Ashley Bowman, artistic director & founding member
As a founding member and chair of the Board of Directors for Artifact Dance Project, Ashley combines her skills as a dancer, choreographer and designer to help promote and market the company. Her passion for all styles of dance and media inspire endless projects, including all the marketing and website design for ADP. As a graphic artist, her portfolio includes a recently published book titled, "Thanks for Being With Us, Contemporary Art from the Collection of Douglas Nielsen" for the Tucson Museum of Art. Ashley most recently received the position of graphic designer for the University of Arizona, College of Fine Arts.
She received her Masters of Fine Arts in dance at the University of Arizona (in addition to her B.F.A) where she was the recipient of the generous Maria Mandell Memorial Scholarship, The Creative Achievement Award, and The Outstanding Teachers Assistant Award from the College of Fine Arts. Some of her performance roles with UA Dance included principle couple in Balanchine's Allegro Brillante and Serenade. She received her training from Ballet Arts in Tucson, AZ under the direction of Mary Beth Cabana. Ashley attended Point Park University, Pittsburgh where she performed works by Robert Battle and Margo Sappington. Prior to returning to Tucson, Ashley danced professionally for Ohio Ballet under the direction of Jeffrey Graham Hughes for three seasons, where she performed works by choreographers such as Lynne Taylor Corbett, Sam Watson, Cynthia Gregory and Bengt Jörgen. Her husband, Ben Nisbet, is the Music Director for ADP and inspires much of her work in collaboration with music.
In January 2009 Ashley and fellow dancer, Joshua Blake Carter founded "Dance in the RED" a concert dedicated to AIDS awareness through the art form of dance, which raised over $9,000 for the Southern Arizona AIDS Foundation. Artifact Dance Project currently maintains "Dance in the Red" and produced the concert in March, 2010.
Ashley has directed several films as well as projections inspired by dance;
A Sleeper's Wake, A Bohemian Departure, All Men Are Mortal, Tragedystrike and Laundromats and Dreamdestroyers.
