by CalArts Community Arts Partnership
Bethlehem Tsehai, Lead Instructor
Tsehai is a Los Angeles- based artist working in painting, installation, performance and video. Her work addresses race, desire, identity, and pop culture through a critical lens. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Art at California Institute of the Arts.
Emmet Prieto Webster, Lead Instructor
Emmet Prieto Webster is a multimedia artist who grew up, and works, in Los Angeles. He began making art by making flyers and cassette covers in the backyard punk scene, and now uses free digital tools to make art about the interaction of subculture and identity. He is interested in bubblegum pop, reality tv, dungeons and dragons, dance music and death metal. Emmet is currently an artist in residence at the Level Ground Collective.
Pedro Fequiere Jr., Lead Instructor
Pedro Fequiere Jr. is a multidisciplinary artist living in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in Fine Arts with a focus in Illustration at Columbus College of Art & Design. He gained experience as a working illustrator and writer at internet media company BuzzFeed. His illustrations have been featured on BuzzFeed, MTV, Huffington Post, and Afropunk. When he’s not rewinding Rakim’s verse on “The Watcher,” he’s daydreaming about whether reincarnation is real — and if he could be a prize-winning show dog, owned by a kind family of course.
Cody Edison, Current Student Instructor
Cody Edison is an artist working with photography, film and video. He lives and works in Los Angeles, and he is currently an MFA candidate for Film/Video studies at CalArts, with a Lillian Disney Scholarship. Cody received his BFA in the photography and media program from CalArts in 2012. In 2013 he began volunteering photography and video services for medical pediatric hospice patients in Central and Southern California. He became interested in documentary practices and discovered from these volunteer experiences that making a photograph is not only about taking, but giving too.
Safira Patel, Current Student Instructor
Safira Patel is a working artist born and raised in Los Angeles. Her practice includes using photography, found object and sound installation, and performance to question family and personal history. She is also very interested in exploring different art forms in the context of a larger history, such as underground zine and bookmaking, and indigenous tattooing. She cares deeply about supporting community programming that is rooted in a sense of genuine need, care, and interest from the community. Safira is currently earning her BFA in Photography & Media at CalArts.