OUR STAFF

Hollie loves art studios. The way materials end up both strewn about and somehow still perfectly in their places, the smells of charcoal and paint, the buzz in the air of an idea that you can’t quite yet put your finger on… studio spaces have always comforted Hollie and  simultaneously challenged her. Hollie brings her experience working as an atelierista, a classroom elementary school teacher, and an artist to support art education at Harwood. 

Having studied the Reggio Emilia Approach, Hollie develops reflective pedagogical practices that center relationship-building. She believes that listening is a critical and deceptively challenging skill for educators; listening to the many ways that people communicate includes their work with aesthetic materials. Hollie believes that art education opportunities offer pathways for connection and community-building.  

When she’s not at Harwood, Hollie enjoys powerlifting, walking along the river with her dogs, chaotically gardening, and DIYing her way through projects on her endless yardwork and home improvement to-do list. Her material interests include pottery, garment sewing, drawing and painting. 

Chandler is an artist and educator who was born and raised in Durango, CO but moved to Albuquerque in late 2016 and is happy to be part of the community here.  He holds a BA in Studio Art from Fort Lewis College in Durango, CO with a minor in history, and an MFA in painting from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, PA.  He started teaching in the art department at Central New Mexico Community College in 2018 where he still currently teaches courses in Drawing, 2D Design, Art Practices, Portraiture, and Life Drawing.  He believes that art and education are for everyone, and that art is a powerful tool to help us expand our thinking into new and potentially unknown realms, as well as interact with our world in a multitude of different ways.    

As an artist, Chandler tries to maintain a studio practice that is always changing, and is subject to the ebbs and flows of life.  Broadly speaking, he is interested in abstraction, drawing, collage, printmaking, and bookbinding.  He has exhibited work in Colorado, New Mexico, Rome, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Peru, and has been featured in New American Paintings twice: in the 2015 West issue and the 2013 MFA issue. 

Prior to joining the team at Harwood, Chandler worked for the Albuquerque Museum in collections, and did freelance art handling for UNM Art Museum, as well as other private and public institutions. 

Julia is a writer, curator, and arts organizer who exists to love and springs of the belief that all people deserve security, dignity, and belonging as our primary experiences of being. Illuminated by Albuquerque’s creative community, Julia found home in New Mexico, and she is dedicated to building opportunity and contributing to quality of life in the place that so magnified them for her.

Julia has served an array of local cultural, economic, and municipal resource development efforts through volunteer, board, and or leadership service. Across her involvements, Julia champions and invests in the amplification of diverse voices. She has collaborated with thousands of artists across hundreds of platforms, including largescale sitespecific art commissions, immersive exhibition and installation programs, and community celebrations from closeknit circles to twentyfivethousand citizen spectacles. Her arts writing has appeared in local, regional, and international publications, and she has moderated public dialogues from artist talks to citywide summits to mayoral forums. For these efforts, Julia’s peers named her New Mexico’s outstanding young nonprofit professional of the year for the national philanthropy day awards.

In 2012, Julia joined Harwood with an invitation to grow our offerings in greater service to Greater Albuquerque. With the mentorship of visionary women and the model of exemplary co-creators, Julia rooted her approach in cooperative leadership, responsive program design, holistic strategic planning, and resilient mission stewardship. Working across all of Harwood’s offerings towards highest cohesion, inclusivity, impact, sustainability, and nurturance in the lives of those we serve, Julia’s most central responsibility is as support, guide, and strategic partner to Harwood’s family of core staff, artists, and collaborators.

Currently, Julia’s authoring practice is focused on daily reflection and personal storytelling, and she is further galvanized by the recognition of lifelong learning, self awareness, and personal expression as primary modes of civic action, collective healing, and peaceful (r)evolution.

Kate Chavez is an alumna of Escuela del Sol, one of the first students to attend Escuela through Elementary, and she was the first alumna to give a commencement address. She has worked and studied all over the world and brings a variety of experiences in the arts, education, non-profit management, and government. In Madrid, Kate’s experience included working with economists in the Spanish government and the executive director of the Spanish Olympic bid. Upon returning to New Mexico, Kate joined the Legislative Finance Committee as a Fiscal Analyst in Education where she assisted on the state’s education budget, analyzed the fiscal impact of proposed legislation, and wrote policy briefs. Kate is also an educator who, for the past five and a half years, has taught and done administrative work at the New Mexico School for the Arts. She holds a BA(Hons) and a MA from Brown University and has completed graduate studies at the London International School of Performing Arts.

Most importantly, Kate brings with her a passion for Escuela del Sol and its mission, as well as a commitment to use her talents, experience, and connections to be in service to our institution. Her years at Escuela give Kate insight and caring for this school. It also gives her a solid grounding in the Montessori pedagogy and mission of our institution.