor of arts administration and entrepreneurship at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is a creative entrepreneur, artist, educator and curator with 25 years experience in arts business and administration. Her earned degrees include a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design, and graduate work in arts management, instructional design, studio art, and arts education from Syracuse University, UNC-Greensboro, and Morehead State University. She is a master facilitator for adult learning initiatives such as the Kauffman Foundation’s FastTrac entrepreneurship education program and AIR Collaborative’s courses in arts-based community and economic revitalization, and also serves as an arts entrepreneurship curricular consultant for the Tamarack Foundation. Through her consulting company Make Do Creative, she works with community and economic development, trade, governmental, and cultural organizations to design, manage, and deliver creative entrepreneurship curriculum. Additionally, she is a textile and mixed media artist who creates intensively hand-worked, ornately beaded, and embellished paper doll icons on cloth using traditional and alternative materials. Her artistic practice has been honored with numerous awards and prizes, including Kentucky’s Al Smith Fellowship, national adjudicated and invitational exhibitions, and teaching opportunities at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, John C. Campbell Folk School, Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design, Cleveland Institute of Art, Society of Contemporary Craft, and the Southwest School of Art. Her teaching style focuses on collaborative creative making in a low competitive environment and former workshop participants describe her instructional approach as empathic, kind, supportive, and individualistic. She also has a production textile line of Indigo Shibori art to wear and homegoods and is currently represented by Troika Gallery in Floyd, VA. A graduate of Columbus College of Art and Design, Syracuse University, and Morehead State University, she has multiple degrees in studio art, arts management, and art education. She is on the Teaching Artist Roster of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and resides in Martinsville, Virginia with her husband and an unruly pack of dogs and cats.

.Whether it's teaching textile or creative entrepreneurship, my teaching style is student-focused, emphatic,  the individual's personal vision and needs.   Previous students' testimonials described my "vibe" as an instructor as kind, compassionate, patient, empathetic, caring, and supportive.  My teaching career started formerly in 2000, but being raised by two teachers, the profession was baked in so to speak at an early age (my brother is a teacher too - math/computer science - so he got all the STEM genes in the family).  One of my very favorite things about teaching is being in a co-creative working environment, learning from others, and making new friends.