Ela Spalding
Founder and director of Estudio Nuboso. Artist~facilitator exploring the ecotones between fields of knowledge, using art as a conduit to practice and convey notions of ecology and interconnectedness. Her work focuses on sound, wellbeing and nature’s processes to invite listening and resonance within and without. She shares her time between Panama and Mallorca (Spain).
Ana Berta Carrizo
Cultural manager, photographer and anthropology graduate, she is dedicated to promoting the arts through social work focused on cultural and educational development in Panama. With Estudio Nuboso she collaborates in the direction of the project and also co-leads the LAB and Flash LAB of Art and Science. She is the executive director of Fundación Alemán Healy, founder of its Arts Education Program, and her focus is to foster collective creativity and income opportunities for artists in general.
Emily Zhukov
Resident in Panama since 1994. She is a nationally and internationally recognized artist and art professor at Florida State University and The International School of Panama. She is a founding member of Estudio Nuboso and co-leader of the Art and Science LAB and Flash LAB. Her interest in promoting connections between art, science and education has moved her to lead several community initiatives in landscape design to introduce native species and re-establish viable ecosystems.
Lorena Carrasco
Visual communicator with studies in Graphic Design (USMA), Visual Arts (UP) and a specialization in Editorial Design for print and digital media from the European Institute of Design – Madrid. She began her professional career at Ají Pintao and has been part of the team with Cerebro Y&R, Kiosco Creativo and INAC. Since 2016 she works in visual communication independently. Her collaboration with Estudio Nuboso started with the publications of the Art and Science LABs. In 2020 she joined the Estudio Nuboso team to work on its visual identity and in the various projects carried out by the association. www.lorenacarrasco.com
Tova Katzman
Artist specialized in photography and video, with a degree from the Massachusetts College of Art (USA). She arrived in Panama in 2015 to document the first Art and Science LAB and returned in 2017 with a Fulbright grant to work on her own project, titled “Si caigo en el Canal, nada, nado”. Focusing on themes such as globalization, spirituality and the environment, her work begins with conversations and research to address the complex relationship between humans and ecosystems. Tova currently lives in Panama City, where she works on personal projects while assisting other artists and works for organizations such as STRI, Acnur, Enlaces, FundAHrte and Harvard. She is the main photographer for Estudio Nuboso and La Selva Llama, the latter, a transmedia documentary directed by Carolina Borrero. www.tovakatzman.com
Carolina Borrero
Audiovisual filmmaker who is part of the Cine ANIMAL collective based in Panama City. She holds a degree in Film Directing from the Universidad del Cine de Buenos Aires and has directed the chapter “1913” of the film “Historias del Canal” (2014) and the short documentary “Los Cuentos del Bosque” (2019). She was a curator of the Panama City Museum for the audiovisual exhibition “Imagining the City: retrospective of Panamanian Cinema”. She is producer of MicroCine ANIMAL and ESPAVÉ, alternative distribution initiatives, and with Estudio Nuboso she has collaborated directing the documentation of the different iterations of the Art and Science LAB and Flash LAB . She is currently developing the feature documentary “La Selva Llama”.
Collaborators and Allies
Mana Pinto, Libertad Rodríguez, Victoria Alegría Rodríguez, Mariela Aragón Chiari, Ricardo Linero Ledezma, Wanda von Bremen, Héctor Ayarza, Jonathan Hernández Arana, José Carlos Zavarse, Rose Marie Cromwell, Jennifer Spector, Carla Escoffery, Oris Sanjur, Patrick Dillon, Mariana Núñez, among others.
Advisors
Charlotte Elton
Born in England and educated at Oxford University, she has lived and worked in Panama since 1969 and is a founding member of the Panamanian Center for Social Studies and Action CEASPA, which uses Paulo Freire’s adult education methods. In 2007 she was awarded an Honorary Masters Degree from the Conway School of Landscape Design, for her work as director of CEASPA’s team with communities and public agencies for the protection and sustainable development of the former Fort Sherman – an area used for jungle operations training, now the San Lorenzo Protected Area. In 2013 CEASPA won an award from Birdlife International Conservation for the work she helped manage with communities in the protected areas of Achiote, Colón and the Ngäbe-Buglé comaraca on the Atlantic coast and the Damani wetlands and Cerro Santiago cloud forests in the Talamanca mountain range. She represents CEASPA on the National Wetlands Committee and is a former member of the Panama Audubon Society.