Destination Unknown tells the stories of the Twists and Turns graduates of AAC take in career success!
At the Art Academy of Cincinnati, we tell students and families the truth:
Art school isn’t a conveyor belt to a single, clearly mapped-out career. It’s a launching pad for a life of discovery, hustle, reinvention, and purpose.
The path for a creative isn’t linear—and it’s not supposed to be. Our students shape their own futures. They explore. They build. They pivot. And sometimes, they land in places no one expected—not even themselves. And that’s not failure. That’s success.
For too long, the world has measured creative success by the wrong yardstick. As if the only worthy outcome of an art degree is working in a gallery or making a living exclusively from paintings. But who decided that? Creatives define their own metrics. They make their own maps. That’s the power we carry.
That’s what Steve Zieverink (AAC ’00) did—and keeps doing.
A Foundation of Exploration and Grit
After earning his BFA in painting from the Art Academy, Zieverink pursued an MFA at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He threw himself into experimental work—creating immersive installations that blurred the lines between art, sound, ecology, and community. His Live Station project at Cincinnati’s Weston Art Gallery featured a self-sustaining cabin built from salvaged materials, inviting audiences to consider our relationship to nature, survival, and self-reliance.
But the further he got into the gallery world, the more he started to question the system around it. “I didn’t want to just replicate the same work over and over again,” he says. “That’s not what I was taught to do. I was taught to stay curious.”
So he pivoted. Purposefully. With work ethic. With vision.
Chef. Filmmaker. Builder. Artist. Creative.
Zieverink’s creative energy didn’t shrink—it expanded.
He began directing Unit 2 Collective, bringing artists together to collaborate across disciplines. Through Hypha Films, he produced documentaries exploring environmental justice and social ecology traveling as far as the Artic to work with native populations to share their stories with audiences. And in 2023, he returned to a long-standing passion: food.
He opened Emma Hearth & Market in Bridgman, Michigan, where artisanal pizza meets community love. What started as a food truck from the farm he ran with his long time partner, it grew and grew into a brick and mortar operation in a short time. The restaurant has become more than a business—it’s a curated experience, a daily act of creation.
“Being a chef and restaurant owner is still about vision,” he says. “It’s art. The aesthetics. The food. The music. The whole thing is curated—and it’s fun to do it with bigger stakes and better ingredients. I’m mentoring young kids and helping them get confidence, it’s the same as when I was a professor… just now they get paid to grow into who they want to be.”
This wasn’t a detour. It was the next chapter of a life built around intention, experimentation, and impact.
Redefining What Success Looks Like
Success, for Zieverink, isn’t about how your name appears in search results. It’s about how you show up every day—with discipline, clarity, and courage.
“Success is having intention,” he says. “It’s being better every day—at being a partner, a painter, a chef, a gardener, a learner. That’s what matters.”
His story reminds AAC students—past, present, and future—that our work doesn’t stop at graduation. It evolves with us. We get to keep exploring. That’s the gift of an art degree.
Still Learning. Still Creating. Still Becoming.
These days, Zieverink spends his time between running the restaurant, sailing, drawing, and fishing. Not to perfect anything—but to get clear.“My work evolved to get out of the studio. Now I’m heading back,” he says. “But not for the same reasons. Now it’s about meditation. Now it’s just to listen.”
As we talked about getting over the fear of “what will our professors say if we stop painting one day,” he responded “I think they would be proud, they just wanted us to stay curious, optimistic, and hungry to learn.”
Where does it go next? He doesn’t know. And that’s kind of the point.
As he puts it, quoting Miles Davis: “I’m still learning everyday.”
(Images provided by Steve Zieverink, and Emma Hearth Market)
Alumni, we want to hear your story, all the twists and turns! Reach out to our team at marketing@artacademy.edu
