Victoria Febrer, MFA

Victoria Febrer, MFA

Director/Founder, Master Teaching Artist

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Empowering students to explore and analyze the world we live in and share their unique points of view

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Artist Website

As an educator, I am committed to the vital role of visual art education as a force for lasting positive social and environmental change. I believe that a critical arts practice empowers us to not only to explore and appreciate the world we live in, but also to share our unique discoveries and points of view with our communities. I was the first instructor of fine art to ever receive the AAC&U K. Patricia Cross Award for Future Leaders in Higher Education. I have led workshops at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum and at Yale University’s Department of Political Science, among others. I currently teach “Art in Education,” a class on how to integrate the arts to enhance classroom teaching, at the Teacher Education Department of the City University of New York, BMCC. For the past six years, I have taught intensive studio classes for teens, including Portfolio Preparation, at the 92nd Street Y Art Center where I also mentor apprentice instructors through their Teaching Assistant program and with the 92Y Center for Arts Learning and Leadership to provide arts instruction in NYC public schools. I have previously taught at the Cooper Union (where I was also the Administrative Coordinator of the Saturday Program for High School Students), Nassau Community College, Stony Brook University, and the Center for Arts Education’s Future Arts Initiative, a multi-year federally funded program where I mentored a cohort of NYC District 29 art teachers on best practices for incorporating contemporary art.

I was born in New York to Spanish parents and divide my time between NYC and Valencia, Spain. Since graduating from the Cooper Union, where I received a full merit scholarship, my artwork has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, and Japan. In addition to exhibiting in galleries and at universities, I have shown in unconventional and unexpected spaces, including the botanical gardens of Villa Monastero (Aletheia, 2019) and the Former Church of San Nicolau (Blu, 2016). I have also had my work projected onto the façade of the Organization of American States (Art after Dark, 2015), in public transport corridors in Japan and NYC (Toride International Video, 2014 and Under the Subway Video Art, 2012-13), and onto homes and public spaces as part of the Digital Graffiti Festivals (2012-15). My work is part of numerous collections including the Hispanic Society of America, Fundación Bancaja, and the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

Artist Website

Bobbie Font, BFA

Bobbie Font, BFA

Lead Teaching Artist

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Teaching a broad range of mediums and techniques so students can create their own visual language

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Artist Website

As a teaching artist, I am committed to the importance of a well-rounded art education, emphasizing the practice and exploration of a wide range of mediums to better help my students develop their own visual language. In teaching a variety of art-making forms, I hope to stretch my student’s ideas of how to look at and create art and guide them in their own art.

I hold a BFA in Photography and Digital Media from the Fashion Institute of Technology and am also a graduate of LaGuardia High School for performing and visual arts. I have been teaching visual art since 2015, working with students to develop their artistic skills and techniques for the creation of fine art portfolios. My background in photography and fine arts has enabled me to teach in a wide variety of programs working with students ranging in ages from kindergarten to high school, including at Marquis Studios, the 92Y Center for Arts Learning and Leadership, and the 92Y Art Center where I worked as a teaching assistant with Victoria Febrer. Specializing in digital media, I have implemented my skills in teaching photography, film, and animation, as well as collaborating on interdisciplinary art instruction. I have also worked in arts administration at the 92Y Art Center, functioning as the Weekend Program Coordinator, overseeing the operation of a multitude of ongoing art courses including during their transition to distance learning.

In my artistic practice, I use photography and film to explore the feeling of existence in a vulnerable state. As the daughter of Cuban refugees, I have a particular interest in how memory and longing affect our sense of place. I’m fascinated by fleeting moments of truth, seen out of the corner of our eye and brought from our periphery into the forefront of our vision. I hope to compel viewers to consider a larger, unseen reality not based in logic, but rather in the quiet and contemplative vulnerability that people and objects take on when they think no one is looking.

Andrew Lam, B.Arch

Andrew Lam, B.Arch

Lead Teaching Artist

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Developing students' analytical and critical thinking skills by building a strong technical foundation

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Artist LinkedIn

I firmly believe in the value of a strong technical design education in helping students develop critical and analytical thinking skills. I currently work as a Teaching Assistant at the 92Y Art Center alongside Victoria Febrer. I previously trained with her as an Undergraduate Art Instructor at the Cooper Union Saturday Program, where I was also part of the administrative support team for the high school art program. For three years, I served as a mentor in the ACE Mentor Program of America (ACE), a free, award-winning, afterschool program designed to attract high school students into pursuing careers in the Architecture, Construction and Engineering industry, including skilled trades.

As an architectural designer, I have worked with Perkins Eastman, Stonehill and Taylor, and Grimshaw Architects. I received my B.Arch from the Cooper Union, where I received a full merit scholarship in 2014, and my thesis project “Free Trade Zone in Transit” received the Techmer PM Award for Designcraft at the 2014 Royal Society of Arts U.S. Student Design Awards. My family is originally from Hong Kong, but emigrated to Panama to work on the Canal. Once the most important trading route that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Panama Canal endured a history of political and cultural strife that specifically dealt with the autonomous control of the waterway between the Republic of Panama and the United States of America. More than a decade later, after the handover of the canal back to Panama, the country faced a new shift in global interests. With the growing economic demand of the international community, the size of container ships has redefined the ownership of the Panama Canal; as a canal belonging to the world. My project dealt with the internal workings of the Canal as well as the growth in container vessels, as a way to create a new urbanism which involves the use of boats and floating programmatic spaces and proposed a community created on the basis of trade and interaction between the vessels, and also a way to urbanize areas where activity is stagnant

Charlotte Gapp, BFA

Charlotte Gapp, BFA

Lead Teaching Artist

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Teaching is about what happens in the space between making, listening, and reflecting

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For me, the process of teaching is about what happens in the space between making, listening, and reflecting. Learning to think about art and design, and to think while doing, is something to be nurtured. Art is what makes us human. Everyone benefits when people have the ability to process human expression in others and strengthen that process in themselves.

I am a visual artist who has taught in schools and museums for over twenty-five years, including P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Marquis Studios and Center for Arts Education. I received my BFA in Painting with a Concentration in Theory and History of Art and Design from The Rhode Island School of Design/ European Honors Rome.

I have designed curricula, classes and workshops with a focus on project based learning, architecture, family programming, and contemporary art. I have also prodived Professional Development services through the Center for Arts Education’s Future Arts Initiative, a multi-year federally funded program where I mentored a cohort of NYC District 29 art teachers on best practices for incorporating contemporary art. I have also taught visual art privately to children and helped young adults with portfolio development. I work with artists of all abilities including gifted children, students with special needs and severe autism, and all ages from preschoolers to seniors.

Zaria Poem, BA

Zaria Poem, BA

Lead Teaching Artist

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Sharing the power of creativity and imagination with my learners

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Artist Website

Through my commitment as an Art Educator, I fulfill my duties of sharing the power of creativity and imagination with my learners. Through this sacred work, we are collectively reminded of art's responsibility to both reflect what we see in the world and how we want to be seen. Above all, it reminds us of our innate ability to not just imagine, but also create new futures.

Art is a conduit that unleashes freedom of expression and tasks us to intentionally build our legacies. In my personal practice, I connect through mixed media collage, textile and dyeing techniques that have been ancestrally passed down through generations. Paying homage to my Afrikan roots, I am deeply inspired by the act of Sankofa, an Akan proverb from Ghana that instructs us to “Go back and fetch it!” Sankofa acknowledges that forward motion is unattainable if we do not first learn our history and from the past.

My teaching practice affords me the opportunity of working with the beautifully diverse populations that make up New York City. The Center for Arts Education, Dreamyard Project, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Art and LEAP (Learning through an Expanded Arts Program) are a few organizations I’ve had the honor of growing with as an educator. I work one-on-one with students, lead family engagement workshops that impart arts and wellness education with the parents and guardians of our young people, and I have experience mentoring teachers and professionals from various disciplines. My creative nature also extends into the fields of birthwork (doula), plant medicine and Reiki energy healing. These holistic practices and my work as an educator intertwine and are informed by one another in beautiful, revelatory ways.

I am a founding member of Disclaimer Gallery, an arts space committed to exhibiting the work of underserved communities, with a focus on WOC, disabled and LGBTQIA+ identified artists. In my experience of curating, gallery management and arts writing, I've worked independently as well as with the City Bird and Con Artist Galleries in Lower Manhattan.

Jessica Vergara, AA

Jessica Vergara, AA

Lead Teaching Artist

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Passionate about empowering young people to embrace their multicultural identities

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I’m a bilingual educator passionate about empowering young people to embrace their multicultural identities and use visual arts as a vehicle to express their singular artistic vision and create the change they wish to see in the world. I have a degree in Bilingual Early Childhood Education and more than 10 years experience working with children, from infancy through adolescence, who range in English and Spanish proficiencies. I’m a graduate of the Febrer Arts Mentorship program, where I honed my art teaching craft alongside Victoria Febrer, Bobbie Font, Charlotte Gapp and Zaria Poem.

I believe that the visual arts are a celebration of the human experience and an important means to discovering parts of ourselves and connecting with those around us. As a member of a Mexican immigrant family, I have experienced the impact of engaging in arts that are inclusive and historically and culturally responsive. I find that when the arts acknowledge students’ lived experiences and their generational family experiences it helps them discover who they are and what they are capable of, by transforming, inspiring, and uplifting them, and their community, in remarkable ways.

Karolina Lach, BFA, MA

Karolina Lach, BFA, MA

Visiting Teaching Artist

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Supporting & encouraging students to reach their highest potential in creative work.

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Artist Website

My aim is to support and encourage students to reach their highest potential in their creative work. I have spent over 15 years designing for a variety of media, and bring that breadth of experience to teaching visual design. As designers increasingly have to wear multiple hats throughout their practice, it is important to be able to think holistically about how our projects fit into larger design systems comprised of different media. I have helped teach the Cooper Type Extended and Condensed Typeface Design programs, as well as given presentations at Type Thursday and Typographics Conference TypeLab.

I spent my childhood in Warsaw, Poland and moved to New York at the age of 12. I attended Stuyvesant High School where math and science instruction was of high quality, but art education was sadly lacking. A teacher turned me onto the Summer Pre-College Program at the Cooper Union, which led me to apply to and attend Cooper Union as an undergrad. That is where I developed my love for typography. After graduating, I worked for a small teen social network as the sole designer responsible for the entire brand refresh, website design and functionality, and all promotional and editorial material that came my way. I decided to plumb my interest in letterforms further at the MA course in Typeface Design from the University of Reading in the UK. Since graduating, I have designed several fonts for publishing on Google Fonts, and collaborated on logotype and lettering projects. Throughout my career, I've worked across a wide range of design disciplines, digital and analog alike, for a wide variety of clients from small nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies.

A few years ago, I discovered ceramics and incorporated it into my practice. That work focuses on experiments with humorous dimensional lettering on vessels and other domestic objects, marrying the tactile, storied medium of clay with the ephemerality of internet slang. I draw on my knowledge of historical letterforms in order to incorporate a variety of styles that swing between faithful adherence and experiments that push limits of legibility. This ongoing project was recognized by the TDC Certificate of Typographic Excellence in 2018.

Khalif Tahir Thompson, BFA

Khalif Tahir Thompson, BFA

Lead Teaching Artist

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The importance and lasting influence of arts education lies in the dedication of students and teachers

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Artist Website

Guiding and instructing students in the process of art and craft-making fosters insight and community among artists. It's an essential foundation from which inspiration and growth take place. As a young artist, I looked forward to art programming at such spaces as The Brooklyn Museum and the Cooper Union Saturday Program. The experience of having someone believe in my work and potential gave me the confidence to pursue something I loved, as well as a platform to thrive. The importance and lasting influence of arts education lies in the dedication of its students and teachers. I hope to add something special to an artist's journey through my instruction, making them comfortable with taking risks and embracing mistakes while learning in the process.

My work is concentrated on portraiture and figuration. Incorporating painting, drawing, collage, printmaking, and paper-making into my practice, I explore notions of self through varied subjectivity concerning identity, race, iconography, as well as family, and relationships. I attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and graduated from Purchase College with my BFA, minoring in Art History. I went on to complete fellowships at the EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop in NYC, the Vermont Studio Center, and The Jerome Emerging Artist Residency at The Anderson Center. I was also granted a 2021 NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship in Painting. In the summer of 2022, I will be in residence at Black Rock Senegal. I have led instruction in workshops and seminars with organizations such as Culture Push and the Allied Media Conference. I’m currently taking a break from teaching while I complete my MFA at Yale.

Laura Gauthier, MA, BFA

Laura Gauthier, MA, BFA

Lead Teaching Artist

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Helping students create meaningful work by imparting confidence, awareness, and sensitivity

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Artist Website

I am invested in instilling confidence in my students and helping them find their artistic voice. By giving them the tools to become artistically literate, I hope to impart the idea that art is not solely about technical ability, but rather it is about self-awareness and sensitivity to life and meaning.

A second generation Nuyorican, I studied at LaGuardia HS and received my BFA in Digital Arts from Pratt Institute, and my MA in Visual Arts Education from CUNY Hunter College. I am an art teacher at MS54 Booker T. Washington in Manhattan. I have taught classes in a variety of different mediums at the 92nd Street Y Art Center including Teen Drawing and Painting, Art in New York, Art around the World, Concept Art for Teens, and Animation. I participated in their Teaching Assistant program from 2009–15 and honed my teaching craft alongside Victoria Febrer. I have been a lead teacher since 2015 and mentor my own Teaching Assistants. I have also been a part of the 92nd St Y Center for Arts Learning and Leadership’s School Partnership Program, and a teaching artist with Wingspan Arts, and the Brearley/Chapin School after school Clubhouse.

Claudia Nicole Font

Claudia Nicole Font

Junior Teaching Artist, Febrer Arts Mentorship Program

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Committed to sharing my passion for technical theater arts with young creatives

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I am committed to sharing my passion for technical theater arts with young creatives. As someone who has worked with young thespians for over five years, I value collaboration and integrating thoughtful analysis of written works with the visual and immersive experience of theater.

Specializing in costumes and props production, I have worked in theaters in Manhattan and Long Island for over five years. I have worked with children in grades K-8 in classrooms and in professional theater settings. Most proudly, I had costumes worn in a 2018 Tony’s performance. I am a recent LaGaurdia Arts High School Technical Theater alum, and I am currently enrolled as a student in Hunter.

Jennifer Lenn, BFA, AAS

Jennifer Lenn, BFA, AAS

Junior Teaching Artist, Febrer Arts Mentorship Program

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Excited to share my knowledge and help students find their passion

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Artist Website

I love to be creative whether it’s an idea for an art project, participating in an art challenge, just doodling or solving a design problem. My teaching philosophy is what I follow when I do my own art today. I believe it is important to know the basics and have a foundation of art. But then explore, have fun, and break the rules once you know them. Creating art should feel good. I get excited about being able to share my knowledge and help someone else find their passion about what they create.

I am a graphic designer who was an Art Director in the retail industry and then editorial design before starting my own company, Eggplant Design. I graduated from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City with a BFA in Graphic Design and an AAS in Advertising Design.

I have volunteered at NYC Public Schools over the years, leading many art-themed and fundraising events along with in class projects. In addition to my graphic design work, as an artist, I continue to explore new expressions of my fine art. I have practiced most mediums and I particularly love figure drawing, pen-line drawing, monoprints, and more recently, cut-paper collage.

I have been in a few group gallery shows with my monoprints and my design was chosen for The Flag Project at Rockefeller Center NYC. I have two online shops with products from my collage and cut-paper art.