2025 Faculty

Designed for Educators

Erin Smith, Instructor

Erin Smith is an adaptive art educator with nearly two decades of experience working with students with disabilities. After earning her degree in Art Education in 2006, Erin began her career in special education, teaching in settings ranging from group homes for teens with trauma to alternative schools for students with behavioral and learning challenges. In 2017, she helped launch her county’s adaptive art program and now travels to 12 schools weekly. Erin also leads professional development for teachers across Virginia and the US, helping educators reimagine their art rooms to be more inclusive. She has created adaptive art content for Art of Education University and guest lectures for VCU’s Art Education program. Beyond the classroom, Erin enjoys family life with her husband, children, and their German Shepherd, and pursues her passion for interior design through reimagining cabins into forest retreat getaways.

Instagram: @cabin.season

WORKSHOP Adaptive Art: Tools, Techniques & Transformation

Kerry Warren, Instructor

New York, New York

Kerry Warren is a New York-based actor, theatre teaching artist, and former Co-Executive Director of the Teaching Artists Guild. A Juilliard graduate and recipient of the President Polisi Prize for Artist as Citizen, she has spent over a decade teaching with organizations such as Lincoln Center Education, People’s Theatre Project, and New York Theatre Workshop. Warren is a 2024 National Guild Next Generation Award recipient and a proud graduate of the Teaching Artist Project, TATI where she trained in arts education for students with disabilities, and Bartol’s Trauma-Informed Practice cohort. As an actor, she has performed on Broadway (The River), Off-Broadway (The Wash at Women’s Project), and regionally (The Originalist, Romeo and Juliet). She appears on NBC’s New Amsterdam and Audible’s Rapture Season with Lili Taylor. Warren is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and the NYC Arts in Education Roundtable.   

Website: kerrywarren.com
Instagram: @kerryawarren

WORKSHOP Fresh Tools for the 21st-Century Theatre Teaching-Artist

Monica & Tyler Aiello, Instructors

Denver, Colorado

Award-winning teaching artists Monica & Tyler Aiello are recognized for innovative initiatives uniting the arts, sciences and creative communities. For over 20 years, the Denver-based couple has pioneered STEAM programs - exploring STEM through the lens of art and culture. The Aiello’s organization Eurekus is a result of long-time collaborations with artists, scientists, engineers, and educators striving to galvanize life-long learning. The Aiellos design dynamic programs for NASA, K-12 schools, colleges, libraries & museums. They also personally mentor thousands of students and teachers each year in the U.S. and abroad. As prominent visual artists, their work is featured in galleries, museums and collections world-wide. In 2015, the couple was honored at the White House US2020 STEM Mentoring Awards Finalist.

eurekus.org

studioaiello.net

WORKSHOP STEAMology: Spark Artful Leading & Learning

Writing

Richard Blanco, Instructor

Miami, Florida and Bethel, Maine

Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Biden. Born in Madrid to Cuban exile parents and raised in Miami in a working-class family, Blanco’s negotiation of cultural identity and themes of place and belonging characterize his poetry, including his most recent collection, Homeland of My Body, as well as his memoirs For All Of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey and The Prince of Los Cocuyos: A Miami Childhood. Blanco has received numerous awards and honorary degrees. He has served as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and the first-ever Poet Laureate of Miami-Dade County. Currently, he serves as Education Ambassador for The Academy of American Poets and is an Associate Professor at Florida International University.

Website: richard-blanco.com
Instagram: @poetrichardblanco
Facebook: @richardblancopoetry

WORKSHOP Photographic Poems

Sarah Weeks, Instructor

Jeffersonville, New York

Sarah Weeks has published more than sixty picture books and novels for young readers, including Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash, Mac and Cheese, and Save Me a Seat, co-written with a former student, Gita Varadarajan. Her award-winning novel, So B. It, won the Rebecca Caudill Award and was made into a full-length feature film, starring Talitha Bateman and Alfre Woodard. In addition to writing, Weeks has visited thousands of children in schools and libraries across the country. She has also served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University Teacher's College and The New School in New York City. She and her husband, Jim Fyfe live on a dirt road at the top of a hill in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. 

Website: sarahweeks.com

WORKSHOP Nurturing Story: Writing for Young Readers

Visual Arts

Heinrich Toh, Instructor

Kansas City, Missouri

Heinrich Toh is a studio artist & educator based in Kansas City, MO. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art and and the La Salle College of the Arts in Singapore where he grew up. His work is in public and private collections, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum, Truman Medical Center, the Loews Kansas City Convention Center Hotel, the University Hospital of Cleveland, and the Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, TX. He has exhibited extensively for the past 20 years, that include the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum, Wing Luke Asian Museum, Bellevue Art Museum and galleries across the country. He has taught at the Kansas City Art Institute and led numerous workshops around the country that include the Penland School of Crafts, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, the Pratt Fine Arts Center among others. His work explores the evolution of identity, memories of past and present, and the definition of home. When not making art, he loves spending time in the kitchen creating culinary bedlam and cooks a mean dish of noodles.

Website: heinrichtoh.com

WORKSHOP The Layered Monotype

Jane Osti, Instructor

Tahlequah, Oklahoma

"Jane Osti: A Legacy of Her Own" tells the story of Cherokee National Treasure Jane Osti and her career as one of the most recognized Cherokee potters today. The exhibit looks at her life and work, as well as her mentorship from Cherokee pottery revivalist Anna Mitchell. Featured in many prestigious galleries and collections, Osti creates stunning, in-demand works of art that have brought her acclaim. More than two dozen pieces including a clay sculpture, "The Spirit of Giving," are on display at the Cherokee Nation Anna Mitchell Cultural & Welcome Center in Vinita., plus a select number of works are available to the public for purchase.

WORKSHOP Cherokee Pottery

Juliette Aristides, Instructor

Seattle, Washington

Juliette Aristides is a Seattle-based painter who seeks to convey the human spirit through art. Aristides is the Founder and Director of the Aristides Atelier. She is the author of seven best-selling books, including Lessons in Classical Drawing and Lessons in Classical Painting (Watson-Guptill, NY). Her artwork and writing have been featured in dozens of publications such as Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, Artist’s Magazine, and American Artist. She exhibits in solo and group shows nationally, including "Observations," a solo exhibition at the Reading Public Museum of Art (2013), "A Life’s Work" (2022), and "Charcoal and Terracotta" (2024) at the Custom’s House Museum, TN. Aristides is the recipient of an Elizabeth Greenshields grant, a Fine Art Connoisseur Lifetime Achievement Award (2022), and is an Art Renewal Center "Living Master."

Website: aristidesarts.com
Instagram: @JulietteAristides
Facebook: @AristidesArt

WORKSHOP Dynamic Figure Drawing

Kameh Saman, Assistant

Seattle, Washington

Kameh Saman is a Seattle-based artist and teacher, born in Iran and holding a Masters in Art from Tehran University. Her work, rooted in observation and classical technique, reflects over a decade of experience in oil painting. Mentored by Juliette Aristides, she sees art as a lifelong discipline, one that invites stillness, attention, and connection. Saman teaches at art institutions and privately, guiding students with the same sensitivity she brings to her own practice. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally at the Seattle Art Fair (ArtLove Salon), The Anderson Museum of Art, the Salmagundi Club (NYC), Jeanette Best Gallery. She was a semifinalist in the 17th ARC Salon and has shown with NOAPS's Best of America. In 2025, three of her works were selected for NASA’s CLPS-TO-20A mission and will be archived at the Moon’s south pole. She continues her studio practice and teaching.

Website: kamehsaman.com
Instagram: @kamehs

WORKSHOP Dynamic Figure Drawing

Katherine Liontas-Warren, Instructor

Cache, Oklahoma

Katherine Liontas-Warren, Professor Emeritus of Art at Cameron University, has been a resident of Oklahoma since 1984, where she taught all levels of drawing, printmaking, and watercolor. Liontas-Warren was awarded the Oklahoma Governor’s Art and Education Award in Oklahoma City at the State Capitol in 2014. She is also the recipient of the Bhattacharya Research Excellence Award, the Cameron University Faculty Hall of Fame, the Phi Kappa Phi Distinguished Faculty Award, and received the title of the Artist of the Year by the Paseo Arts Association in Oklahoma City. Liontas-Warren has exhibited her works of art in over 400 national and juried competitive shows, solo, and invitational exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Many of her prints and drawings are in permanent collections and museums and institutions throughout the nation. She has conducted workshops at the John Campbell school and the Sierra Club. 1515 Lincoln Gallery in Oklahoma City represents Liontas-Warren's paintings. 

Website: katherineliontas.com
Facebook: Katherine Liontas-Warren: fine artist
Instagram: @okartistk.liontas

WORKSHOP Intuitive and Inspirational Watercolor Painting

Laura McPhee, Instructor

Ketchum, Idaho

Laura McPhee’s landscape photographs made in the American west provoke questions about our attitudes and beliefs about the earth we inhabit, questions sometimes environmental, cultural, or geographical. A meditation on our material lives and the unintended consequences of humanity's attempts to control and manage nature, the images depict our paradoxical efforts as we come to terms with the reality of climate change and as we variously attempt to restore, protect, alter, and exploit the land. McPhee’s work has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad and she has had the good fortune to be the recipient of a number of grants and residencies. Her photographs are included in the permanent collections of museums including Getty Center, LACMA, San Francisco MOMA, the Metropolitan Museum of New York, and the Boston MFA. McPhee is the Director of the Graduate Program in Photography at the Massachusetts College of Art.

Website: lauramcphee.com

WORKSHOP Photography: Landscape Stories

Marwin Begaye, Instructor

Norman, Oklahoma

An internationally exhibited artist, Marwin Begaye, Navajo, was born in Ganado, AZ. Begaye is currently living in Norman, OK, where he is a professor of studio art at the University of Oklahoma School of Visual Arts. He examines the issues of cultural identity through the intersection of American Indian and popular cultures. His ongoing research investigates the technical processes related to printmaking and construction of mixed-media art. He received numerous awards as an Artist in Residence and through juried exhibitions. His work has been featured in numerous publications and maintains an active exhibition schedule, featured in exhibitions in New Zealand, England, Argentina, Paraguay, Italy, Siberia and Estonia. He work is displayed in private collections, museum collections, and the United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division.

Website: marwinbegaye.com
Instagram: @printmakingpapa

WORKSHOP For the Love of Birds and Patterns

Nicole Emmons, Instructor

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Nicole Emmons is a Citizen Potawatomi Nation filmmaker and mixed media artist based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. With an M.F.A. in Experimental Animation from the California Institute of the Arts, she specializes in stop motion animation and innovative storytelling. Emmons' work has been showcased in festivals worldwide, has been featured on platforms such as Netflix, Adult Swim, Nickelodeon, NBC, and the Discovery Channel, and she has collaborated with notable companies such as the Obama's Higher Ground Productions. Her latest project, "Black Wolf's Legacy," explored the forced removal of the Potawatomi people, merging history with contemporary art to foster dialogue about cultural identity and survival. That project was supported by the First People's Fund in addition to the Andy Warhol Foundation, in partnership with the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition. She is currently working with Factory Obscura on a series of videos for their Boombox art piece at their downtown location.

WORKSHOP Natural Animation
Richard Hull

Richard Hull, Instructor

Chicago, Illinois

Richard Hull lives and works in Chicago, his paintings, drawings, and prints are in the collections of several museums including the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C.; Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Smart Museum, Chicago. He has exhibited his work at many of the aforementioned institutions as well as at the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City; the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT; Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, OH; Portland Art Museum, OR; the Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Evanston IL; and the Painting Center, New York, NY. He joined the legendary Phyllis Kind Gallery before graduating from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 1979 and had numerous shows in both her New York City and Chicago locations. Richard Hull is represented by Western Exhibitions, Chicago.

Website: westernexhibitions.com/artist/richard-hull/
Instagram: @richard_j_hull

WORKSHOP Painting Practice

Shawn Sheehy, Instructor

Chicago, Illinois

Shawn Sheehy has been teaching book arts courses and workshops since 2001. His broadsides and artist book editions have been collected by such institutions as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, University of Chicago, Library of Congress, UCLA, and Harvard. Sheehy’s trade pop-up books Welcome to the Neighborwood and Beyond the Sixth Extinction (both mass-market versions of previously developed artist books) were published by Candlewick and have won numerous awards. Sheehy served as director of The Movable Book Society from 2018 to 2023. He holds an M.F.A. in Book Arts from Columbia College Chicago.

Website: shawnsheehy.com
Instagram: @shawnwilder
YouTube: @shawnsheehy

WORKSHOP Animate Your Artist Book with Pop-Ups
Return to top