Miller Beach Arts & Creative District
Ann Rose
Corey Hagelberg
Eric Reaves
Eric Dean Spruth
Gene Ayers
Heather McCarthy
Community Service-In addition to his many business and Association responsibilities, Gene has given back to his community in many ways. He is the Past President of the Gary Rotary with 34 consecutive years of perfect attendance.
John Cain has served South Shore Arts as executive director since 1993 and has been instrumental in the organization’s rise as a leader in the cultural life of the Calumet Region. He has led South Shore Arts through an evolutionary phase, culminating in the opening of two branch locations and its designation by the Indiana Arts Commission as a Regional Arts Partner.
Irene Smith-King has been a life-long resident of Gary, Indiana and currently lives in the Miller community of Gary. She and her husband have been active in Gary and raised their three children in the community. (All graduates of Emerson Visual & Performing Arts School) She attended Roosevelt High School and Ball State University.
Mrs. Smith- King is a patron and advocate for the arts. She has spent the last 15 years dedicated to public service and the arts.
Karren has lived in Miller since 1966. Her first business venture was the Upper Crust, a casual dining restaurant that opened in 1979 in one of the oldest buildings in the Art’s District that is now occupied by Pryweller Realty. The restaurant was very successful for its time but ultimately closed due to the same perceptions that now plagues Lake Street.
Karren joined the advertising department of the Post Tribune in 1984. She was chosen as one of twelve managers of the Knight Ridder chain from throughout the country that were fast tracked for upper management. She enjoyed extensive custom marketing training from this Fortune 500 Company and quickly rose to Director of Retail Advertising at the Post Tribune where she was recognized with many marketing awards.
KAY ROSEN is a midwest-based artist from Texas who never went to art school. Instead she studied language, which forms the imagery of her paintings, drawings, prints, collages, and installations on walls, billboards, and buildings. Rosen's work has been exhibited in museums and institutions for several decades, including at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, where she had a retrospective exhibition in 1998-99; The Whitney Museum of American Art; The Hirschhorn Museum; The Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; MASS MOCA; and the MCA Chicago. Her work has also been featured in solo gallery exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Eric E. Reaves a forty-year resident of Gary’s Miller Neighborhood and is President of the Miller Citizens Corporation (MCC). Eric’s interest in business and entrepreneurship began early; at fourteen he asked for and received subscriptions to Fortune and Forbes magazines. An early desire to own his own business in Gary resulted in the first Jet Ski rental business on the southern shores of Lake Michigan, a four-star Mexican restaurant, and several other local partnerships and businesses. Not limiting himself to Gary he co-owned a Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Shop in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.
Eric Dean Spruth is a trained artist, graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an undergraduate degree in fine art with a minor in Psychology and Philosophy, and a Masters Degree in Art Therapy. He has served as a professor at the Adler School of Professional Psychology Art Therapy program, and expressive art therapist within the Cook County Bureau of Health mental health services department of Cermak Health Services / Cook County Jail
Fiber Artist and Art Teacher. A native of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Holds a B.Sc. Degree; Arkansas A.M. & N. College (presently the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff)
Professor, Department of Arts Administration and Policy, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Academic Appointments
Fall 1994 – present
Department of Arts Administration and Policy, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, founding Chair
Department of Arts Administration and Policy, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, founding ChairMartha C. Bohn
Irene Smith King
Janet Bean
Jennifer Fredericks
John Cain
Kay Rosen
Karren Lee
Larry Lapidus
Marianita Porterfield
Rachel Weiss
Wendy Prettyman
Judy Bielak
Board Members
Marty is Director of the Neurobiology Program at the Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Research Center and is a tenured Professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University. She has served on many advisory boards for scientific societies, the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health and was President of the Society for Neural Therapy and Repair and the Chicago Chapter for the Society for Neuroscience. She is co-founder of the biotechnology company MedGenesis Therapeutix.
Marty has been a resident of Miller, IN since 2004. Marty is involved with the Miller community and likes to photograph landscapes in the area and through her travels. She has exhibited her photography at Gallery 46403, the Lake Street Gallery and Pop Up Art events in Miller. Marty is a board member of the Miller Garden Club and sends out the monthly Garden Club Newsletter. She also served on the Board for the Aquatorium Society and is a board member of the South Shore Dance Alliance. She is a founding member of the Miller Beach Arts and Creative District and serves as secretary and chair of the district’s grants committee.
My experience in the arts has been primarily through my career as a professional multi-instrumental international touring and recording musician and songwriter. I have released over 25 full length recorded formats through both major and independent labels over the last 30 years. Through my career as a musician I have had the honor to be involved with many diverse and challenging volunteer efforts. I have participated in countless fund raising activities both through the donation of musical revenue and hands on operations.
Ann E. Rose, is a native of Miller Beach and an Executive Assistant at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Chicago, Illinois.
Ann began designing unique, one-of-a-kind jewelry over 13 years ago. You can find Annie Rose Originals on display at Lake Street Gallery in Miller Beach, Miller Beach Farmer’s Market, Lotus Spa in Chesterton, various fundraisers and parties around NW Indiana and the Greater Chicagoland area. Additionally, Ann donates jewelry sets to silent auctions for worthy causes such as UNICEF, Association House of Chicago, Crisis Center and the NW Indiana Humane Society.
Heather McCarthy
Heather McCarthy has been a VP at Geminus Corporation for nine years. Her role at Geminus includes the oversight of state and federal grant funding for local, regional, and statewide initiatives promoting healthy communities. She holds a MA from Purdue University, a MPA from Indiana University Northwest, and her juris doctorate from Valparaiso School of Law. Heather is also a practicing attorney in the state of Indiana.
Corey Hagelberg was born and raised in Gary, Indiana. He received his BFA in sculpture from Ball State University in 2006 where he got a chance to study for a semester in Italy. . In 2008 he co-founded a playground construction company. Since then he has travelled to 30 states and Guam building several hundred playgrounds. In 2010 Corey returned to Ball State to earn a Masters in Art in Printmaking. He has volunteered building playgrounds in Alabama after the devastation of hurricane Katrina and in building a park with the Transformazium artist collective in Braddock, Pennsylvania. He has recently moved back to Gary and has co-founded the Calumet Artist Residency as a way to enrich the Miller Beach community and provide helpful resources to working artists. He has participated in over thirty group and solo shows. He is represented by galleries in Gary, Muncie,Indianapolis, Indiana and Union Pier, Michigan.
Jennifer Fredericks is vice president of product program for Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana, the premier leadership development organization for girls ages 5 – 17. In her role as vice president of product program for the nation’s largest Girl Scout council, Jennifer ensures that the five skills of goal setting, decision making, people skills, money management and business ethics are infused throughout the Girl Scout Cookie program for nearly 87,000 girls and 24,000 adult volunteers across six Illinois counties and four Indiana counties, and that girls reach their individual goals.
Click on the board member name below for more information where available.
Judy Bielak is originally from Hammond, Indiana, now resides in Portage but spends much of her free time in Miller. She has a BA in Interior Design from the Art Institute and works for A. Rudin, a custom upholstery showroom at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago.
She has volunteered at the Nazareth Home in East Chicago and served as co-chair for their annual fund raising event.
Her creative talents include painting, photography and especially sewing and textile art.
