Pietro Accardi is a native of Turin, Italy, where he established La Legatoria del Sole, a modern bookbindery steeped in the ancient traditions of paper marbling, restoration and bookbinding. After lengthy service to Turin’s Municipal Archives, Main Public Library, and University Libraries, he is now enjoying his second life as a well-loved book arts teacher at the Center for the Book in San Francisco as well as teaching workshops throughout the West. Pietro and his wife Vanessa founded Accardi Book Arts, a Classical Marbling Studio and Bindery in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe. He is teaching Introduction to Paper Marbling and Marbling Silk Scarves in 2020.
Dorothy Ami (Hopi-Tewa) is from the village of Polacca at First Mesa. She began practicing the art of Hopi-Tewa pottery 30 years ago under her cousin and innovator in Hopi pottery, Mark Tahbo. She later went on to win several awards in competitions, including the Museum of Northern Arizona’s Annual Hopi Show, NAU Road Scholar Program, and other private organizations. Dorothy and her husband Emerson have been featured in many publications, including Talking with Clay in the 21st Century and Hopi Tiles. In 2001, she was featured in the SWAIA Magazine as one of the top 10 artists to see at the Santa Fe Indian Market. Dorothy Ami is also the founder and owner of Smoking Trails Arts & Crafts, specializing in Hopi-Tewa Arts and Crafts. She is teaching Hopi-Tewa Pottery in 2020.
Seth Apter is a mixed media artist, instructor, author and designer from New York City. You can find his work in galleries and on the pages of many books and magazines. He has published two books with North Light Media and can be seen in multiple online workshops. Seth teaches internationally and is an instructor at Pratt Institute, NY. He is the designer behind his own lines of art products with multiple companies. He is teaching Bento Box in 2020.
Dr. Douglas Ashcraft has performed to acclaim in recitals and concerts throughout the US and Europe. He began his formal training as a student of Aldo Mancinelli. Graduate work with John Perry followed at USC. An active chamber musician, he has performed in recitals at the Concertgebeouw, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Wigmore Hall. His performing career has included radio broadcasts on New York’s WQXR and live chamber music recitals on KKGO, KMZT and KUSC in Los Angeles, and BBC Radio 3 in London. He is teaching Piano Performance Workshop with Antoinette Perry and William Wellborn in 2020.
Joe Baker(Delaware Tribe of Indians), is an artist, educator, curator and executive director, Palos Verdes Art Center. He is co-founder/executive director of Lenape Center, ltd, NY, and has served as curator of fine art at the Heard Museum, in addition to various faculty appointments. Joe has received many awards, including the Virginia Piper Charitable Trust Fellows Award, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art’s Contemporary Catalyst Award, Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian Design Award, ASU Presidential Medal, and Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting. He holds a BFA and MFA from the University of Tulsa and completed postgraduate study at Harvard University. Native American Arts Festival Week 2020
Hayne Bayless is a potter in Ivoryton, CT. In school he managed to avoid any academic involvement with clay, and in 1992 he quit a perfectly good job at a newspaper to make pots. Hayne’s work has been shown at the American Craft Museum, and he has been a frequent exhibitor at the Smithsonian Craft Show and the Philadelphia Museum Craft Show. His pots have been published in Objects for Use by Paul Smith, Design Language by Tim McCreight, Studio Potter journal, and a number of Lark Books. He is teaching Happiness is a Warm Extruder in 2020.
Jennifer Ben (Diné) is from Shiprock, NM and is a student at both Arizona State University and Mesa Community College studying music theory and cello performance. Jennifer has worked extensively as an artist in residence and demonstrator at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ, and has participated in the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market. Her work reflects her various passions such as music, food sovereignty, traditional farming methodologies, and Diné philosophy, as well as taking inspiration from master artists around the world. She is teaching The Beaded Cuff in 2020.
Aimee Bender is the author of five books, including the NY Times Notable Book The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, the bestseller The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, and most recently The Color Master, a NY Times Notable Book for 2013. Her work has been widely published in places such as Granta, The Paris Review, Harpers, “This American Life” and more, and has been translated into sixteen languages. She teaches creative writing at USC. She is teaching Fiction in 2020.
Freddie J. Bitsoie (Diné), is executive chef, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Mitsitam Café in Washington, DC. He also owns FJBits Concepts, which specializes in Native American foodways. He travels widely, presenting for organizations including Kraft Foods, College of the Holy Cross, Yale University, and the Heard Museum. Freddie hosts the public TV show Rezervations Not Required, and has appeared in and contributes to many publications. He won the Native Chef Competition at the NMAI in 2013. Freddie studied cultural anthropology and art history at Arizona State University before attending culinary school. He is teaching Native American Cuisine: Indigenous Culinary Fusions in 2020.
Alice Bolin is the author of Dead Girls (Morrow/HarperCollins), a collection of essays about crime, gender, and the American West. Her criticism, personal essays, and journalism have appeared in publications including Elle, Salon, Racked, The Awl, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Paris Review online, and The New Yorker’s Page-Turner blog. Her poems have been published in Guernica, Washington Square, Blackbird, and Ninth Letter, among many other journals. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Nonfiction at the University of Memphis. Writers Week 2020
Christopher Broughton has been a photographer and educator for over 30 years, teaching courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level in the US and France. His teaching experience includes classes in digital photography, photography as fine art, Ansel Adams’ “Zone System,” street photography, and more. His extensive black and white experience allows him to straddle the use of both classic emulsion-based materials as well as contemporary digital tools. Christopher taught for over 20 years at Brooks Institute of Photography, where he received both his BA and MS, and currently teaches at Mount Saint Mary’s University and Antelope Valley College. He is teaching Seeing in Black & White in 2020.
Richard Burkett has more than 45 years of experience in ceramics, loves both food and pottery, and has studied ceramics around the world, often with Joe Molinaro. Richard has worked in a wide range of ceramics processes. Richard is the author of HyperGlaze glaze software and the coauthor of the 6th edition of Ceramics: A Potter’s Handbook. He is currently Professor of Art-Ceramics at San Diego State University. www.richardburkett.com Hot Clay 2020
Monica Cardone is a metalsmith and has been making jewelry for more than 15 years. Having learned from expert metalsmiths in the US as well as studying classical old world techniques with a master goldsmith in Florence, Italy, Monica’s passion for combining the art of jewelry making and the art of Florence itself is evident through her role as the founder of the Metalsmiths in Florence workshop. She has taught both domestically and abroad, and her work has been featured in Art Jewelry and Studios magazines, the Travel Channel’s TV show “Treasure Hunters”, and the Rio Grande/RioPro blog. She is teaching Bad Ass Bezels with a Hammer Hand Piece in 2020.
Ben Carter is based in Farmingdale, NJ, where he maintains a studio, teaches workshops and exhibits internationally. He received his MFA in ceramics from the University of Florida in 2010. In 2016, he was named Ceramic Artist of the Year by Ceramics Monthly and released his first full-length book, Mastering the Potter’s Wheel, published by Voyageur Press. In addition to his studio work, Ben is the creator/host of the Tales of a Red Clay Rambler podcast, where he interviews artists about their craft, creativity, and lifestyle. He is teaching Low Fire is Cooler! in 2020.
Melanie Castillo is an associate agent at Root Literary. After graduating with an MS in writing and book publishing from Portland State University, she worked as an editorial project manager at Quarto and then as a freelance editor for several years before joining Root Literary in 2018. Melanie began building her list in 2019 and is actively looking for fiction and narrative nonfiction. She’s especially excited to find high-concept commercial and literary leaning general fiction, young adult novels with a strong voice and propulsive pacing, and heartfelt and humorous middle grade novels across genres—from contemporary and realistic to historical and fantasy and everything in between.Melanie was born and raised in Southern California in a multi-cultural, blended family, so she has a soft spot for books that shine a spotlight on the nuances of family relationships and identity. She lives in Anaheim with her husband and a pack of animals currently comprised of two cats, one dog, and a geriatric turtle. Writers Week 2020
Victoria Chang’s fourth book of poems, Barbie Chang, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2017 and won the Housatonic Book Award. The Boss (McSweeney’s) won a PEN America Literary Award and a California Book Award. Other books are Salvinia Molesta and Circle, and she edited Asian American Poetry: The Next Generation. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Fellowship, a MacDowell Fellowship, and a Poetry Society of America Alice Fay di Castagnola Award for her fifth book of poems, OBIT, which will be published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Her picture book Is Mommy? (Simon & Schuster), was illustrated by Caldecott winner Marla Frazee and was named a New York Times Notable Book. She is a contributing editor of the literary journal, Copper Nickel and a poetry editor at Tupelo Quarterly. She is currently on the National Book Critics Circle Board. She lives in Los Angeles with her family and her wiener dogs, Mustard and Ketchup, and is Core Faculty at Antioch University’s low-residency MFA Program. She is teaching Poetry in 2020.
Hai Cohen is a native of Beer-Sheva, Israel, and studied ballet at the Bat Dor Professional Dance School, where he was awarded the American-Israel Cultural Scholarship. Hai’s training continued with Bat-Sheva Dance Company. He toured internationally as a soloist with Aylot Anegov Israeli Folk Dance Company and was a member of Kamea Contemporary Dance Company. In 2007, Hai joined Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company and was a member of the Los Angeles based BODYTRAFFIC. In addition to teaching at Idyllwild Arts and LACHSA, Hai is featured regularly as guest faculty, choreographer and clinician at schools across America. He is teaching Exploring Dance & Movement with Ellen Rosa-Taylor in 2020.
Bill Cramer is best known for his striking oil paintings of the American West. Growing up in the West, Bill always had an interest in exploring nature and creating art. After receiving a University of California fine arts degree, he moved to Arizona, where he discovered the delight and challenges of plein air painting. Bill works in a style best described as impressionistic realism, where strong brushwork and colors are used to express the vitality and beauty of the natural world. He is teaching Plein Air to Studio in 2020.
Chandra DeBuse is a studio potter in Kansas City and a founding member of Kansas City Urban Potters. She received her MFA from the University of Florida in 2010 and was a resident artist at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Chandra has presented her work as an NCECA 2012 Emerging Artist, at Utilitarian Clay VII, and SOFA Chicago. She has been featured in numerous publications and has presented over 50 workshops nationwide. She is teaching Springboard: From Wheel to Surface in 2020.
Darcy Delgado is a transgender ceramic artist and educator living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has taught around California and has been a faculty member at Idyllwild Arts since 2010. Darcy’s work pushes and pulls between functional sculptures and sculptural objects, responding to her lived experience. She is teaching Pottery Boot Camp with Adrienne Eliades in 2020.
Michael DeMeng travels the world teaching and creating mixed media shrines and deMented toys. As an artist, he exhibits his unique style of assemblage throughout the world. He is also an author of three books, Secrets of Rusty Things, Dusty Diablos, and The Art Abandonment Project published by North Light. He is teaching Bocca del Destino: Mouth of Destiny and Arcana: A Tale of Tarot in 2020.
Jessie Dodington holds an MFA from Texas Tech University, and her work has been exhibited in group and solo shows across the US and internationally. She has taught drawing and painting at Eastern New Mexico University and Texas Tech University and teaches painting workshops for children and adults. She is a member of the 806 Collective at the Charles Adams Studio Project and is published in the Journal of the Texas Art Education Association on the topic “Expanded Materiality: Surprise and Serendipity in Art Education.” She is teaching Exploring Acrylic Painting in 2020.
Sarah T. Doremus is an active sculptor and metalsmith living in Deer Isle, ME, producing work for galleries and private clients. She devotes much of her time to teaching at two rural Maine elementary schools, and also teaches workshops around the country at Idyllwild Arts, Haystack, Penland, Arrowmont, Peters Valley, and Metalwerx. She holds a BS in Art History from Northeastern University, and a BFA from Mass College of Art. Her work is included in publications such as the Lark 500 books, Making Good, and Humor in Craft, and is in exhibits and galleries across the country. She is teaching Brooches with Attitude in 2020.
Barbara Drake (Tongva) is a tribal elder and culture keeper. Her program, Preserving Our Heritage, is a bank of native foods collected, preserved and processed for tribal elders. She is a member of the Mother Earth Clan, a group of Southern California Native American women educators who have taught extensively in museums, schools and tribal institutions. She is also a founding member of the Chia Café Collective. She is a guest presenter for California Native Plants: Contemporary & Traditional Medicinal Uses in 2020.
Robert Regis Dvorák is a watercolor artist and public speaker on creativity. His books include Travel Drawing and Painting, Drawing Without Fear, Experiential Drawing, The Practice of Drawing as Meditation, The Pocket Drawing Book, and Selling Art 101. He has been a featured artist in American Artist Magazine and Watercolor Magazine. He has had 24 one-man shows of his work and has been featured in many group shows. He is frequently asked to do watercolor demonstrations and to judge art exhibitions. He is teaching Painting Abstract Watercolors and Portrait Drawing & Painting the Easy Way in 2020.
Adrienne Eliades is a studio artist currently living in Vancouver, WA. She holds a BA from the University of North Carolina and an MFA from the University of Florida. Named a 2018 Emerging Artist by Ceramics Monthly, Adrienne has been an artist-in-residence at Ash Street Project in Portland, OR, Guldagergaard International Research Center in Denmark, and The Bright Angle in Asheville, NC. In addition to maintaining a vibrant studio practice, Adrienne teaches at Portland Community College. She is teaching Pottery Boot Camp with Darcy Delgado in 2020.
Marty Fielding became captivated by clay as an anthropology major at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He continued his study of ceramics at Penland School of Crafts and received an MFA from the University of Florida. Marty’s work has been included in invitational and juried exhibitions locally, nationally and internationally. His work and writing are published in numerous books and periodicals. He teaches at Florida State University, and has also taught at SUNY New Paltz, Middlebury College and numerous workshops including Penland. He is teaching Slab Building: Construction & Color in 2020.
Kristina Glick is a metalsmith and enamelist. She teaches at Idaho State University as well as teaching workshops for craft schools and metalsmithing groups around the country. Her work has been exhibited in many national and international juried exhibitions and appears in various publications including 500 Enameled Objects and 500 Gemstone Jewels. Kristina has an MFA from East Carolina University in Metal Design. She is teaching Stamp It, Punch It, Stack It: A Journey Through Texturing, Piercing, & Layering in 2020.
Joanna Gollberg received her AAS in Jewelry Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology. She has been a self-employed studio jeweler for 20 years, selling her work at craft and jewelry galleries and fine craft shows in the US. She has authored four books on making jewelry (all published by Lark Books), and her work has been included in numerous publications, such as Metalsmith Magazine, Ornament Magazine, 20th Century Jewelers, and 500 Wedding Rings. She teaches jewelry making for metalsmithing groups, Craftsy.com, and craft schools, such as Idyllwild Arts, Penland, Arrowmont, and Haystack. She is teaching Rings, Rings, Rings! in 2020.
Rose Ann Hamilton (Cahuilla, Apapatkiktem clan) first learned to weave from renowned Cahuilla basket-weaver Donna Largo at Idyllwild Arts in 1993. She has taught Cahuilla basket classes and presented at Cahuilla, Santa Rosa, Ramona, Agua Caliente, Los Coyotes, Santa Ysabel, San Manuel, and Morongo Indian Reservations, as well as the Riverside Metropolitan Museum, Autry Museum, Agua Caliente Museum, and San Manuel conferences at CSUSB and Crafton Hills College. She has participated in gatherings at Los Coyotes, Santa Ysabel, and Soboba reservations. Her inspiration and passion for the art of basket weaving came from her grandmother, Rosanda Apapas Hopkins Tortez Lugo, and great-grandmother Antonia Casero, both Cahuilla master weavers. She is teaching Cahuilla Basketry in 2020.
Kasaan Hammon is former Executive Director of the Association of Independent Music Publishers. She writes and records under the artist name RIGSI and has managed artists and songwriters including Hall of Fame songwriter Albert Hammond. She is teaching Popular Songwriting with Don Reed in 2020.
Deb Jemmott has shared her love for metal by teaching jewelry making and metalsmithing to others since 1978, teaching through the San Diego Community College District in addition to many workshops. Deb’s belief that we all have artistic creativity combined with her mastery of jewelry making techniques is key to her nurturing the artistic creativity in each student as well as helping them achieve their ideas in metal. www.debjemmott.com Metals Week 2020
James Johnson (Tlingit Ch’áak’ Dakl’aweidi Clan [Eagle Killerwhale]) was born and raised in Juneau, AK. He has won prestigious awards throughout the Pacific Northwest and most recently won both 1st and 2nd place in the Wood Sculpture Division at the 2019 SWAIA Santa Fe Indian Market. Johnson also demonstrates and shares carving and Northwest Coast culture at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ where he resides with his family. James has now dedicated his life to perpetuating the Tlingit art form, honoring his ancestors through his work. He is teaching Tlingit Paddle Making in 2020.
J. Robert Lennon is the author of eight novels, including Mailman, Familiar, and Broken River, and the story collections Pieces for the Left Hand and See You in Paradise. He lives in Ithaca, New York and is a Professor of Creative Writing at Cornell University. Writers Week 2020
Ramson Lomatewama is a glass artist, Kachina doll carver, poet and jeweler from Hotevilla, AZ, on the Hopi Reservation. He earned his BA from Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. Ramson has taught a wide range of workshops and courses in the US and Japan, and served as adjunct professor of sociology at North Central College in Naperville, IL. Although Hopi ceremonies and cultural activities play a major role in his life, Ramson continues to dedicate time to schools, universities, and museums as a visiting scholar and artist. He is teaching Art of Fire: Introduction to Glassblowing in 2020.
Robert Lopez is a self-taught metalsmith. He is drawn to the difficult and physical nature of jewelry fabrication to transform metals and stones into his unique vision. Robert accumulated his collection of tools and knowledge of the art anywhere he could, but his greatest learning came from continuously experimenting with the materials at hand. He often rolls his own sheet silver from ingots he pours himself, and even grinds and polishes all of his own stones. His raw and organic designs are fabricated with skill, but are free to grow without constraints or preconceived notions. He is teaching Amped Up Cuff in 2020.
Andrew Martin earned a BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and an MFA from Alfred University. He is the author of The Essential Guide to Mold Making and Slip Casting and has written essays and articles for American Ceramics and Ceramics Monthly. He has taught over 100 workshops and exhibited internationally; he has had residencies at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Arts-Industry Program at the Kohler Company, and was awarded two grants from the NEA. Andrew lives and works in Maria Hoop, The Netherlands. He is teaching Complex Forms/Simple Molds in 2020.
Leah Mata Fragua (yak tittʸu tittʸu Northern Chumash), artist and Adjunct Professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts, works to give greater voice and visibility to her tribal community by reclaiming its homelands and language. Leah’s education, which includes a BA in Anthropology and an MA in Cultural Sustainability, has afforded her access to various collections and archives, furthering understanding of the technical and material expertise of yak tityu tityu (The People) and resisting the hindered access for community members whose relatives’ works are held in academic collections. Leah has received numerous awards including Best of Show at the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market and at the Autry Museum’s annual American Indian Art Marketplace. She is teaching Central California Coast Shell Jewelry & Figurines in 2020.
Andrea Matus DeMeng is a Vancouver, BC-based artist who travels the world teaching and creating visual art. She shows and exhibits her unique combinations of painting, collage and sculpture throughout North America. Not one to be afraid of color, Andrea’s work, projects and workshops all revolve around the fusion of pattern and design with vivid colors. She co-authored Art Abandonment with Michael deMeng. she is teaching Collage: The New Nouveau in 2020.
Daniel McCarthy earned his BS and MS in anthropology from UC Riverside. For the past 40 years, he has worked at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Joshua Tree National Park and throughout Southern California compiling photographic inventories of rock art sites. He has worked with elders and traditional practitioners for more than 35 years and served as the Tribal Relations Program manager for the San Bernardino National Forest for 17 years, and most recently served as director, CRM Department, San Manuel Band of Mission Indians. He is teaching California Native Plants: Contemporary & Traditional Medicinal Useswith Abe Sanchez and Craig Torres in 2020.
Angela Morales, a graduate of the University of Iowa’s nonfiction writing program, is the author of The Girls in My Town, a collection of personal essays. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays 2013,Harvard Review, The Southern Review, The Southwest Review, and other journals. Her book is the 2017 winner of the River Teeth Book Prize and the PEN Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. Currently she is working on her second essay collection. She is teaching Creative Nonfiction in 2020.
Ismail Muhammad is a writer and critic based in Oakland, California, where he works as the reviews editor for The Believer and a contributing editor for ZYZZYVA. His criticism and nonfiction have been featured in the New York Times, Slate, Bookforum, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other venues. He is currently at work on a novel. Writers Week 2020
Barbara Teller Ornelas (Diné) is best known for her ultra fine Navajo tapestry weavings (95–120 weft threads per inch). She has set several records with her weavings, winning Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market twice; she set a new record in 1987 by selling a weaving for $60,000 that she and her sister Rosann Lee made; and she wove the largest tapestry-style Navajo weaving on record. Barbara is a fifth-generation weaver who was raised near Two Grey Hills, AZ. She has been featured in National Geographic, Business Week, Americana and Native Peoples magazines, as well as many books. She has won dozens of awards, and has demonstrated and lectured at many museums and institutions around the world. She is teaching Navajo Weaving I & II: Beginning & Intermediate with Lynda Teller Pete in 2020.
Wendy C. Ortiz is the author of three books: Excavation: A Memoir, Hollywood Notebook, and the “dreamoir” Bruja. In 2016, Bustle named her one of “9 Women Writers Who Are Breaking New Nonfiction Territory.” Her work has been featured in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Wendy is a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles. She is teaching Creative Nonfiction in 2020.
Antoinette K. Perry has appeared throughout the US, Europe and China as a soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with many of the world’s greatest artists. Distinguishing herself also as a pedagogue, she served for 12 years on the UCLA piano faculty before joining the faculty of the USC Thornton School of Music in 1996. She frequently gives master classes and serves as an adjudicator. Former students are enjoying successful careers as performers and pedagogues throughout the US and Asia. She is teaching Piano Performance Workshop with Douglas Ashcraft and William Wellborn in 2020.
Lynda Teller Pete (Diné) began weaving at age 6 and won her first major award at age 12 at the Gallup Inter-tribal Ceremonial Art Show in Gallup, New Mexico. She has gone on to win many awards for her weaving, including Best of Classification for Textiles at the prestigious Santa Fe Indian Market. Lynda collaborates with museums, schools and art venues in Colorado and around the country to teach about Navajo weaving. She is also known as an accomplished beadwork artist and has won many awards for this work. Barbara and Lynda published their first book, Spider Woman’s Children: Navajo Weavers Today, in 2018. She is teaching Navajo Weaving I & II: Beginning & Intermediate with Barbara Teller Ornelas in 2020.
Carl Phillips is the author of 14 books of poetry, most recently Wild Is the Wind (FSG, 2018), winner of a Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986-2006, was published by FSG in 2007. Other books include The Tether (FSG, 2002), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, Double Shadow (FSG, 2012), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Silverchest (FSG, 2014), a finalist for the Griffin Prize. A four time finalist for the National Book Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, his other honors include fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, and the Academy of American Poets, for which he served as Chancellor from 2006-2012. His literary criticism and translations include The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination (Graywolf, 2014), Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Life and Art of Poetry (Graywolf, 2004), and Sophocles’s Philoctetes (Oxford University Press, 2004). He is Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches creative writing. Writers Week 2020
Tommy “Teebs” Pico is author of the books IRL (Birds, LLC, 2016), winner of the 2017 Brooklyn Library Literary Prize and a finalist for the 2018 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Nature Poem (Tin House Books, 2017), winner of a 2018 American Book Award and finalist for the 2018 Lambda Literary Award, Junk (Tin House Books, 2018) finalist for the 2019 Lambda Literary Award, Feed (forthcoming 2019 from Tin House Books), and the zine series Hey, Teebs. He was the founder and editor in chief of birdsong, an antiracist/queer-positive collective, small press, and zine that published art and writing from 2008-2013. He was a Queer/Art/Mentors inaugural fellow, 2013 Lambda Literary fellow in poetry, a 2017 NYSCA/NYFA Fellow in Poetry from the New York Foundation for the Arts, was awarded the 2017 Friends of Literature prize from the Poetry Foundation, won a 2018 Whiting Award, and he’s been profiled in Time Out New York, the New York Times, and The New Yorker. Originally from the Viejas Indian reservation of the Kumeyaay nation, he now splits his time between Los Angeles and Brooklyn. He co-curates the reading series Poets With Attitude (PWA) with Morgan Parker at the Ace Hotel, co-hosts the podcasts Food 4 Thot and Scream, Queen! and is a contributing editor at Literary Hub. Writers Week 2020
Ron Pokrasso earned his MFA from Pratt Institute in 1975 and has had more than 50 solo exhibitions and 175 group shows. His work is in public, private, and corporate collections throughout the US and abroad and is featured in several books. He originated the printmaking event “Monothon” and has been an ardent supporter of arts programs for youth. His teaching experience includes universities, museums, public schools and private workshops, as well as artist residencies in the US, Scotland, Ireland and Italy. He is teaching Layered Monotype with a Side of Solarplate in 2020.
Elise Preiss is a metalsmith living and working in Los Angeles. A summer apprenticeship in France with master blacksmith Guy Pendanx awoke her love for metal. Elise teaches at the School of Art, CSU Long Beach. Her work has been exhibited at venues across the US, including the Metal Museum in Memphis and Arrowmont School of Arts and Craft, as well as the Carnegie in Covington, KY. She holds an MFA with an emphasis in metal from CSULB. She is teaching Melt It, Forge It!in 2020.
Don Reed, an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, has been performing, composing, teaching, and recording music for over 40 years. Don’s multi-instrumental work and compositions have been featured in hundreds of recording projects, television and film soundtracks, and more. He is teaching Popular Songwriting with Kasaan Hammon in 2020.
David Reid-Marr graduated from Maidstone College of Art with a BFA and received his MFA in painting and art history from Royal College of Art, London. During his time at art college he studied with David Hockney, Anthony Caro and Francis Bacon. He is currently Visual Arts chair at Idyllwild Arts Academy, where he teaches painting and drawing. He exhibits nationally and internationally, and has recently published a book on arts education. He is teaching Full Circle: Reclaiming Our Creativity in 2020.
Lesley Riley is an internationally known instructor, author and multi-media artist working in botanical printing, mixed and digital media, paint, and fabric. Lesley is a pioneer in taking the 150-year old cyanotype process into the modern digital age, blending the classic and contemporary to create truly unique botanical art. Camera-less photographic blueprints become the bones for her subsequent 21st century digital artistry, combining layers of pattern and color culled from her own artwork and photographs. She has authored 8 books, served as contributing editor for Cloth Paper Scissors, filmed 5 DVDs, and appeared on several TV shows. She is teaching Wet-Cyanotype Printmaking Basics and Advanced Wet-Cyanotype Printmaking Portfolio in 2020.
Roger Rimel is an award winning goldsmith and artist living in St. Louis, MO. He exhibits his work locally and nationally and has taught workshops at Idyllwild Arts, Boulder Metalsmithing Association (BOMA), Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design. His work is included in Art Jewelry 3, and Maker Magic, by Connie Fox. He is represented by Ayesha Gallery, Englewood New Jersey, Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design, in St. Louis, MO, Curated Fine Art in Mystic, CT. He is teaching Connections: Hinged Magnetic Clasp in 2020.
Nicole Ringgold is a silversmith who lives in the North Cascade Mountains in Washington. Her work is shown in 22 galleries throughout the country. Nicole is an outdoor enthusiast, gardener, wife and mother, and world wanderer. Her studio is situated inside a bright greenhouse where she hand fabricates each of her pieces with silver sheet, wire and recycled scraps. She recreates nature with as much detail as possible to make the metal appear alive. She is teaching Hand Fabricated Botanicals in 2020.
Holly Roberts earned an MFA from Arizona State University, Tempe. Her work is nationally and internationally exhibited and has been published in four monographs. She has twice received National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and a retrospective of her work, 33 Years, was held at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, MA. Holly lives and works in Corrales, NM. She is teaching The Perfect Union: Paint & Collage in 2020.
Stan Rodriguez (Santa Ysabel Band of the Iipay Nation) is an educator, language teacher, and tribal singer. He is an advocate for his community’s culture and traditions and serves in a number of advising and teaching roles in the San Diego and Kumeyaay communities. He holds the elected position of legislator for the Santa Ysabel Tribe of the Iipay Nation. A graduate of the Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival immersion program, he teaches Kumeyaay language classes at Kumeyaay Community College on the Sycuan Reservation. He has taught workshops extensively at the Northwest Indian Language Institute and has been supported by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts in his efforts to learn and teach about Kumeyaay way of life and art. He is teaching Kumeyaay Yucca Sandal Weaving in 2020.
Ellen Rosa-Taylor is the Chair of the Dance Department at Idyllwild Arts Academy. She received her BS in Ballet from Indiana University and her MFA in Dance from Florida State University where she was the recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Fellowship as well as a University Fellowship. Ellen is an ABT Affiliate Teacher and has received the distinction of ABT NTC Fellow. She has performed as a ballerina with the Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, San Diego Opera, City Ballet of Los Angeles, Media City Ballet, and Chattanooga Ballet. She was also featured as the Bluebird in Disney’s Snow White, an Enchanting Musical at Disneyland. She is teaching Exploring Dance & Movement with Hai Cohen in 2020.
Melanie Sainz (Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin) has worked as an art educator in both public and private schools for over 30 years. As an artist who enjoys teaching about art, Melanie strives to educate students about appreciating art through the lens of the art maker. Her artwork has been shown in exhibitions throughout the US, and she has won awards at prestigious art markets including the Eiteljorg Museum and the Heard Museum. Melanie is Executive Director of Little Eagles Arts Foundation, which is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the arts and culture of Native people through providing quality cultural arts education programming. She is teaching Ho-Chunk Porcupine Embroidery in 2020.
Abe Sanchez is active in the revival and preservation of indigenous arts and foods, with specialties in Southern California Native American basketry and California and Southwest native foods. He has worked with traditional Native American gatherers to learn methods and practices. Abe believes that by teaching people about ancient natural foods and preparations, he can help them make a difference in their health and the environment. He is teaching California Native Plants: Contemporary & Traditional Medicinal Uses with Daniel McCarthy and Craig Torres in 2020.
Margaret Scanlan is a studio artist in Knoxville, TN, working in acrylic and watercolor, large and small-scale work. She is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, and the Watercolor USA Honor Society. For many years she has taught painting, drawing, and color theory workshops at Idyllwild Arts, Campbell Folk School, Arrowmont, Penland, Le Petit Bois Gleu and Chateau du Pin in France. Her work is in many private, corporate, and public collections in the US and Europe, including the Huntsville Museum of Art; Springfield Art Museum; and Sloan-Kettering Hospital, NY. She plays keyboards in a Celtic Band, Red-Haired Mary. She is teaching Watermedia for All: Acrylic & Watercolor in 2020.
Diane Seuss’sStill Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (Graywolf Press 2018) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry. Four-Legged Girl (Graywolf Press 2015) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Frank: Sonnets, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2021. Seuss has taught at Kalamazoo College, the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program, and Washington University. She was raised in rural Michigan, which she continues to call home. She is teaching Poetry in 2020.
Michael Sherrill has work in public collections including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Museum of American Craft, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Mint Museum, the Museum of Art and Design, Corning Museum of Glass, the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum, and Takoma Glass Museum, among others. His past residencies include the International Ceramic Museum in Incheon, S. Korea; Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, John Michael Kohler Arts Center, and the Museum of Glass. Among his many awards, Michael was honored by the James Renwick Alliance as the 2019 Master of the Medium, Clay. He lives and works in North Carolina. He is teaching Nature’s Color in 2020.
Lorene Sisquoc (Mountain Cahuilla/Apache) was born in Riverside and serves as curator/culture traditions leader at Sherman Indian High School Museum, in Riverside, CA. She is an expert basket weaver and has extensive knowledge of native plants and their uses. She is a guest presenter for California Native Plants: Contemporary & Traditional Medicinal Uses in 2020.
Ed Skoog is the author of three books of poetry: Run the Red Lights, Rough Day, Mister Skylight, and a fourth, Travelers Leaving for the City, forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press in 2020. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review and Harper’s, and he has held fellowships from Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, The Lannan Foundation, Richard Hugo House, and George Washington University. A former chair of the Idyllwild Arts Academy’s Creative Writing Department, he has taught in the Summer Program since 2006. He lives in Portland, Oregon and co-hosts the literary podcast Lunch Box, with Ed and John with novelist J. Robert Lennon. Writers Week 2020
Terria Smith is an enrolled tribal member of the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians and is the director of Heyday’s California Indian Publishing Program, known as the Berkeley Roundhouse. She is the editor of News from Native California, a quarterly magazine “devoted to the vibrant cultures, art, languages, histories, social justice movements, and stories of California’s diverse Indian peoples.” She is an undergraduate alumni of Humboldt State University and has a master’s degree from the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Native American Arts Festival Week 2020
Tony Soares learned the fundamentals of pottery from his grandmother at age 7, starting a more than 40-year journey to revive the fading art of olla making. Though not of Cahuilla descent, he has helped revive the art of Cahuilla pottery making through his experimentation with local clays and indigenous handbuilding techniques. His pottery is displayed in art galleries and museums including the Tahquitz Canyon Museum. Tony shares his knowledge with local tribal communities and the general public to ensure that Native American pottery making is never lost. He has taught at many venues including the Agua Caliente Band of the Desert Cahuilla of Palm Springs and the Yuman tribes of the Colorado River, AZ. He is teaching Cahuilla Style Pottery in 2020.
Roy Talahaftewa (Hopi, Water Clan) is from Shungopovi Village in northern Arizona. He works in silver and gold, and uses Hopi overlay and tufa casting in his designs. Roy received his first major award for his work in 1981, and has earned Best of Show at the Heard Museum, among many others. Working with the nonprofit Hopi Pu’tavi Project, Roy teaches Hopi youth the art of metalsmithing, and he is an advocate and promoter of Hopi artists on the reservation. He is teaching Hopi Jewelry: Tufa Casting & Overlay in 2020.
Marie Thibeault’s work has been presented most recently in exhibitions at Long Beach Museum of Art, Pasadena Museum of California Art, Von Fraunberg Gallery in Dusseldorf, George Lawson Gallery in San Francisco, and Torrance Art Museum. She has completed residencies at L’Air Arts in Paris, Two Coats of Paint in New York, and the US Thai Exchange Program at Silpakorn University in Bangkok. Her work has been featured in numerous major publications, including New American Paintings, Artillery Magazine, and Art in America. Marie earned a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from UC Berkeley. She is Professor Emerita at CSU Long Beach. She is teaching Color Crush in 2020.
Craig Torres (Tongva) is a member of the Traditional Council of Pimuu and involved with the Ti’aat Society, an organization focused on the revival of the traditional maritime culture of the Southern California coastal region and Southern Channel Islands. He is an artist, as well as a cultural educator, presenter and consultant to schools, culture and nature centers, museums, and city, state and government agencies acting as a consultant on the Tongva. He has also been involved with the organizations Preserving Our Heritage and Chia Café, which provide cooking demos and classes with California native plants. These activities also provide education on the importance of preserving native plants, habitats and landscapes for future generations. He is teaching California Native Plants: Contemporary & Traditional Medicinal Useswith Daniel McCarthy and Abe Sanchez in 2020.
Vu Tran’s first novel, Dragonfish, was a New York Times Notable Book and among the San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of the Year. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Fellowship, and his short fiction has appeared in the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Mystery Stories, and The Southern Review. He is a criticism columnist for the Virginia Quarterly Review and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Arts at the University of Chicago. He is teaching Fiction in 2020.
Richard Tsosie (Diné [Navajo]) is a jeweler and sculptor from Flagstaff, Arizona and the Wide Ruins area of the Navajo Nation and is currently living in Scottsdale, AZ. His work has been featured in American Indian Art Magazine, Arizona Highways, the video Beyond Tradition: Contemporary Indian Art and Its Evolution, as well as several books including Southwestern Indian Jewelry by Dexter Cirillo and Enduring Traditions, Art of the Navajo by Jerry Jacka. Richard’s work has been exhibited in galleries and museums from New York to California. He is teaching Navajo Inlay Jewelry in 2020.
Meri Aaron Walker has been a photographer and printmaker for over 50 years. For the last ten years, she has used only her iPhones and iPads to make images that have been widely awarded and collected, including a recent purchase by Harvard Medical School for their Transformational Medicine Building. Meri has an MA from the University of Texas, Austin, where she also taught photography. She has extensive experience in photojournalism, fine art photography, and printmaking. She has been invited to jury six national and international mobile photography exhibitions. Meri lives in Talent, OR. She is teaching The Joy of iPhoneography: Photography Using Mobile Devices and From Screen to Print: Printing Your Mobile Photos in 2020.
Dr. William Wellborn is the recipient of the CAPMT 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award, and he is also the 2019 MTNA Foundation Fellow. He has given concerts, lectures and masterclasses throughout the US and Europe, and has directed seventeen European musical tours, including this year’s Chopintour 2020. Bill is on the national board of the American Liszt Society, and founding president of the San Francisco Chapter. A faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1989, he teaches piano in the Pre-College division, and Piano Pedagogy in the Collegiate division. His students frequently win top prizes in state, national, and international piano competitions. He is teaching Piano Performance Workshop with Douglas Ashcraft and Antoinette Perry in 2020.
Stan Welsh is currently a professor emeritus at San Jose State University, CA. He received his BFA from Kansas City Art Institute in 1974 and his MFA from Alfred University in 1979. Stan has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Award and the California Arts Council Award. His work is in the permanent collections of the Oakland Museum, San Jose Museum, Arizona State University Ceramic Research Museum, and the Fred Marer Collection. He is teaching The Figure as Metaphor in 2020.
Wayne Wichern’s 34-year millinery design and teaching career evolved out of his experiences as a floral designer and classical ballet dancer and his interest in fashion and costume design. His professional talents as a celebrated hat designer are apparent when following the winding path of creative and artistic endeavors he has mastered. His elegant hats have sold at Barney’s NY and Nordstrom; he has created hats for theater and ballet productions; and his innovative hat designs are in museum collections and are featured in numerous magazines and books. He is teaching Creating Felt & Straw Hats in 2020.
Larry White’s art career has spanned nearly 55 years. Although he is primarily known as a craftsman working with Sam Maloof, he has continued to exhibit work in other media, including ceramics and multimedia sculpture. Larry has worked and taught at two California Universities and has conducted summer workshops at Anderson Ranch Art Center, CO. As an Artist in Residence with the Maloof Foundation, he conducts workshops for veterans’ groups and for the general public. His work can be found in many collections. He is teaching Maloof Woodworking: Creating a Walnut Bench in 2020.
Holly Wilson’s artwork is in exhibitions and collections at museums including Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Springfield Art Museum, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Eiteljorg Museum, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, and C.N. Gorman Museum, to name a few. Holly is of Delaware Nation and Cherokee heritage, and is based in Oklahoma. She holds an MFA in sculpture, an MA in ceramics from Stephen F. Austin State University, and a BFA in ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute. She is teaching Big Stories in Small-Scale & Wearable Art Casting and Finding Form: Encaustic in the Third Dimension in 2020.