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artists in schools

TEACHERS AND STAFF

Christopher Castle is a British-born artist and composer. His paintings and prints focus on human relationships to place and nature. He works with community groups and schools to create art that enables individuals to express their own stories. Mr. Castle's work is represented in public collections including: the British Museum (London), the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), the Scottish and Welsh National Museums (Edinburgh and Cardiff) and in private collections worldwide.

Andreas Cisneros-Galindo is a master teacher in printmaking and a longtime friend of Kala. Mr. Cisneros has been an artist-in-residence and instructor for many years. Since 1984 he has taught at the National Institute of Art and Disabilities (NIAD) in Richmond leading printmaking workshops in a variety of techniques including woodcut, linoleum, collagraph, and silkscreen. In 1979 Mr. Cisneros received a Maestro in Artes Plasticos (equivalent to an MFA) in Mexico. He also holds a BA in Psychology and has completed requirements for a bilingual teaching credential at California State University, Hayward.

Kym Cortigiano’s work with inner-city youth in New Haven and Philadelphia enables her to effectively facilitate and teach in Kala's school-site programs. Ms. Cortigiano is also a working photographer and lends her artistic talents to document our programs.

Jamila Dunn coordinates Kala's Artists-in-Schools program. She brings curriculum development and teaching experience from museum education programs at Seattle Art Museum, The Children‘s Museum (Seattle), Honolulu Academy of Arts. Ms. Dunn holds an MA in Art History (Curatorial Studies) and a BA in Art and French. She is also co-chair of the Berkeley Art Education Steering Committee (BAESC).

Mariana Garibay is currently a resident artist at Kala. Through painting and printmaking, Ms. Garibay combines images of natural and urban landscapes. Her work has been exhibited throughout the Bay Area and Mexico. She has taught at Mission Grafica, Richmond Art Center, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Steven Holloway is an award-winning artist, geographer and mapmaker.  His curriculum includes: "The Art of Observation" a hands-on course focusing on observation, visual language and map-making which he has successfully taught to third graders through high school seniors and college students. His personal and professional work explores new ways of mapping through listening and direct contact with the earth.  Mr. Holloway is currently a resident artist and instructor at Kala.

Archana Horsting is the co-founder and Executive Director of Kala Art Institute for 35 years. She founded the Artists-in-Schools program and continues to direct and oversee its growth. Her background includes curriculum development and instruction in the visual arts and drama. She has taught master classes for the California Arts Education Association and Kiddo in Marin. Ms. Horsting holds a BA with Honors from UC Santa Cruz. She also completed post-graduate work at Atelier 17 in Paris.

Purnima Jha is an internationally renowned dancer, choreographer and master teacher of Kathak, Indian classical dance. Her students acquire an understanding of rhythm, movement, and storytelling. She was a visiting scholar at the Center of Asian Studies at UC Berkeley and a faculty member at the East Bay Center for Performing Arts. In 1998, Ms. Jha was awarded the National Intellectual Honor of India for lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

James Morgan has been teaching students at Emery High and Peralta Elementary Schools since 2000. Working in the classroom since 1984, Mr. Morgan received several commissions to create public mural projects with young people. Mr. Morgan earned a BA in Classics from Stanford University and an MFA from California College of Arts and Crafts.

Carmen Gonzales Murray taught elementary school continuously for the past forty years. During that time she instructed multiple-subjects in public and private schools in the US and in Department of Defense schools abroad. Ms. Gonzales Murray continues to strengthen her teaching skills through diverse professional development programs such as Harvard's Project Zero, Bay Area Math Project and Bay Area Writing Project, and Teachers' College Writing Project at Columbia University. She acted as a Math mentor for Orinda Schools and as an educational consultant for CORE (Consortium on Reading Excellence) in Emeryville.

Favianna Rodriguez is an artist-entrepreneur who has helped foster resurgence in political arts and media both locally and internationally. Named by UTNE Magazine as one of the country’s leading “visionary artists,” Rodriguez is renown for her leadership in establishing innovative institutions that promote education and engage new audiences in the arts. In 2001, Rodriguez co-founded the EastSide Arts Alliance (ESAA) and Visual Element in Oakland, California, to train young artists in the tradition of street art and muralism. In 2003, she co-established the Taller Tupac Amaru print studio. Rodriguez is always seeking ways to make art more accessible and participatory.

Eric Sanchez is a Bay Area based artist working in photography, digital printing, sculpture, installation, and currently drawing. Mr. Sanchez’s artwork is informed by science. It reflects on the discourse surrounding biotechnology and its uses in society. Eric Sanchez received his MFA from San Francisco State University and his BFA with a Minor in Art History from California State University, Hayward. Solo exhibitions include local venues such as the Kala Art Institute, SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Chico State University and many other local grassroots galleries like Lobot, Rock Paper Scissors, and the Balazo Gallery.

Kim Sikora is an emerging artist recently relocated to the Bay Area. A graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, Sikora has taught visual art at both in school and after school programs in at sites across Brooklyn, Manhattan, the Bronx and Newark, New Jersey. Past courses include work with collaborative and self-reflective mandalas, documentary photography books, scenery design and construction, and large-scale murals. A former Artist-in-Residence at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, her work has been exhibited in New York, Philadelphia, Berkeley and Providence.

Lolly Watanabe is a working artist with a BFA in painting and an MFA in sculpture from San Francisco Art Institute. She is an experienced teacher and a founding faculty member of the East Bay Science and Arts Middle School. Ms. Watanabe has a strong interest in American and international Folk Art and shares her interest by teaching Batik, Handmade Paper, Basketry, Paper Marbling, and Ceramics.

Susan Wolf is a printmaker and mixed-media artist currently working as an artist in residence at Kala.  Ms. Wolf leads workshops with communities of children and teachers in Emeryville and Berkeley to develop, design, and execute a variety of projects that often begin by exploring imagery through printmaking. She recently completed a mural commission for Anna Yates Elementary School in Emeryville entitled What is Community?.  Ms. Wolf is a California credentialed K-12 teacher and completed Harvard’s Teaching for Understanding training course.

 

PAST TEACHING ARTISTS

Abnet Asnake is a graduate of California College of the Arts with a BFA in Illustration. She utilizes a variety of recycled materials to create two- and three-dimensional art objects. She also teaches Visual Thinking Strategies to address logistical and conceptual design issues. Ms. Asnake has participated as a resident artist at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Katherin McInnis is a multi-media artist with an MFA from California College of the Arts. Ms. McInnis teaches a variety of media including animation, collage, and ceramics, sculpture, and photography with an emphasis on technical skill and imaginative thinking. Her video work was exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

Laurie Polster is a nationally exhibiting artist with an MFA from Massachusetts College of Art and twenty-three years teaching experience. Ms. Polster is a multi-media artist who teaches painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, and art fundamentals. A former Artist-in-Residence at Kala, Ms. Polster also received the Critics Circle Award for scenic design and she serves as a board member of PRO ARTS in Oakland.

Marsha Shaw received her MFA from California College of the Arts and her MA and BA from California State University Northridge. Shaw has lectured and taught courses in printmaking and bookmaking at California College of the Arts, San Francisco Center for the Book, and the Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland. Her work has been exhibited both regionally and nationally.

Bayeté Ross Smith utilizes the photographic medium as a means to investigate societal, racial and cultural stereotyping. Bayeté presents portraits that blend and blur our own preconceptions and prejudices, as we tend to visually typecast and categorize each individual presented for our scrutiny. Undeniably, each viewer's personal biases are called into question as we grapple with our own issues involving race and class. Bayeté received his MFA in Photography from California College for the Arts. His work has been recently presented at San Francisco City Hall in association with the San Francisco Arts Commission, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Richmond Art Center, GenArts "Emerge" exhibition and the de Saisset Museum in Santa Clara. He is also a member of the Cause Collective, recipients of a recent commission at the Oakland International Airport.

Mark Zaffron received his MFA from San Francisco Art Institute and his BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. He is an Instructor of Printmaking at Diablo Valley College. Mark is also Founder and Director of the Center for Research, Art, Technology & Education, a non-profit printmaking studio in Oakland.

 

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