Cyndy Sperry received her MFA in painting in 1997. She has taught art classes throughout the valley and hilltowns since moving to western MA almost 20 years ago and in 2004 helped to found the Oxbow Gallery in Northampton. Before pursuing her degree in painting, Cyndy taught 3rd grade in the NYC public school system. She received her teacher training from Bank Street College of Education. Cyndy believes that making a mess is part of the process of making art. She also believes in the power of myth, story, and nature to help spark and inspire. She loves Leonardo da Vinci's drawings and Michelangelo's sculptures, Van Gogh's colors, Cezanne's apples, and Matisse's beautiful lines through space...She also loves the idea of transforming the woods behind her house into a magical woven web.
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Joanna Dunn lives in Belmont, Massachusetts, but Sugarhill Art Center is her summertime home away from home. She first met Cyndy Sperry in Washington D.C. when they were both painting at American University’s MFA program, and for the past twenty-plus years they have shared ideas about painting, art, stories, and raising children. She has five children herself, ranging in age from 12 to 23, and her two youngest girls come out to Sugarhill with her. Joanna has taught drawing, painting, art history, and design as an adjunct college art professor, and her newest interest is wheel-thrown pottery. Sugarhill Art Center is one of her very favorite places to teach because it is so magical to have the whole day to make art, play in the field, hike in the woods, scooter in the road, and then make art again. There is nothing else like it.
Molly Smith
Molly Smithhas been working with children and creativity her whole life. Following in the footsteps of her mother, who was an art teacher, she began assisting her classes in high school and went on to receive a BFA in Painting at Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA at Columbia University. Living in NYC, Molly showed her work for over a decade. She was an art teacher at a K-8 school there and taught as an adjunct at several universities then briefly as a full time professor at Hampshire College. Molly moved to the hilltowns in 2013 and has been raising and homeschooling two children while homesteading the land she's on. She came to Sugar Hill through their participation in summer camps and found a kindred sensibility with Cyndy's approach to art with kids. As an artist, Molly believes in working with what you've got and transforming materials in simple and inventive ways. |
Natasha Brooks-Sperduti
An artist from a young age, Natasha believes creativity is a birthright and that everybody is an artist. As a young homeschooler, she and her mother collaborated on window installations for their library and she went on to make large permanent stained glass windows in her high school. Natasha works across many media; in performance- dancing, acting and singing, site specific installations using natural materials, fiber and fabrics, and formal work in two and three dimensions- printing, painting, sculpting in wood, metal, wax and clay. After graduating from Bard College as a Studio Art major, Natasha followed a path of life long learning, completing trainings in yoga, meditation, dance and performance, and most recently, in Expressive Arts with Anna Halprin at Tamalpa Institute in CA. She has many years of experience teaching these things along with art to people of all ages in a variety of settings, including public and private schools, home school groups and summer camps. She has watched her step kids come to life in Cyndy's fun and creative space at Sugar Hill, and is thrilled to help keep that tradition alive. |