We have two new team members!
Our Artist in Residence for Photography
Arin Yoon is a Korean American army spouse and documentary photographer, visual artist, and arts educator currently stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Her work explores issues on the military, family, women, education and identity.
She has exhibited at venues such as the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in Seoul, Daegu Arts Center, Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, Anthology Film Archives and A.I.R. Gallery in New York, iam8bit Gallery in Los Angeles, and the Chicago Humanities Institute. Her work is a part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Sexual Slavery in South Korea. She is a member of Women Photograph.
Arin’s work has been published in The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Reuters, The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Korea Times, The Gothamist, The Record, Character Media, and The Queens Chronicle.
Her current project, To Be At War, is funded by grants from We, Women, The National Military Family Association, and the City of Leavenworth. She has been a recipient of the Darkroom Residency Program through Baxter Street Camera Club of New York and has received The René Peñaloza-Galvan Memorial Award for excellence in teaching from the Brooklyn College Community Partnership.
Arin holds a BA in English Language and Literature and a BA in Political Science from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in Photography, Video and Related Media. Her work can be seen at arinyoon.com
Dr. Cheryl Avila, Museum Storyteller, was raised in an American military family. Her father retired from the Army after 32 years of service. Her two brothers are also retired Army officers and have raised American military families of their own. After college, Cheryl served in the Army for four years, her daughter is in ROTC at Emory University, and her son attends the United States Military Academy at West Point. While serving as an MI officer during the day, Cheryl tutored soldiers wanting their GED in the evening. After leaving the Army Cheryl pursued a Master’s and PhD in Education and founded Math Doctor, a learning center in Palm Bay, Florida. As the Museum’s Storyteller, Cheryl believes that connecting through stories is important for children of military families, both young and old, to feel as if they have a place in this world, a “tribe” that understands what they went through.