The backbone of Coconut Grove Arts Festival’s artist selection process is our esteemed panel of jurors. A different panel is put in place each year, tasked with the arduous evaluation of the submissions of hundreds of artists from across the country. It’s the one of the most crucial steps in the months-long preparation leading up to the annual Arts Festival (in 2026, Feb. 14-16). At its heart, this process reflects our ongoing commitment to excellence and inclusion. Being selected for the Coconut Grove Arts Festival is both a distinction and an achievement, the result of critical evaluation by some of the most respected professionals in the art world.

But who are these individuals? The jury pool itself is composed of five highly accomplished artists and show directors from across the U.S. Each juror is an expert in their field and a strong advocate for the mission of the outdoor arts festival movement. Let’s take a closer look…

[ABOVE PHOTO: Reiko Uchytil, ceramic artist and member of 2026 CGAF jury.]

SETH LEWIS: LEADING WITH CREATIVITY, COMMUNITY, AND COLLABORATION

Seth Lewis is an Event Producer, Consultant, and Curator based in Downtown Oklahoma City. After eight years with Arts Council Oklahoma City—serving first as Projects Director and later as Festival of the Arts Director—he now operates his own event production and curatorial business, collaborating with organizations, nonprofits, and companies nationwide.

During his tenure at Arts Council OKC, Seth directed several of the city’s most iconic events, including Opening Night, Oklahoma City’s signature New Year’s Eve celebration; the Sunday Twilight Concert Series; and the nationally recognized Festival of the Arts, where he coordinated more than 40 volunteer committees and over 400 volunteers each year.

Beyond production, Seth brings additional experience in sports entertainment with the OKC Dodgers and in the hospitality industry. He holds a B.A. in Organizational Leadership from the University of Oklahoma.

An active community leader, Seth serves on the Board of Trustees for OKC Ballet, is the Logistics Chair for the St. Jude OKC Walk/Run, and volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters, deadCenter Film Festival, and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. A graduate of Leadership OKC’s LOYAL Class XII and Signature Class 41, he has been recognized as one of OKC Friday’s Most Powerful Young Professionals for three consecutive years.

JOHN COSTIN: WHERE ART & NATURE CONVERGE

As a resident of Ybor City in Tampa, Florida, John is known for his striking, life-size etchings of Florida’s rich and diverse bird life. With a background in contemporary art, he explores the nuances unique to each species, presenting birds as sentient beings aware of the viewer’s presence. “Through my art, I strive to capture and personify birds,” he says, “enriching the viewer’s perception of wildlife they may rarely experience. Their reaction to the viewer reveals unique traits, fostering a deeper sensitivity to the natural world we all share.”

Working in the etching medium, John combines the disciplines of painting, sculpture, printmaking, and engineering. His fascination with this process began at the University of South Florida, where he studied intaglio art and discovered the expressive potential of etching. The medium’s possibilities—its depth, texture, and range of tone—continue to inspire him. “It’s a visual language of limitless variation,” he notes, “with colors from subtle to intense, blacks from delicate to velvety, and textures bound only by imagination.”

Each piece begins as a polished copper plate, meticulously hand-etched over six to eight weeks. Once the image is complete, the plate is inked, printed on fine rag paper, and hand-painted with oils, creating richly colored works where no two are identical.

A professional artist since 1979, John has exhibited widely and earned numerous awards throughout the South. His works appear in major corporate and institutional collections, including Raymond James Financial, the Tampa Museum of Art, the University of Miami, and the State Library of Florida. Most recently, he completed Large Florida Birds, a limited-edition volume of 20 life-size bird etchings, with a foreword by 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jack E. Davis.

REIKO UCHYTIL: WHERE CLAY BECOMES A LIVING STORY

Reiko Uchytil is a second-generation ceramic artist whose lifelong journey with clay began in her parents’ pottery studio. Growing up surrounded by creativity, she studied under her mentors—and parents—master ceramicists Miky and the late Steve Cunningham, whose influence instilled in her both technical mastery and a deep respect for the art form.

Reiko began exhibiting her work in 2012 as an emerging artist at the Des Moines Arts Festival, marking the start of her professional career on the American art show circuit. Since then, she has continued to expand her presence nationally, captivating audiences with her imaginative and tactile approach to clay.

A graduate of the University of Iowa, Reiko holds a B.A. in Health and Human Physiology and Psychology, with a minor in Dance—an interdisciplinary background that informs her understanding of movement, form, and the human connection to art.

For Reiko, clay serves as both a vehicle and a voice—a medium through which imagination takes physical shape. Each piece she creates reflects a lifelong exploration of balance, emotion, and motion, bridging her scientific insight and artistic intuition. Through her work, she invites viewers to engage not just with the clay itself, but with the rhythm and energy it embodies.

MICHELE A. FRIEDMAN: CHICAGO’S VISIONARY IN MODERN ADORNMENT

A lifelong Chicagoan, Michele was inspired by art, architecture and design from an early age. Michele had the intention of becoming a fashion designer and attended Parson School of Design in New York City, but it was there she decided to become a metal smith, jeweler. When returning to Chicago she learned the business of the Contemporary American Craft Marketplace. She apprenticed for a local goldsmith and worked as a jewelry buyer and manager of a well known and respected gallery.

Her first bodies of jewelry were sterling and then mixed metals, utilizing marriage of metals with some cold connections and kinetic elements. Her desire to incorporate color into her jewelry took a while to develop as she wanted to work with an alternative material, which ultimately became wool felt and her primary focus in 2006.

Michele has been a full time, self employed jewelry artist for 27 years mostly exhibiting her wool felt and sterling silver jewelry at art fairs, craft shows and knitting conferences across the United States with an occasional gallery and online show in the mix. Michele resides and works in Chicago with her husband and two cats.

SHARON TANNER: CELEBRATING DECADES OF ART LEADERSHIP

Sharon Tanner has dedicated more than three decades to championing the arts and supporting artists through some of Virginia’s most beloved outdoor festivals. Her journey began in 1989 when she accepted what she describes as “the coolest job in the state of Virginia”—serving as director of the Virginia Beach Boardwalk Art Show and the Neptune Festival Art & Craft Show. For 13 years, she immersed herself in the vibrant world of artists, collectors, and community events, helping to elevate both shows into celebrated cultural traditions along the coast.

After stepping away from the art show world in 2002, Sharon was invited to return in 2014 as Director of the Neptune Festival Art & Craft Show, a role she continues to hold with passion and pride. By 2025, she will have coordinated an impressive 37 art shows—each one a testament to her organizational talent, creative vision, and genuine appreciation for the artistic spirit.

Sharon often says that artists are among the bravest people she knows—their perseverance, talent, and authenticity continually inspire her. Through her work, she remains deeply committed to fostering opportunities for artists to share their gifts and to keeping the arts thriving in the Virginia Beach community.