Youth Classes

Emily Battles is a local educator and artist located in Lyme, N.H. Emily has been instructing at the AVA art gallery since 2008. She has run numerous camps and helps run AVA’s Saturday CAOS program. She is a local elementary teacher in the Lebanon school district with a Masters in Education. Recently Emily has received her art educator certification for grades K-12 from Plymouth State University. Emily is always integrating the arts and encourages all children to explore and engage with the world around them through the lens of an artist.

Amy Fortier is a self-taught artist inspired by henna tattoos, stained glass, Moorish design, Moroccan tiles, and natural images. She is drawn to pattern and color and can’t help bringing more of both into the world. She specializes in detailed mandala imagery and creates intricate coloring posters so that others may enjoy bringing their own art into the world. She’s been doodling, crafting, and dabbling in art since she could first hold a crayon and currently works in colored pencils, watercolors, and acrylics. When not creating art, she brings her creative talents to her work as a personal trainer and to the stage through North Country Community Theatre. To learn more visit AmyFortier.com 

At the age of eight, Olivia Janna Genereaux took her first after-school art class-oil painting. She learned to paint from life and to mix colors. She loved the control of building her own world and found her place. She chose to attend Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied textiles and illustration, majored in painting, and graduated in 1986. Four decades later in 2014, she earned a Master’s Degree from Lesley University, College of Art and Design. Her love of art is a gift she gives to herself and shares with others every day. 

Tanya Libby is an art teacher to amazing and imaginative students at Samuel Morey and Westshire Elementary schools. At home, she’s a mom to two wonderful boys, an artist, a student (one can never stop learning), a lover of fitness, reading, movies, music, travel, and spending time with her family. She studied at Elmira College, in Elmira, New York under Marc Dennis, a Brooklyn, New York-based artist, and received her BA in K-12 Art Education. She has been teaching ever since, and her passion is to cultivate a love and appreciation for art and learning into the hearts and minds of our young students. 

Erika McCormick grew up in Strafford, Vermont, and graduated with a BFA in Studio Arts and a minor in Art History from Johnson State College. After college, she spent several years traveling around the country and the world, creating and learning. After returning to Vermont, she focused her intentions on murals, teaching, and anything that brings her closer to the beautiful world of art. Though paint is her preferred medium, she encourages her students to experiment with all types of visual expression. 

Beth McGee is a teacher, artist, scenic painter, costume designer, and mom in Thetford, VT. Born and raised in Hanover, NH, and Pretoria, South Africa, Beth graduated from Dartmouth College, where she concentrated in visual arts and mathematics, and studied costume design with Margaret Spicer. Beth has costumed over 30 shows, including 4 years as costumer for The Christmas Revels in Hanover. Recent theatrical projects include costume design for The Lion King at Crossroads Academy; Antigone and The Insanity of Mary Girard at Thetford Academy; Willy Wonka at the Lyme School; Spinning into Butter for the Parish Players in Thetford; and Man of La Mancha at the Briggs Opera House (whenever we can get back into theaters!) Beth enjoys the challenge of drawing photorealistic portraits and painting large murals, but has found her passion using art – and her sewing machine – to bring stories to life on stage. She loves inspiring students of all ages to experience that artistic magic for themselves. 

Tyler Morrison is a potter whose work is focused on elements of everyday life. Largely self-taught, his work emphasizes function, sustainability, and self-sufficiency. As an artist, he draws inspiration from industry, and the tradition of potters as both designers and laborers. As an educator he emphasizes the role that the pottery studio has historically played in society, how the medium of clay has shaped the way we view and interact with the world, and how students can use that knowledge to grow as artists and as people. 

Karl Neubauer has been a studio artist and artisan for thirty years. His work can be found 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. 

Laurel Pollard has a degree in physics and a middle-level math teaching certificate. She has been teaching and coaching young students in technology, computer science, and engineering since 2002 with an emphasis on bringing the arts and creativity to the STEM fields. She has been making jewelry and programming a computer since high school.  Now she has combined the two with 3d printing, bringing out the beauty of math and code.

Daryl Seitchik is a cartoonist and teacher currently living in Vermont. She received her MFA from the Center for Cartoon Studies and has been nominated for several industry awards. Her work has appeared in such periodicals as The New Yorker and Resist! Daryl loves to draw with children and to help adults reconnect with their inner child through her cartooning classes. To learn more visit darylseitchik.com. 

Allison Zito received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of the Arts. Her artwork has been exhibited in numerous museums including The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, The Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield MA, The Delaware Art Museum, The Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Allison has decades of teaching experience, having taught a considerable variety of classes at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, at Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, PA, and at the University of Pennsylvania Morris Arboretum. She has been teaching Studio Art in the Upper Valley with excellent results at AVA Gallery and Art Center, Hanover League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, ArtisTree, and Claremont Maker Space. Allison Zito was awarded The Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018 for her work as an artist and art educator. In 2019 Allison was awarded an Artist in Residency at The Claremont Maker Space. There she created an art installation addressing the issue of “Global Warming” and she organized a symposium on-site, to inspire positive action within the community. Making a statement and expressing herself through art; is the cornerstone of Allison’s career, as an artist and art educator.