Learn more about the instructors at the Knoxville Arts and Fine Crafts Center.


INSTRUCTORS


Eleanor Aldrich
Drawing, Painting, Fibers and Special Topics 

Eleanor Aldrich was born in Springerville, Arizona. A participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, she also holds an MFA in Painting & Drawing from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where she occasionally teaches Painting and Drawing courses. She earned her BFA in Painting & Drawing through the Academie Minerva (Groningen, the Netherlands) and Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. She was a participant in the Drawing Center’s first Open Sessions, and her work has been included in New American Paintings and on Artforum.com, as well as in several national and international shows. She is a founding member of the Vacuum Shop studios in Knoxville, and a member of C for Courtside - an artist run gallery in town. 


Alex Bonner
Drawing, Block Printing, Computer Arts

I have been drawing since I was a child. A pleasure instilled in me by my father and grandmother. I carried this with me into adulthood, choosing to study design in college at NC State University in Raleigh, NC. I now work as a graphic designer here in Knoxville. This dual interest in art and design has lead me to develop skills in digital design software, as well as explore traditional media. I am intensely into our natural world, sci-fi & fantasy, folklore, cooking, and outdoor recreation, and I seek to constantly incorporate these things into my artwork.


Diann Bishop
Painting Techniques, Watercolor Painting

Diann Lewis-Bishop was born in West Virginia and attended the Art Center College of Design of California and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Diann is a nationally recognized artist with work encompassing various media and a myriad of subject matter including murals and portraits.  Her work is in public and private collections and has won honors and awards. Most notably, she was the only artist from Tennessee to have two pieces chosen for the J. Richeson School of Art & Gallery a Division of Jack Richeson & Co. Art Materials. She has one painting in the published book and one that was chosen for the exhibit. Diann currently resides in Maryville, Tennessee where she has combined her extensive training and skill with her love of teaching. Diann currently teaches art classes for both adults and children at several locations in East Tennessee including Fine Arts Blount, Oak Ridge Art Center, University of Tennessee and Knoxville Arts & Fine Crafts Center.


Rebecca J. Buglio
Clay, Broom Making

Rebecca was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is an alum of the Rhode Island School of Design with an MFA in Ceramics (’16) and an alum of Berry College where she obtained her BA in art with concentrations in K-12 art education and studio art, ceramics (’13). She enjoys teaching children and adult ceramic and broomaking courses that use a variety of techniques while exploring nature for inspiration. She has shown in a number of galleries across the United States and was a 2021 Hambidge Fellow. Rebecca currently resides in the Smoky Mountain region of Tennessee working at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts as the Program and Studio Manager.
Insta: @rebuglio
Website: rebeccajbuglio.com


Amanda Humphreys
Clay, Printmaking, Youth Education

Amanda is a Knoxville native who makes functional, whimsical pottery. She completed her BA in Studio Arts in 2005 at the University of Tennessee. Following her new found love of clay she attended Haywood Community College in Clyde, NC for their Professional Crafts Program. She graduated in 2009 receiving honors and earning an Award of Distinction for her body of work. From there she became a Two-Year Resident at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts in Asheville, NC. there she helped maintain the center, assisted week long Summer workshops and participated in the Southern Highland Guild show with fellow residents. She currently works at the Knoxville Arts & Fine Crafts Center as a Studio Assistant and Instructor. She also teaches at Mighty Mud. You may see her work in town at RALA and other local pop-up shows and Farmers Markets.

Sandy Larson
Ballet & Belly Dance

Bio coming soon!


Kelly Sullivan
Clay, Printmaking, Textiles, Youth Education

Kelly graduated from Florida Atlantic University with a BFA in Studio Art, concentration in Printmaking but considers herself to be a Mixed Media artist. She has lived in South Florida, Atlanta, Syracuse, New York and currently resides in Knoxville, Tennessee. Regardless of where she lives she finds a community where she can make art, learn new processes and teach what she is most passionate about. Kelly moved to East Tennessee to follow a dream and work at Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts where she worked for two and a half years, and still teaches Community Classes . Kelly is currently the director of Knoxville Arts & Fine Crafts Center where she enjoys creating programming, teaching and learning in the community she lives in.


Lauren Strohacker
Drawing, Materials & Professional Development

Lauren Strohacker’s work emphasizes the non-human in an increasingly human-centric world. Born in Ohio in 1983, she received a BFA (2006) from The Ohio State University and an MFA (2011) from Arizona State University. 

Strohacker’s cross-medium, multi-disciplinary practice routinely collaborates with wildlife conservation organizations, community partners, and academic institutions. Strohacker’s focus on wildlife and biodiversity-loss reflects larger contexts of ecology, politics, and the systematic, capitalism-driven eradication of wildlife in Euro-colonial landscapes. As Ursula K. Heise, UCLA Institute of the Environment & Sustainability professor, writes “Strohacker’s works, with their sophisticated mix of attention to the real world of nature and attention to its many mediations and representations, are a brilliant gateway to these discussions about the futures of nature and humans as well as nonhumans’ places in those futures.”

Strohacker’s work has been exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions and is held in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Wildlife Art and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Recent projects include Animal Land (2013-present), and Un-Fragmenting / Des-Fragmentando (2017) in which motion-triggered camera images of borderland wildlife were binationally projected onto the U.S. - Mexico border wall. Her upcoming artist residency and exhibition at the Juniata College Museum of Art (2019) will result in her largest public art installation to date: In the Fabric of the Woodland is a site-specific, co-created community project that explores encounters with wildlife — both disappeared and present. Using LED moving message boards, a ubiquitous advertising technology, Strohacker translates regional pre-colonial wildlife systems into scrolling text descriptions. Mobile and placed throughout the landscape, the messages describe other-than-human animals interacting with each other and the more-than-human environment. Strohacker's aim is a borough-wide reimagining of local wildlife species, foregrounding the biodiversity of the Juniata River Watershed through public art installations, multi-disciplinary community workshops, and a rotating exhibition at the Henry and Mabelle Shoemaker Gallery.