Meet Our Faculty

Bayda Asbridge

Bayda Asbridge is a local community artist who works in a wide range of mediums. Since her arrival in the United States in 2007, Bayda has been added a strong element to the Worcester Art Museum's education department contributing her knowledge in painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, weaving and a wide range of other mixed media. Her work has been recognized in several local galleries, including our faculty exhibitions and at the Fitchburg Art Museum, giving her a well rounded knowledge of all stages of artistic production; from conception through to presentation. Since 2010 Bayda has placed in the top three in several art exhibitions and has also been interviewed twice on local television networks to honor her work. Bayda continues her ever-growing career as an artist and as a member of the Worcester Art Museum faculty. Bayda is very interested in Asian art, culture and aesthetics and teaches Asian Brush Painting. She studied Asian brush painting under Sharon Smith Viles and Jan Zaremba, Saori weaving under Mihoko Wakabayashi, and Arabic calligraphy under Hajj Wafaa. One of her beliefs is that to be a good teacher, she needs to be an ideal student.

Beth Marshea

Claudia Guzman-Jovel

Elizabeth Buck

Artist-educator Elizabeth Buck has been teaching at the Worcester Art Museum since 2005.

Instructor TBA

Jenn Falcon

Pratt Institute, BFA Jenn Falcon loves color, nature, animals, and patterns, integrating them in her work. She received a Worcester Cultural Commission grant in 2009 and recently completed an Artist in Residence program at Petrified Forest National Park. She was born and raised in Worcester but has career experience spanning the country, including positions at Shemer Art Center in Arizona and Randall Children's Museum in California. Jenn proudly served two years in AmeriCorps, helping children to read and speak English. She also worked in Worcester Public Schools as a preschool and elementary educator.

Jessica Harris

Jill Pottle

Katie Doyle

Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, BFA; Lesley University College of Art and Design , MFA

Nan Hass Feldman

Nan is an optimistic, energetic person whose works are stylized, yet recognizable, vibrantly colorful, often intricate, playful, enlivening, and upbeat focusing on the subjects of Interiors and Landscapes. Nan grew up in Brooklyn, New York where she took art classes at the Brooklyn Museum for 10 years. She received a B.F.A. from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an M.A. degree from Goddard College, and an M.F.A. degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Since 1982, Nan has continuously taught at the Worcester Art Museum. She has taught over 25 different art courses for all ages there and has kept up close contacts with her students over these years. Nan has also led Foreign Art Workshops for WAM in Cortona, Italy and Skopelos, Greece. Nan is one of the founders of the Danforth Museum of Art, where she has been teaching on and off since 1974 as well as an an art instructor at the deCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA and in the Framingham Public Schools and at Framingham State University. From 1999-2007, Nan ran a painting program in France. Nan has had over 45 one-person exhibits, been included in 29 museum exhibits, and has been in over 55 group exhibits in her 40 year career as an artist. Her work is in over 30 different hospital, corporate, and university collections, as well as in the collections of the Danforth Museum and in private collections in France, England, Italy, Spain, Japan, and Sweden.

Patricia Kelly

Massachusetts College of Art, BFA

Richard Hoyer

Southern Connecticut University, New Haven, BA; Fairfield University, MA

Richard Paul Hoyer is a photographer and educator who works with fine art photography in gelatin silver prints as well as the latest digital media. He currently teaches classes at the Worcester Art Museum in digital photography and Photoshop. In addition, Richard is a member of the fine arts faculty at Manchester Community College in Connecticut, where he teaches photography and digital photography. He exhibits his fine art photographs at galleries in New York and New England on a regular basis.

Sue Dion

Art Institute of Pittsburgh, BA; Rhode Island School of Design, MA; certified Grumbacher Instructor

Susan Slepetz

Susmita Bando

Susmita Bando came to this country in the early eighties. She brought with her the soul of a South East Asian painter that gradually juxtaposed, over the years with the essence of American, Western, and global art. Susmita graduated from Government College of Art from Kolkata, India, and after coming to the USA, also received a BA in Art from Anna Maria College (with an Art Teacher Certification), Paxton, MA. She received her Masters Degree in Art from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Susmita worked as an art teacher with the Worcester Public Schools for 22 years. She has exhibited her work in India as well as in the US. many times, including solo exhibitions at: Worcester; Ethnicity in The Arts, by Mass council on the arts and humanities, Boston; Harriet Tubman House, in celebration of women in the multicultural arts, Washington DC; The Indian Embassy, Bethesda, MD; Gandhi Memorial Center, etc. Susmita's works are in public and private collection. Her oil painting of Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa are in the permanent collection of the Indian Embassy. Other achievements include; receiving a key to the city of Worcester for presenting the mayor Tim Cooney with a portrait of Gandhi, a citation from Gov. Dukakis for excellence in painting, and the Best Exhibit award at the Graduate Show in the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Susmita loves to teach art with her multicultural approaches, ideas, experiences and techniques! She believes that helping to build sincere appreciation of art in the hearts and minds of the her students is very important for their complete education!