Ethan Cohen Gallery at the KuBe Art Center is pleased to present Donna Mikkelsen’s ASK WHAT, from her Word Alchemy series Presidential Words. The title takes the most famous line of John F. Kennedy's inaugural address, "Ask not…", and transmutes it until a phrase we know by heart asks something new of us.
In the Auditorium, Mikkelsen also screens two short films: Revolutionary Words, a Word Alchemy animation of Revolutionary Presidents, and An American Dream Story, a five-minute tribute to Bill Ellenwood, one of Bonfire's biggest supporters, who recently passed away.
Word Alchemy is Mikkelsen's series on the language of power. In Presidential Words, she transforms the words of American leaders so that we hear them anew.
Brooklyn-born and now living in Beacon, NY, Donna Mikkelsen has spent 35 years teaching and building community through the arts. She founded an arts-integrated school in the Hudson Valley and is the Director of KuBe Art Center in Beacon. In October 2025 she spoke at the Creative Women Platform Assembly at the United Nations. A passion for democracy runs through her work.