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Textile Arts Center is made up of a dedicated team of entrepreneurs, artists, designers, and textile enthusiasts.

Staff
Kelly Valletta
Executive Director / TAC Founding Member
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Kelly Valletta is an artist, experienced art educator and one of the founding team members of TAC. She attended Pratt Institute where she received her Masters in Art Education. She believes that the arts can play a vital role in community engagement, and thoroughly enjoys sharing her broad knowledge of art with people of all ages.

Kira Baker Silver
Director of Operations
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Kira Silver has been involved with TAC since 2010. Beginning as an intern, she soon became a weaving instructor, and has been full time on the team since November 2016. She learned weaving in 2009 at Oberlin and hasn't stopped since. Her side business, By the Baker, is focused on weaving and sewing, making utilitarian pieces like pouches and tool rolls. She also hand out with her daughter and dabbles in screen printing, sewing, mending, plant-tending, and cat snuggling. Her background is in teaching both kids and adults alike, creating displays for Anthropologie and tackling a wide variety of freelance creative opportunities.

So Ye Oh
Class Coordinator / Executive Assistant
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So Ye Oh is an artist, making soft sculptures by using various types of fabrics. Through studies of developmental psychology from college and further research in graduate school, she focuses on a theme of a transitional object in relation to her childhood. She received a BA from the University of Michigan in 2016 and graduated from the MFA Fine Arts program at Pratt Institute in 2020. Starting as an intern in early 2020, she has been continuing to work for TAC, one of her big resources and inspirations for her current art practice.

Howard Ptaszek
Studio Manager
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Howard Ptaszek has undergraduate degrees in Physics, and Mathematics and a Masters degree in Industrial Design from Pratt Institute. He took his first weaving class at TAC in 2009, and has been weaving since, often showing his woven artwork in juried shows around the country. He likes to experiment with the weaving form, materials and processes.

Milo Godfrey
Youth Education Manager
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Milo Godfrey (they/them) is a multi-disciplinary artist and experienced arts educator. Milo's roots as a performer inspires the social-emotional approach that they offer in all learning spaces. Milo is committed to chipping away at accessibility barriers to art making, and facilitating arenas where folks feel empowered to learn cooperatively. Milo has been a member of TAC's community since summer 2022.

Romina Schulz
Artist Programs Manager
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Romina Chuls (1991, Lima) is a researcher and multidisciplinary artist. She holds an M.A. in Arts Politics from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She also holds a Bachelor's in Fine Arts, with a major in painting, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. Her work focuses on postcolonial gender issues in Peru and Latin America, topics related to androcentric memory, gender violence, and sexual and reproductive practices. In 2021 she was granted the AAUW International Fellowship to support her studies at NYU and her research on anti-colonial pregnancy interruption practices.

Alejandra Mejía Torres
Youth Education Assistant/ Digital Content Curator
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Alejandra Mejía Torres is a New York City-based textile artist, performance artist, and photographer. Born in Colombia, Alejandra’s work speaks on topics of her Caribbean heritage through the weaving of her life and knowledge with that of her women ancestors. Fueled with a deep passion for community building, Alejandra has worked with indigenous communities to learn ancestral knowledge and aid in supporting indigenous causes.

Isa Rodrigues
505 Textiles Director / TAC Founding Member
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Isa Rodrigues is a textile artist and educator from the South of Portugal and one of the founding team members of TAC. After receiving her MA in Textile Conservation, Isa moved from Lisbon to New York to work and learn from the textile collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Isa has been on staff at the Textile Arts Center since 2009, and was the founder and Director of the Sewing Seeds project. She likes to experiment with weaving and natural dyes, and her best ideas normally appear to her in dreams.

Adult Classes Instructors
Addison Walz
Spinning, Felting, Weaving
Ahna Hughes
Tapestry, Sewing
Alicia Scardetta
Tapestry Weaving
Caitlyn Mclaughlin
Sewing, Quilting
Callen Zimmerman
Indigo, Rag Rug Weaving
Chi Nguyen
Tapestry, Spinning
Claire Schipke
Screen Printing, Macrame
Denise Maroney
Embroidery
Elena Kanagy-Loux
Leather
Emily Curtis
Sewing, Quilting
Emma Redmond
Tapestry, Quilting
Erina Schultz
Block Printing
Florence Spurling
Machine Knitting
Hannah Schultz
Printing
Isa Rodrigues
Natural Dyes, Weaving
Jamie Boyle
Weaving
Jennie Maydew
Natural Dyes
Joey Casey
Machine Knitting, Dyeing, Sewing
José Picayo
Weaving, Bead Weaving
Kaelyn Garcia
Embroidery, Needle Point, Tapestry, Weaving
Karin Persan
Shibori, Indigo, Block Printing
Karyn Lao
Pom Pom making
Kira Baker Silver
Weaving
Laura Eliason
Machine Knitting
Linh Truong
Sewing, Suminagashi
Lynn Hunter
Kumihimo, Macramé & Knotting, Crochet Rag Rug
Mallory Zondag
Felting
Molly George
Indigo
Natalie Stopka
Bookbinding, Natural Dyeing, Marbling
Olgalyn Jolly
Machine Knitting
Olivia Zisman
Embroidery, Painting with Thread
Philip Sachs
Screen Printing
PJ Cobbs
Silk Painting
Samantha Bittman
Drafting, Weaving
Sara Peterman
Katazome
Sheridan Black
Screen Printing
Victoria Manganiello
Weaving, Bead Weaving
Vien Le Wood
Bead Embroidery, Embroidery, Kumihimo
Whitney Crutchfield
Screen Printing, Weaving
Whitney Newton
Sewing
Friends of TAC
Visnja Popovic
Co-Founder
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Visnja Popovic was born in Belgrade, Serbia and moved to the US in 1991. She studied textiles at the Rhode Island School of Design, including a semester spent in Ghana studying the art of weaving and traditional block-printing techniques. She went on to earn a Masters in Art Education from Pratt Institute where she spent a Summer teaching weaving to children in South Africa. Visnja helped Textile Arts Center in becoming a major resource for promoting textile art and design in New York City and beyond.

Owyn Ruck
Co-Founder
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Owyn Ruck is a born-and-raised Brooklynite, with a passion for textiles and supporting small business and independent makers. Owyn studied Studio Art at Skidmore College, with a concentration in textiles and print making. Owyn helped Textile Arts Center in becoming a major resource for promoting textile art and design in New York City and beyond.