Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Mia de Bethune, Kelley Linhardt, and Valeria Koutmina, who will collaborate on finalizing a 500-page, 25-chapter handbook for art therapists. This groundbreaking volume, set to be published by Routledge in May 2026, aims to guide practitioners in adopting a whole-bodied approach to art therapy.
Mia de Bethune, Kelley Linhardt, & Valeria Koutmina
Mia de Bethune
Kelley Linhardt
Valeria Koutmina
The editors of The Embodied Art Therapist, a manual and textbook for art therapists, will spend their three weeks at Catslair reviewing the second draft of the book. Mia de Bethune, Kelley Linhardt, and Val Koutmian will take a macro look at the entire project to determine a coherent throughline for all five sections and 25 chapters. They are thrilled to be back in this gracious space and anticipate intensive sessions followed by long walks in the meadow and woods and many good meals.
Affiliation: NYU
Winter Session
Feb 4th - 16th
Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Alex Higgin-Houser and Dan Gibson, award-winning musical theatre collaborators. Alex’s Haymarket won Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award, while Discovery (mus: Gibson), developed with NASA astronauts, was thrice selected for Catwalk. Dan, a composer and music director, has had his musicals workshopped at universities and has led music direction for major theaters. Both hold MFAs from NYU Tisch and continue to develop innovative new works, including Discovery.
Alex Higgin-Houser and Dan Gibson
Alex Higgin-Houser
Dan Gibson
Alex Higgin-Houser and Dan Gibson are developing Discovery, a new musical about NASA astronauts navigating the aftermath of the 1986 Challenger disaster and the return-to-flight launch of Discovery in 1988. Written in consultation with former astronauts and based on extensive research, the piece explores resilience and the decision to try again after catastrophe. At Catwalk, they are working toward completing a full draft, continuing a process that began with archival research in 2021 and early drafting at Catslair in 2022. Discovery is being developed by Broadway’s Drama Club Productions.
Affiliation: NYU
Winter Session
Feb 19th - Mar 9th
Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Francesca Spiegel, whose performative writing project Brevity is the River of the World will explore the joy of short-form writing through observations of nature’s intricate ecosystems.
Francesca Spiegel
Francesca Spiegel
Francesca Spiegel attended Catwalk in 2023 as part of a four-person theater working group to rediscover Queen For a Day, a 1950s game show where housewives competed for the title of “most tragic and difficult life” to receive corporate-sponsored gifts as supposed solutions. The project used physical, musical, archival, and documentary theater, as well as clowning and experimental writing, to redefine the show’s relevance today. A writer of book-length works and long essays, Francesca has declared 2025 her “year of being brief,” challenging herself to write 52 short pieces in a performative writing project called Brevity is the River of the World. During her Catwalk residency, she will draw inspiration from the ecosystem, observing organisms in nature to explore the relationality between long and short texts and to spark joy in the short form.
Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Sue Uhlig, an artist and Ph.D. candidate in Art Education at Penn State University. During her residency, she will advance her dissertation on collections as collaborative, participatory spaces and create an artist book inspired by Charles Herbert Moore, Edith Howland, and Purcell Palmer.
Sue Uhlig
Sue Uhlig
Sue Uhlig is an artist and art educator who is currently working on her Ph.D. in Art Education at Penn State University. In her dissertation, she uses a research-creation approach to explore how collections can be sites of collaboration and participatory practice. In her research, she also investigates how a gift economy can help make and unmake the collections, which strengthens a sense of community and underscores the importance of sustainability. Her creative practice is multi-sensory and incorporates layers of found objects, photography, drawings, text, and sound to create cabinets of curiosity in books, small boxes, and large rooms, often with public participation.
Affiliation: Penn State
Winter Session
March 12th - 29th
Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Morgan J. Smart (she/her), a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist and NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing alum. Morgan returns to Catwalk's Winter Session to advance her feature-length film, SMART WOMEN. Set on a small English Channel island, the story follows three women—Niece, Aunt, and Grandmother—navigating grief, self-discovery, and acceptance. During her residency, Morgan will finalize the next draft and prepare materials for production, festival, and grant applications.
Morgan Smart
Morgan Smart
Morgan J. Smart (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist from Chicago, Illinois, and a graduate of NYU's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program. Her work has been presented at Goodspeed Opera House, Lincoln Center New Works Diversity Series, NYU Tisch, and New York Theatre Barn. As a dramaturg, she has collaborated with Hi-Arts NYC, New Victory Theatre on Broadway, Seattle's Village Theatre, and Portland Opera. In 2022, she developed the initial outline for the Broadway-bound Six Triple Eight: A New Musical at Catslair.
Affiliation: NYU
Winter Session
April 2nd - 20th
Catwalk Institute proudly welcomes Saladin White II and Lexx Truss , co-writers and collaborators. Their work includes Muscle Memory (National Board of Review Student Grant) and Lexx’s Zarina (Grand Prize winner). Since 2022, they’ve produced Wholesome, $unny Daze: The Metamorphosis of a Single, and Morrow.
Saladin White II and Lexx Truss
Saladin White II
Lexx Truss
Lexx Truss and Saladin White II are creative collaborators who first met at Point Park University. At the time, Lexx was studying Film, and Saladin was studying Theater. Since then, the two have worked closely on almost every project, acting as Producers and Co-writers. Their work as co-writers on Saladin’s Columbia UniversityMFA thesis short film, Muscle Memory, was screened at festivals nationally and was awarded the National Board of Review Student Grant. Simultaneously, Lexx was declared the Grand Prize Winner of the Emerge! Filmmaking Lab through Little Ugly, Ghetto Film School, Vimeo, and Dolby for his short psychological thriller, Zarina. From 2022 to the present, the two have produced three films together: Wholesome (Dir. Saladin), $unny Daze: The Metamorphosis of a Single (Dir. Lexx), and Morrow (Co-Dir. Lexx).
