Aaron J. Wiederspahn  
Founder & Executive Director
Aaron Wiederspahn is a writer/director and producing partner with either/or films,
a New Hampshire based film company. He wrote and directed the feature film
The Sensation of Sight, starring Academy Award nominated actor David Strathairn,
and is currently in development as writer/director for the upcoming feature film
Someplace Like America, loosely based on the book Journey to Nowhere by three-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Dale Maharidge and Michael Williamson. Aaron is also the Executive Director of Burnt Norton Abbey and The Starving Artist, a 501 (c)3 not-for-profit arts collective located in Keene, New Hampshire. Before forming either/or films, he spent twelve years working in various capacities in film, theatre, music and radio. He is also a husband to wife, Keri, and father to daughter and son, Emma and Soren.

Keri Wiederspahn
Founder & Assistant Director
Keri Wiederspahn received her BFA in Fine Art from Parsons School of Design, NYC.  She is the founder of Creative Hands Art Studio & Atelier of Madison, NJ that grew during her commitment over a decade to serve over 350 art students a week in three locations for ages three through adult.  The school was unique in its ability to foster a high degree of creativity, being individually focused and geared around refining both technique and conceptual ideas of beauty.  Since moving to New Hampshire, Keri has obtained a 2008 NH State Arts Council grant to pursue Russian/Byzantine Iconography that she is studying with her mentor, internationally recognized iconographer Ksenia Pokrovsky of Boston as well as Father Andrew Tregubov of Claremont, NH.  Besides also being a wife and mother of five, she is deeply committed to sharing the beauty, healing and transformative power of art with the next generation.

Laina Barakat
Founder & Director of Artist Relations
Laina Barakat received a Liberal Arts education with a major in Philosophy and a minor in Literature, and moved to NH to join either/or films in pursuit of a future in film. While in college,  Laina co-produced and Assistant Directed several theatrical performances and founded her school's first film society. Fostering an active interest in the arts from an early age, Laina has spent her life dabbling in photography, visual arts, writing, and music. As a singer-songwriter, she hopes to bring about change through social commentary and the power of story. Besides dedicating a full-time commitment to The Starving Artist, Laina is also the youth minister of Saint Bernards Church in Keene.

Contact:
Burnt Norton Abbey
c/o The Starving Artist
10 West Street
Keene, NH 03431
603-352-6900
burntnortonabbey@gmail.com

~:~:~

We believe in a collective movement of thought, discourse, and artistic action.








"Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now, always"
T.S. Eliot Burnt Norton