Paint Love Artist Cohort
Professional Development Program
A transformative, year-long professional development program tailored for artists ready to deepen their creative practice, expand their impact, and grow as leaders in trauma-informed arts education. Through immersive training, collaborative learning, and real-world application, cohort members explore how to create meaningful, healing-centered experiences for youth. This program is ideal for artists who are passionate about using their craft to foster connection, resilience, and joy in school and nonprofit settings.
Earn a professional certificate in Trauma-Informed Arts Programming with Youth & Families
Get 20 hours of hands-on student teaching experience with diverse populations
Participate in 6 trainings, and ongoing discussion, relevant to trauma-informed programming & working with youth
Mentor a Metro Atlanta teen for creative career development
Join an alumni network of local artists advocating for arts and wellbeing
Receive a $2,000 stipend
2027 APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN! APPLY BY OCTOBER 31st, 2026!
Virtual Information Session on Wednesday, October 14th at 8pm. Email michelle@paintlove.org to sign up.
Program Overview
The Paint Love Artist Cohort is a professional development program - a field-building effort, launched in 2022, that provides a unique opportunity for artists interested in incorporating a trauma-informed model in their roles as creatives, teachers, and leaders in our community. During their 12-month journey, cohort members are trained in Paint Love’s trauma-informed model, learn new skills, and receive expert guidance from Atlanta professionals on effectively engaging and creating deeper, more meaningful experiences for young people. Starting with our 2026 cohort, the program includes a professional certificate in trauma-informed arts education earned upon completion of the program.
Graduates of the program have taken on roles at Atlanta-area cultural institutions, become classroom teachers, and pursued other arts-related careers.
Meet our 2026 artist cohort members
Meredith Eastburn is an artist and educator whose practice is rooted in the expressive language of flowers. After earning her MA in Art Education from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she spent several years as a teaching artist in museums, art centers, and schools, guiding students of all ages through subjects ranging from book arts to guerrilla art. Between teaching roles, she founded Amaranthus Paper & Flora, a small studio dedicated to crafting lifelike crepe-paper flowers. She loved sculpting tributes to nature’s fleeting forms and hand-writing the heartfelt messages collectors sent to loved ones—notes of celebration, support, gratitude, and love. Through this work, she viewed flowers as a medium for marking moments, connecting with one another, and saying, “I see you.” After closing the business to focus on her daughter, she experienced how motherhood echoed flowers’ lessons in authenticity, impermanence, and joy. Now, through her floral paintings, personal essays, and bookmaking, she explores the relationships between creation and connection, presence and change, keeping and letting go. Her work reflects on what it means to live fully in the present - while flowers come and go, and little girls grow up and up.
Michael (Quake) Edwards is known for his dynamic use of pastel, charcoal, oil painting, blending techniques, and nostalgic visual storytelling. His work is recognized for its vivid colors, intricate details, and the ability to convey deep emotion and cultural narratives. In addition to his public art, Quake has an eye for creative direction, sharing his expertise in design and concept art with aspiring businesses, artists and organizations through intricately created events & programs. His collaborations with brands and institutions reflect his commitment to pushing the boundaries of contemporary art.
Katie Cash Hayes is an artist, educator, and creative consultant based in Atlanta, Georgia. Her work is inspired by nature and organic forms, reflected in her hand-built pottery, basket weaving, and mixed-media explorations. Guided by the belief that creating is a healing practice, Katie values process over product and approaches art-making as a space for grounding, curiosity, and self-discovery. Her educational style centers on exploration, play, and inclusion. She brings an empathetic and intuitive lens to her work with children and teens—meeting each young artist where they are and helping them feel seen, capable, and creatively brave. Katie is a proud mother to a budding young artist, and her favorite pastime is crafting with her daughter. With over 20 years of experience in education and nonprofits, she now focuses on collaborative consulting work, supporting schools and community organizations that share her commitment to helping young people thrive. She is thrilled to join the 2026 Paint Love Artist Cohort and to collaborate on projects that make art more accessible, joyful, and healing for Atlanta’s young people.
Hiroko Kelly (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer from Newnan, Georgia. In 2017, Hiroko received her Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Kennesaw State University (KSU), with a concentration in Ballet. During her studies, she was able to work with world-renowned choreographers, like Ido Tadmor, Lisa Lock, and Ivan Pulinkala. Through the KSU dance program, she was awarded the opportunity to study abroad with the Batsheva Dance Company, learning various repertories from former company members. From 2014-2023, she was a moving artist and an artistic associate with glo. To further develop herself more as a social artist practitioner, she completed her Master of Art in Urban and Public Affairs from the University of San Francisco in 2023. In 2024, she was a recipient of Dance USA’s Institute for Leadership Training fellowship and Dance Canvas Atlanta Contemporary Summer Choreographic Resident. Now, she is a company member of Full Radius Dance, Burning Bones Physical Theatre, and Catching Mangoes Dance. She continuously commits herself to decolonizing movement practices, believing that art is our greatest catalyst for social change.
Mikael Trench is an Atlanta-based animator, writer, editor, and educator, as well as the founder of TriClops Films, a boutique stop motion studio. His work pushes the stylistic and narrative boundaries of the medium with work that is imaginative, bold, and made with an organic approach that embraces the human hand within the creative process. Under this banner he's directed and animated several original short films that have screened and won awards internationally, made music videos and other projects for various clients, and partnered with different Atlanta-based organizations to promote the art form through hands-on workshops and screenings.
Mirth Mains is a self-taught interdisciplinary teaching artist, driven by a commitment to empowered storytelling. His work weaves together visual art, embodied theater, and broadcast media. His studio practice includes beeswax sculpture, interactive installation, and printmaking. As an instructor at Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, he develops process-oriented mixed media curriculum for the Art Scholars Program that blends foundational techniques, art history, SEL skills, and creative agency. As a member of WRFG’s Program Committee and host of Alternative Perspectives on 89.3FM, he leverages non-commercial radio to open pathways into broadcasting, supporting student-led storytelling and archival projects. Trained in Somatic Healing Modalities at EmbodyLab NYC and Forum Theater facilitation with Theater of the Oppressed NYC, he creates collaborative learning experiences that help young creatives author their own narratives.
Check out past Cohort artists + mentors
The Paint Love Artist Cohort Program is supported in part by Georgia Council for the Arts through the appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. Georgia Council for the Arts also receives support from its partner agency – the National Endowment for the Arts.