Faculty

Allison R. Power is an energetic animator from Cherry Valley, Massachusetts. She works in both Stop-motion and 2D animation. She has an extensive live-action filmmaking background as well both with digital and physical film. Allison also enjoys creating experimental mixed media works, usually incorporating a blend of both live action and animation. She has studied film and theater at Marlboro College in Vermont and graduated with an animation degree from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Her work has played at film festivals across the globe from London, Rome, Madrid, and New York.

Bethany Sulecki is a Boston-based music and theatre educator originally from Erie, PA, where she completed an undergraduate degree in music education and theatre. She is passionate about arts education and helping students of all ages find a place and find their voice in the classroom and beyond. Her favorite thing about working in the arts is collaborating and connections with others and cultivating an inclusive community.

Bethany is grateful for the opportunity to continue her studies at Boston University, where she is pursuing a M.M. in Music Education. In addition to her teaching background, she has worked professionally in the world of arts administration, stage management, directing, and dramaturgy.

Catherine Beaudoin is a young artist currently residing in Boston, Massachusetts. Beaudoin received her bachelor’s degrees in Studio Art and History from Washington & Jefferson College outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her curiosity led her to experiment with several mediums and visual art mediums including oil, acrylic, pastel, graphite, charcoal, pen and ink, found objects, and natural elements.

While in Arizona, Beaudoin established her roots as an elementary art teacher and grew passionate for arts ability to address community needs. She began to integrate herself into various sectors of the art world: government, schools, non-profits, community happenings, and various cultural events. This experience gave her insight to the interconnectivity of the art world while illuminating the systems supporting select demographics.

Along with their role as the Education and Programs Manager at Arlington Center for the Arts, Beaudoin is a teaching artist, mentor, visual artist, and graduate student. Beaudoin's current research and projects include college access for student-parents and caregivers, equitable access to community arts programming, and ecological art education.

Cha is a Maker of Things. She studied Naval Architecture and Comparative Media Studies with a focus on Photography and Film at M.I.T. for a while, was a sailing educator and program director at Courageous Sailing, and has studied Art Education through MassArt’s Continuing Education department. She teaches a variety of art forms to students of all ages through Arlington Center for the Arts and deCordova Museum, including Modern Calligraphy, Shibori, Digital Photography, and Book Binding. Cha is currently the K-8 Art Teacher at Lesley Ellis School in Arlington. She likes to rock climb and read about trees and has already passed on an affinity for collecting art supplies to her young daughter.

Chaitrali Kate-Yadav, is a Boston based versatile artist. She is a designer at Creations-handmade art and jewelry and enjoys making jewelry, crocheting and making decorative artifacts. As a painter, Chaitrali has been working in different media such as acrylics, oil pastels, pencil, watercolor and oil. She is also practicing and teaching Indian Folk Art Forms like Madhubani Art, Gond Art, Kalamkari, Warli Art. She has been exhibiting at local galleries and selling her work on Facebook and from her own residence in Weston. Chaitrali loves to share her passion with kids and adults by teaching drawing and painting. Enjoy Chaitrali’s work by following the links below:
https://www.instagram.com/creations_artandjewelry/
https://www.instagram.com/creationsart.handmade/

Chelsea Brown is a fiber artist and teacher based out of Massachusetts. She started felting in 2016 and hasn't put down the felting needle since! Fiber started as her hobby, became her passion, and is now present in every aspect of her life. Entirely self-taught, Chelsea has exhibited her wool sculptures in art galleries and runs her own small business, Kekii Crafts, where she sells her unique needle felted pieces and wet felted wearable art. Her artwork often draws inspiration from anime and games, pop culture, animals, and all things cute and squishy. She also takes commissions and enjoys bringing these unique visions to life!

Chelsea's greatest love is teaching, which gives her the opportunity to share her wool obsession with the world. In addition to a variety of felting workshops, she has taught over 400 painting classes and now works part-time teaching sewing and fiber arts to children.

Chelsea's larger sculptures often reference the natural world and all of the amazing creatures in it. It can take two to three months to create ONE needle felted sculpture! Through this labor of love, she hopes to continue to help conservation efforts around the world. Portions of the proceeds from her works are regularly donated to organizations that help endangered animals. She also never forgets to thank the most wonderful animal of them all: The sheep!

You can find her work on Instagram: @kekii_crafts, Facebook: facebook.com/kekiicrafts, Etsy: etsy.com/shop/kekiicrafts. You can email her with any specific questions at Kekiicrafts@gmail.com.

Corry Buckwalter is a visual artist, educator and landscape designer based in Arlington. Her artwork explores ecology, land use and botanical history. In the studio classroom, Corry nurtures individual student creativity through inclusive and supportive instruction. Her belief that art making is a catalyst for personal growth and community-building has grown from her extensive experience teaching adult learners of all abilities. Corry's favorite art media are graphite, colored pencil, watercolor and Sumi ink. https://www.corrybuckwalter.com/

Dotty Burstein has had a lifelong interest in the intersection of composers' lives and their music. As such she has developed classes for exploring the music of composers from the Classical and Romantic eras, first at the Tufts Lifelong Learning Institute and most recently at Arlington Center for the Arts. During her musical training, Dotty was inducted into the honorary music fraternity Sigma Alpha Iota, studied with the composer Edwin Gerschefski and the pianist Edward Kilenyi, and played piano in a trio that included her cellist friend and her violinist sister. Today, Dotty continues to enjoy attending concerts and recitals and encouraging others to find joy and inspiration in music.

Ellie House is a clay artist and teacher with a BFA in Ceramics from Massachusetts College of Art and design. Her work is mostly functional and focuses largely on color and surface decoration. She is passionate about continuing her practice and sharing her love of ceramics with students and artists of all ages. https://ehouseceramics.wordpress.com/

Emily Bhargava (she/her) works primarily in glass, ceramic and steel, and also incorporates a wide variety of upcycled materials and found objects into her work. She transforms blank walls and empty spaces into colorful, quirky and playful designs that inspire reflection, learning and community ownership. Emily often works at the intersection of art and public health, helping communities utilize the arts as an effective tool for health promotion. She currently serves as the Community Art Director for The Beautiful Stuff Project, a creative reuse center based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and as Director of Connection Lab, LLC, a consulting firm that engages in health promotion and community art interventions. She is also an active teaching artist. She serves as the co-chair of the programming committee of the New England Mosaic Society, and a member of the advisory committee for Fabville, a city-run maker space in Somerville, MA.

Born 1996 From Providence RI, Bunny has been working as an artist for a decade. Learning traditional methods and techniques from an influx of teachers and crafts around New England. Now after just completing his MFA From Boston University, Bunny continues to learn and practice, and teach New and experimental ways of making art.

Jordana Weiner received her B.A. in Poetry, Empathy, and Education from New York University and her Ed.M. in Arts in Education from Harvard University. A writer, photographer, and green thumb, Jordana specializes in creating nurturing spaces for identity exploration, self-reflection, and community building through arts practices.

Julie Powers is a recent college grad, that has spent the past summer teaching at Arlington Center for the Arts' Vacation Arts Camp. Julie immediately became a beloved instructor in our camp setting. From animation, sculpture, painting, and ceramics, Julie facilitated an educational environment where campers could work together and independently with confidence. Julie Powers joins our semester instructors ready to teach ceramics and beyond!

Kendall Dudley is a career and life design consultant, presenter, teacher, artist and travel leader. Among many places, Kendall has taught at Tufts and Lesley Universities, Montserrat College of Art, Star Island and Pendle Hill and was a career consultant to Harvard University for 15 years. Learn more about Kendall on his website.

Kristina Goransson spent her childhood in Sweden, before moving to the US, where she earned a BFA in furniture from the Rhode Island School of Design and her graduate degree in Fibers from the University of Massachusetts. Kristina served as artist-in-residence at Oregon Collage of Art and Craft, Paducah Art Alliance, and Pentaculum 2019. She is a working artist, teacher, and curator. Kristina’s artwork can be found in the book 500 Felt Objects.

Learn more about Kristina on her website: https://www.annakristinagoransson.com/

Lee Su is a Chinese-American born in Vietnam and educated at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in Providence, Rhode Island. Through RISD's European Honors Program, he also studied for a year in Rome, Italy. He now lives and creates art full-time near Boston, Massachusetts, where he had worked previously as an architectural designer.

Lee's primary goal in teaching is to instill the "joy of making" because fulfillment gained from creating with one's hands leads to curiosity and the desire to employ one's mind.

Leslie Donahue is a multimedia artist specializing in both oil and acrylic painting. Born and raised in the California Bay Area, their work moves from figurative, to landscape, to abstract. Specializing in atmospheric, strange scenes imbued with emotion, there is tension between what is revealed to the viewer and what is hidden. Leslie utilizes their skill in printmaking, drawing, and collage to further explore these visual themes. While living and attending Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Leslie has been a part of several gallery shows, including a 2022 “Fresh Faces” exhibition in the SOWA arts district. They currently live in Cambridge with their dog Snoopy.

Lu Adami (they/them) is a visual artist pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Originally from Chicago, Lu has made New England their home over the past decade. They worked at Milton Academy as a Visual Arts teacher, among other responsibilities, for four years as an Independent School Teaching Residency Fellow and then as a full time educator. Over the last two years they have exhibited work in Mexico City, Mexico; Chicago, IL; and Boston, MA.

Margaret Moody studied with the late master puppeteer Lee Tien-lu, who was named a "national living treasure" in Taiwan. She is an active member and past president of The Boston Area Guild of Puppetry. Since 1996, she has been part of the Massachusetts Cultural Council artists roster. Her favorite parts of puppetry are creating character voices and making puppets. Learn more about Margaret on her website.

Marjorie Glick (she/her/hers) is known for her large scale vivid realism watercolors that are inspired by New England’s places of antiquity and by the beauty found in nature. She has exhibited at several regional museums and galleries including the DeCordova Museum, Berkshire Art Museum, Brockton Art Museum, Beth Urdang Gallery, Boston, and the Forum Gallery in New York. Her work is in over 40 corporate and private collections including The Federal Reserve Bank, Fidelity Investments, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Tufts-New England Medical Center, all in Boston; Friends Hospital, in Philadelphia. She is the recipient of grants from the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (Artist’s Resource Trust Grant) and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. She is represented by The Turtle Gallery in Deer Isle, Maine. She has served as Adjunct Faculty for The Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University and was a member of the faculty of the DeCordova Museum School, in Lincoln, MA from 1986-2012. She leads plein air workshops in Maine, France, and Tuscany. She holds a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and has studied independently with Wolf Kahn and George Nick.

To learn more about Marjorie, visit her website at https://www.marjorieglick.com. You can also read a feature on her work in American Watercolor Weekly at: https://americanwatercolor.net/creating-depth-in-large-scale-watercolor-paintings/

Megan Hinman (she/her/hers) is an experienced arts educator and ceramic artist. She holds a M.A.T. from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts as well as a Graphic Design Certificate from Mass College of Art and Design. Prior to her time at ACA, Megan was a visual arts teacher at a local high school for 17 years, teaching a range of classes including ceramics, drawing and painting and graphic design. She combines her love of design and clay to create dynamic functional clay pieces using various surface decoration techniques. Megan especially loves altering wheel-thrown pieces by adding hand-built elements. Megan is excited to share her love of clay with her students and watch them discover their own creative potential with such an amazing medium. You can learn more about Megan and her work by visiting her website: www.meganhinman.com

Nadege Tessono is a multidisciplinary visual artist with over 16 years of professional, creative experience. As the founder of She Moves Forward, Nadege Tessono focuses on traditional and non-traditional original work and services such as design, visual art, wearable art, and visual arts education. Her diverse professional background in tandem with her excellence in the visual arts makes her an asset to the ACA community and others. She works with various types of 2-dimensional arts, graphic arts, and design, as well as illustrations, textiles, patterns, and printmaking.

Tessono's work incorporates different elements of traditional art processes merged with modern modes of technologies, integrating context into her identity. Nadege Tessono's techniques and mediums are, but not limited to, oil pastel, acrylic, pen and ink, watercolor, etc. as well as digital applications such as Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator. Her vivid palette and bold designs make her work unmistakably hers. Her subject matter pertains to textiles and textures, black identity, female-focused, and African diaspora, and cultural influences.

Today, Nadege Tessono continues to explore these concepts as they intersect with community, as she is in the final semesters of her M.Ed. in Art, Community, and Education at Lesley University.

Pai Lin has over seven years of experience teaching children. She has taught young children craft and creative arts such as Chinese painting, acrylic painting, watercolor, ceramic, gift card and gift wrap designs. For children over the age of ten, Pai has taught them digital art. She has also been a teacher’s assistant at Middlesex Community College in the art and graphic design departments for fourteen years. Previously Pai worked as a Freelance Graphic Designer for 13 years. Employed by news weekly magazine as the graphic designer and editor, responsibilities included cartooning, illustrating and layout.

In her free time, Pai creates 3D paper art. She enjoys watching and helping children explore their creative and emotional side through arts and craft. Pai’s education includes Product Design from Fu Hsing Trade and Arts School and Graphic Design Certificate from Middlesex Community College. Pai has won the Studio Art Award at Middlesex Community College.

Pam Shanley-Daube is an artist and teacher with a special gift for engaging children and teens in art-making of all kinds. She has worked on several murals in the greater Boston area including the mural at the Theater entrance at ACA. Pam holds a BFA from Connecticut College, and her artwork has been exhibited and collected in private collections in California, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Pam has worked on the ACA Staff since 1999, as Facilities Manager and Director of Arlington Open Studios. Learn more about Pam on her website.

Sam Spano makes stylized paintings and drawings that consider different aspects of fantasy, romance, the natural world, and the human psyche . Spano references a wide range of sources including fables and mythology, vintage magazines and fashion advertisements, film stills, and his own photographs. His work is characterized by an expressive use of line and color, with simple but bold compositions. He received his MFA in painting from San Francisco Art Institute and his BFA from the New England School of Art and Design at Suffolk University. His work has been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Boston.

Spencer O'Rourke knew she wanted to pursue an art career ever since she was first asked the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Her personal artistic style touches upon fashion, painting, curation, and collaging. She studied Art Therapy at UMASS Lowell and is currently honing her skills further as she studies to become an Art Teacher. Spencer believes that art heals, and her desire is to nurture the creative expression of young artists!

Stevie Spence has a background in yoga and childhood education. They have been an avid ceramicist for the past 5 years and have found a real calling in sharing their artistic process with others. Stevie embraces their multifaceted nature by balancing teaching aspiring potters and creating their own work to sell and show.

Sue holds a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design and has taught at public schools in the Boston area. Sue is a freelance illustrator and member of the Blacksmith Printmakers Group at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.

Vicki is a representational painter and a functional potter with a M.A.T. from Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, a B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, and ongoing education at the Harvard Ceramics Studio. She has been on the faculty at the Museum of Fine Arts, DeCordova Museum, and Cambridge Center for Adult Education, and spent many years teaching young people as Chair of the Art Department and teacher at Waring School in Beverly. Teaching at the ACA has included classes in drawing, ceramics, and painting with gouache. Vicki is represented by Galatea Fine Arts in SoWa. Learn more about Vicki on her website.