Hi, I am Amy :)

More about me:

I have an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art and a BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, both with a focus in fiber and crafts. I started teaching professionally in 2008 and haven’t stopped since — through galleries, theater programs, community organlizations, and schools. Right now I teach visual arts at an IB World School in Maryland and run small-group clubs and workshops for kids through my own studio program.

The thing I keep coming back to is community. Every group I’ve worked with is different — different ages, different backgrounds, different relationships to making — and I think the best teaching happens when you actually pay attention to that. I’m not interested in a one-size-fits-all curriculum. I want to know what’s going to land with the people in the room,, and build from there.

What keeps me curious after all these years is watching how people’s minds work. I love giving someone an idea and seeing what they do with it — how they change it, make it theirs, take it somewhere I didn’t expect.

Making things with your hands does something important for people. It keeps you present. There’s a kind of relief in it — in the focus, the texture, the physicality of it — that’s hard to find anywhere else. In a world that gives most of us plenty to be anxious about, it can be easy to forget that just creating something with our hands for a few minutes a day can be a tremendous calming force.

My Teaching Philosophy.

My teaching philosophy is rooted in the belief that creative confidence is built through process, not product. I design experiences that meet students where they are — culturally, developmentally, and artistically — and create space for experimentation, productive struggle, and genuine discovery. I draw on my background in fiber arts and fine art to offer students access to a broad range of materials and techniques, while consistently returning to the question of why we make things and what making does for us as individuals and communities. I believe that art education is community building, and that the relationships formed through shared creative work are among the most lasting outcomes of any program I run..