Hatch Asheville rolls out guest list

The first annual HATCH Asheville is right around the corner: The creative-arts and mentoring festival will take place April 15 to 19, offering dozens of workshops, panels, fashion shows, film screenings, musical performances and many more events. While some events will be ticketed, most will be free and open to the public.

The festival will pair mentors from seven disciplines with up-and-coming “groundbreakers,” who will get one-on-one advice on how to move their work forward. HATCH Asheville has finalized its list of mentors—a varied group of experienced professionals from all of the disciplines. Craig McAnsh, HATCH Asheville’s executive director, says even though it’s the festival’s first outing here, organizers have managed to draw in some major talent.

“The mentors will blow you away,” he says. “Some of the most talented and accomplished people in the world—across all the HATCH disciplines—will be convening in Asheville to share, mentor and inspire all of us.”

Below, a list of the mentors for each of the disciplines:

• FILM: Screenwriter Coleman Hough, author of the screenplay for director Steven Soderbergh’s Full Frontal, an HBO script about the life of Katharine Graham, and other works; Adrian Belic, developer of the Sundance Audience Award winner and Academy Award-nominated Genghis Blues and director and producer of Beyond the Call; cinematographer David Klein, best known for working with director Kevin Smith on the films Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Clerks II and Zack and Miri Make a Porno; noted digital animator Nick Hiatt; and Emmy- and Oscar Award-winning sound editor John Sisti.

• MUSIC: Ashley Capps, founder of Bonnaroo music festival and A.C. Entertainment; singer/songwriter and Hotel Café founder Gary Jules; Benjamin Taylor, owner of music label Iris Records; and Daytrotter magazine founder Sean Moeller.

• PHOTOGRAPHY: Noted photographers who will mentor at the festival and/or display their work include Ken Abbott, Rob Amberg, Eric Baden,  Cathryn Griffin, Jody Servon, Mike Smith, Mark Steinmetz and Jeff Whetstone.

• ARCHITECTURE: David Riz, principal architect for KieranTimberlake; Doug Hecker, professor and founder of cusa.dds, a digital-fabrication shop at the Clemson University School of Architecture; and Martha Skinner, also of Clemson University.

• FASHION: Artist, curator and textile researcher Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada; artist/designer Elisa Jimenez; and Mary Gehlhar, vice president of brand strategy at Gen Art, a national nonprofit arts organization dedicated to helping emerging talent.

• DESIGN/TECH: Evan Twyford, an industrial designer working in NASA’s Habitability Design Center; Joe Wilcox, toy inventor at IDEO and former NASA mechanisms specialist; Manuel Lima, interaction designer, information architect, researcher and founder of VisualComplexity.com; Scott Pagano, a filmmaker, motion designer and spatial reconstructionist; and noted VJ Rob Pope, who is one of two members of VJ Duo Dijjital Ambiance.

• JOURNALISM: Andrew Fitzgerald, supervising producer for citizen journalism at San Francisco-based Current TV; Jeff Pohlman, an Emmy Award-winning director and producer for CNBC; Julie Shapiro, artistic director of Chicago Public Radio’s Third Coast International Audio Festival; and Jess McCuan, Asheville-based editor of regional women’s magazine VERVE and a former staffer for The Wall Street Journal, Inc. and SmartMoney.com.

For more information on HATCH, visit www.hatchasheville.org.