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Meet the Faculty and Staff
Our Youth Programs faculty members are working artists and designers, and have years of experience in youth arts education.
Taylor Adams-Bass
Illustration Teaching Assistant
tayloradamsbass.com/
Based in Boston MA, Taylor Adams-Bass is an aspiring children's book illustrator, who wants to create magical and colorful worlds with characters that grab the attention of young readers while also teaching them valuable lessons. She uses a mix of cut paper and gouache to create illustrations that invite you into the piece. Currently, Taylor is a Teacher's Assistant in the Illustration department. She also plans to graduate in 2023 with her BFA.
alex alderete
Designing Character
artstation.com/drcornfish • IG: @aaldereteart
Alex Alderete is a freelance creature designer that's worked with Fearem Games on the title Deamonical while also contributing to other independent gaming companies. He's been on the roster of Chicken-Bone FX for the last few years. He is currently teaching at New Art Center in Newton.
camilo cárdenas
(he/him, they/them)
Animation Toolkit, 3D Fundamentals
camilocardenas.com • IG: @obracamilo
Camilo Cárdenas is an interdisciplinary and project-based artist working primarily in film/video, animation, installation and performance. His films have been exhibited internationally in Germany, South Korea, Colombia and the USA. Cárdenas has conducted research in the Colombian Amazon, studying Shamanism and connections to contemporary art. As a Colombian immigrant in the USA, his artistic practice focuses on identity formation, fluidity, and belonging. Proficient in analogue filmmaking, such as 16mm and Super 8, Camilo also works with digital media and alternative film mediums.
With a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design and an MFA from the University of Delaware, Cárdenas intertwines academic research and personal narrative. As an artist and educator, he encourages multifaceted creative explorations that critically and compassionately address social norms, belonging and intersectional identity.
tamara castang
Studio Explorations Teaching Assistant
IG: @tammmy.art
Tamara Castang is a High School graduate of Boston Latin Academy as of June 2022. She will be off to college in the fall, pursuing majors in Graphic Design and Marketing. Tamara was born in Michigan and currently resides in Massachusetts. Her love for art has been present from a young age, participating and succeeding through art shows/competitions. For the past 4 years, she has been a part of Artward Bound. The program helped shape her artwork into what it is today. Tamara typically paints and draws. She is interested in exploring more digital media and working at a larger scale in the future.
vicky chen
Illustration Teaching Assistant
vickychenillustration.com • IG: @vicks.0
Vicky Chen is an artist that recently graduated from MassArt and earned a BFA with Honors in Illustration. Currently, Vicky is pursuing a MA in Art Education at Boston University in the fall and hopes to use her skills as an illustrator in her teaching. She has many interests that range from printmaking, drawing comics, and making zines. But when Vicky is not creating, she's usually out and about with her two dogs exploring.
peter fadness
(he/him/his)
The Figure in 2D
Peter Fadness is an art teacher who has been drawing, painting, and studying art for over 30 years. Figure drawing has been a passion of his since he first picked up a comic book as a kid. He has lived all over the country and taught in a variety of places. Since receiving his Master's in Art Education from MassArt, Peter has taught Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, Animation, Graphic Design, and Digital Photography. He has taught children as well as adults and is currently a Visual Art teacher at Lowell High.
alex gerasev
(he/him/his)
Illustration
alexgerasev.com
Alex Gerasev is an illustrator, painter, printmaker, and muralist. Gerasev grew up in St. Petersburg, Russia and studied at the Repin Academy of Fine Arts. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in private and public collections throughout the US and Europe, including The Boston Public Library, The Boston Athenæum, Columbia University, Marriott Hotel, The Pushkin Museum, and Deutsche Immobilien Fonds AG. He was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant to paint a mural at the Revere Beach T station, Revere, MA. Gerasev teaches illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Amanda Godowski
(she/they)
Illustration
amandagodowski.com
Amanda Godowski is a multimedia illustrator and sculptor based in Boston Massachusetts. They Recently received their Bachelor of Fine Arts in both Illustration and Ceramics in 2022. They love combining traditional and digital media depicting surrealist narrative work geared towards teens and young adults. Their personal work depicts vivacious and zany characters or environments questioning the metaphysical in congruence with conflicts of the human condition. Godowski has professional experience in illustrating covers, spreads and spots for magazines and anthologies such as Brandeis magazine and Harvard College Children's Stories. Outside of editorial work, they also have experience in writing, book/ paper making, stop motion animation, concept design, puppetry, and producing ceramic tableware.
julia harrington
Fashion Design
juliaharringtondesign.com • IG: @jrharrington_
Julia is an Artist, and Fashion Designer based in Boston, MA. She received her BFA in Fashion Design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in May of 2020. In addition to youth programs, Julia is currently working at MassArt as the Art Ed Studio Manager, Fashion Department Tutor and Fashion Archive Manager. She has interned at Primark for visual merchandising, and at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee in the costume shop. Julia was a Teaching Assistant for the Costume design class as a student at MassArt, and is a former participant in MassArt youth programs.
Her work focuses on incorporating couture and traditional artistic techniques into modern day clothing. She specializes in hand techniques such as embroidery, beading, smocking, fabric painting, and leather work. Much of her work is inspired by her love for historical clothing and sustainable fashion practices. She also enjoys traditional drawing and painting, and likes to incorporate them into her design work.
brenna kennedy
bmkennedy@massart.edu
Brenna works as a Marketing Coordinator for Massart's Continuing Education and Youth Programs Department. While at MassArt, she was involved in a variety of programs, including being a Residential Assistant for her Sophomore and Junior year, the leader of Outdoor Adventure Club, a rugby player, and the Manager of the Pop-Up Holiday and Spring Sale. Brenna majored in Industrial design at MassArt and graduated in 2018. Since graduating college she has held the position of Maker Specialist at MassArt- supporting Architecture and Industrial Design students in the woodshop, and Furniture Builder at Bostonwood. Her most recent project combines her love of woodworking and passion for skateboarding. She has been collecting old or broken skateboards and is hoping to create furniture out of the salvaged wood. Brenna is grateful for the knowledge she gained studying Industrial Design at MassArt and is excited to see where it will take her next.
andrée leduc
2D Fundamentals, Comic Book Art
andreeleduc.org • IG: @andreeleduc
Andrée Leduc is a Boston based painter and educator. She currently teaches at MassArt, Northern Essex Community College and Endicott College. She has also taught at Mount Holyoke and School of the Museum at Tufts. She has shown in Boston, New York, Montreal, Ottawa and Berlin.
benjamin lee sperry
Drawing Fundamentals, Issues & Images
benjaminleesperry.com
Benjamin Lee Sperry is a visual artist who uses painting, printmaking and photography to mediate personal experience and search for greater meaning. As an educator he believes that learning is a life long pursuit and that individual interaction and dialogue should remain central to the learning process. He teaches Printmaking, and a variety of foundations classes. He holds an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from University of Delaware and a BFA in Visual and Critical Studies from the School of Visual Arts.
He currently teaches at Lincoln University and with the MassArt Summer Program. Benjamin is from Juniata county Pennsylvania, but currently lives in Brooklyn and works out of a studio in Gowanus. He has a lovely wife and daughter and is expecting another child in September.
Chris LeGare
(he/him)
Drawing Fundamentals
Christopher LeGare is a Cambridge based interdisciplinary artist whose work blends fine art elements of collage, sculpture, and painting with cartographic and orthographic drawing methods. Although his image-making is rooted in traditions of abstraction, it engages with narratives of the built environment and memory as something both spatial and personal.
He holds a BFA in Animation and a Masters Degree in Art and Teaching from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Additionally Chris has filmed and produced short documentaries for artists and teaches middle school math in Newton Massachusetts.
al liu
Drawing Fundamentals Teaching Assistant
Al Liu is a high school graduate from John D' O'bryant with a passion for illustration and character design for storytelling. Heading into Suffolk University fall of 2022, he plans to explore and find his own art journey on his own as an Artward Bound and Youth Programs Alumni, graduating in 2022.
Vincent Mainetti
(he/they)
Graphic Design
vmdesign.graphics
Vincent works as a graphic designer who has had clients such as The Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce, and Montserrat College of Art. He acquired his BFA in graphic design from Montserrat College of Art, an associates degree in art studies from SUNY Dutchess, and an associates in fine art from SUNY Ulster. He is anticipating his MFA in Dynamic Media from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2023. He grew up in upstate NY and currently lives in Salem MA.
stanislav marmysh
Studio Explorations
Stanislav Marmysh is a Boston-based and Russian-born multidisciplinary artist and educator with a scavenger's mindset. Much of his artwork combines disparate elements for surreal effects, searching for meaning in distortion. As a creator who has never felt truly American or truly Russian, his art is charged with valences of alienation and polarization. Objects and places that feel known and comfortable dissipate into static.
Stanislav graduated as an undergrad from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, received a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Massart, and is excited to be teaching photography to high school students this upcoming school year. Many years at Montessori schools have taught him to be respectful of his students' visions, and he encourages students to explore their interests and artistic boundaries.
john quirk
(he/him)
Animation Toolkit
John Quirk is an American artist and educator with interest in animation, film, and interactive art & media. Throughout his bachelor's studies at MassArt, Quirk was an instructor within Youth Programs; and since graduating in 2016, he has gone on to teach in MassArt's bachelor's program, as well as assistant-teach animation courses in Harvard University's Visual Environmental Studies department. In the spring of 2022, Quirk completed his master's thesis at The Estonian Academy of Arts, and now carries on his research while making goofy things along the way.
angellize rivera
Designing Character Teaching Assistant
Angellize Rivera is a current student at Massachusetts College of Art and Design studying animation and minoring in ceramics. She earned her associates degree at Bunker Hill Community College for Game Arts. While at Bunker she tied first place for best art in the New England Student Game Design Showcase. Her work focuses on character design and character stories. She loves movies, especially of the horror genre and loves comics as well. In the future, Angellize would like to make her own comics focusing on trauma and self image.
Jamie Scherzer
(She/Her)
Studio Explorations
Jamie Scherzer is an educator, as well as a multidisciplinary artist. She currently teaches middle school art at Dexter Southfield. Jamie is a metalsmith by trade but also works in paper, print, and ceramics. Jamie received her undergraduate degree from Skidmore College in 2017, and her Master's of Fine Arts in metalsmithing, from SUNY New Paltz in 2020.
cassidy silva
Architecture
Cassidy said, "Studying architectural design with a focus on sustainability is a path I never would have expected myself to take. I had always thought of myself falling under the vague title of artist. However, I also loved communicating with and helping clients, and always wanted to become an engineer or scientist. I also always wanted to work as an environmentalist! I wanted to change the world! I had too many choices to make.By the time I got to MassArt, I didn’t know who I was meant to be. Now I recognize that architecture is the beautiful marriage of art and engineering. Architecture shapes the environment and the lives of human beings. It is the perfect combination of all the things I had loved about my previous creative experiences, combined with the subconscious wonder of built environments that many people who become architects hold."
Will Suglia
(he/him)
Drawing fundamentals, 2D Fundamentals
willsugliaart.com
Will Suglia is a Boston based artist whose practice ranges from painting and sculpture to curation and community event planning. Will received his B.A in fine arts from Saint Anselm College, a Post-Baccalaureate in studio art from Brandies University, and M.F.A from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a concentration in painting. Will has been awarded residencies at Chautauqua Institute of art, Chautauqua NY, and Srishti institute of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore India. His work has been exhibited at First street Gallery in New York NY, 808 Gallery, Boston MA, Stone Gallery, Boston MA, How’s Howard, Boston, MA and included in publications from Bosscritt among others. Will currently works out of his studio in Charlestown, MA where he co-founded JAWS Boston, a collaborative artist group engaging in projects for artist communities in the greater Boston area.
dennis svoronos
3D Fundamentals
Dennis Svoronos is a Boston-based sculptor and educator whose work has been shown at venues nationally and internationally such as The Thessaloniki Film Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece. The Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach FL, The deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA and the MFA, Boston. He holds a Masters in Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, a diploma of fine art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Tufts University. Currently, he is represented by the Boston Sculptors Gallery and is living and working at the Distillery in South Boston.
Svoronos’ work is inspired by the modern world in motion. He uses his sculpture to reflect this environment charged with electricity, signals, spectacle and information. He uses our common language of the 21st century, electronics, robotics and interactive kinetics, to build connections between the viewers and the work. In a society fractured by technology, Dennis Svoronos tries to use it to bring us together.
Katie Wild
(she/her)
Mixed Media
Katie Wild is an artist currently living in Plainville, MA whose paintings, drawings, and mixed media installations push the boundaries of traditional portrait painting. Wild graduated in 2012 from the University of Connecticut with a BFA in painting and illustration and a BA in English, with a creative writing concentration. She completed a post-baccalaureate year at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in 2013, followed by an MFA in painting at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Since earning her Masters in 2015, she has received two grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and five artist residencies. Wild has taught at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and currently teaches at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the Community College of Rhode Island, and Bunker Hill Community College.