Alumni Awards: Christopher Kendall Award

2025 Recipient

Jessica Bonenfant (MFA ’13, dance)

Jessica Bonenfant is the founder and creative director of Greywood Arts in Killeagh, Cork, Ireland. As a cultural producer, she is passionate about creating spaces for artists and communities to connect, explore the creative process, and learn together. Since launching Greywood Arts as an artist residency in 2017, she has expanded it into a vibrant creative hub offering studios, arts education, cultural programming, and collaborative community projects. Rooted in creative placemaking and arts participation, Greywood fosters personal growth, well-being, and a deeper sense of belonging.

Bonenfant works closely with artists to design impactful programming that engages diverse participants, encouraging co-creation and artistic experimentation. With a background in dance composition and an MFA in choreography from the University of Michigan, she spent over a decade in New York City as a choreographer, exploring feminist themes, improvisation, and site-specific performance. She has taught at the University of Michigan, University of Toledo, Grand Valley State University, and Firkin Crane in Cork.

Bonenfant’s arts management career began in 2003, when she began coordinating an interdisciplinary art space in NYC; she later transitioned to bookkeeping for nonprofits. In Ireland, she completed entrepreneurship and social enterprise training through Munster Technological University’s Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network (WREN) programme and Social Impact Ireland. Jessica is committed to cultivating creativity as a tool for social connection and transformation.