Artful Business Cohort

The High Point Arts Council Artful Business Cohort (ABC) was created to address the need for support among visual and fine artists from marginalized communities in the greater High Point area. This program is designed to foster creativity, develop skills, and provide artists with essential business tools to succeed. While priority will be given to artists in High Point, artists from outside the area are also welcome to apply.

Ignite Your Creativity

Learn the key elements of art and design while diving into the works of great artists from history. This cohort will push you to explore new perspectives and inspire fresh ideas in your artistic practice.

Develop Your Skills & Confidence

You’ll have the chance to create original artwork based on what you learn, building your skills in visual art techniques and gaining the confidence to push your creative boundaries.

Gain Essential Business Tools for Success

Beyond the art, we’ll provide you with the business knowledge and tools necessary to thrive in the creative industry, ensuring you're prepared for success in a variety of artistic careers.

Elibility

Visual or Fine Artist
Priority given to High Point Residents

Class Schedule

Class Meeting Dates: Mondays, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM

First 8 Weeks

Fundamental Art & Entrepreneurship

Second 8 Weeks

Fundamental Art & Entrepreneurship

Exhibition Dates

April 13, 2026: All exhibition artwork due
April 24-29, 2026: High Point Furniture Market – Artwork on Display
April 27, 2026: Artwork Exhibition Reception
June 12, 2026: Art Exhibition ends

2025-2026 ABC Cohort Participants

Empowered Artists Sustained Growth Thriving Creators

The Artful Business Cohort is a collaborative initiative of the High Point Arts Council, made possible through funding from the City of High Point and Guilford County.

Daris Garnes

Daris Garnes is a Greensboro, North Carolina based visual artist and educator whose work blends abstract painting, mixed media, and meditative practices. As a resident artist with the Creative Aging Network–NC (CAN-NC), she creates intuitive, layered works that evolve organically through reflection and discovery. Her practice integrates mindfulness and creativity, most notably through her “Art for Calm” workshops, where participants engage in meditative art-making to foster relaxation, self-awareness, and emotional expression. Incorporating storytelling and creative writing, Garnes also guides individuals in exploring personal narratives, using art as a tool for connection, reflection, and healing.

Debra Riggs

Debra Riggs is a Lexington, North Carolina based fine artist and instructor whose work focuses on portraits, figures, and landscapes, capturing both the physical presence and emotional depth of her subjects through bold color, light, and expressive brushwork. Inspired by quiet, unguarded moments, she often begins her process en plein air, translating immediate impressions of atmosphere and place into layered studio compositions rich with movement and narrative. A Wisconsin native, Riggs studied at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and continued her training in Atlanta, developing a strong foundation in figure drawing and portraiture. Working in oil, gouache, and pastel, her work is widely collected, and she remains actively engaged in live painting and collaborative creative communities, using her art to explore the intimate connections between people, place, and emotion.

William Conrad Erwin II

William Conrad Erwin II is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and entrepreneur based in High Point, North Carolina. He is the founder and studio director of EarnSomeHeight®, a creative studio and intellectual property development firm focused on original concepts, design, and cultural storytelling across multiple mediums. Working across painting, ballpoint pen, and multimedia, Erwin is particularly known for his detailed portraiture and distinctive ballpoint technique. Through his studio practice, he develops and showcases creative work spanning art, entertainment, editorial, music, and film, building a growing creative footprint both locally and internationally.

Ebonique Day

Ebony Day Widely known as Lady Picasso, she is a multidisciplinary artist, jewelry designer, and creative based in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her work spans a range of mediums, including digital art, canvas painting, and handcrafted jewelry through her brand, Lady Picasso Jewelry.

Denise "Nisi" Lee

Denise “NiSi” Lee is a Greensboro, North Carolina–based multidisciplinary artist, creative entrepreneur, and storyteller whose work spans painting, poetry, performance, and makeup artistry. Exploring themes of identity, healing, and the celebration of Black femininity, she blends bold visual portraiture with personal narrative to spark dialogue around culture, resilience, and self-expression. As the founder of NiSi’s Eyes Makeup Artistry and creator of TopShelf Artistry by NiSi, her practice merges beauty and fine art as tools for storytelling and empowerment. Emerging from a deeply personal creative journey during the COVID-19 pandemic, her work continues to center reflection, connection, and the transformative power of art across multiple platforms.

Page Gleeson

Page Gleeson is a visual artist and educator based in High Point, North Carolina. Known for her detailed representational work, she specializes in commissioned portraits created in pencil, pastel, and charcoal. Her drawings are recognized for their careful attention to form, expression, and the subtle qualities that bring each subject to life. Gleeson is the owner and operator of Studio 136 Art Gallery in High Point, where she showcases her own work while also providing exhibition opportunities for fellow local artists. Through both her studio practice and her teaching, she remains committed to supporting the regional arts community and encouraging creative growth. Her work and community involvement have been featured on local North Carolina arts platforms and at events such as the Greensboro Arts Hub and the ArtStock Studio Tour, where she continues to share her passion for portraiture and the visual arts.

Sanaa Sharrieff

Sanaa Sharrieff, also known as Queen Sanaa (QS), is a High Point, North Carolina–based multidisciplinary artist, musician, and community leader whose work spans music, visual art, fashion design, and arts education. Blending storytelling and personal reflection in her music, she has released projects across major streaming platforms while also developing her visual art practice through Couture on Canvas and her fashion line, Savvy Chic Clothing. Deeply committed to community empowerment, she serves as an instructor at The Art Gallery (TAG) at Congdon Yards, where she leads creative workshops for youth that merge fine art and fashion. Through her diverse creative work, Sharrieff inspires others to embrace self-expression, confidence, and connection through the arts.

Kristin Price

Kristin Price is an intuitive painter based in Thomasville, North Carolina. Born and raised in New Jersey, she has been creatively inclined since childhood, though mostly with pencil and paper. Her painting practice began in late 2020 during the Covid pandemic to pass the time. It was then she discovered a love of color and the meditative effect of putting paint on
canvas. As a mixed media artist, she works with acrylic paint and ink, soft pastels, charcoal and occasionally collage to create her pieces. Inspired by the textures and shapes found in the natural world, Price’s art emerges primarily as interpretive floral forms in vases.

Wanda Robinson

Wanda is a self-taught acrylic painter based in North Carolina whose work is rooted in coastal beginnings and shaped by a lifelong pull toward creative expression. Raised along the Virginia coast, her early connection to the sights and sounds of coastal life continues to influence her work, even as her subject matter expands beyond literal shoreline scenes. Before fully committing to painting, Wanda spent a little over two decades in the corporate world, balancing family life with a creative practice that steadily grew alongside her professional career. In 2021, she stepped away from corporate work to focus entirely on painting, embracing a lifelong calling to create with more intention and freedom. Wanda’s paintings balance impressionistic observation with an occasional touch of abstraction. She is drawn to fleeting moments—soft light across water, distant trees dissolving into atmosphere, birds pausing in stillness—using layered brushwork, restrained palettes, and subtle shifts in value to evoke calm and contemplation. Rather than documenting a place exactly as it appears, her work reflects how a place is felt and remembered. Working primarily in acrylics, Wanda values intuitive mark-making, texture, and rhythm, allowing areas of her paintings to remain loose and suggestive. Her compositions often feature high horizons, softened edges, and quiet expanses that invite the viewer to slow down and linger. Wanda lives and works near Winston Salem, North Carolina, where she maintains a home-based studio and is actively engaged in the regional arts community. Her work reflects an ongoing evolution toward authenticity—painting not just landscapes, but moments of belonging, stillness, and grace.

Terri Millard

Terri Hirtz Millard is a contemporary artist based in High Point, North Carolina, known for her work in collage and mixed media. Her artistic practice centers on carefully layered compositions that transform paper, texture, and color into expressive botanical imagery. Millard’s recent work frequently explores floral themes, particularly detailed daffodil collages and other botanical subjects. Through the layering of materials and intricate design, she captures both the delicacy and vibrancy of the natural world. She is an in-house and resident artist at Studio 136 Gallery in downtown High Point, where she actively participates in exhibitions and community art events. Through her work and presence in the local arts scene, Millard contributes to the creative energy of the High Point arts community while continuing to develop her distinctive mixed-media style.