The Summer Arts staff brings years of dedication and experience to students as working artists and/or teachers. Most Department Heads have earned Masters degrees in their chosen field and all teachers have a proven track record working with children as well as being accomplished in their art form. Here are the staff for at Summer Arts 2012.
Patricia Biagini
Patricia Biagini is trained in many styles of dance, including jazz, tap, musical theatre and modern. She has danced professionally in New York City, Boston and the Caribbean. She has taught in such schools as Boston Arts Academy, Concord Academy and Plymouth State University and has also taught in dance programs including Aileycamp Boston, New Friends Through Dance and the Metca program. Patricia is very excited to be on the staff this summer at Summer Arts and can't wait to meet and get to know the students.
Courtney Bent
Courtney Bent is an award winning photographer and filmmaker whose most recent film, ‘Shooting Beauty’ about a photography program she started for individuals with Cerebral Palsy, has been the recipient of over 30 awards and grants including 12 Audience Awards and Best Documentary awards from film festivals through out the United States. She taught photography at the Charles River Creative Arts Program for eight years and now lives in NH with her husband, two kids, and one cat.
Julia Bentley
Julia Bentley recently graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts in History and is currently in the process of earning her teaching license in the state of Massachusetts. She is a certified lifeguard and swim instructor, and has taught swim lessons at the Waltham Family YMCA for 8 years. This will be her fifth year participating in the summer swimming program at the Cambridge School of Weston and she looks forward to a fun, new and exciting summer!
Melissa Carubia
Melissa Carubia is a composer and teacher living in Newton, MA. She holds a Masters in Composition from the Longy School of Music, where she was the recipient of the Creativity Foundation Legacy Prize and winner of the annual Orchestral Composition Contest. Melissa works for Urban Improv, a non-profit dedicated to empowering youth and preventing violence. She also composes musicals for and works with the Freelance Players in Jamaica Plain. She has written jingles for the internet and television. She has worked with the Zeitgeist Stage Company as musical director, with ImprovBoston of Cambridge as a cast member and musician, and with the Fresh Pond Ballet of Cambridge as dancer and composer. Most recently, she was lyricist and composer for the critically acclaimed "T: An MBTA Musical."
Marco Cross
Marco Cross is a visual artist and industrial designer focusing on issues of branding and urban mobility. He has a background in international affairs and conflict mediation. When not making art, Marco curates the work of those around him. He is currently in the midst of a degree at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. This is Marco's second year at Summer Arts.
Toby Dewey
Toby Dewey will be teaching Theatre of the Absurd this summer, a class near and dear to his heart. After being an arts administrator for over thirty years and director of Urban Improv for nineteen, he has experienced the absurdity of life at many levels.Toby especially looks forward to collaborating with the students in the class who will bring their own vision, insight and creativity to a new wacky piece of absurdist theatre. Toby is the Founding Director of Summer Arts at CSW.
Steve Durning
Steve Durning is a veteran teacher of English, creative writing, and community service electives at the Walnut Hill School in Natick, Massachusetts, a school for students seeking pre-professional training in the arts. In his community service electives, he directs high school students as they teach the arts to people from seven to ninety-three years old. Before coming to Summer Arts he led the Writing Department at the Charles River Creative Arts Program in Dover, Massachusetts, for many years.
Tom Evans
Tom Evans is an accomplished artist and art teacher. He has been nationally recognized for his sculptural work and his teaching .He has served as head of the art departments at the Brimmer & May School and at the Cambridge School of Weston. Tom has collaborated on the creation of 6 children’s musicals. This summer Tom will be teaching ceramics and performance art. He will also be working with the teenage apprentices, interns and student teachers. “Making art is the best way to make friends. See you this summer !”
Charlotte Fairless
Charlotte Fairless is a graduate of the Cambridge School of Weston and is currently a freshman at Middlebury College. Earlier this year she spent two months backpacking around New Zealand and Australia and hopes to go back soon. Charlotte is a Red Cross certified lifeguard. In her free time she enjoys cooking, drawing, painting, running, and outdoor adventures. This is Charlotte’s second year at Summer Arts
Sharon Frometa
Sharon Frometa is from Boston, Massachusetts and recieved her high school diploma at Boston Arts Academy in Fenway, Massachusetts. She was involved with an organization called Hyde Square Task Force and was a peer leader as well as a dance instructor. While working with the organization she was given the priviledge of performing at the White House with Ritmo En Accion Dance troupe in Washington DC and recieved the " Coming up Taller Award". She has also recieved scholarships for summer dance programs such as Bates Dance Festival, Desales University Summer intensive, Boston Conservatory summer intensive and Urbana Champaign of Illinois university summer intensive. She now attends George Mason University and is going to recieve her Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance. In the past two summers, she has worked for the Charles River Creative Arts Program and summer Arts assiting and teaching Hip Hop, Jazz, and Stage Make-up classes.
Julia Glassman
Julia Glassman is a sophomore at Bard College, and an alumnus of The Cambridge School of Weston. Julia is a visual artist, animator and musician; she studies studio art, practices computer and stop-motion animation, and has been playing piano for thirteen years. Though trained in classical music, Julia has three years of experience as a musical theater accompanist at the Charles River Creative Arts Program, in addition to having accompanied cabarets, singers and various musical ensembles throughout high school.
Tina Johnson
Tina Johnson is a stage director with decades of experience directing youth musical theatre. She has founded children's theatre companies in Florida, Maine and Massachusetts and currently directs for The Freelance Players Incorporated. She has served as drama department head and stage director for Creative Arts at Park in Brookline, MA and Breakwater Creative Arts in Portland, Maine.Tina is a Founding Associate Director of Summer Arts at CSW, and will be heading the drama department and directing the musical this summer.
Eli Keehn
Since graduating from Washington University in St. Louis in 2011 with majors in English and Drama, Eli has been teaching English at The Cambridge School of Weston and working in the literary office at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, MA. For five summers he taught drama, writing, and media classes at the Charles River Creative Arts Program. This will be his first year at Summer Arts and he is thrilled to be a part of such an impressive and dedicated staff. Looking forward to a wonderful summer!
Maria LaCreta
Maria LaCreta is an artist who works in many disciplines. She studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD and at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she received a BFA in Painting, as well as in Film, Video and Art & Technology. Currently Maria teaches in the Department of Design at Mount Ida College as well as a variety of art courses at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA and at the Solomon Schechter School in Newton. Maria served as art department head at the Charles River Creative Arts Program in Dover for two years before coming to Summer Arts.
Lautaro Mantilla
Lautaro Mantilla is a guitarist, composer and improviser from Bogota, Colombia. He has a BA in classical guitar from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia), a Masters with Academic Honors in Contemporary Improvisation from the New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with classical guitarist Eliot Fisk, guitarist and improviser Joe Morris, and composer Anthony Coleman. As a guitarist, and with the Percussion group TEKEYE, he has performed both his music and the music of others in North and South America. He is currently a candidate for a GD in composition for the Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory where he is studying with composer John Mallia, and composer and violinist Carla Kihlstedt.
Evan Metzold
Evan Metzold is currently a sophomore at New York University in the Tisch School of the Arts majoring in Film and Televsion. One of his greatest passions is filmmaking, which he began when he was as 8 years old. Since then, he has written, produced, directed, and edited numerous films of his own, as well as in collaboration, ranging from professional independent films to simple and fun shorts with his friends. He attended high school at Thayer Academy where he played soccer, tennis and wrestled. He is very excited to share his passions at Summer Arts.
Merle Perkins
MERLE PERKINS received training at Boston University and Walnut Hill School of Performing Arts. She is an actor/educator and director with Urban Improv, an interactive, violence prevention, moral development program for young people. She has taught singing and acting at Charles River Creative Arts Program, Wheelock Family Theatre, Zumix and Walnut Hill School. She has played a variety of roles at regional theaters in New England. Merle has been requested to sing at city and state events by Mayor Menino of Boston and the Boston Red Sox organization.This summer Merle will be teaching acting and singing.
Nancy Popper
Nancy Popper is a printmaker living in Cambridge, MA. She earned an undergraduate degree from Bard College, and a graduate degree from Mass College of Art, as well as a certificate in printmaking from the Institute d'Arte in Venice, Italy. Her prints have appeared as illustrations in several publications, including the New Yorker Magazine and the Boston Globe Magazine. She has exhibited locally, ,as well as in New York and Japan.. She has taught studio art in both public and private schools, including Nashoba Brooks School of Concord and the Graham and Parks Alternative School in Cambridge. She currently teaches classes in printmaking, drawing and painting at the deCordova Museum School and the Maud Morgan Visual Arts Center.
Melissa Price
Melissa Price is an arts administrator and arts educator with an MA in Arts Education from Harvard University. She has worked at Boston University, The Fogg Art Museum, and the Brooking Institute. She is currently a dorm parent at Cambridge School of Weston. This summer Melissa will serve as Director of the Art Squad program and looks forward to using her arts training to create curriculum for her young students which will stimulate their creativity and have fun!
Jim Rest
Jim Rest is the Chair of the Mathematics Department, Student Council Moderator and Admissions representative at St. Sebastian’s School, where he has been teaching Math and coaching basketball and cross country for the past 22 years. His work with young people has continued during summers at CRCAP since 1991. Jim’s signature class, Batter Up, was always his personal favorite and reflects his longtime devotion to the Red Sox. In addition to heading the Sports department at CRCAP, Jim also helped direct the CIT program. He brings his infectious enthusiasm and energy to the Arts at CSW.
Stacy Scibelli
Stacy Scibelli is an artist and designer living and working in Boston MA. Stacy is currently working as an adjunct faculty professor of Fashion Design at Mount Ida College in Newton and Newbury College in Brookline. She has several years experience working in the costume and fashion industry and therefore her work has become primarily wearable and interactive sculpture. Stacy is the current Artist in Residence at the Boston Center for the Arts, a recent recipient of an Assets for Artists grant through Mass MOCA, a Franklin Furnace Grant in New York City, a project grant from Possible Futures in Atlanta GA, and a Textile and Fashion residency in Portland ME
Grace Wilson
Grace spent part of her year working on organic farms, one primarily working in day care and one interning with glassblower Robert Dugrenier. She aspires to be a working artist and hula hooper. Her art includes jewelry, clothes, ceramics, wire and metals, minatures and photography/modeling.
