Meet Our Team
Our experienced team of administration and art and music instructors who range from self-taught to Master’s Degrees. Many retain a personal practice outside of LYS and can routinely be found presenting their work locally as well as nationally and internationally. The diverse collective of instructors ensures our resident artists have access to quality, well-rounded instruction needed to tackle any artistic venture they desire.
NATASHA
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director & Sculpture and Textiles Instructor
Natasha started as an intern for LYS before its opening in 2011 and has performed every position within the program during her tenure. Natasha began in the disability field over 20 years ago, working as a respite provider in her early teenage years through college. Natasha received her bachelor’s degree in fine art and psychology from UNL in 2012 with a focus in sculpture, specializing in torch welding and foundry work. After graduating and lacking the equipment to melt metal, Natasha fueled her creative energy into sewing, making sculptures out of found objects and teaching art at LYS. The studio became a perfect blend of her love for the arts and community.
micah
Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director & Printmaking Instructor
As a traditionally trained printmaker who specializes in etchings, Micah received his BFA from the University Nebraska-Lincoln and MFA from Ohio University. Micah joined LYS in 2016 and has enjoyed building a vibrant arts organization and celebrating the creativity and talents of the amazing artists of LYS. While at LYS, Micah has taught a variety of classes, including but not limited to, relief printing, screen printing and private music lessons. In his off-time, Micah enjoys making bad techno music and art about chicken-strips.
SAM
Quality Assurance Manager & Film and Writing Instructor
A product of the VHS era, Sam spent his youth watching the tapes of Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Tim Burton, Richard Donner, John McTiernan, George Lucas, John Carpenter, Francis Ford Coppola, and Paul Verhoeven over and over and over again until even tracking didn’t work anymore and he had to get a new tape. And when those tapes stopped working he'd turn to his other love of comic books
Sam graduated from the Film and New Media department at UNL in 2008 and worked in television and film in Los Angeles after graduating for a number of years. Sam worked a variety of production positions both on-set and in post-production, most notably on season 1 of the long running MTV series "Ridiculousness".
In 2018, the independent film "Concessionaires Must Die" was released on digital platforms, which Sam served as screenwriter. Sam has also self published a number of comics.
Jessica
Supported Services Program Manager
Jessica has been with Live Yes since 2019. She enjoys teaching art in unconventional ways such as creating art with food. Jessica also enjoys teaching various life skills. Before her time at Live Yes she taught in her home town high school with the special education program. Jessica prides herself as being a bright and shiny personality spreading smiles and happiness. “I might not be able to make a difference in the world but if I can make a world of difference in one person then I know that I’m serving my purpose.”
Sam
Studio Program Manager & Ceramics Instructor
Samantha (Sam) is originally from Athens, Ohio and moved to Lincoln in the spring of 2022. Sam received her undergraduate degree in Art Education with a focus on printmaking and ceramics from Ohio University and her Masters in Special Education from Baldwin Wallace. Although she has over 14 years of working in the special education field and doing lots of paperwork, she has come full circle in returning to her roots as a ceramics artist and collaborating with others in a meaningful way. Live Yes Studios has given her the space to merge her passions of art and teaching and has made Lincoln feel like home after moving away from Ohio.
Samantha is a collector of ceramics, jewelry, vinyl records, and plants. She loves going to see live music and hanging out with her daughter, husband and animals at their house in her free time.
HANNAH
Studio Floor Manager & Fiber Arts Instructor
Hannah is originally from Pennsylvania. Hannah earned her BA in Studio Art, emphasizing in drawing and painting from Union College. She also earned a minor in Italian from Villa Aurora in Florence Italy and a PLIDA certificate from the Dante Alighieri Society, but don’t let that fool you, most of her year abroad was studying artwork, eating gelato, and drinking espresso. She has done some masters level learning at UNL in Art History and while there she became passionate about the history of art created in alternative spaces. In a search to find a place where she could connect artistically and actively share her creativity, she found Live Yes Studios.
Hannah’s personal art practice fluctuates between whimsical illustrations and bold abstractions. She plays on the dichotomy of life/death, mundane/extraordinary, form/content. She loves writing poetry, painting snakes in sweaters, and making tufted rugs. She hopes to encourage other artists to try, fail, learn, and keep imagining new possibilities through their artwork. She has been part of the downtown art gallery scene since 2017.
Stephanie
Gallery Manager & Visual and Performing Arts Instructor
Stephanie Olivia Wright’s legacy of adult nonsense began as a tender child born and raised in southern Louisiana. And a good part of that time in Florida an overall setting for a future swamp witch, really. Her love of drawing animals from a young age compelled her to consider a future in zoology. Her parent’s knowledge of her sensitivity to blood and animal death—(they’d seen her watch the Lion King and threaten to become a vegetarian)— encouraged her to do something more practical with her future: “You should really become an artist and just draw animals instead”. Stephanie graduated with a BFA from University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a focus in printmaking. Seeking further guidance in her artistic journey fate brought her to Lincoln NE where she earned her Master’s in Fine Art in 2017. Still concocting nihilistic depictions of animal imagery, Stephanie currently works at Live Yes where she spreads her wealth of self-deprecating philosophy and delusions of grandeur to other artists. Amongst sarcastic quips and puns. She still cries while watching The Lion King.
Nate
Visual Arts Instructor
Nate started working at RHD in August 2013. He initially worked in residential housing but transferred to Live Yes Studios in December of 2013. Nate worked at Live Yes until May 2018, then he moved to Nashville Tennessee, to be a country music singer. When he got there he remembered he can't sing, or play an instrument, and he didn't even like country music. But he did like working at an alternative day school for children with behavioral challenges.
Despite this, Nate missed Nebraska and the studio so much he moved back and resumed working at Live Yes Studios in March of 2020.