PELHAM, NY — The Pelham Art Center welcomes seven new instructors to its’ roster of talented teaching artists. Fall classes start September 17th and the new Faculty and the Pelham Art Center are equally thrilled. Nine new people will be coming to share their expertise with children, teens and adults in a variety of mediums that we know will be popular additions to our course offerings.
Art Stars, Thursday afternoons will be taught by Fiona Hopkins who is also the artist in residence at the Huguenot Nursery School. She has a MAT in Early Childhood Education from Manhattanville College and a BA in Communications and Visual Art from Eckerd College. She taught at Huguenot Nursery School from 2005-2010 and at Plymouth Church Preschool in Brooklyn, NY from 2010-2014. Hopkins believes art is a form of communication that comes naturally to children. We are sure that her Art Star class for 3-6 year olds will teach art in a fun and creative way.
Abstract Painting on Wednesday mornings with Satish Joshi, a graduate of the New Delhi College of Art (MFA) who immigrated to the US after completing his studies. He taught at Riverdale Country School for 37 years and was the head of the Visual Arts Department. He is a well versed in ceramics, stone and metal sculpture, printmaking, painting and drawing. Joshi has an extensive 40 year career exhibiting in galleries and museums. Author Tom Wolfe writes “Satish draws his students into his world, the world of art, so quickly and so effortlessly that they are soon not so much looking at art as breathing it. This is teaching at the very highest level.” Joshi believes “the best arts instruction is not instruction at all but a kind of collaboration between us. We’re going on this great adventure of seeing what is possible with the materials we’ve chosen. I’m not showing them; we’re discovering it together.” Joshi has experience teaching throughout Westchester and mentoring teachers at Columbia’s Teachers College. Come experience abstraction with this master artist.
Kat Sayegh is an abstract mixed media artist born and raised in New Rochelle. She graduated from the College of New Rochelle with a BFA in Studio Art. Kat serves on the board of the New Rochelle Art Association and has exhibited her work throughout Westchester. She has great experience working with children and will be teaching 6-9 year olds on Monday afternoons and Saturday mornings. Nature inspirations and mixed media are the focus.
New teachers in the media lab include The Nerdy Duo aka Melissa Weiland and Erin Cardulo. Specializing in digital video production, their professional resume includes a wide array of projects including projections for community theater, producing props for steampunk events, video installation art (most recently featured with The Women’s Storytelling Project at the 2018 Garner Arts Festival), short films, Internet video courses, music videos (for artists including Bjork, Bebe Buell, JaRule, Papoose, Kelly Jones, Eli August, and more), reality television (House Hunters, Divorce 911, RokDok, Hampton Angels), videos for non-profits and even a long-running informational show on QPTV (The Wine Show, winner of a QPTV Excellence in Broadcasting Award). Thursday afternoon they will be teaching Hand Animation – Creating Loops which will combine hand drawn and digital techniques.
Board Games in our newly upgraded Media Lab will be taught by Luis Gundar who is returning to the education team at the Pelham Art Center. He is a graduate of the New York Institute of Technology with a BFA in Computer Graphics and a MA in Art Education from the College of New Rochelle. Gondar has been working as a teacher in Westchester for over 5 years, having worked in Mt. Vernon, Ardsley, and the Pelham Art Center. In this class young people have the opportunity to conceptualize, design and play their own board games!
In the Artist’s Studio, a Saturday morning mixed media class highlighting famous artists and movements will be taught by Imani Parkinson. Imani Parkinson is returning to teach after the Pelham Art Center after her recent internships at the Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum. Imani received her BA in Art History from Purchase College and is working towards her MS in Education, specializing in Museum Education. As both an art historian and educator, Imani hopes to make art history fun and accessible to all audiences. Her favorite mediums include collage, paper craft, photography and textiles.
Also joining our faculty for the fall semester is our Executive Director, Charlotte Mouquin. Her classes will enable her to achieve her goal of enhancing community through art experiences that highlight our humanity as global citizens. Her degrees include a MA in Contemporary Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, a BFA from Parsons School of Design, and a MAT from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston/Tufts University. She has curated over 40 exhibitions, hosted art salons in private homes, and has presented art at multiple art fairs in NY and Miami. She has taught art at a public high school, from a private studio, and as a volunteer with Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation, The Love Yourself Project, and the Brooklyn Art Incubator.
For our current course offerings please visit our website www.pelhamartcenter.org.