Children’s Museum of the Arts

Tom Burnett

Early Childhood Program Manager

Tom is CMA’s Early Childhood Coordinator in charge of the Wee-Arts program. He has been a Teaching Artist since 1985 and has worked with: the Discovery Program, Dalton School, Columbia University School for the Gifted, Educational Alliance and was a Head Teacher for the 92nd Street Y Parenting Center. In addition, Tom has worked with several ‘Artist-in-Residence’ programs developing unique ongoing programs for high school age students. Some of those organizations include: Pentacle, The Kitchen, The American Educational Theatre and middle and lower schools at P.S. 110, 64, 137, 1, 2, to name but a few. He was also a featured performer for the National Cultural Alliance’s on- air campaign to promote Arts awareness in America along with the Guggenheim Museum and saxophonist Pharaoh Saunders.  As a professional director, performer, and musician Tom has presented his own work at many New York venues including: The Kitchen, P.S. 122, Bowery Poetry Club, St. Marks Poetry Project, Joe’s Pub and The Public Theatre. As a musician and performer he was co-founder and member of the performance orchestra Coocoohandler, Loop 243 (a music ensemble), and the popular downtown show “Uncle Jimmy’s Dirty Basement.” As a director he has worked with various venues from large-scale multimedia-events in rock quarries to Off-Off Broadway.

Emily Collins

Senior Media Lab Teaching Artist

Emily is currently working at the CMA Media Lab. In recent years, other than teaching, she has created and collaborated on music videos, plays, sculptures and illustrations. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008 with a degree in Film/Animation/Video.

Jennifer Connor

Visitor Services & Birthdays Manager

Jennifer not only has worked at CMA since 2007, she is also a musician who concentrates in opera and theater. Jennifer enjoys a diverse musical life as a soloist, collaborator, teacher, and adventurer. She has recently sung roles with the Liederkranz Opera Theater, New Jersey State Opera, The Theater Company of Hoboken, NJ, and in the world premier of John Eaton’s “operization” of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Jennifer is a 2008 graduate of New York University with a Bachelor of Music.  To learn more, visit jenconnor.com.

Lori Feren

Manager of Individual Giving

Lori joined CMA in August 2007, and is thrilled to combine her love of the arts and planning events in order to support such a worthy mission. Previously, Lori has worked at the National Association for College Admission Counseling and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. She holds an M.A. in Arts Management and a B.A. in Theatre from American University in Washington, D.C. In her spare time, Lori volunteers with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s Manhattan Society.

David Kaplan

Executive Director

Born and raised in Greenwich Village and a long-time resident of Chelsea, Dave Kaplan comes to CMA with twenty years of not-for-profit management experience and a deeply held belief in the unique power of the arts to create positive change in individuals and communities.  Having attended PS 41, IS 70, and Elizabeth Irwin High School in the 1960s and 70s, Mr. Kaplan returned to live in Manhattan after graduating from Vassar College (1983) and Hofstra University School of Law (1986). Mr. Kaplan began his career as an attorney, and through his own philanthropy, moved into the non-profit world after several years of successfully practicing and writing about the law. Mr. Kaplan returned to his roots in Greenwich Village in 1992 to help lead the Greenwich Village Youth Council during a period of rapid expansion from a volunteer-led church-basement youth program to a multi-site organization that provided free delinquency-diversion programs, including art, drama, music, athletics, counseling, and leadership development. As a result of their outstanding work, GVYC was awarded Humanitarian of the Year by the Greenwich Village/Chelsea Chamber of Commerce in 2004. In 2005, Mr. Kaplan became a Deputy Director at BELL (Building Educated Leaders for Life), a nationally-recognized educational-enhancement program for at-risk K-5th graders in Title I schools. In 2006, Mr. Kaplan had the opportunity to return to lower Manhattan to lead a branch of the YMCA of Greater New York on East Houston and Bowery.  Through six off sites, including Millennium High School, the Two Bridges Community Center, the Houston Street Center, PS 42, PS 126/MAT, and MS 131, this key YMCA branch was also able to provide free services each year to families from such neighborhoods as Chinatown, the East Village, Little Italy, the Lower East Side, Tribeca and SoHo.

Jamie Kelty

Fine Arts Progam Manager

As a Teaching Artist, Jamie has shared her expertise with CMA since 2004. As a non-traditional artist, Jamie works primarily as an assemblage/collage painter. She enjoys the process of working with different styles and media to create oil constructs. Each new assemblage is a challenge to express personality or emotion. By incorporating mixed-media, found or collected objects and the dramatic colors of oils, Jamie creates visual dynamics that engage texture, color, and form. The artworks balance human interest with industrial, natural, or recycled imagery or objects. The found objects are used to give insight into the imagery painted on the canvas. She received her B.F.A. degree from Fort Hays State University in Kansas in 1992. In addition, Jamie has had experience teaching art in Kansas and New York City public schools.

Lucy Ofiesh

Director of Development and Marketing

Lucy joined CMA in 2004. She is currently the Director of Development and Marketing. She previously worked at the Grey Art Gallery, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and was a docent for Rockefeller Center’s art history tours. Lucy studied drawing and painting at the Pratt Institute, and graduated from NYU with a B.A. in History and Fine Arts. Lucy is currently working on her Masters in Fundraising at Columbia University.

Jess Peterson

Communications Coordinator

Jess joined CMA as Communications Coordinator in the Spring of 2011, just in time to watch the museum grow into its dynamic new home on Charlton Street. She completed a Master’s Degree in Media Studies from The New School, honing her skills in communication design, marketing, publicity, and production which she gained during her previous career in the music industry. As an intern for the arts and communications department at Cool Culture, she found her passion for developing cultural and educational opportunities within the community. Jess is thrilled to join CMA, an organization committed to providing all children with equal access to the arts. In her spare time, you can find her volunteering as an art mentor with Free Arts NYC, jogging around the 5 boroughs, or spinning records in Brooklyn.

Rachel Rapoport

Director of On-Site Programming

Rachel Rapoport joined CMA as the Director of Community and Family Partnerships in March 2008, after first interning with the Museum in the summer of 2007. She is currently CMA’s Director of On-Site Programs. Rachel holds a masters degree in Arts Administration from Columbia University. She received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts/Painting from Brandeis University. Prior to coming to New York, Rachel served as the Arts and Education Specialist at the Zimmer Children’s Museum in Los Angeles. She has also worked at the Guggenheim Museum’s Public Programs Department.

Lucia Scheckner

Director of Museum Programs

Lucia joined CMA in March 2008. Previously, she worked with Community Works in San Francisco as a teaching artist, program designer and co-founder of Rising Voices, cultivating the original stories and performances of youth and adult women impacted by incarceration. A New York City native, Lucia has also worked with youth through the Leadership Program, The Renaissance University for Community Education and Brooklyn Nonviolent Communication. Over the last three years at CMA, Lucia has lead the museum’s community and school outreach and program development, including the launching of CMA’s first homeless shelter arts program at Henry Street Settlement’s Urban Family Center. An advocate for accessible arts education, she has been especially motivated by the ways in which CMA’s uses the arts to innovate academic learning and encourage creative expression in students. Lucia has a BA in Philosophy and Literature from Union College and an MFA in Theatre Studies from Columbia University.

Molly Stevenson

Manager of Community Programs

Molly joined CMA in January 2009. She is a graduate of Indiana University where she received her B.A. in Studio Art and Art History as well as her M.S. and Certification in Visual Arts Education. While in school she worked at different not-for-profit organizations such as Crestmont Boys and Girls Club and the John Waldron Arts Center coordinating and teaching various art classes. In her free time Molly enjoys painting, sewing, and sketching monsters with very large teeth.

Mandy Talbot

Senior Fine Arts Teaching Artist

Mandy has been at CMA since October 2008. She is mostly involved with CMA’s Accessible Arts programming. Amanda received her B.F.A. in sculpture/ceramics from Pratt Institute. She continues to be an active sculptor for herself and other major artists in the New York City area. She is currently in her second year of New York University’s Masters in Art Therapy program.

Bessie Taliaferro

Executive Assistant

Originally from Cincinnati, Bessie Taliaferro graduated from Hamilton College in 2011 with a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and a minor in French. Having interned at HarperCollins Publishers, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the United Way of Greater Cincinnati, she is very excited to join CMA’s staff.

Prescott Trudeau

Curator

Hailing from Chicago and Wisconsin, Prescott joined CMA in the Fall of 2007 shortly after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design with a BA in Film, Animation, and Video. In addition to his experience in film and other visual arts, Prescott brings to CMA his deep love of history, foreign cultures, culinary arts, education, and eccentric personalities. His exhibitions have been reviewed by the New York Times, Time Out New York, and NY1. He has also been awarded year-long residencies for arts and education in Italy (RISD’s European Honors Program) and Japan (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme). Prescott spends his time outside of the museum building things, bicycling, and reading books.

Joe Vena

Media Lab Program Manager

As a teaching artist and programs coordinator, Joe Vena has been creatively directing and developing the CMA Media Lab since it’s establishment in 2005. Joe holds a BFA in acting (of all things) from University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He is a habitual sculptor and illustrator and he can do a fairly authentic impersonation of a cricket.

Michelle Yu

Finance Associate

Michelle started at CMA in August 2011 as the Assistant Bookkeeper before joining the full time staff as Finance Associate in November 2011.  She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and has an MFA from the Fine Arts program at Parsons The New School for Design.  A practicing artist, Michelle maintains a studio in Brooklyn.  Her work has been shown in New York City and abroad.  Prior to joining CMA, she worked for numerous artists and in the arts nonprofit sector.  In her spare time, Michelle enjoys the internet, impressing young children with her extensive knowledge of Star Wars trivia, and talking at length about her cats and sometimes other peoples’ cats.

Carita Zimmerman

Manager of Institutional Giving

Carita joined CMA in 2008 after working as a grant writing consultant for the museum.  Prior to starting her development career, Carita served as an Assistant Corporation Council with the New York City Law Department.  She then devoted several years to being a full-time parent and an active community and school volunteer.  Carita is a graduate of Barnard College and Columbia University Law School, and the proud mother of Jordan and Paul.

Victoria Adhikari

Having spent most of her life in the Philippines and Taiwan, Victoria had her first taste of the American life at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she completed a BFA in Illustration. Since then, she has worked as a freelance illustrator, taught art classes, and tutored underprivileged children with Autism and ADHD in Asia and New York.  Apart from finding inspiration through CMA’s school partnerships & outreaches, she enjoys drawing monsters, teeth, & sending snail mail. She hopes to have a bulldog (named Biggie Smalls) one day.

Nina Alexander

Nina arrived at CMA in December of 2010. Since then she has brought her knowledge of sculpture, puppetry, and set building, into play within CMA’s Media Lab. Prior to CMA she was the Assistant Props Manager at Trinity Repertory Company in Providence, RI, making objects and dressing sets to tell stories. She graduated Rhode Island School of Design’s Sculpture Department in 2008. She also is a teaching artist for CMA School Groups. She enjoys creating critters that are at once adorable, and mildly haunting. She is a great lover of epic tales and raucous laughter.

Cassandra Baez

Cassandra is an undergraduate student at Hunter College who is currently pursuing her BFA in painting. She has been involved with the creative arts since childhood. Although she studied vocal music at Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of the Arts in New York City, the visual arts have always played a significant role in her life. Drawing inspiration from artists including Hans Hofmann, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and William Turner, Cassandra enjoys exploring the manipulation of color and line in her own paintings, drawings and etchings. Cassandra joined the CMA family in the early Fall of 2009 as an Open Art Intern. Having over seven years experience in childcare, she hopes to share her passion for the arts with children and encourage them to explore and develop their own creativity.

Laura Bellmont

Laura Carmelita Bellmont grew up on the plains of Colorado. She spent most of her childhood building forts, drawing on anything and everything, and enjoying the great outdoors. Today, not too much has changed. Laura received her BFA from Pratt Institute in Illustration, and draws professionally as a freelance illustrator. She and her husband still build forts in their living room and back yard. Currently, Laura has returned to Pratt for her masters in Art Education. Laura has found a happy home for her love of art in working with children at CMA. In her spare time she also teaches adult Pop Up Paper Engineering classes at The Center for Book Arts.

Amelie Brown

A life-long artist and lover of learning, Amelie grew up in New Orleans before studying art history at Vanderbilt University. Thereafter, her adoration for art expanded, and she worked in different pockets of the art world including fine art galleries and artists’ studios. She also developed an affinity for teaching art to children and created an organization called Arte Para Todos in Argentina. Continuing today, the organization works to offer free art education to homeless and underprivileged children in Buenos Aires. At CMA, Amelie is excited to cultivate creativity in young artists of all sizes and talents. She also fancies pomegranates, small pigs, whitewater canoeing, trees of all sorts, and creating curiosities.

Alice Cohen

Alice has been a teaching artist with CMA since 1998. She attended Sarah Lawrence College, the New School, and School of Visual Arts. In addition to working at CMA, Cohen is a professional musician who releases recordings, and an animator, who creates videos which have been screened at galleries and film festivals. She enjoys interacting with people of all ages to create art together, and working in an environment which promotes creativity, and is continually inspired by children’s art.

Donna Chung

Donna is an artist, human being, and a facilitator of creative interaction.  She grew up in LA, was educated in Rhode Island (Rhode Island School of Design, BFA) and San Francisco (California College of the Arts, MFA), but was born right here in the giant apple, where she has been with the museum since 2008.  Donna makes drawings, sculptures, installations, performances, parties, & a website; her particular pursuits of inquiry include group dynamics, human affect, the games people play, and, now, writing about herself in the third person.

Cecilia de Corral

Cecilia has been working at the Children’s Museum since her summer as an art colony intern in 2010. She tries to spend her time outside of the museum producing meaningful work but frequently get distracted. She relies mainly on the use of traditional techniques such as embroidery and quilting, and allows herself to travel between the two-dimensional and three-dimensional. In this way hopes to create a nostalgic space for herself and her viewer. She received her BFA from Parsons the New School for Design in the Spring of 2011.

Will Ellis

A recent graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts specializing in cinematography, Will has acted as a director of photography for numerous student and independent projects, and his work has been screened at film festivals around the world.  He has built up a multitude of production experience, having worked on the set of a variety of productions including R&B music videos, a reality series for HGTV, and on-location reporting for BBC World News.  Will has worked extensively with the CMA Media Lab over the past three years, teaching stop motion animation, filmmaking and photography at the museum and in schools across NYC. He also works as a freelance videographer and editor and is an avid visual artist.

Erin Hall

Erin joined the CMA fine arts team as they moved into their new space on Charlton Street. She is happy to do a bit of everything- from gallery talks, guided workshops in all kinds of media, and teaching at one of CMA’s public school partnerships. Somehow, and miraculously, Erin entered adulthood with that inherent childhood love of art making still intact. She is now a figurative painter who exhibits her work throughout the Northeast. Erin is a NY State certified art teacher with a masters degree in Art Education from Brooklyn College. She has taught art to children for about a decade now, and each day she is eager to inspire a love for art, but mostly she’s the one who is inspired and delighted by the incredible art that children make when they’re given the right tools.www.erinmhall.com

Niizeki Hiromi

Hiromi has been teaching visual arts to children for over 20 years – 5 years in Tokyo and 16 years in New York. She has worked with the Whitney Museum, Hudson River Museum, Professional Development Workshops/Project Arts in NYC Public Schools, and a visual art program for visually impaired children. She started teaching at CMA in 1991, and has been teaching the Japanese After School Program to 3-8 year-olds since 1995. She is the mother of a 7 year-old. Her own work, available to view here, has been shown in solo and group shows in NY and LA. Her interactive installations use recycled materials such as windows from window envelopes, center rolls of bathroom tissue, and junk mail.

Gretta Johnson

Gretta has been a fine arts teaching artist at CMA since 2010.  She teaches workshops that involve experimental and collaborative drawing and sculpture techniques.

Yashua Klos

Yashua Klos received his BFA from Northern Illinois University.  After graduating, he studied Italian Renaissance oil painting at L’Atelier Neo Medici in Monflanquin France. In 2005 Klos was awarded a residency at The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and in 2009 received his MFA from Hunter College in New York. Klos’s works are in private collections in New York, Chicago, Flint Michigan, and in Atlanta. His works have been published in Daniel Parker’s African Art: The Diaspora and Beyond, featured in Essence magazine, and reviewed in the New York Times.  Born in Chicago Illinois, Klos now lives and works in Brooklyn NY.

Kelsey Kolins

Kelsey joined the CMA team in 2010, starting as a School Groups intern and working with children of all ages. She has since begun to focus more on the little guys by becoming a Teaching Artist in the Wee Arts department. Kelsey received her BFA in Fine Arts from School of Visual Arts in May 2011 and plans to attend graduate school next year to earn a Masters in Art Therapy. Her portfolio consists mainly of figurative paintings, drawings, and photomontages. Her work has been shown in Italy, New York City, and Kingston. Most recently, her work has focused on the idea of child expression, a concept that fascinates her as a CMA Teaching Artist and motivates her to pursue a career in Art Therapy.

Liz Kurtzman

Liz attended the Parson’s School of Design. She served as a Design Director under (the late)Perry Ellis, and collaborated with many New York design houses (Isaac Mizrahi, Marc Jacobs, Coach, Burberrys, Robert Lee Morris) on various textile and accessory projects. She currently does costume design for the Mark Morris Dance Group and works as an illustrator. She thinks all kids should learn the lost art of sewing.

Diana Llorens

Ever since Diana finished my Bachelor’s degree in Art History, she has been focused on getting closer to Art Education. As part of this effort, she developed and implemented workshops and activities that stimulate the artistic sensibility of kids. For more than two years she taught art to Pre-K to Sixth graders at a school in Mexico City, where she was in charge of creating and developing the art curriculum in addition to teaching the art class. Diana also worked as an art instructor in two elementary schools in Cambridge Massachusetts. In May 2011 Diana concluded my graduate degree in Art Education from Tufts University in affiliation with the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts.

Katie LaClair

Katie is a mixed media artist and former preschool teacher.  She has taught in many different preschool and elementary school settings, in both general education and special education.  Katie really cherishes her experiences as a special educator.  At CMA Katie works in WEE Arts, Arts to LYFE, and does school outreach.  She believes in the power of art to facilitate learning, self expression, and healing.  In her own work, Katie enjoys working with paint, paper, and thread to create colorful and textured artwork.  She also likes to trade her art via mail with other artists.  She finds the mail art community to be intriguing and encouraging as well as a great way to generate and maintain conversation about the arts.

Caroline McAuliffe

Paper Carver & Embroiderer/Printmaker/Teaching Artist Caroline joined CMA as a teaching artist in the fall of 2009. She graduated with a Master of Arts from Pratt Institute in drawing and printmaking in May of 2009. Prior to receiving her masters, Caroline worked as a muralist and private arts instructor in northern New Jersey. She received her B.A. from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Studio Arts and Arts Education. She also holds an art-teacher certification in New York and New Jersey and teaches arts with  Doing Art Together and Wingspan Arts, Inc. in outreach programing across the city. Caroline currently lives in Jersey City and in her spare time creates large-scale paper  carvings, paper embroidery, fiber installations, and dabbles is vegan cooking and baking.   She and fellow Pratt alum, Leah Word, are co-founders of madefresh editions, a fine art  printing business out of Brooklyn, NY.

Annie Moor

Annie is a Brooklyn-based artist via Southeast Texas and New England. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Film and Television Department in 2008, with an emphasis on animation and illustration, after graduating from Walnut Hill School of the Arts with a major in theater in 2004. She has been working at the Children’s Museum of the Arts since the Fall of 2007 in after school classes, Art Colony, the Media Lab, Open Art and the WEE Arts program, and also works as a freelance illustrator, painter and general maker of things! Because of her background in theater, she continues to exercise those muscles with improv comedy performance around the city, the occassional play, Music Time with Tom and making silly faces at your baby and/or child. Currently, in her own time, Annie is working on writing and illustrating her own books, making delicious tacos and encouraging dance parties of all ages. anniemoor.com

Ryan Naideau

Ryan Naideau is a musician based out of Brooklyn New York. Graduating from New School University in 2009 with a degree in Education and minor studies in percussion, sound recording, and film, he has furthered his music/life connection since through hands-on schooling opportunities in NYC. At CMA Ryan will be developing a radio station to work as a venue for young artist/musician minds to create podcasts, plan playlists, and broadcast. He hopes to collaborate with local resources (WNYC, East Village Radio) to create something original and exciting for students and lovers of alternative media. In his free time, Ryan enjoys playing in various bands and ensembles throughout Brooklyn and touring across the country.

Kristen Ossmann

Kristen is an artist and educator with a BFA from Hollins University. She has been with CMA since 2004. As a Teaching Artist, Kristen has been working with children for eleven years developing art projects that explore individual literature, history and science. As an artist Kristen is currently working with papermaking and bookmaking along with other art techniques.

Margaret Phelan

Margaret is an illustrator who studied at Parsons School of Design.  She’s worked as an intern prop builder for The Jim Henson Company, set painter for Women’s Expressive Theater in NYC, has created logos and branding for various companies in the Greater New York area, created murals in the Bronx and on Long Island, and is currently collaborating with a NYC based author to create her first full color children’s book.  While a set of colored pencils remain her medium of choice, she’s spent the last few years exploring ceramics and the possibilities of 3D canvases. Margaret’s been a teaching artist at CMA since July 2009 and focuses mainly on academic approaches to art instruction in CMAs public school partnerships and guided workshops.  Margaret realizes the amazing ability art making has as a cross curriculum teaching tool (art to support literacy, understanding history, math and science, etc.) and it’s important for her to utilize that potential in her work at CMA.

Sarah Pousty LCAT, ATR-BC

 Sarah received her master’s degree in art therapy from New York University with a thesis focusing on the potential of providing art therapy informed programming in museum settings. She is a Registered, Board Certified Art Therapist and New York State Licensed Creative Arts Therapist. Sarah has worked in museums through out New York City since 2003 and is very happy to be facilitating CMA’s ARTogether Program. Along with her work at the museum, Sarah works as an art therapist providing services for children and families who are healing from trauma.

Chris Rainville

Chris joined the CMA family in December 2008 and is one of the Teaching Artists that run the WEE Program. He graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in May 2008 and has a BFA in Film and Television Production with a minor in Producing.  Chris has also been working as a freelance film producer in the New York area, specializing in short film, commercials, webseries and music videos. When not producing, he also freelances as a Production Consultant, Casting Director, Location Manager and Assistant Director. Chris also founded the Producing Mentor Program at NYU in January 2009, where NYU Film Alumni train first time student producers how to successfully produce their first film.  Chris spends most of his free time attending yoga classes, cooking for friends and exploring the city.

Melanie Sacks

Since the summer of 2006, Melanie has moved up the ranks at CMA from intern to Teaching Artist. She currently teaches Wee-Plus classes, runs guided workshops, and will be teaching “Intro to Theatre” in the fall of 2008. In May 2008 she will graduate from NYU’s Program in Educational Theater with a B.S. in Education and a New York State Teaching Certificate for Theater, grades K-12.  Melanie believes that the collaborative process of creating theatre allows children and adults alike to explore themselves as artists and people in a unique and profound manner. She is excited to help to bring more performing arts to CMA’s already vast toolbox of artistic mediums.

Samantha Silverman

Samantha is currently working in CMA’s Media Lab. During the Summer of 2007, she was an intern at CMA’s art colony, and is very excited to be back with the CMA family. She recently graduated from Boston University with a major in Painting, and a minor in Printmaking. and is currently working on her paintings, while also hoping to become a freelance illustrator.

Jen Spatz

Three years ago Jen Spatz was the official shy summer intern at CMA Soho. Today she is a loud proud teaching artist, working primarily in the fine arts studio at CMA’s new Hudson square location. She enjoys engaging children in art workshops that address history, perspective, and color. Jen graduated from Cooper Union in 2010 with a BFA in fine art. She makes paintings and sculptures. Her favorite color is yellow.

Jennifer Sullivan

Jennifer is an interdisciplinary artist who works in performance, video, collage, painting, and installation. Her work has been exhibited widely, including, but not limited to, solo exhibitions at Freight + Volume in NY, and Las Cienegas Projects and Raid Projects in Los Angeles, as well as group exhibitions, screenings and performances at MoMA PS1, Horton Gallery, The Kitchen, Arthouse, NADA, 179 Canal and Klaus von Nichtsaggend gallery. She has completed residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Ox-Bow, Yaddo and Voom HD Lab. Her work has been reviewed in the New York Times, and her videos are included in the Geisel Library collection at the University of California in San Diego. Sullivan received an MFA in Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design, New York
 and BFA in sculpture from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY. She currently lives and works in Ridgewood, NY.

Isaac Gillespie

Isaac is a musician and documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn.  Solo and with his band the Due Diligence, he’s toured across the US.  After studying Philosophy at Philadelphia’s Eastern University, Isaac came to NY in 2006 to work in television production. Since then he’s done every job in the industry: Camera, Editor, Sound, Writer, Producer & Development.  In 2007, Isaac wrote and produced the *NSYNC and Justin Timberlake episodes of A&E: Biography. Since then, his filmmaking efforts have been focused on the web-series Site & Sound, profiling New York concerts by such diverse acts as Rufus Wainwright and Titus Andronicus.

Melissa Robles

Melissa joined the CMA team in the Fall of 2011. She comes to CMA from the Children’s Museum of Phoenix in Phoenix, Arizona. She received her BFA in Art Education from Arizona State University in 2010. Now based in Brooklyn, Melissa has been working as a visual artist with an emphasis on urban portraiture. Much of her work is informed by her Native American and Hispanic heritage, interrogating issues of identity, ethnicity and American life. As an educator, she has worked in wide range of educational environments, including museums and art workshops on the collegiate level. Melissa enjoys bringing art to all people and being a witness to the empowering qualities of creative expression.

Steff Sanchez

Steff originally hails from Missouri, where she earned a BA in Latin and a Bachelors of Journalism. After earning her undergraduate degrees, she spent a year as editor-in-chief of What’s Up, a not-for-profit homeless advocacy magazine in St. Louis, Missouri.  Steff joined CMA as a member of the Visitor Services team in October 2011. Currently, she is working towards her Masters in Media Studies at the New School.  She also enjoys knitting, vegan food, theorizing about time travel and website design.