Teaching Artist Academy
Archive
​
2018 Participants
Jason Bergman
Barnet
Jason is a teaching artist performing in diverse genres. He believes that thirty years of playing violin in hospitals and institutions has refined his concept of the potential for good in one’s performance. Jason‘s private studio is committed to recognizing the individuality of students and challenging himself to teach them; to build a conduit to express themselves, and to apply their energy to the passage of time. Jason teaches music at the St. Johnsbury Academy and Lyndon State College.
Heather Bryce, Fellow
New York, NY
Heather is the Artistic Director and founder of Bryce Dance Company. Heather has received grant funding and national attention for her innovative choreography and community work. She currently works as a Teaching Artist and administrator for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and is Teaching Artist for Lincoln Center Education, The Performing Arts Center at SUNY Purchase, and The Center for Arts Education. She holds her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Emily Burkland
Chester
Emily graduated cum laude from Duke University with a BA in English and a Certificate in Early Childhood Education. She has worked for 20 years as an Early Childhood educator with a focus on arts education and music enrichment, including performing in bands and touring locally. In 2014, she founded Community Art Garden, a community art studio in the heart of Chester, VT, where she has established a beautiful, inviting environment that encourages people of all ages to explore the arts.
Lisa Condino, Fellow
Cornwall
Lisa is a Vermont-based visual artist raised in Detroit and rooted in both. She has dedicated her career to promoting self-advocacy. Lisa believes everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard and seen. She passionately devotes her career to using the arts to support learning, empower individuals, and build community. Providing a safe environment for creative expression, social & emotional learning, active engagement, and the inclusion of ALL students are at the root of her teaching.
Trisha Denton, Fellow
Burlington
Trish Denton writes, produces and directs hybrid works for the stage. Whether reading fortunes or waterless high diving, Trish has an innate sense of storytelling. Originally from Detroit, she moved to Vermont to pursue a BA at Goddard College. She went on to receive an advanced degree from Dartmouth in applied theater. With her freelance practice ln Tandem Arts, she works with museums, schools and cultural institutions to produce interdisciplinary projects with a pedagogical twist.
Allisa Faber
Burlington
Alissa is an artisan, designer, and educator working in Vermont. She creates glass and ceramic works of art in her Burlington studio. Faber graduated from Alfred University with a degree in sculpture and has worked in glass and ceramic studios across the country. She completed a Early Childhood Education Certificate while running an afterschool program in Burlington, and started her own art sales and education consulting business after completing the Women’s Small Business Program.
Steve Ferraris
Norwich
Steve plays African and Afro-Cuban drums. He has 35 years of experience performing, teaching and recording. As an arts-educator he has led over 100 artist-in-residence programs teaching hand-drumming and African culture and is a member of the UVM music faculty since 2005. In 2011 Steve created Drumming for Success, an evidence-based method of facilitating group hand-drumming lessons for trauma victims in drug rehab, adoption families and at-risk youth.
Lizzy Fox
Williston
Lizzy is a poet and educator with an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has taught writing and performance in partnership with the Vermont Arts Council, Flynn Arts, The New England Young Writers Conference, VSA Vermont, and countless schools. Lizzy is a recipient of the Laura J. Spooner Prize and the Corrine Eastman Davis Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of Vermont. Her poems have appeared journals, anthologies, and art displays.
John Hadden, Fellow
Landgrove
John is a teaching artist dedicated to great theater for community-building in Vermont. He has been a professional theater director/teacher/actor/writer for 35 years, playing mostly with Shakespeare and original work, with a special interest in "interview theater." He is a founding member of Shakespeare & Co, and has founded and ran other companies, including projects in Berlin, Cologne, Leningrad, New York, regional theaters, TV, radio, independent films, schools and universities.
Ashley Hensel-Browning
Weathersfield
Ashley is a dance educator, community artist, and choreographer. She has received multiple grants for her work in public schools and community sites and is a Juried Teaching Artist through the Vermont Arts Council. Projects include teacher trainings, school residencies, dance in libraries, restorative justice and correctional facilities programs. She teaches at the Dance Factory and received her Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her B.A. from Hampshire College.
Meredith Holch, Fellow
East Hardwick
Meredith is an award-winning Vermont filmmaker specializing in animation. Her work has been broadcast on PBS and has screened at the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, the National Art Gallery, DC, the Exploratorium, SF, as well as at numerous film festivals, art galleries, and community spaces. Meredith has taught animation to children and adults for over a decade, from Vermont, to New York City, to Alaska, and the mountains of Northern Mexico.
Jeff Mandell
Burlington
Jeff is devoted to bringing peace and joy to the world by teaching people how to flip upside down with a partner. He is a certified AcroYoga and Laughter Yoga teacher, massage therapist, and conflict management specialist. Learning AcroYoga with Jeff may be hazardous to your life as you know it; side effects may include laughing uncontrollably, discovery of super-human strength and balance, deep connections to utter strangers, and a sudden, irreversible urge to be part of the creative process.
Jenny Norris
Burlington
Jenny is a performing artist and educator. She has performed at the New Orleans and Edinburgh Fringe festivals and recently at the Flynn Center in an interactive work for young people with autism. Since 2006 she has worked as a teaching artist and classroom teacher in schools in the U.K. and U.S. and is currently the Drama Coach at the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington. Jenny holds a PGCE in Primary Education and Drama from the Institute of Education, University of London.
Susanna Olson, Fellow
Essex Junction
Susanna is the Program Manager of Curriculum & Instruction at the Flynn Center in Burlington where she manages teaching artist faculty development for all school arts integration programs and FlynnArts community classes. Her current initiatives include U.D.L. theory in working with English language learners and students with developmental delays and disabilities. She holds a B.A. in English and Speech, teaching certification from North Park University in Chicago, and an M.A. in Acting from Northwestern University.
Barbara Paulson, Fellow
Randolph
Barbara is a touring marionette puppeteer and teaching artist who partners with organizations to help participants experience the excitement of telling their personal story through the voice of a puppet production. As half of the No Strings Marionette Company, Barbara knows bravery, flexibility, tenacity and fun are essential to her creative process. She encourages students to fearlessly examine the cycle of creation and revision as they make meaningful connections to original and inspired work.
Lindsay Pontius, Fellow
Wesport, NY
Lindsay is Director of Education of Courageous Stage, and Education Director of Town Hall Theater (THT) in Middlebury, VT. She developed the THT Education Program, which annually serves more than 20 schools and 1,000 children. Lindsay has a doctorate in Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont, is a founding member of Shakespeare & Company’s nationally award-winning education programs, and is a teaching artist/presenter with Empire State Partnerships.
Verandah Porche, Fellow
Guilford
Verandah's published works of poetry include Sudden Eden (Verdant Books), The Body’s Symmetry (Harper and Row) and Glancing Off (See Through Books). The Vermont Arts Council presented her with an Award of Merit, and its first Ellen McCollough-Lovell Award in Arts Education, and she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Marlboro College. "Shedding Light on the Working Forest," a collaboration with visual artist Kathleen Kolb, is currently touring New England.
Evan Premo, Fellow
Marshfield
Evan is a composer and double bassist. He and his wife, soprano Mary Bonhag, are the founders and artistic directors of Scrag Mountain Music, dedicated to presenting innovative and interactive concerts of chamber music in Vermont. He is a Senior Teaching Artist with the CEL, and a member of the New York City-based chamber music collective DeCoda, with which he performs in teaching artist residencies and concerts around the world.
Rachel Sargent
Duxbury
Rachel is a nature writer, illustrator, and teaching artist. She has created outdoor nature classes for the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium and has designed and led lab activities for all ages with the Montshire Museum of Science. She was awarded a MA in Museum Studies from John F. Kennedy University. Rachel lives near Camel’s Hump where she is slowly turning her house into a cabinet of curiosities.
Hanna Satterlee
Burlington
Hanna is an independent choreographer, teacher and performer, and the founder of the Vermont Dance Alliance. From 2010-15 she served as the Director of Professional Programming at the Contemporary Dance and Fitness Studio in Montpelier, where she was also Artistic Director of Teen Jazz, a teenage touring company. Hanna was awarded a double BA in Dance and Psychology with a concentration in Dance Therapy from Goucher College, and a Masters in Fine Arts/Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College.
Gowri Savoor, Fellow
Barre
Gowri is visual teaching artist whose practice includes sculpture, drawing and the Indian art of Rangoli. She is the founder of A River of Light, an organization committed to bringing art to the community through participatory art events, parades and installations. She is a Senior Teaching Artist with the CEL, has been a teaching artist for over 17 years with experience in arts integration and community building, and continues to exhibit both nationally and internationally.
Alexandra Turner, Fellow
Essex Junction
Alexandra is an artist and educator in glass, photography, printmaking and pottery. She was raised in the Finger Lakes region of NY where she developed a love of nature, dance, visual arts and especially glass. Now Alexandra lives in northern Vermont with her husband, young child and sweet dog. Alexandra looks closely at light, nature, relationships, and narrative and teaches others to find the beauty in the world around them and joy in making art together.
Lizz Van Saun, Fellow
Hopkinton, NH
Lizz is a juried teaching artist with the NH State Council on the Arts, and has been working as an artist-in-residence in schools throughout New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts since 2010 using mosaic as a medium and metaphor for community building. She offers workshops from her studio in Hopkinton, NH and welcomes commission work. Memberships include The Society of American Mosaic Artists, The Teaching Artists Association and the New Hampshire Arts Learning Network.
Linda Whelihan, Fellow
Brattleboro
Linda works with a multitude of media, designing engaging art experiences for participants of all ages. She specializes in integrating the arts into the curriculum with hands-on projects like bookmaking, puppetry and large-scale mosaics and murals. In her studio, she can be found playing with a variety of materials to create whimsical sculptures. Linda is the Education Curator of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, and designs tours, activities and exhibits that facilitate meaningful connections to the contemporary art on display.