Art Lab EducatorsWorkshops and Activities

Aeysa Nixon-Bright is a multidisciplinary artist and documentary photographer born and raised in Hampton Roads, Virginia, with deep family roots in Norfolk's historic Berkley neighborhood. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design & Media Arts. Her work explores identity, memory, cultural heritage, and the everyday moments that shape our lives. Through photography, collage, and writing, she creates visual narratives that honor personal and collective histories while encouraging reflection and connection. Aeysa has exhibited her work in galleries and community spaces throughout Virginia and is an active member of the Generation MOCA Advisory Council and Black Women Photographers. She is passionate about making art accessible through hands-on learning experiences that invite people of all ages to see, create, and tell their own stories.

Angela Walters is a multidisciplinary artist and elementary art teacher in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her creative practice explores a variety of media and processes, with a particular interest in printmaking, painting, fiber arts, and mixed media. She is passionate about making traditional art processes accessible and engaging for children through hands-on exploration and creative discovery. Angela especially enjoys helping young artists discover that sometimes the most magical results begin with a mistake.

Becky Butler is a self-taught coiled basketry artisan. She has enjoyed various forms of needlework since childhood, but her creative energies have been dedicated to coiled basketry since 2009. She began teaching in 2017. During the pandemic she decided to turn her classes into kits. In 2020 she started her ETSY shop: BeckysBasketsShop. Through her kits, she has had the privilege of teaching coiling to people in every state in the US as well as Canada, Great Britain, the EU and Australia. This year, she began creating YouTube videos to teach coiling skills. Her videos can be found by searching @BeckyBasketmaker on YouTube.

One of the things she loves about coiling is the feeling of working with natural materials. Each piece has its own voice. She may start with a plan, but the materials have their own ideas, and the final product feels like a collaboration. She finds joy in turning other people’s yard waste into something beautiful!

Beth has been exploring art and creating for as long as she can remember! She is passionate about using the supplies she comes across naturally and upcycling them into her projects. Her enthusiasm for creating with found objects is something that fuels her creativity. With a background in education and a love for art, she finds endless joy in teaching young artists to problem solve and break the rules to expand their way of thinking.

Genevieve D. Franco is a writer, artist, and knowledge explorer. Her work varies in nature, but primarily focuses on vibrantly depicted impressionist landscapes, often adorned with gold leaf to symbolize the beauty and value of our world. Her central goal is to use color to enhance the places she explores - in a way that is both realistic depiction and fantastical.
Aside from traditional oil on canvas pieces, she works with water-based media on paper, and creates digital paintings of imagined landscape scenes utilizing Photoshop, along with logos and asset design.

I am a self-taught quilling artist who never stops to learn more. I can’t draw or paint to save my life but give me paper and glue and magic will happen. I am certified by the North American Quilling Guild.
My medium is very humble and very simple - paper. Strips of paper in myriad of colors, thickness and weights. There’s no better feeling than creating something amazing out of such a versatile material.
Mother Nature is my biggest inspiration, be it flora or fauna, or underwater world.
I have been quilling for almost 2 decades but I went public with my art only about 10 years ago. Since then I have participated in numerous events locally and nationally, and on occasion won different awards.

Lien Day is a Williamsburg local with a B.A. in Art from Covenant College and a concentration in graphic design. As a homeschooling mom and art educator, she helps students train their eyes to observe carefully by drawing from life. She believes that learning to truly see can shape the way we understand and appreciate the world around us. She also loves pairing hands-on art creations with gift-giving to encourage generosity, build connection, and make creativity meaningful and fun for all ages.

Lynette Hulse is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and founder of Inspired Visions with Lynette. With over a decade of experience teaching art, including her work as an instructor with Painting with a Twist, Lynette specializes in creating engaging, hands-on art experiences that encourage creativity, confidence, and self-expression.

Her artwork has been exhibited locally and internationally, including at the American Embassy in Rome, the NEON Festival, Creative Well Arts Foundation Gallery, and Contemporary Arts Network.

Lynette especially enjoys working with children and creating welcoming environments where young artists feel comfortable experimenting, using their imaginations, and discovering their own creative voices. She believes everyone is creative and that art should be accessible, joyful, and open to all skill levels.

Megan Countiss is an elementary art teacher and has recently retired after 30 years in public education. She continues to teach classes through the Parks and Recreation Department in New Kent, as well as Arts Alive in West Point . Her teaching practice focuses on helping children find their creative voice and encouraging exploration of media. In her own artistic journey, she is inspired by nature and enjoys photography and mixed media collage.

Oksana Cheng is a self-taught mixed-media artist and founder of Inner Space Art Studio in Williamsburg, Virginia. With more than 13 years of experience creating art, her work includes textured painting, coastal-inspired pieces, murals, portraiture, and hands-on creative projects.

Her current practice focuses on dimensional texture, natural materials, movement, and ocean-inspired color. Oksana especially enjoys making art approachable for beginners and encouraging participants to experiment freely with materials and develop their own creative style.

Reni Gower is an artist, curator, educator. Her artwork is represented in many prestigious collections and has been exhibited at international and national venues for over 40 years. She is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2023 Virginia Commission for the Arts Fellowship for Works on Paper and a 2020 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2017, she was awarded SECAC’s Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement. In 2014, she received the College Art Association’s Distinguished Teacher of Art Award, as well as distinguished teaching awards from Virginia Commonwealth University and VCUarts. In addition to her painting practice, she curates award winning traveling exhibitions. After 37 years, Professor Emerita Gower retired from Virginia Commonwealth University in December 2018. Gower is represented by Chroma Projects, Charlottesville, VA.

Robert Oppecker is an Artist/Art Educator with teaching experience dating back to the early 1980s when he taught Metalsmithing classes at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In 1993 he was hired by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation as a Silversmith/Designer in the product division. He has received Individual Artist Grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. His artwork is in private collections including those of Jann Wenner and Bette Midler. For the past quarter-century, Robert Oppecker has taught in Hampton City Public Schools and Williamsburg-James City County Schools, most recently at Matthew Whaley Elementary School.