Director of Education

Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced Ceramics, Collage, Papermaking and Dyes

Eliza Weber completed her MFA at Arizona State University. Originally from Great Falls, she received her BFA from The University of Montana. She has completed short residencies at Medalta in Alberta, Canada and The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. Eliza was an Artist in Residence at Pottery Northwest in Seattle, Washington, and afterwards an Instructor at Kansas State University. She served on the board of the Ceramics Research Center for two years in addition to the board for NCECA (National Council on Education of Ceramic Arts) as a Student Director at Large. Presently, she serves as Secretary for the NCECA Green Task Force and as a board member for the Urban Art Project. Eliza is currently the Director of Education at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art.

Education Assistant

Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, Raku Ceramics

Rob Kellenbeck has over 5 decades of experience in the ceramics field. He began his college academic studies in math and science, but once he took a ceramic elective course, he was hooked and started a more creative academic path in the arts. His major became ceramics which lead him to earn his BFA from Texas Tech. He went on to open Deer Creek Pottery in the early 70’s. His accomplishments in the ceramic industry are vast and we are happy to have him here as an instructor and fellow potter in the Great Falls community.

Instructor- Adult Drawing and Painting

Monica Bauer has a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana. She has taught at the Art Institute of Chicago, Pratt Institute, and the New School in New York. Her work has been featured in Punkt, Die Welt, and New American Painters. She has exhibited at the Carle Gallery in Butte, Gallery 16 in Great Falls, and the New York Public Library.

Facilitator- Somatic Movement

This somatic movement experience is led by visual artist, certified yoga instructor, and Soul Motion Embodied Leader and Teacher. Julia Becker. Julia has decades of experience as a visual artist and educator, and in her personal practice and teaching of Yogic practices. The last ten years she has been exploring somatic movement inquiry with the practitioners and originators of Soul Motion, 5Rythmes, Tamalpa, Azul, and other conscious movement/dance practices. In 2020 she earned her Soul Motion Embodied Leadership credentials and is excited to share with her Montana community.

Instructor- Beginning and Intermediate Ceramics

Lisa A. Botti originally comes from Mass. She has been in Montana for the past 29 years. Her formal education is in medical social work. She was educated at Boston University for both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Her artistic life started when her children were young and she developed her own art form by painting on sun-bleached bones she found on hers and other peoples ranches. She went on to make ostrich egg rattles using antlers for handles and semi-precious stones to accent the rattles. She incorporated various organic items to represent air, earth, fire and water to balance these elements in her creations. From there, she branched out and decided to audit art classes at the then University of Great Falls in 2003. She learned painting techniques from Julia Becker and pottery from Judy Ericksen. From that time on she decided that pottery was her passion and has not look back since! She started her own business called Whispering Creek Pottery LLC and has been making custom work for businesses around Great Falls. she has become known as The Mug Lady due to her making mugs for many area businesses. Her mug journey started out with Faster Basset, Amy's Morning Perk, Morning Light Coffee, Celtic Cowboy and private orders. Currently, she makes custom mugs for Al Banco, Dragonfly Dry Goods and beer steins for Sip N Dip. In addition to her busy pottery business, Lisa also co-owns and manages a small certified organic cattle ranch in the foothills of the Little Belt Mountains. She has 5 young adult children- 4 in and around Montana with one in Florida and one grandchild in Great Falls.

Textile Painting

Annie began her career 50 years ago as a youth on a farm in Havre Montana. The land spoke to her at an early age and continues to speak to her today. Connections to the land and the energy that surrounds the land ignite the art process within her. These connections provide the fuel and passion to create meaningful art work. Annie has explored combining different mediums, dyes and techniques on varying surfaces including fibers, wood, and paper. This allows a rich diverse tapestry of color to prevail in her work. Annie has developed art programs for all age groups centered on using environmental techniques that work with surrounding land, vegetation and water, ran a gallery (Roasted) that built a strong foundation for the arts in rural Montana, and worked through the Montana Arts Council as a coach for the MAP program.

Instructor- Candle Making

My name is James Hayes and I have been reading and writing riddles for twenty-eight years. I started when I first went online in 1993 on AOL. As a part of MHM (Members Helping Members.) Since then, I have gone on to do Riddles in and for many different groups. In the late Nineties I created a whole event based on a quest which used riddles as the clues. Since then, I have done riddles across the northwest and as far south as Arizona and Texas. I have been a “Pro” at Miscon and Radcon for several years and have done Riddles for both groups.

Textiles

Tammy is a fourth-generation fiber artist who enjoys sharing her passion with everyone she meets. She has a fiber-arts business, Goldieknots Montana, specializing in Montanagrown wool, yarn, spinning fiber, and Made in Montana gift items. Prior to moving to Montana, she lived in Southern California and the Pocono Mountains where she was a Humane Education specialist for the SPCA. Her teaching style is fun, creative, and interactive. When she’s not in her studio creating, spinning, knitting, or felting, you can find her spending time with her dogs, sheep, horse, and other barnyard critters.

Executive Director
Instructor—Adult Drawing, Painting, Figurative Ceramics

Sarah Justice has 25 years’ experience in the arts. She is an artist and museum administrator as the Executive Director of Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in Great Falls, Montana. She is known for her work as a figurative sculptor, however the road to that path varied beginning with drawing, photography, and painting. Her work focuses on aspects of the human condition, digging deeply into the emotional and phycological realms of human consciousness throughout time. Intertwining personal experiences that are also universal for many women. The masculine is not left out of her work as it plays an instrumental role in the development of the psyche. The history of classical sculpture forms an important foundation for her topics surrounding beauty and the abject and her use of symbolism points to the timeless collective. Materials play an important role in the making of her work. Justice’s preferred medium for sculpting is clay, but she uses non-traditional materials for final finishes. Drawing and painting inform her sculptural work by providing another voice and acts as a meditative practice in her everyday life. Justice earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, and her Master of Fine Arts from University of Montana in Missoula. Her work has been exhibited throughout the United States, featured in multiple publications such as 500 figures in clay and has won numerous awards based on artistic merit.

Instructor- Adult Drawing & Painting

Ashleigh McCann primarily creates abstract and nonrepresentational artwork, and she believes that practice rendering landscapes, the human figure, and still life enhances every form of artmaking. McCann emphasizes that developing a vocabulary of engaging mark-making and color theory elevate her student's representational artwork. McCann completed a 9-month residency at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art in 2017 and received her BFA in Drawing & Painting from BYU-Idaho in 2016. You can view her website at www.ashmccann.com.

Instructor- Youth and Adults with Disabilities, Summer Camps

Bronwen Nettles received a BA from Fairhaven College at Western Washington University after 2 years undergraduate studies at Bryn Mawr Women’s College. She was a Licensed Massage Therapist for 15 years in Washington and Oregon. She has worked in early childhood education, as a para educator in Special Education for Great Falls Public Schools, as a reading instructor for The Institute of Reading Development and has a decade of personal experience as an advocate for her son who is on the Spectrum. Recently she taught both kids summer art camps at PGMSOA and is support staff for art classes for kids and adults with disabilities. She has over 2 decades of experience in performance and dance and has over 50 bylines as a freelance writer. Drawing and later painting, and photography are mediums she enjoys. She most recently has dabbled in sculpting at PGMSOA, taking Sarah Justice’s Figurative Sculpture Workshop this fall. Cooking is her art hobby at home. She loves her new city of Great Falls after moving from Portland OR in 2019, and is thrilled to learn and grow alongside her students.

Instructor—Youth & Adult Ceramics

Dino Pfaff has 30 years of K-12 art teaching experience in multiple mediums here in the great state of Montana. His love and skill for pottery is evident in his teaching style and works of art. He has been teaching pottery classes here at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art for 6 years.

Instructor—Senior Drawing

Dan Price creates utilitarian containers from found pieces of wood. Each work tells a story through its colors, textures, grain, origin, design and function. He started making works from wood as a child and has continued to do so all his life. In addition to being a sculptor of wood, Dan also works in a variety of drawing and painting mediums, as well as ceramic and leather. He received a BS in Art and MS in Sculpture and Ceramics from Fort Hays Kansas State University, and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Oregon. Dan has worked several occupations in many locations, including contract security, correctional officer and game warden, among being an Associate Professor at SUNY in Geneseo and an Assistant Professor of Art for 6 years at the College of Great Falls. Dan has been a part of PGSMOA throughout the years, teaching Senior Drawing most Tuesdays for the past 8 years.

Instructor- Printmaking

Margi Schindele studied art at CAL State University in Long Beach California.  She puts her thoughts and feelings down on paper, through the art of Printmaking.  Mark-making is an expression of freedom which resonates with her. To be able to make multiples and additions is rewarding and she looks forward to sharing her technical skills with her students, while using the printing press.

Instructor- Youth Drawing & Painting

I’m Masina Seau from Great Falls Montana. Growing up in a family of potters and painters, I was prone to early exposure to art. My work primarily focuses on organic subjects usually with a surrealistic twist. I love to experiment with mediums from pen and ink, oil paints, acrylic and watercolor to sculpting with clay, printmaking and spray painting. In addition, I’ve been teaching youth art classes at the Square for two years and I have also taken multiple workshops to help further my skills and knowledge. I hope to expand myself as an artist by continuing to build my knowledge on different mediums and by teaching others to further their skills.

Instructor- Precious Metal Clay (PMC) Jewelry

I’ve been involved with jewelry most of my adult life. Received a BFA from the University of Michigan, afterwards taught at Artists and Craftsman Guild the technique of “lost wax casting”. Studied at the Gemological Institute of American, completed the Graduate Gemologist Program (Diamonds, Colored Stones, Gem ID) and the Jewelry Design program. Continued my quest for knowledge at the Revere Academy studied Jewelry Design and Anticlastic raising classes. After study at Revere Academy, in Louisiana I took part in a Precious Metal Clay workshop. Worked as an instructor at the GIA teaching the jewelry design class. Worked in wholesale, retail sales and management in California. Designed and carved wax for Hikari South Sea Pearl Co., wax worker and model casting investor with Steven Kretchmer. Honed my design skills at Stuller Settings as associate designer in Louisiana.

Drawing, Painting, Book Arts

Susan, raised in Columbia Falls Montana, taught art and English classes at Flathead High School, Kalispell, for 23 years. She also taught one year at Narmer American College in Maadi, Cairo, Egypt. She received her B.A. Degree in English and Art Education in 1989, from Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, where she was first introduced to the visual arts. Since then, she’s earned many graduate credits in art. Her first love is painting in watercolor, but she also enjoys working with dyes on silk, acrylic/mixed media painting, book-making and basket weaving. Susan was Montana’s Art Educator of the Year in 2004, received a Fulbright-Hays grant for a summer seminar in The Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2001, and was one of 12 teachers in the U.S. chosen to participate in “Modern Art in America,” a Humanities seminar in Research Triangle, North Carolina, 2012. She has shown work at The Hockaday Museum of Art, Longview Library, Columbian Artists show, Oregon Artists Association, The Broadway Gallery, and Paris Gibson Museum of Art.