Alison Aldrich
While I have always been a creative - a dancer, writer, singer, choreographer, photographer, actress - I spent my career as a social worker. My role as a Ragdale trustee and organizer of Rags to Witches combines these two loves: creativity and community.
My favorite art form is theatre, and I help recruit, direct, and costume the actors for Rags to Witches. Many of the actors are friends with whom I perform in community theatre and sing in ensembles.
Rags to Witches is a theatre of the imagination! It brings together people of all ages to imagine, create, play, learn, and celebrate the arts within an interactive wonderland. Extraordinary artists, Ragdale staff, trustees, and volunteers work tirelessly to benefit and inspire all who take part.
Thank you to all who attend and who make this event possible. Your generosity is multiplied many times because funds raised bring more art, authors and artists to school children, inspiring them to write, act, paint, sculpt... and to believe that they can create their dreams. That is the power of art and the magic of Ragdale.
Erin Cramer
After ten years of world travel as a tour director, Erin Cramer decided to move back to Chicago to pursue an art career. She works in a variety of mediums including hand papermaking, bookbinding, and sculpture. Erin has exhibited nationally and internationally and has work in several public and private collections including The Flat Iron Press in New Orleans, The Kansas City Art Institute, and The Joan Flasch Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago. Erin received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago in 2009. She currently works as a freelance artist and arts educator in Chicago, IL.
Her work can be found year around at Paul Henry’s Art Gallery in Hammond Indiana, at Lubeznik Center for the Arts in Michigan City Indiana, and at Shop Columbia in Chicago Illinois.
Kenneth Gerleve
Ken Gerleve uses narrative and image to tell stories, which are often darkly humorous. His artwork juxtaposes the traditional elements of the Gothic with contemporary culture. He often uses Scherenschnitte, or paper-cutting, and dimensional book structures, like Tunnel and Carousel books, to create sculptural scenes reminiscent of the silhouette animations of Lotte Reiniger. Ken earned an MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago. He is the studio assistant for visual artist and author Audrey Niffenegger. His illustration and design work has been featured in previous issues of Pistil Magazine, the Journal of Artists’ Books and Little Bang.