Our Teachers
| Kathryn Horn Coneway |
| Cassie Meier |
| Chia-Hua Lu |
| Eileen Yaeger |
| Anna Goist |
| Leighton Good and Alex Snider |
| Teresa Evans |
Kathryn Horn Coneway
Kathryn Horn Coneway has worked as an art teacher, artist in residence and art therapist as well as pursuing her own artistic practice. She exhibits her photography and mixed media work in community and juried shows. Kathryn taught art and photography at the Miller School of Albemarle and the U.Va. summer enrichment program. As an artist in residence, she collaborated with teachers to integrate visual arts in curriculum in San Diego Unified School District and Arlington County, Virginia. Kathryn studied art and education at the University of Virginia, earning a B. A. in Studio Art with a photography concentration. She received a Masters in Art Therapy from the George Washington University in 2003. She completed art therapy internships at Accotink Academy in Springfield, Virginia and at Georgetown's Lombardi Cancer Center. Kathryn enjoys working in a studio setting and the unique nature of the relationships and insights that develop through engaging in the creative process. kathryn@artatthecenter.org
Cassie Meier
Cassie Meier is currently a first year graduate student at George Washington University's Masters Degree program in Art Therapy and will be interning at Art at the Center this year. Growing up a military dependent, she has lived in various states across the country and in Mannheim, Germany. Cassie graduated in 2010 with a B.F.A. in Photography from Virginia Commonwealth University with minors in Art History and Psychology. After volunteering as an assistant art teacher at Riverside Elementary, a school for dyslexic childre, she witnessed the benefits of the creative process first hand and decided to pursue a career in Art Therapy. In her art, Cassie takes a whimsical approach to focuson human behavior and self-growth. Some of her work has been featured in the 2010 Anderson Gallery's Student Exhibition and she continues to submit to juried shows. Cassie is eager to encourage creativity in chidren as she believes art making is essential to development and the learning process!
Read Cassie's Blog for reflections on art and learning during observed during her internship this year.
Chia-Hua Lu
Chia-Hua Lu is currently a first year graduate student at George Washington University's Master Degree program in Art Therapy and will be interning at Art at the Center this year. Coming from Taiwan, Chia-Hua graduated in 2008 with a B.A. in Occupational Therapy from Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan. She had worked as a pediatric occupational therapist in a hospital for three years. While working with children with symptoms such as Cerebral Palsy, Autism and with behavior or emotional problems, she saw clients as a whole through art making. Chia-Hua believes that art therapy is a profession that combine expressive creation and psychotherapy thus she decided to pursue her further training in this field. Based on her multi-cultural background, Chia-Hua wants to learn and contribute to children's growth through art making.
Eileen Yaeger
Arbitrary Facts: · Life enthusiast · Fluent in Spanish · Has never watched the Super Bowl
Hate writing? Eileen can fix it. Seriously. She's a teacher consultant for the Northern Virginia Writing Project headquartered at GMU. More importantly, she is passionate about putting words on paper and might just make you love it too.
Eileen was born in Arequipa, Peru, and grew up eating Aji de Gallina and Papas con Ocopa in Houston, Texas. She has dabbled in art since she won her first art contest at the age of 3. After earning a degree in Anthropology and working as an assistant archaeologist in Honduras, she somehow ended up as a teacher-which is pretty ironic because Eileen hated school and rarely did her homework. She now possesses a Master's of Education from GW with a 4.0 average and has over 20 years of teaching experience. Go figure.
Eileen likes to work shoulder-to-shoulder with her students, facilitating their learning rather than teaching them, in order to ensure their success not only as students but as individuals with unique gifts to share. She has great respect for writers, no matter their size. Contact Eileen for information on art and writing workshops or read Eileen's Blog for more about her writing and teaching.
Anna Goist
Anna Goist is currently a second year graduate student at George Washington University's Master Degree program in Art Therapy, and will be teaching Fridays this year at Art at the Center. A North Carolina native, she grew up in Raleigh and attended undergrad at University of North Carolina at Asheville, graduating with a B.A. in psychology and B.F.A. in painting. After spending some time abroad, she worked for several years at a residential care facility caring for teenage girls with histories of abuse. As an artist, Anna's background is portraiture and photography and she has an interest in exploring child development through art.
Read Anna's Blog with reflections on her internship last year.Leighton Good and Alex Snider
Leighton Good and Alex Snider have been working together on video projects since their freshman year at West Potomac High School, where they founded and produced a DVD yearbook and a weekly variety show that was broadcast to the school. They have worked together on quite a few projects, including some freelance videography work with nonprofit organizations such as Water for Life Global and Empowered Women International, and they have attended broadcast journalism conventions around the country. Currently, Leighton and Alex are rising Juniors pursuing film degrees at Penn State University and Saint John's University respectively. Upon graduating, Leighton and Alex hope to pursue careers in the film industry.
Teresa Burnau Evans
Teresa Burnau Evans co-founded Art at the Center. She retired in March of 2010. Teresa shared a vision for a creative space for children to have the time and space to learn through engagement with open ended materials and the artistic process. Teresa traveled to the early childhood schools of Reggio Emilia, Italy and brought back inspiration from her observations of this unique setting. Art at the Center is modeled after the Ateliers which are central to the school culture in Reggio Emilia. Atelier is another word for studio or workshop and the space is a unique setting for exploring connections between arts and learning.