SheboyZine Fest Community Organizing and Arts Accessibility Panel

Part of the Sheboyzine Fest at Mead Public Library on November 1st from 10am-3pm! For the full schedule, click HERE. 

Join in this facilitated panel discussion featuring leaders and artists from Sheboygan who have experience aiding and organizing spaces of community growth and support. Come learn from these individuals as we discuss what inspired their work, what road-blocks they have gotten past, future goals, as well as how you can get involved with your community.

Zines have commonly served as a highly-accessible format for challenging status quo, supporting community growth and culture, sharing resources, and empowering marginalized voices. So, it is in this spirit that we hold this community panel to discuss our efforts to support one other. 

Panel guests: 

Kim Geiser is the Founder and Executive Director of Hello Happiness Creativity Center, a non profit creative reuse center in Sheboygan. 
Since 2020 Hello Happiness has fulfilled its mission of creativity for everyone by offering extremely affordable supplies in a well organized art and craft supply thrift store. The space offers a safe inclusive atmosphere that encourages renewal of the creative spirit and at the same time builds community. 
HelloHappinessCreativityCenter.com 

Scott and Kathleen LaBonte started Sheboygan Area Pay it Forward in March 2023. 
The non-profit benefits members of our community who are experiencing homelessness, providing them with basic needs, connections to resources, a safe space, and a place of community. Currently, the project is on pause due to the loss of their headquarters. 
You can listen to their podcast, which can be found on their website: SheboyganAreaPayItForward.org 

Erin Kaczkowski is the multidisciplinary artist behind Bite Size Studio. 
Bite Size Studio focuses on the healing properties of the art process and strives to provide an inclusive and accessible space for adults to explore new mediums without the fear of failure. Erin teaches art workshops throughout Wisconsin and locally at places such as Mead library, Ampersand Supply Co. and The Sheboygan Collective. Erin says those that leave her workshops the happiest are the students that said they will be my worst student. Additionally Erin is a cofounder of Rebel Reels film Society a local Nonprofit organization who's vision is to enrich the Sheboygan community through film screenings and discussions. By fostering an inclusive environment for conversations, appreciation, and critical examination of film as an artform that helps us better understand who we were, who we are, and who we might become. 
BiteSizeStudio.com 

Dorothy Block is a self-taught artist who does bi-monthly art sessions with the Lighthouse Recovery Community Center in Sheboygan. 
She works primarily in oil, acrylic, and watercolor, is trained in interior design, and enjoys up-cycling furniture. Dorothy has found emotional health and healing through the recovery community over the last 10 years. She celebrates her triumph over past dependence on drugs and alcohol and believes there are many roads to emotional health and healing; art being one of them. Dorothy was ushered into this creative season in her life by a friend who handed her a brush and canvas, and she wants to do the same for others.