While in college, Carol was torn between a degree in education and a degree in art. After graduating, she taught school for many years in Agawam and Holyoke. In the evenings, she attended watercolor classes at Wistariahurst Museum with Nicholas Phakos, a local watercolor artist. Since then, she has continued to study watercolor with various local artists and others in Martha’s Vinyard. Carol has enjoyed teaching at HCAC since 1999.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Debra Barboza: (Drawing & Painting Instructor)

Debra is an accomplished artist and art teacher who works in many styles and media - oils, colored pencil, pastel and others. She is known particularly for her work in portraiture and has made hundreds of commissioned works. She has exhibited her work in museums and galleries, including several invitational shows -- winning many blue ribbons. Debra has taught at HCAC since 1997 and also teaches in her own studio. She enjoys teaching both children and adults. She also teaches at the Summer Institute for the Gifted at Amherst College. Debra took part in the restoration project for the Holyoke Merry-Go-Round as the commissioned muralist, painting several panels of Holyoke historical landmarks. She is involved in many groups and organizations, including the Holyoke Cultural Council and the Holyoke League of Arts and Crafts, for which she has served as President.
Debra's art can be see at her website, Dunphy Art Studio.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Peggy Bowe: (Needlework)

Holyoke native, Peggy Bowe, is a self-proclaimed needlework addict. Introduced to embroidery by her grandparents as a child, she has been stitching most of her life. In the early ‘70s she took classes at HCAC (back when it was the Holyoke Home Information Center) and has since studied various needlework techniques with numerous nationally known instructors and designers. She is member of both the Pioneer Valley and Berkshire County chapters of the Embroiderers Guild of America. She has taught needlework to all age groups for the last 20 years at guilds and shops both in Colorado and Massachusetts. A retired Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel, Peggy is also a graduate of Emerson College and New England School of Law.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Gary Clarke: (Upholstery Instructor)

Gary completed his apprenticeship in upholstery over 25 years ago at the Dove & Distaff in Rhode Island. Since 1985 he has served as the Assistant Vocational Manager at Pioneer Upholstery, a non-profit business teaching upholstery to 20 mentally ill adults in Holyoke through the Center for Human Development. Pioneer Upholstery specializes in building institutional furniture for colleges and other large businesses. Gary is also proficient in custom upholstery, window treatments, drapes and specialty sewing and in teaching these skills to students of all ages and ability levels.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Barbara Cohen: (Pastels Instructor)

Barbara got her start with degrees in Commercial Art from Vesper George College and Boston University. She then worked as a staff artist for the phone company, then known as New England Telephone & Telegraph. When she returned to Agawam to raise her family, Barbara began her career in fine arts, studying at the George Walter Vincent Smith art museum. She has been teaching for many years in various locations throughout the Valley, and HCAC since 1999. Her specialty is pastels but she works in all media. Barbara's work is housed in many private collections all across the United States. She is a member of many arts organizations, including the Academic Artists Association, the Connecticut Pastel Society, Pastel Painters of Cape Cod, the Tobacco Valley Artists Association, and the Springfield Art League.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ed Cope: (Wood Carving Instructor)

Ed Cope has been carving for fun and profit for nearly 25 years (longer if you include childhood whittling and stick carving). Ed started exhibiting his work in the early 1980s at various local craft shows. Concentrating on marine and wildlife art, whales and dolphins, he has since exhibited as far west as Colorado and south to Florida. Along the way he has earned two "best in Show" awards as well as numerous blue ribbons. Starting in 1992, Ed's first stint as a carving instructor was with the Massachusetts State Correctional System. Once a week he would arm the inmates with razor sharp knives and teach them to carve. They were a quick and talented group of individuals. The program lasted three years. Ed has been teaching at HCAC since 1996. His is a fun and informal class, great for beginners, but all levels of experience are welcome. Students are welcome to bring their own projects or carve one of Ed's award winning designs. When not teaching woodcarving, Ed also stays busy as a professional magician and rock-climbing instructor. Ed's work can be viewed at www.edthewizard.com.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Keith Davis: (Computer Instructor)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nancy is a practicing artist with a rather eclectic background that includes a degree in Interior Design and a Fine Arts minor. After spending almost 15 years designing corporate offices and a lifestyle shift, her company now & ZEN emerged from the belief that joy comes from doing what you love. Her mediums include batik, clay, fiber, glass, leather, wire and wood. Nancy has been knitting since she was six and enjoys teaching the craft. She creates one-of-a-kind wearable art garments by combining hand-dyed fabric and felted wool with crocheted and knitted accents.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nadel Drissi: (Tango Instructor)

Nadel was born and raised in Morocco, with a traveling, dancing heart. Journeys to Europe took him to Paris and Berlin, where he first encountered the "Argentine Tango" many years ago. In New York City, Nadel studied with many diverse teachers of local and international repute, while developing his own unique and playful style of dance. He began teaching Tango in Queens, NY and in the summer of 2000, he organized a weekly class in Blue Hill, Maine, which continues to flourish. Nadel has performed in various programs in New York City, the Berkshires, Springfield and Northampton, MA. He has taught dance at both Greenfield and Holyoke Community Colleges and currently teaches Tango in West Hartford, CT and at the Upstairs Studio in Northampton.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Christopher Adam Grey: (Abstract Painting Instructor)

Christopher Adam Gray graduated from the Hartford Art School in 2005 with a Bachelors degree in painting and a minor degree in sculpture. He has had his work shown in Italy, Georgia, Connecticut and Massachusetts. He currently teaches Abstract painting at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sharen Harris: (Instructor - Oil Painting & Decorative Painting)

Sharen Harris is a native Massachusetts painter who grew up by the seashore and now resides in Agawam. Her early art training began with Decorative Art and sharp focus art, and continues to evolve with looser knife and brushwork. She paints in still life, floral, landscape, and seascape calls her work realistic impressionism. Her mediums are Oil, Pastel, Acrylics and Watercolor. Sharen teaches in her studio and at the Holyoke Creative Art Center, accepts commissions and house portraits, and also gives demonstrations, lectures and workshops in and around New England. Her work can be seen in galleries through New England.  She also enjoys Plein Air painting for its the spontaneity in response to an outdoor landscape, and produces murals which can be seen in historical buildings, museum, corporate and private collections.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marie Kelliher: (Sewing Instructor)

Marie learned to sew as a child at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center in its original Maple Street location and has been sewing ever since for 40+ years. She says, "one sewing project is like one cookie -- it's never enough" is a saying that has described her own lifelong sewing career. Among her many sewing skills are tailoring, fabric embellishment with stencil, working with multiple fabrics, machine embroidery and silk ribbon embroidery. She has taught sewing at the sewing store, Stitch Unlimited, in Hatfield and is president of the western Massachusetts chapter of the American Sewing Guild. She is a volunteer at the annual Eastern States Exposition's Craft Adventure and assisted in establishing their clothes exhibit category.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marc Lapierre: (Youth Instructor - Cartooning)

Marc is a sequential art author who is self-publishing his own comic book, "While I'm Still Alive ...". He has written and illustrated issues of the "Green Gnat" independent comic book series. Marc graduated from the Art Institute of Philadelphia in 1996 as an Industrial Design major and has studied sculpture, figure drawing, model making, puppetry and special effects. In addition to graphic design and traditional media, Marc is skilled in web site design and a variety of design software, including Photoshop, QuarkXPress, Ilustrator and others. He has designed web sites, logos and illustrations for a rock band and an internet radio station.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kathy MacLean: (Chair Seating Instructor)

Kathy is a 25-year educator in the Westfield Public Schools. A mother of two, she has been teaching caning to adults for over 20 years. Her handling of caning and reed has led to her hobby making Nantucket baskets. Teaching adults at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center is a pleasant addition to her work with young children.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Susan holds a Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology and is trained and educated in Clinical Psychology at the doctoral level. She is a certified Kripalu Yoga Instructor and teaches yoga classes for all ages and fitness levels. For the past decade, Susan has been studying and experimenting with food as a foundational component of physical, emotional, spiritual and planetary health.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marsha Molloy: (Quilting Instructor)

Marsha graduated from Northern Illinois University with a B.S. in education and a comprehensive major in Home Economics. She taught clothing instruction for adult education after graduation, but discovered quilting in the late 1980s and knew she had found her passion. She has been quilting ever since, showing her quilts whenever possible. She has won numerous awards, exhibited nationally, and has been published internationally. She served as President of the Hands Across the Valley Quilter's Guild. Her quilts have been exhibited at the Memorial Hall Museum in Historic Deerfield. Her award-winning quilt, "Vincent's Rising Stars" was published in "Popular Patchwork" (May, 2002), an English quilting magazine.

Marsha has been teaching at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center since 1992. She enjoys teaching basic quilting in an unstructured class situation where each student learns according to her/his needs and experience. She also teaches "Baltimore Album Applique" in a structured format. She says of teaching, "it's an adventure that continues to challenge and inspire me."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Alvilda Victoria Martinez-Anaya: (Mural/Public Art Instructor)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Trudy Monson: (Jewelry Making Instructor)

Trudy is a Holyoke native who took her first sewing lessons 35 years ago at HCAC, back when it was named the Holyoke Home Information Center. She has enjoyed doing many types of crafts ever since and enjoys working with children, teens and adults. She received her Associates Degree in Business Administration from Holyoke Community College (HCC) in 1997 and has led Sunday School classes, Girl Scout troops, and summer sessions of the HCC Upward Bound program. Trudy retired from Verizon in 2002 after 36 years of service and now operates her own jewelry business, Gem's Creations.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kathy Morrissey-Morini: (Calligraphy Instructor)

Kathy earned a BFA at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is a certified Art Educator. Since 1984, she has continued to study calligraphy with internationally recognized masters. Her continuing education includes a number of years of study with Suzanne Moore, as well as, many weeklong intensives and continuing education workshops. A few include: Expressive Calligraphy with typeface designer/calligrapher Jovica Veljovic; Celtic Lettering and Decoration with Mark Van Stone; Book Arts and Romans with Thomas Ingmire; Gold, Paste Papers, Gouache and Glair, Romans, and many other workshops with Suzanne Moore; and many, many, more.

Kathy has taught calligraphy to adults and children in the Pioneer Valley for over fifteen years. Also, she has worked as a graphic designer and children's book illustrator. She continues to create artwork for individuals and corporate clients, as well as, teach.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Anne Mueller: (Oil Painting Instructor)

Anne Mueller, B.F.A., is a classically trained studio painter. The North Carolina native has resided with her family in Western Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. Equally facile in almost any medium, she prefers to work in oil, watercolors or pen and ink. A realist, Mueller is noted for her landscapes, portraiture and still life paintings. She is best known locally for her documentary series on the vanishing family farms of Hampden and Hampshire counties, a body of work, which combines her love of history on the personal level with fine art. Working from her studio, she also teaches painting and drawing at several area schools and learning centers, from which she derives great satisfaction in educating others in both technique and appreciation of the arts. Anne was honored by Channel 40 (1990) as "Spirit of the Baystate" for her paintings of the vanishing family farms of Massachusetts.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

JoAnne Parisi: (Quilting Instructor)

JoAnne has been quilting for nearly twenty-five years, first as the owner of the Calico Stitchery Quilt Shop in West Springfield and as the creator of the "Olde is New" quilting method. She is a co-founder of the Pioneer Valley Quilt Guild and has served as a guest lecturer at quilt guilds across the United States. She has won numerous awards, exhibited her quilts across New England and had her quilts featured in many quilting magazines, including "American Quilter," "Quilting Today," and "Quilting International." JoAnne has demonstrated and taught quilting since 1982, at the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, the New England Quilt Museum and the Quilt Restoration Society, and more recently here at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center, where she offers both structured and unstructured classes to beginning and advanced quilters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nicole Perrier: (Decorative Painting Instructor)

Nikki has been involved with some form of decorative painting since her cousin took her to her first "tole painting" class in Keene, NH at age eighteen. Over the following 40 years she has taken many courses, workshops and seminars in many different parts of the United States. Her studies have included work in oils, acrylics, watercolors, pencils and pen and ink. Nikki enjoys teaching and has been teaching at HCAC for ten years. She teaches decorative painting in acrylics to beginners in a semi-structured style. Prior to teaching at HCAC she taught at a small craft shop in Northampton, at a nursing home and at an adult day care facility. She has entered her work in craft shows and art shows. She is a member of the National Society of Decorative Painting as well as Charter President of the Pioneer Valley Decorative Painters.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kim Rosner: (Fashion Design Instructor)

Kim Rosner started designing clothes at age six when she hand-stitched a clown costume for her brother and it promptly fell apart. Learning a sewing machine quickly followed. She has her BFA in Fashion Design from Parson's School of Design where she received a gold thimble award from Michael Vollbracht (currently Bill Blass's head designer). She brings to her classes 30+ years of sewing and 20 years of designing for private clients and a private label.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ellie Sambrook: (Knitting and Crocheting Instructor)

Ellie learned how to knit from her mother-in-law many years ago and to crochet by taking classes at a local yarn shop. She has taught knitting to friends who would gather for a Friday night of crafts.  As a new grandmother, she has been knitting and crocheting for the babies. 
Ellie retired from Mass Mutual and is now working at a tailor shop.
Teaching a craft is always a learning experience for the teacher, too.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

James T. "Ziggy" Sears: (Photography Instructor)

Jim Sears is a Holyoke native who has been a professional photographer and photojournalist for more than 40 years. His photos have been seen in newspapers throughout the Pioneer Valley for many years. His interest in photography began at age 12 when his aunt gave him a camera she had won at an amusement park. From that point on, Jim was an avid camera and photography enthusiast. He served in the Air Force as a photographer in Japan during the Korean War. After returning to the United States and following his discharge, Jim did a great deal of freelance and commercial work. He continues to work as a freelance photographer to this day. In 1969 he joined the Holyoke Transcript Telegram as a staff photographer. He later became chief photographer and photo editor for the four weekly publications produced by the Transcript-Telegram at that time. Currently, Jim is semi-retired and works as a freelancer for The Republican and the Sunday Republican. He is also an independent contractor for commercial photography.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Linda has taught art and conductive art workshops in schools and other community programs for over ten years. She has also incorporated visual arts into her work in special education and counseling. She is a practiced artist in drawing, painting, and sculpture and enjoys sharing her love of art with others.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Patricia Welch: (Decorative Painting Instructor)

Pat Welch has more than forty years of experience in various phases of painting. She attended the Rhode Island School of Design with emphasis on early art in this country (1790 - 1840). She has also studied with certified master teachers and enrolled in many painting courses and seminars. She has taught painting for over forty years, ten of them at the Holyoke Creative Arts Center (formerly the Holyoke Home Information Center) and as the owner and teacher at "Pat Welch's Original Country Arts." She has sold commissioned portraits nation-wide, was a featured story in "Yankee Magazine," has won awards for her classes in oils and acrylics, and has taught, lectured and apprenticed at museums, including Old Sturbridge Village, the Heritage Museum in Lexington, MA and the Historical Society of Early American Decorators in Albany, NY. She is also a member of the Holyoke Arts League, the National Association of Decorative Painters, the Pioneer Valley Decorative Painters and other art associations.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Nancy White: (Knitting and crocheting Instructor)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bob Whitney, AIFD: (Floral Design Instructor) Bob Whitney, AIFD, has been involved in the floral industry for 26 years. He is a graduate of the American Floral Art School in Chicago. Since 1987, he has been a member of the American Institute of Floral Designers. For the past twenty years he has been offering classes in basic floral design in Danvers, Billerica, East Longmeadow, West Springfield and Holyoke. His work has been presented at AIFD's National Symposiums, FTD's Regional Conferences, Telaflora's Northeast Regional Shows and many local garden clubs and civic cultural events. At each of his monthly workshops students will create a seasonal fresh flower arrangement. Bob looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge of floral design with his students.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -