FOUNDER / EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Kristin A. Rapp, LMSW - kris@artpeace.org

ASST. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Precious Nzima-Moses – precious@artpeace.org

STAFF

David Rapp - Director of Rich Media Learning – dave@artpeace.org

Sara Hughes - Managing Director, City at Peace-Rochester – sara@artpeace.org

J. Eli Artman - Artistic Director, City at Peace-Rochester – eli@artpeace.org

Sue Hollister - Coordinator of ArtPeace Shakedown, annual event

Marty Evans – Director, ArtPeaceSouth (Finger Lakes/Southern Tier Region Office) – Arts-in-Education Consultant – marty@artpeace.org

*See Roster for contract teaching artists and consultants that are employed per diem

BOARD

Andrew Bellavia – Teleservices Manager, Catalyst Direct – drew@artpeace.org

Shane Dale – Art Director, Catalyst Direct; VP of TheMediaTribe – shane@artpeace.org

Eric M. Grace – Lab for Technological Literacy, RIT; Chair of Program Development Committee – eric@artpeace.org

Angela Johnson – Manager of Business Development, Catalyst Direct – angela@artpeace.org

Justin Lesko – Director of Education Market Development for Toshiba – justin@artpeace.org

Joshua Farrelman – Director, Office of Government & Community Relations, University of Rochester; Chair of Finance & Legal Committee – josh@artpeace.org

Susan Wylie – Lawyer, Kodak

ARTPEACE ROSTER

PROFESSIONAL TEACHING ARTISTS, SPEAKERS and WORKSHOP FACILITATORS

Laud Joseph OB Addy – OB is a Master drummer and singer from Ghana who tours around the world (most recently with Wynton Marsalis) and also teaches young people in the traditional ways and culture of Ghana (website)

**Denise Bartalo – Denise is a teacher, literacy specialist, mentor, storyteller and actress. She uses children’s literature, puppets and songs when she works with young children.

**Don Bartalo – Mr. Bartalo is a dynamic speaker and workshop facilitator for kids (using children’s literature, acting, singing and guitar) and adults. He has been a school Vice Principal, Principal, Superintendent and now travels the U.S. as an instructional leadership developer, working with school administrators and teachers. He speaks on instructional leadership, literacy, making change and the importance of creative and integrative education.

*Andrew Bellavia – Teleservices Manager at Catalyst Direct, a direct marketing firm in Rochester , NY . Andrew is a musician in a popular local band, The Buddhahood (website) and can teach music and the creative use of Lego’s.

Vickie Bell – Visual artist/painter, Art teacher for youth in the Rochester City School District . Vickie provides interactive workshops on team building and collaborative art work.

Alycia Bright-Holland – African and Modern Dance instructor. She is completing her MFA in Dance at Brockport.

**Eric Cady – Eric is a talented visual artist and carpenter. He builds beautiful and unique art and furniture pieces and started his own business, Big Wheel Design, doing custom work. He has helped with a furniture creation project for ArtPeace and for several public events. Eric is interested in teaching kid’s carpentry, architectural restoration and martial arts.

Ted Canning – Ted is a steel drummer and teaching artist who has worked at our young entrepreneur program and in school residencies. He teaches about the history of the steel drum and the culture surrounding the music.

Keisha Laren Clarke – Artistic Director, Choreographer, Performing Artist and Dance Teacher for Shine Your Light (website). Keisha is a former Garth Fagan dancer, toured with The Lion King and has a disciplined yet loving style with young people and adult dance students.

Heather Dale – Senior Graphic Designer for Wegmans (website) designing many of the popular Menu Magazine images and other illustrations. Heather is an amazing, multi-talented visual artist. She also enjoys to teach drawing to kids (e.g., faeries and mystical creatures).

*Shane Dale – Art Director at Catalyst Direct, ( website) freelance multimedia developer, print designer and animator. He teaches a variety of workshops on the uses of design & animation software. Shane is VP of TheMediaTribe, partnering with David and Kristin Rapp, as well as being on the ArtPeace Board and teaching with us. He is instrumental in creating our multimedia products.

Jacqueline Dobson – Jackie is a singer, actress and artist who is also a social worker in the Rochester City School District. She has a lot of experience with challenged urban youth. Jackie connects very well with young people and sends a strong message of respect and love. She presents workshops of the habits of highly successful teens.

Shawn Dunwoody – Shawn is very active in this community and is involved in all things positive and unifying. He is a multitalented visual artist, performing artist, videographer and an actor. He is a master at art fusion.

**Dr. David Eckstrand – Clinical psychologist and mental health consultant for ArtPeace. He worked with the teaching artists and provided staff development for the summer 2005 young entrepreneur program. Dr. Eckstrand is available when there are serious behavioral or mental health concerns and to offer strengths-based intervention suggestions. He is expert on Positive Youth Asset Development and works as a consulting psychologist for St. Joseph ’s Villa and the local Catholic Diocese, for their school social workers and counselors. He can provide workshops and trainings on all of the above topics.

**Greg Gefell – Greg is a multimedia artist, sound engineer, photographer, videographer/filmmaker and musician – all of which he contributes to ArtPeace. He is the band BlueJimmy (website) and also plays with other bands. He records and edits their CD’s. Greg is employed at Element K.

**Jean Squire-Gefell – Jean is a science teacher at Pittsford Central Schools. She has a degree in art and education but is best known for her work as a giant bug and various other creatures for the Rochester Museum and Science Center where she lead informative walks and also taught nature & science at the Cummings Nature Center . Jean is a natural teacher and storyteller. She has an amazing way with younger kids and she always makes learning fun!

Ian Gendreau – African hand-drummer and teaching artist. Ian has been using his musical talents and teaching abilities to work with students for years and is now pursuing his Master’s in Multicultural Music.

* Tiffany Gilbert – Tiffany is an artist & designer who recently left Rochester to go Teach For America.

Kenneth “Tiny” Glover (website) – Tiny was a well-known local comedian and storyteller who tours throughout the US . He was a gifted, warm and fun loving teaching artist who all kids (& adults) adore. We will miss him.

*Eric M. Grace (website) – Eric is an art teacher at Jefferson Middle School and is the co-founder of Art For Everyone (website) that creates collaborative, integrative curriculum using digital arts, visual arts and youth development. This includes building wi-fi networks with youth through the Rochester Digital Ripple (website).

Sarah Gullo – Sarah is a creative modern and improvisational dancer and teaches these. She is completing her MFA in Dance from SUNY Brockport.

Liz Hallmark – Liz owns HallmarkDanceworks (website) and is getting a doctorate degree from University of Rochester where her focus is arts-in-education. Liz offers unique workshops and arts integration training, using current research and dance/movement techniques.

David Haygood, Jr. – David is a local visual artist and entrepreneur, who is founder and owner of GalleryOne (website). He talks about the challenges he went through as a young person and how he began to see how his art and getting an education could help him make a productive living. David is very active in the Rochester community and committed to seeing civic change happen.

Lucienne Haynes – beautiful, inspirational and motivational speaker from Haiti who teaches etiquette, fashion, self-presentation and promotion, languages and literary arts. She is also an excellent host, landscape and culinary artist.

Randall Hoyt – graphic designer and design professor at the University of Connecticut – (website). Randall is an exceptional designer and can come to the area for special teaching events in design, digital arts, web design and multimedia. He founded the Perch Pond Multimedia Think Tank (pmt2).

* Sara Hughes – Sara is our Board President and is a passionate youth development advocate and activist for peace and social justice. She is closely affiliated with Compeer, having been a mentor and worked there coordinating youth services for years. Sara presents on philosophy/Socratic Method, cultural competence, asset development, collaboration, mentorship, community peacemaking and social change and a variety of other life skills development and professional topics.

Ed Keegan – Ed is a former pastor and founder of RhythmConnect (website). He is a drummer and teaching artist who convenes public rhythmic occurrences and helps our youth build authentic African djembe drums for themselves and for sale.

*Justin Lesko – Justin is our resident marketing and sales expert. He works for Toshiba and can present on business strategy, business planning, marketing and sales.

**Andrew Loyson – Adventure-Based Trainer, Recreation Therapist, youth counselor, employed by St. Joseph’s Villa (website). Andrew provides team-building and fun recreational activities for ArtPeace.

Joe Mangano – Joe is a masterful wordsmith, hip hop artist, beat creator and all-around cool guy who connects well with youth.

Patricia Mason – Rochester Step-Off Director. Patricia shares her personal story and she discusses how education became very important to her as an African-American female in helping divert her from less healthy pursuits. She also is a talented stepper.

**Glenn McClure – Director of Arts Integration for ArtPeace, musician, composer, teaching artist and owner of McClure Productions (website). Glenn travels internationally and within the U.S. for his music and teaching arts career.

McClure Productions and ArtPeace have partnered to develop two innovative programs for in-school and out of school arts-in-education learning:

1 - Galileo’s Universe – which is an integrative science, math, language arts and history curriculum using music composition, writing, visual arts, digital arts and animation

2 - Cosmic Gumbo Café – youth imagine themselves in a space restaurant on the moon that serves earth cuisine. The program teaches nutrition, cooking, family interaction, arts, communication skills, civic responsibility, history, language, science and math with a technology component. There is also a trading card game that teaches kids about different foods and their strengths and weaknesses.

David Merkel – David is a talented visual artist, sculptor and art teacher. He has an ability to accept where a student is but to help them to reach their higher potential.

**Patrick Miller – Director of IT at the University of Rochester’s Simon School of Business, Patrick speaks about entrepreneurship, uses of technology, goal-setting and overcoming obstacles. Patrick grew up in the city of Rochester and came from a broken and impoverished home. He was a troubled teen and talks about how he moved beyond his past to become successful in his career field.

Christopher Morrison – Chris is a modern dancer who toured with Garth Fagan Dance for many years. He teaches modern, ballet and other forms of dance (website).

**George Moses – George educates young people in energetic ways, encouraging them to make healthy choices and changes and guiding them through that process. George works for North East Area Development and leads the local Freedom Schools (website).

*Michael Murray – Mike is a digital photographer who also teaches digital photography and design techniques (website). He is a soft-spoken guy that has a peaceful presence, which encourages the students to grow.

Robyn Neill (website) – Robyn teaches technology/computer art at Edison Tech at the Rochester City School District . He is also a partner in Art For Everyone (website) and has co-lead some highly innovative public art works and a youth employment program, Rochester Digital Ripple (website), where young people created a neighborhood wi-fi network.

Nii Oblie – Nii is a master drummer and drum builder from Ghana . He connects well with kids and teaches about the traditions and culture of Ghana . Nii is also a culinary artist and cooks authentic Ghanaian food – he owns a restaurant and resort in Ghana .

*Precious Nzima-Moses – ArtPeace Asst. Director, youth counselor and Math professor for SUNY Brockport. Precious speaks about life growing up in Africa , Apartheid and how she learned the true value of education and the opportunity it provides. She provides math instruction, GED and TABE test prep and tutoring.

Chris Pallace – Chris is a talented visual artist, cartoonist and successful game designer and his games are widely sold and distributed internationally - (website). Chris also creates 3D sculptures and produced some of the most well-loved “Horses on Parade” and “Animal Scramble” animals.

PUSH Physical Theatre – Darren and Heather Stevenson and company (website)– they teach and perform physical theatre and modern dance/movement. They have a Matrix-like gravity-defying and mesmerizing style and travel nationally and internationally, performing and working in schools in artist residencies with students, using the physical body to teach science and other concepts. Heather offers programs for younger children in movement, dance, physical theatre and other arts in her program, PUSHPins. Darren is also a graphic designer and is a captivating public speaker.

**David Rapp – Animator, designer and multimedia developer. Dave is married to the founder/director of ArtPeace and is also President of TheMediaTribe, an educational software development company, and is a founding Director of ArtPeace. Dave teaches multimedia -- animation, digital photography, video, special fx, design, use of various software, technology lab/IT set-up and has experience with a challenging population of youth.

Kristin Rapp – Founder and Executive Director of ArtPeace. Kristin has a background in the arts (visual, graphic design, music and writing) and is a Licensed Master of Social Work who can provide general and creative arts therapy as well as professional development in grief & healing rituals, creative arts interventions, “the art of peace and progress”, innovative education, youth employment and protest art. Kristin can also do arts residencies on note card creation, t-shirt design, drawing/painting and children’s book creation.

Robert Ricks – Robert is a local poet, spoken word artist, youth empowerment counselor (website) and published author. Mr. Ricks has worked with at-risk youth for over ten years and is the founder and president of the African Urban Arts and Cultural Organization, which focuses on the arts and social and cultural development. Mr. Ricks has received awards from several Rochester organizations serving youth, as well as the Writers & Books "Teacher of Young People" award in 2003. Mr. Ricks has written and produced two plays. He has self-published a book of short stories and poetry and has a three-book publishing deal with Black Pearl Books. The first of these books, Mastermind, was released in November 2005.

Julie Riling – Julie teaches modern dance and fitness classes that incorporate overall fitness and dance. She owns Dance Mosaic (website). She and her husband founded and run an arts integrated church (website).

*Allison Roberts – Allison is a visual artist, jewelry, product & furniture designer, actress and comedian. She has founded several comedy troupes, including the ever-popular all-female group, EstroFest (website), and works for ArtPeace as our Arts Coordinator. You can contact Allison: allison@artpeace.org

Victor Saunders – Victor heads up the City of Rochester ’s Pathways to Peace (website) and speaks to young people about making healthy choices and changes.

*Peter Scheuering – Pete is a Founding Director of ArtPeace. He works at Harris Interactive in the IT Department and has a degree in Physics and Education. He works in the realms of IT, networking and integrating science, arts and technology curriculum.

*Kevin Serwacki – Kevin is a published children’s book author & illustrator who is a 2 & 3-D visual artist, sculptor and has worked with kids of all ages on book creation, drawing and visual arts workshops. Kevin designed and created some of the most well-loved “Horses on Parade” and “Animal Scramble” animals; website.

Keith Simmons (website) – Keith is an RIT-educated IT designer and partner in Art For Everyone in Art For Everyone (website). Keith has co-lead some highly innovative online digital arts projects and a youth employment program, Rochester Digital Ripple (website), where young people created a neighborhood wi-fi network.

Joseph Sorrentino(website) - published playwright, writer and photographer. Joseph thrives on working with tough teens and the homeless population. He creates art books, plays or writing with youth or adults.

**Lance Teitsworth – Lance was a Founding Director of ArtPeace and is a freelance designer and web developer. He is also our resident hot-air balloon pilot and his family owns a horse farm as well as the ballooning business (website). He offers programs to young people using the hot-air balloons as well as web development, design and art techniques.

**Dr. Bill Valenti – Dr. Valenti is a well-known medical doctor in the community and travels nationally and internationally, as an expert on HIV and AIDS. He started AIDS Community Health Center (website) and is a consultant for us on running a not-for-profit organization and health matters.

*Karen VanMeenan – Karen provides interactive writing workshops. She is a writer, magazine editor, adjunct professor at RIT and teaches at Writers & Books (website).

**Advisory Council – ArtPeace

*Board of Directors – ArtPeace