Board + Staff

About Us

About Us

Board + Staff

Katina Leodas

President

Katina Leodas has spent 50 years building, re-inventing and raising funds to support non-profit organizations that address social and economic inequality, build housing, improve health, advance the arts and promote a more just society.

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Retired in 2018, she currently serves as President of the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston, and spends a large portion of her free time designing and building fine wooden furniture. She belongs to a cooperative wood shop that is located at LexArt in Lexington, MA

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Jeannine Falino

Vice President, Chair Governance

Jeannine Falino has been involved with SA+C since she was the Peter and Carolyn Lynch Curator of American Decorative Arts and Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts in the 1990s.  Now a resident of New York, Jeannine is a private curator and art historian with a long list of acclaimed exhibitions and books to her credit.

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She curated Crafting Modernism: Mid-century American Art and Design, and What Would Mrs. Webb Do? A Founder’s Vision for the Museum of Arts and Design in New York. In addition to curating and writing, Jeannine teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Parsons. A graduate of Providence College and Boston University, she serves on the steering committee of the New York Silver Society and the Friends of American Art at Yale. At SA+C she has worked on programming and is currently chairing the Governance committee.

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Lynne Francis-Lunn

Treasurer

Lynne Francis-Lunn was until recently the Director of Merchandising at the Peabody Essex Museum where she was responsible for generating revenue at the museum store and online. She served as a liaison to major donors, volunteers and the museum’s Fashion Visiting Committee.

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Now working as a studio artist, Lynn has won numerous awards from the National Basketry Organization including a Certificate of Excellence. Lynn has degrees from the University of Massachusetts and she is a past president of the New England Chapter of the Museum Store Association. At SA+C she sits on the Finance, Governance, and DEI committees.

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Queen Allotey-Pappoe

Board of Trustees

Queen Allotey-Pappoe is an award-winning Artist born and raised in Accra, Ghana. She moved to England to further her education and finally to Boston (USA) where she worked in the nonprofit Industry for a while before transitioning to study Fashion Design at the Massachusetts College of Art for Design.

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She currently lives with her family in Littleton, MA and is the CEO and Artist behind Queen Adeline: A Sustainable Fashion Brand. In her business she uses 100% cotton African print textiles and other biodegradable fibers sourced from Ghana, designed to minimize waste help reduce her customers’ carbon footprint. Queen’s work pays homage to her African roots and is also a nod to her life of travels.

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Lorraine Bressler

Board of Trustees

Lorraine Bressler has been an active participant in the Boston arts community for many years.  A collector of contemporary art and craft, she has a special interest in glass and ceramics. 

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Lorraine has long been involved with the Museum of Fine Arts where she has worked in education and on a number of advisory committees. She is also active at Fuller Craft Museum.  At SA+C Lorraine has served in the past on the Program and Education committees and is currently on the Development committee.

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Aspen Golann

Board of Trustees

Aspen is a furniture maker, artist, and educator whose work explores gender and power through the manipulation of iconic American furniture forms. She has a background in fine art & sculpture, and teaches woodworking internationally at craft schools and universities. In 2020 she founded The Chairmaker’s Toolbox, a project that provides free tools, education, and

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mentorship for BIPOC, gender nonconforming and female makers. She has been published in Fine Woodworking, American Craft, and Architectural Digest and has received fellowships from the Windgate Foundation, Winterthur Museum, and Center for Furniture Craftsmanship. She holds a degree in furniture making from The North Bennet Street School.

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Judith H. Obermayer

Board of Trustees

Judith Obermayer is a former consultant to small high technology companies in the areas of strategic planning, financial management, and the commercialization of new technology. For many years she was associated with Moleculon Research Corp. (an R & D company in the chemical and pharmaceutical fields) as an officer, a director, and as a director of Moleculon, Inc., a public spinoff, later sold to an Australian company.

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She is a former Chair of the Enterprise Forum of Cambridge and served on the Board of the Massachusetts Technology Development Corporation. For many years she was a board member and treasurer of Bend the Arc: a Jewish Partnership for Justice, a national social justice organization that works toward a fair, just, and compassionate America. Currently a member of the Launchpad Venture Group, she is particularly interested in funding women owned and women led businesses. In addition to SAC, she is a member of Social Venture Partners, a philanthropic organization that provides both money and professional volunteer assistance and a director and past chair of the board of Jewish Vocational Service in Boston.

Her interest in collecting began with a piece of glass by John Lewis she purchased in the mid 70’s and has now expanded beyond glass but that is her particular interest.

She holds a BS degree from Carnegie-Mellon and a PhD in mathematics from Harvard University.  She has three grown children and five grandchildren.

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Gary Roberts

Chair of Strategic Planning

Gary Roberts has served on the Board of Trustees since 2016, overseeing the Strategic Planning and DEI committees prior to becoming president in 2021.  Previously he worked at the MIT Sloan School of Management as Director of Faculty and Research Services, developing strategy and overseeing  an array of operations and resource planning; prior to that he was

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Assistant Provost for Academic Affairs at Tufts University, and he has held a number of positions at Harvard University. His nonprofit work includes serving as the chair of the Medford Arts Council to promote community arts and culture, and serving on the Leadership Council for MASSCreative, a statewide non-profit advocacy organization. A Medford resident and ceramics collector, he earned a Ph.D. in English literature and languages from Brandeis University, and is an active poet and translator of poetry.

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Lois Russell

Board of Trustees

Lois Russell is a contemporary basket maker whose award-winning work has been exhibited internationally. President of the National Basketry Organization for three years, Lois teaches basketry across the country.  Before becoming a studio artist, Lois was a journalist writing about education and served as an advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education on national education reports.

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She was also president of Young Audiences of Massachusetts and served two terms on the Lexington, Massachusetts, School Committee. For over 20 years, she sat on the Internal Review Board at Children’s Hospital Boston and served four terms at Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts as well as on the board of CERF+. She is now on the board of Penland School of Craft. A resident of Somerville, Lois has degrees from Simmons College and Stanford University. Lois is  the president of SA+C’s Board of Directors.

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Tracy Steepy

Board of Trustees

Tracy is a Professor and Head of Department of the Jewelry + Metalsmithing program at Rhode Island School of Design where she has taught for nineteen years. 

As an artist, her work focuses on the format and subject matter of jewelry. Her material research has focused primarily on the use of resin and its inherent color potential as a signifier of content. She received her BFA from Indiana University and her MFA from SUNY/New Paltz.

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Her work is represented in the United States at the Sienna Gallery in Lenox, MA. Her most recent bodies of work were Topographies Never Traveled featured at Sienna Gallery and Diptych: Grey and Black featured at PLATINA in Stockholm, Sweden. She was instrumental in establishing RISD’s partnership with the world-renowned Marzee Gallery in Nijmegen, Netherlands, to launch the first emerging graduate-run and -curated satellite gallery in Amsterdam. She is the founder of Arch Street Studios, a collaborative event space, based in Providence, RI. 

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Martin Wice

Board of Trustees

Martin Wice has been a collector of craft art for 30 years.  He and his late wife Cathy began their quest into craft collection with a purchase of two glass sculptures at an outdoor art show in their hometown of St. Louis.  They were further introduced to fine crafts at the St. Louis Art

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Museum through several shows and events, including a panel discussion on how to collect fine art.  They continued their education in collecting crafts, and their purchases evolved along with their education, with a particular interest in fiber arts and basketry – later loaning their collection to museums and traveling exhibitions.

The Wices later joined Craft Alliance, a St. Louis organization dedicated to teaching, exhibiting, and promoting craft art to the greater St. Louis community; Martin joined their board in 2016. He also supports craft organizations like CERF and the Penland School of Craft.

After attending Grinnell College and Northwestern University School of Medicine, Martin practiced physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mercy Hospital in St. Louis and later joined the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine before retiring in 2019.

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Jo Stealey

Chair, Artist Advisory Committee

Josephine (Jo) Stealey is an artist known for her multi-media work using textiles and handmade paper. Her work is exhibited widely and is found in many private and public collections, including the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

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Jo, who has a PhD. in Art Education, lives in Columbia, Missouri. During her 35 years at the University of Missouri, she was head of the fiber program and led the Art Department before becoming the founding Director of the School of Visual Studies. In addition, she was the founding director for two Craft Centers in Missouri and has served on the board of the National Basketry Organization. She is a contributing author for textile journals, teaches workshops across the country; lectures on contemporary American basketry as well as curates and juries exhibitions. At SA+C Jo serves on the Governance and Year of Craft committees.

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Eddie Bernard

https://wdg-us.com/

 An artist, craftsperson, designer and businessperson, Eddie Bernard was born and raised in New Iberia, LA. In 1996 he earned a BFA from RIT and founded Wet Dog Glass, LLC, a small manufacturing firm specializing in art glass processing equipment for schools, universities, museums, private and public access studios, glass labs and 

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factories around the world. Eddie has written numerous technical articles for GASNews and has taught equipment building workshops across the US. He has instructed hot glass sculpting workshops at Ox-Bow School of Art, Pilchuck Glass School, Penland School of Craft; Glass Furnace, Istanbul, Turkey; and The Studio of the Corning Museum of Glass. He has lectured and demonstrated in Australia, Japan, Taiwan and Korea; and lectured and moderated panel discussions at numerous GAS Conferences. He has written, directed, and performed shows as a magician in glass studios at such notable venues at the GAS Conference at The Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA and at fundraising events in Los Angeles, CA and St. Louis, MO, raising over $25,000 for Disaster Relief on behalf of CERF+. Eddie was a founding board member of the New Orleans Creative Glass Institute (NOGCI) and served on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society (GAS), as Board Secretary of Central Park NC, and as Board Chair of Craft Emergency Relief Fund Plus (CERF+). Eddie currently serves as Town Commissioner in Star, NC. What one gives to community, one does not lose.

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Jessica Calderwood

www.jessicacalderwood.com

Jessica Calderwood is a sculptor who works in a variety of craft-based media. Trained as a metalsmith and enamelist, her objects and images make statements about contemporary life. Since receiving her BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art and her MFA from Arizona State University, her work has been exhibited extensively

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throughout the U.S. and internationally. She has participated in artist residencies with the John Michael Kohler Arts/Industry Program, Ferro Corporation, Mesa Arts Center, and Muncie Metal Spinning. Her work has also been published in Metalsmith Magazine, American Craft, NICHE, Ornament, the Lark 500 series, and the Art of Enameling. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Ball State University.

You can read more in a recent feature from American Craft Magazine here.

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Molly Hatch

https://www.mollyhatch.com/

Molly Hatch is an artist designer with a formal education in drawing, painting, printmaking and ceramics at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, receiving her BFA in 2000. In 2008, after several ceramic residencies and apprenticeships in the United States and abroad, Hatch received her MFA in Ceramics from the 

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University of Colorado, Boulder. In 2009, Hatch’s career took off after she was awarded the prestigious Arts/Industry Residency in the Kohler Pottery at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin. In 2013, Hatch had her first solo museum exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance and was included in New Blue and White, a contemporary decorative arts exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 2014, Physic Garden, Hatch’s first monumental 456-plate work inspired by the museum’s collection of English Ceramics, was permanently installed at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta as well as a second monumental wall piece titled Caughley Landscape, another installation commissioned by the museum and the Woodruff Arts Center in Atlanta for their permanent collection. In 2016, the Clayarch Gimhae Museum in Korea exhibited a selection of wall installations by Hatch as a part of a larger ceramics invitational titled Post-Tile. Chronicle Books published Hatch’s first illustrated book of paintings in March of 2015 and September Publishing printed Hatch’s second major book of paintings and historic research titled, A Passion for China in October 2017. In 2017 Hatch installed her largest museum commission to date at the Newark Museum in Newark, NJ. Commissioned by Chief Curator Ulysses Dietz, Hatch designed and executed a triptych of almost 600 plates for a wall installation for permanent installation titled Repertoire. To design and complete this monumental commission, Hatch worked with curators across three departments in the museum collections: African, Asian and American. Hatch lives and works in Florence, Massachusetts.

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Kyungmin Park

www.kyungminpark.com

Kyungmin Park is a figurative ceramic sculptor drawing inspiration from childlike perspectives. Contrasting the darker emotions and restricted psyche of adulthood with the boundless consciousness of children, Kyungmin’s sculptures confront the view with uncomfortable juxtapositions, encouraging reflection upon personal

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expectations and narratives. Kyungmin largely uses handbuilding techniques to construct her figures out of porcelain, a material she prefers for its ability to contrast starkly with bright and colorful decoration.

Originally from South Korea, Kyungmin earned her MFA in Ceramics from the University of Georgia in 2012 and her BFA from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 2008. Currently, Kyungmin is an Assistant Professor of 3D studio Art at Endicott College in Beverly,MA. Park was a long-term resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana where she earned 2014-2015 Matsutani Fellowship and 2015-2016 Windgate Fellowship. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally, most notably at: the Aqua Art Miami Basel, SOFA Chicago, A.I.R Vallauris, France as well as a number of galleries.

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Joe Pintz

IconCeramics

Joseph Pintz creates mundane forms based on utilitarian vessels and other implements associated with the hand. Pintz earned his BA in anthropology and urban studies at Northwestern University and his MFA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has been a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation, the Northern Clay

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Center, and the Roswell Artist-in-Residence program. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Missouri and exhibits his work nationally.

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Michael Puryear

Michael Puryear has been a designer/furniture maker for over 40 years.  He has been widely published. The books “Makers: An Anthology of American Studio Craft” and “Furniture With Soul” are examples.  

His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Art & Design, the Mint Museum and the Peabody-Essex Museum

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among others and is in the collections of the Newark Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. 

Michael has taught at Parsons School of Design, the School of Art+Design at SUNY Purchase, Penland School of Crafts, Anderson Ranch Art Center and the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship.  He lives and works in the Catskills of NY.

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Rowland Ricketts

http://www.rickettsindigo.com/

Rowland Ricketts utilizes natural dyes and historical processes to create contemporary textiles that span art and design.  Trained in indigo farming and dyeing in Japan, Rowland received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2005 and is currently a Professor and Associate Dean in Indiana University’s Eskenazi School of Art,

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Architecture + Design.  His work ex has beenhibited at the Textile Museum in Washington, DC, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery.  Rowland is a recipient of a United States Artists Fellowship.

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Sylvie Rosenthal

instagram: @boat_boat and @lower.astronomy

Sylvie Rosenthal started building at age six at the Eli Whitney Museum where she made circuses, catapults, rockets, and robots. She received her BFA from The Rochester Institute of Technology, Woodworking and Furniture Design Program in the School for American Crafts, built two houses from the ground up with her

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mentor Doug Sigler, and received her MFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Sylvie has been routinely invited as a visiting artist, teacher, and researcher to many schools including San Diego State University (CA), University of Wisconsin Whitewater and Madison (WI), Penland School of Crafts (NC), Haystack Mountain School (ME), Anderson Ranch Arts Center (CO), Australia National University (Canberra, Australia) and Tainan National University of the Arts (Tainan, Taiwan R.O.C.). She has shown nationally at galleries and museums such as The Fuller Craft Museum (MA), The Mint Museum (NC), and the Museum of Art and Design (NYC). Currently, Sylvie maintains a studio practice making furniture on commission, production work for sale online, and sculpture dealing with the intersecting flight patterns of the histories of trade, the intentional and unintentional transplantations that come with it, hybridity, materiality, queer theory, and the natural world. Sylvie teaches the Fundamentals of Construction at Madison College’s Construction and Remodeling Program. She is also on the board of trustees of CERF+, the Artists’ Safety Net. When Sylvie isn’t doing the above, you might find her on her bike, teaching woodworking to kids, or traveling somewhere. 

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Chris Bathgate
Bonnie Bishoff
Gail Brown
Erica DeMarco
Alyda Dewhirst
Andrew Glasgow
Michael King
Sheila Lemke
Barbara Manzolillo
Karen Rotenberg
Paul Sacaridiz
Barbara Salisbury
Jennifer Scanlan
Emily Zilber

Marcia Young 

Executive Director

Marcia joined the Society in July, 2023. She has been making or writing about art and fine craft for over 30 years. She is the founder of the Fiber Art Network and former publisher and editor-in-chief of Fiber Art Now magazine. Over the years, she has served on several boards and committees related to fine craft. In her free time, she can be found throwing her latest creation on the pottery wheel or spending time with her family. She lives near Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Denise LeBlanc 

Development Associate

Denise brings more than 30 years of museum and non-profit experience to the Society of Arts + Crafts. She has held positions at the Fuller Craft Museum, the Children’s Museum of Dartmouth, Mass Audubon Society/Trailside Museum, Huntington Theatre Company, as a textile artisan with PlimothCRAFT and manager of the textile department at Plimoth Plantation. She has taught and lectured both nationally and internationally on the history and techniques of the textile arts. In addition to a B.A. in Studio Art, Denise is a practicing watercolor artist and textile artisan, and brings both a working knowledge of craft as well as museum management to this position.

Joan Ciolino

Bookkeeper

Joan has worked in arts administration for over twenty years, and has been with SA+C for five. She also works as Administrative Manager at the National Basketry Organization and as Bookkeeper at North Country Studio Workshop, while also managing her family gift shop in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Prior to that she worked for five years at the New England Quilt Museum. At SA+C she is responsible for all bookkeeping and human resource functions, as well as assisting with financial forecasting.

 

John Michael Kennedy

PR Consultant

John Michael is president of JMKPR: Communications for Creative Industries, a public relations firm focused on working with individuals and organizations involved in the arts. The Society of Arts + Crafts has retained John Michael for more than five years to assist with a variety of public relations needs.