Teaching ArTiSTS

Teaching Artists

Meet our fabulous group of Teaching Artists for 2018! Our 2019 Teaching Artists will be announced soon. 

Helen Atkins

Helen Atkins is from Albuquerque, New Mexico. She graduated from the University of New Mexico in 2016 with a Bachelors in Studio Arts and a minor in Arts Management and English Composition. She currently works as an artist and arts educator for Harwood Art Center and ArtStreet at Albuquerque HealthCare for the Homeless. She has experience working with a variety of ages, from elementary to adult, in diverse mediums and communities. While she primarily works in the visual arts, she believes that storytelling and artistic expression are one the same and is interested in dynamic artistic expression.

Jordyn Bernicke

Jordyn Bernicke is a young artist with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a minor in Arts Management from the University of New Mexico. She has led a number of different workshops around the city. The workshops entail community experience and the collaborative process. She has worked with children from ages 3-18 with a variety of artistic experience. Jordyn looks for any way to involve her community to come together and create together.

CB Bryan

CB graduated from the University of New Mexico with a BFA and Sustainability Studies Minor and is an Amy Biehl High School alum. She has lived her entire life amongst the acequias, back alley streets, and various communities of art-making in Albuquerque. Her notion of place stems from the yards in her North Valley neighborhood that are filled with old wood, old cars and tiny gardens. This has led to an appreciation of the funky, the weird, the hand-built, and to her participation in a variety of arts-based travel programs. She gets her inspiration for wanting to teach place-based art from these experiences.

Michael Certo

Michael has been an active arts educator for over 14 years in the Albuquerque area, and worked at the UNM Art Museum for 10 years as the Curator for Education. For the past 4 years he has conducted workshops for children and adults in art making at [AC]2 Gallery, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque Public Schools, and the Santa Barbara/Martineztown Community Center. He enjoys working at the elementary level in education and has extensive experience teaching art K-12.

Daisy Cortes

Daisy Cortes received her BA in Studio Art and Art History from Occidental College in 2014. She went on to become an active member of the North Bay Letterpress Association in Sebastopol, CA, where she continued to explore her passion in letterpress printmaking and bookbinding. Here in Albuquerque, she continues her art practices at home while working with youth as an extended day teacher at Escuela Del Sol Montessori. She loves creating across mediums, including bookbinding, dance, yoga, and farming, and is passionate about sharing her artistic passions with students.

Dio Cramer

Dio is a printmaker, designer, and science enthusiast. She gets excited by fonts, well-designed food labels, and the combination of science and art. She is especially interested in the role art has to play in designing sustainable products, systems, and cities. Check out her work at www.diocramer.com

Jazmyn Crosby

Jazmyn has experience working with kids and adults in arts education. She has served as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer at The University of New Mexico building STEM+ Art capacity with The Social Media Workgroup and the STEM Collaborative. STEM Collaborative is a 5 year grant that aims to foster outside of the classroom opportunities for low income freshmen and sophomore students and she was their art program specialist. She also has experience working at !Si Se Puede! An after school program for elementary students. Lastly, She is a co-found of Graft Gallery and have even coordination experience.

Katie Doyle

A child of the Midwest, Katie C. Doyle had been living and working in Chicago since 2008 before relocating to Albuquerque in summer of 2017. She currently holds a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received the Grace and Walter Smith Scholarship and a student leadership award. In addition, to a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Ceramics from SAIC and a Bachelor of Arts in Ceramics from Loyola University Chicago, Katie has also received training in kiln building and repair at The Ohio State University. Katie’s studio practice explores the notion of enforced gender roles and perpetual waiting through performance, video, and the emotional landscape. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Dfbrl8r gallery in Chicago, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Chicago’s Woman Made Gallery, CLUTCH Gallery, and the Claypool-Young Arts Center at Morehead State University.

Harley Kirschner

Harley is a mixed media artist that thrives on giving his students options. This encourages critical thinking and individualism. In educating his students about the creative process, he uses a wide variety of media to incorporate color. Everything from pastel and paint to mod-podge and decorative papers can be used to achieve amazing results. He believes structure is necessary to having creative freedom and strive to find a balance. By offering simple, straightforward instructions, followed by options for personal expression, his students are always able to create a completed project that represents their individual style.

Loreen LaBarre

Loreen is originally from upstate NY where she received a BA in Studio Art from SUNY Plattsburgh. She earned her MFA in Painting from the University of Tulsa. She has a Level 2 New Mexico teaching license in Art Education. She has 25 years of experience teaching art in a variety of settings including elementary through college classrooms, museums and a school for the gifted. For 8 years Loreen and her artist husband ran an art school for children and adults in NY. Presently she is an art teacher at St. Mary’s School where she has been since 2008.

Lila Martinez

Lila received her Bachelor’s in Design for Performance from the University of New Mexico. She has over 15 years of experience working backstage, onstage and teaching. From the Austrian Alps, traveling Broadway shows, independent films, to little theaters in Albuquerque. When Lila is not performing or backstage, she is in the classroom keeping the arts alive in our community. Her most recent classes include; studio art, costume design, playwriting, fashion, puppet and mask making in Albuquerque Public/ Montessori schools, community centers, and UNM Continuing Ed. 

Cecilia McKinnon

Cecilia McKinnon is an interdisciplinary artist and performer with a background including theater, printmaking, installation art, and textiles. She graduated with a BFA in Art Studio from University of New Mexico, additionally studying at Concordia University, participating in Land Arts of the American West, and apprenticing with the Bread and Puppet Theater. She is a current member of art and curatorial collective GRAFT Gallery in Barelas and maintains an active studio and music practice.

Jonathan Parks

Jonathan Parks, originally from Indiana, he has been living in New Mexico for the past seven years. He holds an MFA in Studio Arts and a BFA in Painting. Jonathan enjoys working with artists of all ages. He has worked at various educational organizations and not-for-profits promoting life-long learning, accessibility in the arts, and supporting disability rights as a teaching artist. He is currently a substitute guide for Esucela del Sol Montessori and has recently been hired as the Studio Manager for OffCenter Community Arts Program.

April Parrish

April Parrish holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music in Dance Performance; Emphasis in Ballet. Her 20 year body of experience includes choreography, curriculum development and coaching as well as teaching at all levels. The most rewarding projects that April has been creatively involved with have included an integrated arts approach; combining visual arts, storytelling, dance and poetry. In 2000, April was honored by the Arts Council of Northwest Florida as the recipient of the Elvie DeMarko Dance Achievement Award in recognition of lifetime achievement in the Fine Art of Dance.

Pearl Sunrise

Pearl Sunrise is currently a professor of Fiber Arts, Fashion Design, and Navajo Languages classes at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. Prior to IAIA employment, Pearl worked for the Museum of New Mexico as an Education Specialist, curator, and Director of the Resource Center. She has taught Native Arts all across New Mexico, Colorado, Maine, Tennessee, and Oregon. She has been a NM Arts Commissioner since 1993.

Blackout Theatre Company

Theatre Partner

Blackout is a New Mexican company that creates and teaches a style of performance incorporating the theatrical, media, musical and studio arts, blurring the lines between them. SInce 2007, Blackout has been creating original, award winning theatre and videos. Favorite works include “The Sparrow’s Daughter: A Cuento,” and “F8: A Rock Musical.” Additionally, Blackout has an extensive playwriting-in-the-schools program, Wrinkle Writing which empowers students to improve literacy and teamwork skills through playwriting and ensemble development.