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

C.J. Kennedy

Ella Delyanis

Ella Delyanis graduated cum laude from Boston University with a Bachelor's Degree of Fine Arts in painting. She further studied art education at Suffolk University. Ella has enjoyed teaching adults at the Worcester Art Museum since the fall of 1977. Ella has been doing pastel landscapes of Worcester County for over 25 years. Her work is in many private as well as corporate collections, including Fidelity Investments and Dunn and Bradstreet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in drawing. She has been a finalist with the Massachusetts Arts Fellowship program twice, and received the Worcester Art Museum's Kinnicutt Award for foreign travel and study in 2001. Ella's work is represented by Artana Gallery in Brookline, MA, where she had a show last October. She is having another show of her pastel landscapes there this coming September. Past one person exhibitions of her work have occurred in galleries both in Boston and New York City.

Ellen Donaldson

Miami University, M.Ed.

A visual artist and educator, Ellen Donaldson brings a wealth of experience working with a variety of students to our programs at the Worcester Art Museum. She uses her experience as a storyteller to bring themes to life for her students, tapping their enthusiasm, and generating excitement for making their own art. She has worked with students from preschool to twelfth grade with Very Special Arts Massachusetts, and developed and taught the Art for Montessori students in grades k-6. She exhibits her drawings, mixed media work, and watercolor paintings locally.

George Hancin

H. Gaucher

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.

Jill Pottle

Laurel King

Pennsylvania State University, BA; Emerson College, MFA

Laurel Dile King is a fiction writer and has taught writing at the Worcester Art Museum since 2005. She has led writing retreats in Maine, Rocky Neck Art Colony, and Tuscany. Laurel is the founding publisher and editor at Garland Press, Her awards include a Massachusetts Cultural Council artist grant and a first place prize for the Worcester Magazine Short Story Contest. With the exception of that greasy summer she worked as a cook at Perkins Pancake House, each of her jobs—beginning as a counselor at Camp-Dig-a-Book—has dealt with serving up words in a more palatable way.

Martha Chiarchiaro

Anna Maria College, BA, MBA; Williams College, MA

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

Randy LeSage

Sarah Lividini

Scott Nelson

Freelance artist, author, and illustrator; clients include Hallmark and Goldenbooks for Children; Worcester Technical Institute, Certificate Since early 1987, Scott Nelson has been one of the nation’s top freelance juvenile and humorous greeting card artist/writers. He has done freelance assignments for all the major card publishers and has written and drawn numerous children's books for many well known manufacturers including Golden Books for Children/Random House. In 2006 he won The Mom's Choice Award for his book titled "Mulch the Lawnmower" published by KRBY Creations. After studying illustration and landscape art under the late great Alex Gazonas in the mid 1980's, Scott has continued developing his mentors teachings to this day. He enjoys plein air painting in his central MA community and the shores of ME. Working in either watercolor or acrylic, Scott can often be found on the side of the road or next to the ocean painting in his expressionistic style.

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!

Theresa Monteith

Framingham State College, BA