Chelsea Center for the Arts

Developing, fostering and promoting music and visual art in Chelsea, Michigan and the surrounding communities.
Chelsea Center for the Arts   |   400 Congdon St.   |   Chelsea, MI 48118   |    Tel: (734) 433-2787  |    Contact Us    |   Register
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CCA's Visual Art Instructors

Janet Alford

I have lived in Chelsea with my husband and two sons for the past 30 years, and now with our sons’ families. I was educated at the University of Georgia with a degree in Art Education and after moving to Michigan, earned a Masters in Art Education at Eastern Michigan University.  I have taught art for 26 years in the states of Georgia, Alabama, and Michigan with the last 24 in the Chelsea School District.  In the early years of Chelsea Center for the Arts, I taught several of the children’s art classes.  For the past 10 years, I have supervised and taught the Artists Teaching Artists studio class where most of the participants paint in watercolor.  My favorite media to work in is watercolor and my work is exhibited in the area.

Throughout life, the arts remain critical to our balanced development as creative, problem-solving members of our communities. The satisfaction of teaching children and adults comes from watching the development they make as they learn new ways of interpreting how they see and experience the world around them.

Cathy Barry

Cathy Barry received her BFA (Painting) from the University of Michigan and an MFA (Painting) from Eastern Michigan University. She currently teaches at Washtenaw Community College, Chelsea Center for the Arts and now at the Ann Arbor Art Center. Cathy also maintains a studio and an active exhibiting schedule.

Nicole Burroughs

Nicole Burroughs is a certified art teacher for grades K-12.  She received her Bachelors degree in Visual Arts Education from Eastern Michigan University with a concentration in painting; and is currently working on her Masters degree from the same university.  She grew up in Dexter, and has been an art teacher for grades 4-7 in the Chelsea public schools for the past two years. During this time, Nicole has also been an art instructor at the CCA, working with children of all ages, in a wide range of media.  As an art teacher she has experience working with many different media including: watercolor, drawing, painting, ceramics, textiles, and jewelry.  However, for her own artwork Nicole prefers painting, drawing, and jewelry above other medias.

“I have a true passion for teaching the visual arts, and I view teaching as an extremely rewarding career. Watching student’s skills and confidence grow as they learn about and through art is an amazing experience.  I view art as a pathway to other cultures, just as it can provide us with insights into our own culture. Art is a powerful way to communicate and express ideas and emotions. I truly believe that all children can learn through art, and I am often amazed at the insight and wisdom they bring to class when they examine, discuss, and create art.”

Tobias Dawson

Tobias Dawson, a native of Misery Bay in Michigan’s frozen backwater, is a graduate of Northern Michigan University with a Bachelor’s of Fine Art in jewelry making, metal craft and blacksmithing and an MFA in 3D Design Innovation from the University of Sunderland in England. As an artist, Toby is comfortable with many mediums and techniques, and has worked to develop a wide range of skills in both the two and three-dimensional realms.

Bailey Sisoy Isgro

Bailey Sisoy Isgro is a working ceramic artist, tile designer and potter. A graduate of the prestigious College for Creative Studies with a bachelors in Craft Ceramics her work has been featured in galleries in Michigan, Illinois and New York. Bailey lives and maintains a studio in Berkley Michigan along with her fiancée and cat Nova. Along with winning several awards Bailey was honored to be selected to create the tile that a Macomb County delegation took to China as a gift to other nation’s representatives at the 2009 International Education Conference in Shanghai. She is currently teaching continuing education and working in her studio full time.

Kelsey Keyes

Kelsey Keyes (pronounced like "eyes") began her career in the arts by way of science: as an Archaeology major in college, she learned the craft of molding, casting, and painting to make museum-quality replicas of ancient relics. For many years she worked in museums, applying her art to conserve and restore objects from natural history collections. She has also been employed in museum exhibit fabrication and production, and her work is displayed in museums around the United States. Although beads have become her primary medium-of-choice, her background in science and natural history exhibits continues to inform her artistic creations: from life-sized beaded sunflowers to beaded bee colonies dripping with beaded honey, she strives to mix naturalistic detail with whimsy and wonder.

Whether using clay and plaster to teach children about ancient cultures or telling adults the money-saving secrets of pearl knotting, Kelsey has been an art and science educator for over 15 years. When working with adults, she aims to help students let go of self-conscious inhibitions that constrain creativity. With kids, her guiding philosophy is even simpler: "If it's gross or messy, they'll remember it."  And if it cleans up with soap and water, that's good, too. 

Kathy Moskal

I love to work with fibers, including spinning, felting, weaving and dyeing fibers.  I also love to work with people and watch them get excited to create a wearable or useable item from animal fibers. It is amazing to see the creativity after the students learn the basics.  It is also exciting to use fibers from my small farm and follow the process from animals to finished, stunning work of art.

I learned to knit in childhood, and took it up again after moving to a farm in Chelsea, Michigan in 1998.  I volunteer at Waterloo Historical Museum demonstrating spinning on a wheel and drop spindle, felting and weaving and raise fiber animals: alpacas, llamas, angora goats and angora rabbits on my small farm.

Kathy is a member of Spinners Flock in Chelsea, MI.  She is also owner of Wearable Art by Kathy.

Nancy Wolfe

As a painter/educator who exhibits her work at various galleries and art festivals, Nancy teaches in her studio and at community organizations.

Nancy has always believed that art is within each of us and needs to be rediscovered. She loves sharing this with people in the community who constantly "surprise" themselves in her workshops. She received her M.F.A. in Painting in 1994, and is an adjunct professor at Art at Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti, MI. She also teaches at Washtenaw Community College and Wayne State University.

She and her husband Mike live in an old farmhouse with 9 acres so neighbors don't hear the hammer of a blacksmith (ornamental iron).

 
 


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