AVA STAFF

Andrew Pinard

Andrew Pinard

Interim Executive Director

Email: executivedirector@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X108

Andrew Pinard has been performing professionally as a perceptual engineer/sleight-of-hand artist since 1990 (absomagic.com). He founded and administered the award-winning Hatbox Theatre in Concord, NH working with teams of volunteers and producers to present 175+ performances each year beginning in 2016 for over 36,000+ patrons. He served as Executive Artistic Director of the Claremont Opera House from late 2020 through early 2023. He holds a BA in Music from Plymouth State University and consults for municipalities, schools, and arts organizations looking to start new spaces or revamp existing ones. He served as a school board member representing Bradford, NH to the Kearsarge Regional School District for twelve years and on the Select Board for four years, most recently serving as chair in 2021-2022. He currently serves on the board of Arts4NH and is a listed presenter on the NH Humanities to Go roster.

Nick Gaffney

Nick Gaffney

Education Manager

Email: nick@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X102

Nick Gaffney received his M.F.A. in Fine Arts/Photography from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, in 2002. Since then he has taught Photography, Studio Art, and Digital Media at a variety of places. He has exhibited his photography throughout the country, including solo shows at AVA and the Vermont Center for Photography, in Brattleboro, VT. He is currently on the board for the Vermont Center for Photography and is also a member of the Lebanon Arts and Culture Commission. He lives in Lebanon with his wife, two daughters, and dog Ruby. ngaffney.net

Samantha Eckert

Samantha Eckert

Exhibition Manager

Email: sam@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X109

Samantha Eckert is a Vermont-based emerging artist. She earned her MFA in Visual Art in 2015 from Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, VT. Additionally, she holds a Certification in Museum Studies from The Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. She received a grant to attend Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, CO, attended residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson, VT, was a two-time artist in residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA, and recently spent six weeks as artist in residence at La Macina di San Cresci, Greve in Chianti, Italy. In her employment, she has held positions in visual art higher education in varied roles as an adjunct, administrative programming, and exhibition coordination. samanthaeckert.com

Sheryl Trainor

Sheryl Trainor

Office Manager

Email: sheryl@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X101

Sheryl Trainor has a B. A. in English and served as AVA’s Board of Directors’ Secretary from 2009 to 2015. She studied painting at Massachusetts College of Art and was introduced to printmaking after moving to Vermont in 1995. She is an artist member of Two Rivers Printmaking Studio in White River Junction, Vermont, and the Monotype Guild of New England. Her work is in private collections internationally as well as the collections of the Boston Public Library, Plymouth State College, the Hood Museum of Art, and Smith College as part of Two Rivers Printmaking Studio’s Portfolio 2008 and 2011.

Travis Paige

Travis Paige

Communications Coordinator

Email: travis@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X105

Travis Paige is a landscape, nature, wildlife, and the occasional portrait and wedding photographer in the Upper Valley. A lover of exploring nature, he one day discovered that combining his passion for the outdoors and photography was the perfect mix.
Before AVA, he began his career in retail, working as a sales manager for over fifteen years. He then moved on to the world of renewable energy for a small company importing European wood-fueled boiler systems. He enjoys spending time with his family, traveling, and doing anything to do with the outdoors. You can check out his work at travispaigephotography.com.

Claire Geno

Claire Geno

Outreach Coordinator

Email: claire@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X107

Claire is an art lover from Alabama who is currently calling New Hampshire home. She has been creating since childhood, learning new techniques and practices along the way in school and from Bob Ross on sick days. She earned a BFA in Graphic Design from Auburn University and has enjoyed a career in sales and marketing. She loves meeting new people, traveling, and painting watercolor scenes from her travels. When not at AVA, Claire can be found outside in New England with her husband, Aaron, and corgi, Petey.

Karl Neubauer

Karl Neubauer

Youth Education Coordinator

Email: karl@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117

Karl Neubauer has been a studio artist and artisan for thirty years. Karl’s work is in shops and galleries throughout the US and locally at The Artisan’s Hand in Montpelier, The North East Kingdom Artisan’s Guild in St Johnsbury, Catamount Arts Gallery in St Johnsbury, and AVA Gallery. He has been teaching art to young people in and out of public schools for over seven years. www.karl-art.com.

Roff Haroff

Roff Haroff

Sculptural Studies Program Coordinator

Email: roff@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117

Roff grew up in southern New Hampshire, where she taught metalsmithing in high school. While at college in Philadelphia, Roff danced between the metal, wood, ceramic, fiber, sculpture, and print departments and found romance in the film department. Roff and her animator husband moved back to New Hampshire, where she taught in the arts and humanities and became a League member while consulting across the continent in C/SCSC. Roff was lured to Nashville in the 90s, where she spent time teaching art and Spacial Dynamics, became a TACA member, as well as working as an 18th-century first-person historical interpreter and federal, state, and private arts grants, where she picked up blacksmithing via several ABANA groups and JC Camphill. After moving back to northern New Hampshire, she worked in the Human Resource field as a Transition Specialist untill friends told her to check out a job at AVA. Roff’s approach to the world is the glass is refillable.

Maggie Kundtz Joseph

Maggie Kundtz Joseph

Senior Art Program Coordinator

Email: mayfly@avagallery.org

Maggie mayfly Kundtz Joseph is a visual artist who has been an AVA studio tenant since 2013. As an AVA instructor since 2017, she values open-studio classes as an opportunity for people to experience joyful learning and creative self-expression. “As a teacher, being present and listening holds space for students to courageously reach-in and express what’s needed for their journey”. Creativity has the means of authentic discovery and transformation. By tapping into our inner-artist, we can heal and grow.
Maggie earned a BFA from the University of Michigan in painting & photography and her Master’s in photography from Maine Media College. She created the artist persona, mayfly, to better embody the ideas of ephemerality and transformation in her art. Read more about Maggie mayfly Kundtz Joseph’s life and work here (Artist profile by Tom Haushatler), and visit my artist members page.

Mike Howat

Artreach Coordinator

Email: mike@avagallery.org

Abbe Murphy

Bookkeeper

Email: abbe@avagallery.org
Phone: 603-448-3117 X103