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Staff DREAMS teachers are all accomplished local artists and educators with a deep commitment to helping young people find their creative voices. DREAMS students have the opportunity to interface with and learn from trained professionals representing a wide range of disciplines- including actors, poets, musicians, producers, sculptors, singers, writers, and dancers. Guest artist regularly join our staff, expanding our programs with their technical and artistic expertise. All this is done under the direction of co-founder and Executive Director Tracy Wilkes. Executive Director: Tracy Wilkes Tracy Wilkes has worked as co-founder and Executive Director of DREAMS of Wilmington since 1997. DREAMS has allowed Tracy to sucessfully fuse her two main passions in life: the arts and helping others. Tracy studied theater and communications at Emerson College in Boston, MA. She received her Masters in Clinical Social Work from Boston College in 1991. Since then, she has worked as a child and family clinical social worker for a variety of organizations. Prior to her work in the non-profit world, she was an advertising executive for a theatrical ad agency in New York City, where she developed marketing campaigns for Broadway shows, Radio City Music Hall, and the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. Associate Director: Emily Colin Emily holds a BA in psychology from Duke University, with a second major in literature/media studies, and was a 2001-2003 William C. Friday Human Relations Fellow. She is currently working toward her MS in Family Studies and Human Services, with a concentration in Youth Development, through Kansas State University. Prior to coming to DREAMS, Emily worked as Editor-in-Chief at Coastal Carolina Press, a nonprofit publishing company dedicated to preserving the history, culture, and activities of the North Carolina coast. She also co-founded Carolina Women’s Partnership, through which she published The Long Way Around and The Secret to Their Success, featuring 67 women leaders throughout the state. DREAMS provides her with a fantastic opportunity to combine her appreciation of the arts with her love of children. Lead Program Coordinator: Jill Tefft Jill's bio will come shortly.... Program Coordinator Blair Fetner's bio to come... Program Administrator: Carol Crate Youth Entrepreneurship Coordinator: Matt Baumgardner (bio below)
Rhonda Bellamy graduated from North Carolina Central University earning a B.A. in English with a concentration in Journalism and the Dramatic Arts. Her dramatic performance, spanning nearly two decades, includes Ain’t I a Woman, The Golden Age of Harlem: A Period Revisited, The People Could Fly & Other Shorts and many more. Ms. Bellamy is also featured on public radio, delighting listeners with stories from the African American Experience. Gloria Crist earned a B.A. in Sociology and Communication from Salem College. Gloria lived and worked in New York City where she appeared in Off Broadway and Touring productions of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, Kiss Me Kate, Company and many others. Her professional work includes TV, (roles in All My Children and Loving) and one woman cabaret style shows in New York, Raleigh, and Wilmington, NC. While working Wilmington, Gloria, founded, The Soul Patch, a center for acting and creativity that provides an environment in which children can experience self-awareness through the creative process. Roger Davis is a gifted classical and jazz guitarist/composer. He has been teaching piano, guitar and composition to young people for over twenty years and has been recognized for his work with economically disadvantaged children by North Carolina Arts Council. Carlisle Grissett is a professional painter and instructor, educated at the Art Students League of New York City. His work has traveled from New York City to North Carolina, exhibiting at the Billy Holliday Theatre of Brooklyn, NY, Fayetteville Museum of Art and Wilmington’s St. John’s Museum of Art. Carlisle has been instrumental in educating the Wilmington Community about North Carolina’s African-American artists and is dedicated to helping minority youth develop their talents. Carlisle is also a founding artist of DREAMS of Wilmington. Suzanne Palmer received her B.A. in Dance at the University of Colorado in 1985. She has instructed dance with the Kinetic Collage Dance Collective, African American Dance Ensemble Residency Project, and is co-founder and instructor of the Dance Cooperative, a local non-profit providing modern, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and African dance classes. Suzanne is also a well known local choreographer, working with Wilmington Independent Choreographers, for the modern dancer and Pamoja!, an African drumming and dance company. Pamela Toll received a Bachelor of Arts in Art and English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed her Masters in Fine Art from East Carolina University . She is co-founder and co-director of Acme Art, a studio for eighteen artist in Wilmington, NC, co-founder of No Boundries Inc, and co-founder of DREAMS. Pam is an international artist exhibiting in STOBI International Art Gallery, Skopje, Macedonia, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul Turkey and nationally at the Decatur Arts Festival, Decatur, GA and St. John’s Museum, Wilmington, NC. She has studied abroad in England, France, China, Japan, Turkey, Macedonia, and Ireland. Artists-in-Residence: Renato Abbate discovered his love of ceramics at UNC Wilmington, where he received his BA in 2006, and continues his work and education. Having moved to Wilmington 15 years ago from Italy, Renato also served in the US Navy for four years as head chef on the USS Oak Hill. He has been teaching and showing pottery in our community for several years, his latest collection being a series of magical cups of all shapes, sizes and colors. His enthusiasm and passion for creative living touches all who know him, especially his two young sons, who, among other things, enjoy a season pass to the Children's Museum. Matt Baumgardner is a innovative freelance photographer, designer, and multi media artist who’s resume lists national and local companies such as, Random House Publishers, Time Life Books, Avalon Publishing, AnimEigo and Wrightsville Beach Magazine. Drawing from his multitude of knowledge and talent Matt creates an experiential classroom of technical skill working with digital photography and film making. Weekly he uses the camera to help teens see the beauty of the ordinary. Chamisa Blackmon teaches Dance For Theater, World Dance, and outreach classes for Dreams Center. Chamisa began dancing under Fran Page and The Aspen Dance Connection in Aspen, Colorado from age 3 thru her teens. Loving Dance, Drama and Arts Culture she took many master classes offered by The Walton Arts Center (AR) and had great opportunities to study with Rennie Harris, Polobolous, Chuck Davis and The African American Dance Ensemble, and others. She later joined Afrique Aya, led by Yao Kuku Angelo-Traditional African Dance and Drums. Chamisa began teaching dance for Headwaters School, a home-schooling group, (AR). Soon after moving to North Carolina she became a lead dancer for Soko African Dance Ensemble, led by Cheick Adama Sissoko. In addition to her work with Dreams, this will be her 3rd year co-teaching with Suzanne Palmer for the summer dance program at the YWCA in Wilmington. She teaches Spanish and World Dance for The Little Lambs Pre-School, and the ongoing Wilmington Community African Dance/Drum Class. She is married to a musician and is a busy mother of a 5 year old daughter. David Bodhi Boylan is an interdisciplinary artist working in between sculpture, painting, and performance art. He has exhibited in Boston, New York, Cleveland, Quebec City, and Wilmington, NC including an upcoming three-person show at Artfuel Inc opening April 10th. He lives and works in Wilmington, NC. Jeneen Cleare will have a bio soon... Sai Collins is a published singer-songwriter who arrived in Wilmington Cynthia Cooke has been a theater director and a visual arts teacher for 25 years. She obtained her BA in Fine Arts and completed a two year degree in Education from Indiana University. She has worked in schools K-12 and numerous grant funded programs. While teaching fine arts in the schools, Cynthia was the Drama Director and worked with casts as large as 270 students creating Broadway musical reviews that represented over 30 Musicals and included full stage sets, costuming, sound and lighting designs. During the summer she had a company called "Kids Bandshell Theater" where she staged 4 original shows and numerous musical reviews. Cynthia is the playwright of 5 children's shows and 8 teenage shows all of which focus upon social justice issues, including violence, racism, ecology, and health. Cynthia is known in Michigan, for workshops on "Engaging teens" and a traveling teen street theater troupe comprised of HS dropouts. Today, Cynthia teaches numerous classes at Dreams in both disciplines. She is an avid painter working mostly in acrylic on canvas. She also continues to write social justice plays for teens and is working towards publishing her plays. Gina Gambony, named one of Wilmington's "Top 50" arts leaders, has been Dumay Gorham is a local artist and metal sculptor. He has a bachelor's
degree in english from NCSU & an associate degree in industrial design
technology from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He specializes in custom,
commissioned metal sculpture and fabrication. Since turning his metalworking
hobby into a full-time occupation; Dumay has completed projects for: The
NC Aquariums in Ft. Fisher & Pine Knoll Shores, the Wilmington Children's
Museum, Airlie Gardens, the New Hanover County Arboretum, the City of
Wilmington & the UNC-W Center for Marine Science. He enjoys surfing,
skateboarding, sunny days, comic books and godzilla movies. Vincent Holmes studied classical ballet at the International Ballet Center in New York City, where he joined the Lindt Ballet Theater in 1999. He toured with the company for a year before returning to his small home town in North Carolina. There Vincent founded The Holmes Movement, a cultural arts program dedicated to dance education for young people in need. Vincent is also involved with the Support Our Students (SOS) program and is a faculty member at the Glory Ballet Academy. Fritzi Huber has been a hand papermaker for over twenty years but an artist her entire life. Her work has exhibited around the world from Switzerland’s Musee du Pays et Val de Charney, Gruyere, Suise to Brazil’s Bienal International de Artes, Brusque, Brazil, to St. John’s Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina. Fritzi has taught numerous workshops whose locations include Arrwowmont School for Arts and Crafts, Savannah College of Art and Design, the San Antonio Center for Arts and Crafts, and Pyramid Atlantic in Baltimore, Maryland. She has been an artist-in-residence with the DREAMS program for five years. fritzihb@aol.com Mitzy Jonkheer holds a BFA in Metal Design from East Carolina University School of Art and Design. She has studied at Penland School of Crafts and co-owned two art galleries: Bauhaus Gallery and Bijou Gallery. Her work has been shown in a variety of forums, including American Folk Gallery in Asheville, NC, Hands Gallery in Boone, NC and ArtShack in Southport, NC. She Shawna Kenney is a freelance writer and author of the forthcoming book, Imposters: The Characters & Superheroes of Hollywood Boulevard (Mark Batty Publishing, October 2007). Her work appears in the anthology, Without a Net: The Female Experience Growing Up Working Class (Seal Press), and numerous pop culture and arts magazines. She is a music columnist for Currents (the Wilmington Star News), an adjunct professor in the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, and an English instructor at Coastal Carolina Community College. She earned her BA in Communications with a concentration in Film from The American University in Washington, DC, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Kirsten Kreutzer will have a bio soon... Georgia Mastroieni's love of art education began with a teacher's assistant position at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After graduating from Bard College with a BA in art history, she has worked at different galleries and museums in Upstate, NY, displayed her own work in upstate, NY and Montreal, Canada, and curated a show of her mentor, Andree Ruellan's, work. She is currently an instructor at SOLA School of Learning Arts and the youth educator at the Cameron Art Museum. Meg McGrew is an artist/art therapist who has enjoyed helping others discover the value of the creative process and how it can trigger positive changes in their lives. For over 12 years, Meg was a therapist working with children and adults with autism and their families. After completing a Master’s degree in Art Therapy/Counseling at Southwestern College in Santa Fe, Meg returned to Wilmington to pursue her interest in helping those struggling with issues of grief and loss. Meg has worked for hospice organizations as well as the Healing Arts Network in Wilmington, NC, using visual arts to help children and adults express their feelings and find ways to honor those who have died. Skilled in various art media, Meg’s primary artistic pursuits have been in pottery, photography and painting. Laura McLean has been a musician, producer, and guitar teacher in the Wilmington area for several years. She has toured the festival circuit, private clubs and the U.S. school system as a solo artist and with her band Calamity since the late 70’s. In 1983, Laura began her own production company, Cool Calm Productions, recording local and regional artists. She is also a staff member of Beat Magazine, a local music magazine keeping the locals up to date on today’s music scene. Tim Meyer will have a bio soon... Loraine Scalamoni holds a BFA with a concentration in Illustration
and Fine Art from Hunter College. Prior to relocating to Wilmington, NC
she instructed, Model Drawing and Art for the Fashion Designer at Manhattan’s
Parsons School of Design and was an Assistant Professor at the Fashion
Institute of Technology also located in Manhattan. Since living in Wilmington,
Loraine has focused on fine art and has taught classes at the St. John’s
Museum, The Community Arts Center, Cape Fear Academy and DREAMS of Wilmington.
Abby Spangel-Perry is a recent graduate of the MFA Painting program at ECU. The work she creates through painting, drawing, printmaking, textiles, and found object focuses on our often difficult relationship with the environment and its smaller components. Previously, Abby spent three and half years as Assistant Director of Fountainside Gallery in Wilmington, NC and was the recipient of a 2003-2004 North Carolina Regional Emerging Artist Grant. Prior to this she graduated with a BFA in Painting with honors from ECU and worked two sessions with an Americorp Community Partnership Program with the City of Wilmington. Currently she is teaching at Dreams as well as teaching adjunct at Cape Fear Community College while maintaining an active studio practice and show schedule. Dixon Stetler will have a bio soon... |
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