Teaching Artists
At the Museum of Children's Art, our Teaching Artists are central to our mission of bringing arts education programs to Bay Area schools and communities. MOCHA’s Teaching Artists have residencies in public and private schools, in libraries, in our community partnership, and at our Oakland based studio and gallery.
Kaya Fortune
Kaya received his BA in Fine Art and Anthropology at UCLA. He attended the Otis Art Institute and studied Fashion and Illustration. Kaya has been a Teaching Artist in the Bay Area for the last 30 years, and is MOCHA’s Founding Teaching Artist. He is a Visual Artist and Curator, and has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and throughout the Bay Area. Kaya is a Stylist and a Fashion Designer with his own menswear line, and the Co-Founder of an Artist Collective called Soul Salon 10.
Danielle Zorn
Danielle has been creating as well as teaching art to children for the past 15 years. She enjoys implementing her extensive studio art and art history background in all of her classes and lessons. Danielle strives to help young artists express themselves through various mediums and create original masterpieces that they can be proud of.
Mary Lawerence
Mary Lawrence is a Fire Artist, Art Educator, Founder of Evolve with Mary, and Co-Founder of Lohikäärme a local interior design company. She brings a wealth of experience and has an undeniable passion for teaching, creating Science-based art, and traveling. Mary attended the Art Institute of California in San Francisco.
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Lena Lee
Lena has been creating art all of her life. In her childhood years, her parents joked that she would grab a brush or a crayon rather than a fork or a spoon. During her teenage time, she picked Fine Arts Painting as her area of study in specialized art in middle school and high school in South Korea, and later at an arts college in the United States.
Jill McLennan, M.A.
Jill is an active artist and art teacher in the Oakland community. She has a M.A. in Arts Education with formal training in painting, drawing, and printmaking, and has taught art to diverse populations for 15 years. She designed JMAC to help facilitate her expertise in the art world and to guide students in developing their creative voice. JMAC is unique because of Jill’s creative talent and empathy for young people.
Michelle Cuevas
Michelle has been an artist and an art lover ever since she could remember. She learned how fundamental and crucial art has been in her development from childhood to adulthood; and in the many ways in which art can be a method of self discovery for a child, adult and all the ways in between. She is currently studying Graphic Design at Berkeley City College.
Tammy Artis
Tammy Artis is a prolific artist, muralist and illustrator who strives to inspire hope and works to bring art to communities that are typically underserved in Arts Programs. Tammy‘s deeply held inner values for honoring people, the environment, and social justice serve to inspire creativity and collaboration. She has a particular passion to uplift and empower young people. She understands the power that art taught by an encouraging teacher has to ignite enthusiasm, and uplift the spirit, that the child’s ability to create something uniquely their own, can help them express emotions they may be unable to articulate.
Tammy opened Art & Soul Studio in Berkeley in 2004. She then became part of the Firehouse Art Collective, and since then has continued to work on mural collaboration with groups of artists all over the Bay Area. Tammy joined the MOCHA team in 2015 and immediately felt that she was among kindred spirits. The concern for children in the community and the respect for people from all walks of life resonated with her. Teaching the Elements of Art by separating the art process into small pieces is one way Tammy makes art less intimidating for beginners. A positive and collaborative environment contributes to the creative process, allowing students to freely express themselves. Tammy encourages students to make art with meaning, and to use materials in unexpected ways. She is mindful of students possible insecurities and anxieties and encourages them to be bold in the execution of their art.
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Jocelyn Jones
Jocelyn V. Jones is a Bay Area native from Berkeley, California. She studied Fine Art at San Francisco State University, graduating in 2009 with two Bachelor's of Arts degrees in Art with an emphasis in Painting & Drawing, and Cinema Production. She is a Multi-disciplinary Artist, working primarily in realism figurative work. As a Teaching Artist at MOCHA, primarily based in schools, she teaches from a place of compassion, giving students an encouraging environment to learn, practice and experiment with a wide range of mediums and techniques.
Sabrina Lee
Sabrina is a Fashion and Mixed Media Artist born and raised in Oakland, CA. Sabrina studied for 4 years with the Fashion Art & Design Academy at Oakland Technical High School. In her free time, she also finds pleasure in both painting, mural making and graffiti art. Sabrina originally began her engagement with the Museum of Children's Art as an intern, and was elevated into a professional Teaching Artist. For the past two years, she has specialized in MOCHA Art camps, Field Trips, Art Parties and Library Programs. Sabrina enjoys incorporating fashion and textiles into all of her art and experimenting with how different mediums interact with each other.
Raine Robichaud
Raine Robichaud has been designing and facilitating open-ended workshops for children of all ages for almost 10 years. As an artist, author and art educator, she is passionate about creating fun and accessible arts spaces. She aims to organize workshops where anyone can explore and experiment with a new material, and where participants can build community with each other. She works to integrate play and experimentation into the projects she facilitates for both children and adults. Her expertise in workshops such as paper making, screen printing, and DIY toys encourage people to see a new use for household materials and share the joyful experience of crafting with others. The author of the illustrated Crumpled Paper Crafts, an activity book designed for children of all ages to create open-ended, flexible, and fun art experience, regardless of any particular final product. Art programs she has worked with include the Museum of Children’s Arts, Habitot Children’s Museum, Creative Growth Art Center and Rock Paper Scissors Collective.
Jaee Sumter
Bio coming soon.
Dalar Alahverdi
Bio coming soon.
Dulce Leon
Bio coming soon.
London Padgett
Miranda Bergman
Natasha McCray-Zolp
LuzMarina Tovar
Lisa Krones-Whalen
Ariel Goldman
Jennifer Wolpert
Maya Salcido White