Award Recipients
In 2020, in addition to the yearly awards we provided 24 artists with micro-grants of $500 to $1,000, totaling $16,000, to alleviate the immediate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2024 Award Winners
Yen Yi Chung
Yen Yi Chung is a painter from Taipei, Taiwan, who has shown her love for art since childhood. She wanted to learn more about art, so she came to the United States and entered the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. In 2023, she obtained an MFA degree in Fine Art.
Yen Yi’s art is inspired by her surroundings, enabling her to transform her feelings into vivid abstract paintings. For her, her paintings bring an optimistic sense of hope to life. Now, she lives in the Bay Area and continues to work hard to become a great painter.
Alicia M.P. Nelson
Alicia M. P. Nelson is an award-winning San Francisco/Bay Area-based actor, clown, and arts educator. Nelson is a graduate of Boston University where she acquired a BFA in Acting, and has trained in both classical theatre and Commedia dell’Arte in Greece and Italy respectively.
She has worked across the country in various theatres including the San Francisco Mime Troupe, WAM Theatre, Bay Area Children’s Theatre,
TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, SF Playhouse, Marin Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, California Shakespeare Theatre, and more. Nelson is passionate about all things that spark the imagination. She is an avid believer in playing pretend, diving in head-first, and the power of the arts to build compassionate individuals.
Petra Persolja
Dr. Petra Persolja, known professionally as the Platinum Pianist, holds a Doctorate of Music in Piano Performance from the University of California Santa Barbara and a performing history that spans the USA and Europe.
As an emerging artist, she is revolutionizing the world of live piano music with her exceptional talent and unique approach to performance. Petra aims to push the boundaries of traditional piano recitals into transformative experiences that connect individuals through the universal language of music. What sets her apart from other performers is her outgoing and energetic personality, as well as her versatility and ability to read any partition on short notice thanks to her classical training.
Bennett Roth-Newell
Bennett Roth-Newell is a jazz pianist, emcee, composer, and music educator. His discography includes his full-length album “Grown,” (2022) the duo album “After You” (2015) alongside guitarist Mason Razavi, “The Bad Ones” (2016) self-titled debut album with 6 of his own compositions, and “Put It Out,” (2019) a 4-song hip-hop and jazz-influenced project. As a music educator, Bennett has taught at Valley Christian High School, San Jose State University, Stanford Jazz Workshop, and currently serves as Music and Creative Arts Director at The Riekes Center in Menlo Park, CA and Adjunct Faculty in Jazz Piano at West Valley Community College.
Bennett’s next album “It’ll Always Work Out” will be released in November 2024 and features all brand new compositions performed in a jazz piano trio setting.
2023 Award Winners
Alycia Adame
Alycia Adame is a non-binary performing artist and Bay Area native. They began their local theater career in 2015 solely focused on musicals, but have since worked on a variety of projects including straight plays, staged readings, cabarets, and more. Notable credits include Dot/Marie in Sunday in the Park with George (Los Altos Stage Company), Olivia in Miss You Like Hell, Joan in Fun Home, Midge in The Hollow (City Lights Theatre Company), Lydia in American Night: The Ballad of Juan José (Los Altos), and Vanessa and Nina in In the Heights (City Lights and Stage 1 Theatre, respectively). The community and purpose they have found in theater has truly changed their life and empowered them to be their most authentic self.
Peter Colclasure
Peter Colclasure grew up in Merrill, Wisconsin. In high school he won the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association Piano Competition two years running, going on to earn a degree in piano performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He moved to San Jose in 2012.
He currently teaches piano at Evergreen Studio of Music and the Arts, and plays piano for New Ballet School. Since 2016 he has released three albums and one EP of solo instrumental works. His compositions have been used for choreography by New Ballet, eMotion Arts, the Memphis Ballet, and Boise Ballet Academy. In 2022, he was granted an artist residency by the Jack Straw Foundation in Seattle to record an original string quartet with Skyros Quartet.
Julie Grantz
Working as a contemporary realist, Julie Grantz creates narrative, large-scale, figurative work in charcoal. The narrative in her work is created from her personal experiences of the silent bias against women, and sexist double standards that women face, as well as the traumas women endure which our society normalizes and suppresses. Julie creates to find her voice, and hopes that her work will help others to find, and use their voice.
Julie started drawing when she enrolled in a Mission College class in 2015. She started working with charcoal exclusively two years ago, utilizing a technique called “charcoal sanding.” This technique has allowed her to explore deeper narratives and to develop a body of work.
Isabella King
Isabella King is a San Francisco Bay Area based textile artist and painter originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. King maintains an engaged studio practice in Sunnyvale while working as a philanthropy professional raising vital funds for Bay Area nonprofits.
King earned BFA degrees with honors in Studio Art and English from Wellesley College for the successful presentation of her thesis show, Woven in Paint and collection of short stories, Down Hullbeck.
In 2022 King participated in Art Builds Community’s Downtown San Jose residency and public art initiative, “The Womanhood Project: Anonymous No More.”
2022 Award Winners
Lauren Halliwell
George Psarras
Nick Rodrigues
Ji Young Yoon
2021 Award Winners
Emanuela Harris Sintamarian
(Ema) is an artist originally from Romania whose work is informed by the relationship of her identity to her sense of displacement, and the ways she has devised to reconcile these incongruous elements. Her intricate yet expansive drawings tackle the dichotomy between containment and liberation by infusing a static diagram with a charge that propels it into motion. She received her MFA in Printmaking from the University of Delaware (2002), and her MFA in Painting from San Jose Sate University (2005). Ema is an Adjunct Instructor at San Jose State University and San Jose City College.
Kiana Honarmand
Kiana Honarmand is an artist born and raised in Iran. Her work addresses issues related to her cultural identity, violation of women’s rights in Iran, censorship, surveillance, and the Western perception of the Middle East. Derived from her interest in different materials and processes, Kiana’s interdisciplinary practice features the use of digital fabrication tools as well as traditional methods of craft. In 2012, Kiana moved to the United States to pursue and complete her Master of Fine Arts degree. She currently lives and works in the Bay Area. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues in the United States as well as Germany and Iran.
Tori Paul
The soulful, effortless sounds of vocalist and songwriter Tori Paul describes her music as “Soulful Psychedelia”. Her music has a background in and takes influence from Jazz, Blues, Latin, Rock, Indian Classical and Soul genres. Using harmonious melodies, powerful vocals, groovy basslines, world music tones and rhythms and experimental percussion, Tori creates a mindful and meditative vibe that is contemporary with spiritual elements. She believes that music has the power to heal and creates music that promotes wellness to the listener. With her background in psychology and music she attempts to incorporate melody and musical healing in her work. She is currently working on her debut album and spends her time writing and teaching music and meditating.
Mason Razavi
Mason Razavi is a jazz guitarist with a growing profile in the SF Bay Area and beyond. Based in San Jose, CA, Razavi’s groups have performed at SF Jazz and San Jose Jazz as well as many Bay Area jazz clubs and concert series. His albums have often featured ambitious original music that has been warmly received by jazz radio worldwide. An avid educator, Razavi is an adjunct music professor at West Valley College, where he is a lecturer and jazz guitar instructor, and maintains a private studio. Razavi holds holds a M.A. in music with a concentration in Jazz Studies from San Jose State University and a B.M. from the Berklee College of Music where he majored in Contemporary Writing and Production.
2020 Award Winners
Alex Arango
Alex Arango is a Colombian American multi-instrumentalist living in San Jose. Born in a small town outside of Medellín, Colombia, his early musical influences included Cumbia, Vallenato, and Salsa music. After immigrating to the United States, he became drawn to Hip-Hop, Jazz, and Rock music. This eclectic palate of sounds developed his ear and musical taste, enabling him to collaborate with Folk, R&B, Latin, Jazz, and Tango bands. Alex graduated from UC San Diego, where he studied Music Technology as well as Jazz piano and composition under the tutelage of 2-time Grammy award-winning producer, Kamau Kenyatta. Currently, Alex works as a music educator, composer and producer and enjoys collaborating with musicians from a wide range of backgrounds. He enjoys meshing cultural influences and different musical experiences to create a unique sound.
Lydia Rae Black
Lydia Rae Black was born in Neshoba County, Mississippi, and moved to the Bay Area with her family at a young age, growing up in Morgan Hill. She graduated from San Jose State University in 2009 with a BFA in painting. With family still in the south, she has documented various features of their locale as part of her work, which has been focused on the consequences of materialism and time, as well as associations of possessions and identity. She has been active as an artist since 1999, and now works in the Art Department of SJSU, facilitating the use of the labs and graduate spaces. Lydia has also maintained a home studio, and has had a small space at The Alameda Artworks in San Jose for more than a decade.
Amy D
The soulful, effortless sounds of vocalist and songwriter Amy D. envelop listeners in a dream-like fusion of jazz, soul, world, and R&B styles, bridging genres and generations alike. Combined with inspiring lyrics and heartfelt storytelling, her music is a timeless soundscape inviting reflection, healing, and growth. In a time where the world invites innovation and diverse influence, Amy D.’s songs imbue a multitude of juxtapositions: nostalgia with modern themes, powerful purpose with soft sophistication, lightness and warmth with cool, blue depths. First creating a stir in the San Francisco Bay Area and now beyond, Amy D. partnered with producer and master keyboardist Michael Aaberg (Goapele, Lalah Hathaway, Derrick Hodge) for her debut portrait album, LIKE YOU.
Justin Keyes
Justin Keyes is an actor, singer, former dancer, and private teacher born and raised in downtown San Jose. He graduated with honors from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with degrees in Musical Theatre Performance and Spanish Language and Literature. After 14 years in New York, he moved back to the Bay during the pandemic with a new found interest in dedicating his creative energies to service. In response to the pandemic, Justin Keyes, along with his collaborator, John Campione, created a commercial jingle podcast, POD HELP THE OUTCASTS, dedicated to creating musical content that is gifted to small businesses affected by the pandemic. Justin and John hope the jingles they create will help boost the online presences of the businesses they love and generate more traffic and revenue for them at a time when they need our help more than ever.
2019 Award Winners
Tasi Alabastro
Tasi Alabastro, an award-winning and versatile artist, actor, and director based in San Jose, is celebrated for his dynamic contributions to theater. He has appeared in various productions throughout the Bay Area. Tasi is excited to continue his storytelling training through directing and has made significant strides in this role by leading the inaugural AAPI Playwright Festival for the Contemporary Asian Theater Scene and assisting with “Clyde’s” at City Lights Theatre Company.
As a senior company member of the award-winning Red Ladder Theatre Company, he is dedicated to using the arts as a tool for social justice and community engagement. Tasi believes in the transformative power of storytelling and its ability to foster empathy and understanding. Follow him on Instagram and Threads @tasialabastro.
Isabel Bowen
Isabel Bowen is an illustrator based in San Jose, California. She draws slice of life scenes in colored pencil often inspired by her day job as a tool technician at a major hardware store. At work, she fixes broken tools such as lawnmowers and chainsaws. Industrial settings like this have informed her illustrations since her first job in a wood and metal shop at her alma mater, the School of Visual Arts in NYC, where she drew still lifes of tools on slow days. Her work has been shown in the Society of Illustrators Student Competition 2016, “Alphabet Soup” at the Studio Gallery in San Francisco, and The Sanchez Art Center’s 50/50 show this year.
Victor Ruiz
Victor Ruiz started his musical journey around age 10 sharing the same dream with a lot of people of becoming a famous rock star. And thus, he started learning classical guitar around 2011. Around his junior year in high school, a friend invited him to join a youth orchestra group called YMCO. And it was here where he started his musical journey as a classical bassists and decided to pursue music as his career in college. Today, Victor is one of the two classical bassists currently studying at San Jose State University under the instruction of Bruce Moyer. In addition, he has started expanding his musical knowledge by studying pipe organ with Harold Stuart and also performs music with his duet partner, Morgan Sonnenfeld.
Harumo Sato
Harumo Sato is a Japanese visual artist. Rooted in her Japanese-born culture and with an upbringing embedded in historical studies, her work has followed a path in response to an illness she overcame through personal guidance, extreme perseverance and unwavering efforts. It was this single breakthrough that launched Harumo into a bright light of embracing community and seeking coexistence in the natural world. This world is evident in her most recent Sunnyvale and San Jose public projects depicting a natural world through dynamic colors and specific placement of humans, fauna, and flora. At the same time, Harumo’s work can also depict the other side of this harmonious world — one in opposition and looking for the better future. These latter depictions are also meant to portray a positive message of change.
2018 Award Winners
Kate Targan
Kate Targan is a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter and vocal artist currently performing and teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born and raised in Los Angeles, CA, she was recognized at a young age for her vocal abilities and started seriously studying voice and piano at the age of 10. After attending UC Santa Cruz she started her professional career in the local Bay Area music scene. An avid songwriter, in 2013 Kate wrote and released her first album “From The Light” to critical acclaim. She is currently in production on her second album, which is due out for release in early 2019. Her sophomore record is a deeply personal collection of original songs and a unique fresh interpretation of her music ranging from folk, pop to soul.
Davied Morales
Davied Morales is an Actor and Rapper from San Jose, California; he goes by Dav @activepoet. He has been rapping for almost 10 years releasing mixtapes and singles within this span of time but just started taking his career seriously in music in 2016. Before that he spent most of time working on his acting career, getting his AA Degree in Theatre Arts from Foothill College and starring in short films, app commercials, and in various lead roles all around the Bay Area. Since the beginning of 2018 he has been releasing a song a week on his Soundcloud and supporting himself by working full time with the Red Ladder Theatre Company, which is a troupe of professional artists that teach Improv in Correctional Facilities through out California.
Sieglinde Van Damme
Sieglinde Van Damme, a Belgian native, is an internationally exhibiting artist specialized in video art, digital photography and alternative photo processes. Two themes consistently weave themselves into her work: identity and experience; inspired by her relocation from Belgium to the US in 1998, bringing along the need to adapt to a new society, its values, and beliefs.
In 2017, Sieglinde launched studiosiegXclusive, an art-to-wear clothing and accessory line based on her photographic work. With this, she brings down the social management of identity to its most rudimentary form, while allowing her creations to serve other people’s identity.
2017 Award Winners
Sheila Townsend
Sheila Townsend earned her Bachelor’s of Music (Magna Cum Laude) in Musical Theatre from the esteemed Wanda Bass School of Music at Oklahoma City University. In 2016, she was a Finalist for Theatre Bay Area’s Titan Award and Winner of Joan Frey Boytim Award from the National Association of Teachers of Singing. She keeps herself quite busy as a full-time performer and voice teacher at her own Upper Floor Studio. Ms. Townsend will perform her solo show at City Lights Theatre Company in November and is excited to be bringing it to festivals across the country in the coming year with the support of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award! She also regularly enjoys doing vocal direction and master classes for local high schools and theatre companies.
Kenneth Tan
Kenneth Tan moved back to his hometown, San Jose, to help care for his grandmother Crescenciana Tan, and they began working together. Crescenciana made watercolor paintings, and Kenneth drew her memories and stories on top of them. They called themselves The Lola x Kenneth Collaboration. When Crescenciana passed, she left behind her paintings, and Kenneth decided to finish everything she started. He promised.
From that promise grew an illustrated memoir, Crescenciana, which Kenneth self-published in 2022. In Crescenciana, Kenneth weaves their artwork and conversations to tell his grandmother’s life story. He revisits her memories as a survivor of World War Il and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, and he reflects on his own continuing grief since her passing.
In 2024, Kenneth published Tan’s Interwoven, a memoir he wrote with his mother, Olivia Carbonel Tan, and sister, Audrey Tan Ronquillo. Kenneth hopes these family stories will help the next generation learn about the past and build their own identities for the future. He also feels this collaboration with his grandmother keeps her present as her artwork supports his own creative path.
Julianna Isabella Pollifrone
Julianna Isabella Pollifrone, was born in San Jose, California in 1998. Known simply as “Jules,” she was a writer long before she’d ever set foot in a recording studio. Jules has performed at larger venues opening numerous times throughout Northern California for 80’s MTV legend and local radio DJ, Greg Kihn, along with other bands. Recording in various LA studios, like 17 Hertz and the historical Village Recorder, she consistently garnered the attention of other new producers wanting to record with her. One of which, Willie Donut (Justin Bieber and Fergie), produced the single “Pressure” to be released in early 2018. Jules is recording her second album with her writing partner Richard Harris and a handful of trusted LA-based writer/producers. Her touted debut single “Eyes Shut” written with Harris will drop November, 2017 in Downtown San Jose.
2016 Award Winners
Anna Cate
Anna Cate, harpist/composer: Anna has been fascinated by the harp since she first saw one in concert at the age of 5. Raised in a small town in Washington state, she studied classical piano and harp starting in elementary school. elementary school through college. After college, she developed her own style of harp-based singer-songwriter music, bridging classical harp with a modern style. She used a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for her first EP, “Anna Cate,” and has since moved to the Bay Area from Seattle to continue her musical career.
Christine Herrera
Christine Herrera, choreographer: A choreographer from Los Gatos, Christine’s performance career began at age 7 when she performed in San Jose Cleveland Ballet’s Nutcracker under the direction of Dennis Nahat. She has choreographed numerous musicals in the Bay Area community as well as jazz and lyrical numbers for dancers who have won state and national titles. Christine works full time at Los Gatos Ballet as an artistic and marketing associate. Beyond her choreography and dance instruction, she is proud to work along with her fellow staff members for Los Gatos Ballet Foundation’s Leaps and Bounds program, which provides free classes and field trips to introduce ballet to children who might not otherwise have the opportunity.
Bonnie Smith
Bonnie Smith, textile artist: A San Jose artist, Bonnie Smith’s art has been honored with the NICHE Award in both 2009 and 2015, and her fiber artwork, “Contemplate,” was juried into Quilt National and 9th Quilt Nihon. Her “Swimming Upstream” series, created after a work-related injury forced her into a wheelchair and aquatic physical therapy, was honored in 2013 by Voters Injured at Work. She began her artistic life by taking a two-day quiltmaking class and soon discovered textile arts to be an outlet for self-expression and storytelling. “What I find interesting about art is that it leads you in a direction,” she said.
Demetra Theofanous
Demetra Theofanous, glass artist: Demetra Theofanous has been immersed in the arts from a very young age, starting with violin lessons at the age of 4. She sidetracked her artistic impression after receiving her business degree from the Haas School of Business, at UC-Berkeley. After some years as a tax consultant and CPA, she returned to her artistic roots, entering the world of glassmaking by creating glass beads as a hobby. Her work evolved into the creation of intricate nests, flowers, and branches, using a technique for weaving glass on the torch that she developed. In 2010, she was juried into the prestigious Higuchi class at Corning, learning the ancient technique of Pate de Verre. She was a 2010 GLANC Scholarship recipient, a 2012 Juror’s Choice Award winner from renowned collector Dorothy Saxe, a 2013 Glasscraft Emerging Artist Award winner, a 2014 NICHE Award winner, recipient of a Juror’s Choice Award in an exhibition at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art.
2015 Award Winners
Shannon Amidon
Shannon Amidon is an artist, beekeeper, environmental steward, wonder seeker, lover of insects, books, and plants.
Shannon has been featured in solo and group exhibitions worldwide, curated group exhibits, garnered press, and participated in artist residencies worldwide, focusing on both art-making and ecological research. She has collaborated with other artists, scientists, activists, and researchers.
Shannon has been an artist in residence at The Ayatana Artistic Research Program in Canada, TechShop, Herhusid House Artist Residency in Iceland, The David and Julia White Artist Colony in Costa Rica, and Sou’wester residency in Washington.
Corporate collectors include Genentech, Wells Fargo Bank, Imagery Estate Winery, Kaiser Permanente, and Google. She is also the founder and director of The Verdancy Project, a multi-faceted endeavor that includes an artist-in-residence program,
creative workshops, community art projects, research program, and more.
Jake Heindel
Jake Heindel is a documentary filmmaker based in San Jose, California. After graduating from Leland High School in south San Jose, he went on to pursue a film production degree at Loyola Marymount University. Jake has been making short documentaries since high school. Jake spent summer 2015 as an intern for WMS Media, Inc. and has been a valuable contributor to many projects, including the recently produced documentary about local photographer Arnold Del Carlo.
Raymond ‘NastyRay’ Mora
Raymond ‘NastyRay’ Mora was inspired to dance at the age of 13, when he first saw some local Bboys performing at his middle school dance. In the years that followed, NastyRay developed his craft and ventured from his hometown San Jose, California, to travel the world to compete, judge, teach, and work commercially in all things dance. He has worked with Justin Bieber, performing in the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards, as well as the ‘Justin Bieber 3D Never Say Never’ tour and movie. That same year NastyRay appeared in the ‘Step Up 3D’ film. In 2011 he performed on Fox Network’s ‘So You Think You Can Dance,’ ABC’s ‘Dancing With the Stars’ and most recently in the 2015 Euro Olympics held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
2014 Award Winners
Demone Carter
Hip Hop Emcee, Community Organizer and Social Entrepreneur: these are some of the roles Demone Carter has played within the Silicon Valley Arts and Education circles for the past 15 years. Performing under the name Dem One he has released several albums. Inspired by his love of Hip Hop culture and passion for working with youth Demone co-founded Unity Care’s Hip Hop 360 after-school program. From 2004-2010 Hip Hop 360 provided over 1000 youth the opportunity to express themselves through the four elements of Hip Hop (djing,rapping,breakdance,and urban art). Demone is also Vice Chair for the community access organization CreaTV and is a graduate/Program Coordinator of the Multi Cultural Artists Leadership Institute (MALI). Demone was named ‘Silicon Valley’s Best Mentor’ for 2013 by Metro Magazine.
Genevieve Hastings
Genevieve Hastings is a multimedia installation artist living and working in the San Francisco Bay area. She received her BFA from San Jose State University in Photography and her MFA at San Francisco State University in 2014. In 2013 she had a solo exhibition at the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art titled Recollections: A Series of Stratachronistic Rooms. Past exhibitions include, the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Zer01 International Biennial, the Center for Photographic Arts in Carmel and her work was included in a SomArts (San Francisco) exhibition after receiving the Murphy Cadogan Award. She has also received a grant, participated in an exhibition at San Jose’s City Hall and was included in a documentary short for The Healthy Art Program.
Nick Kumamoto
Nick Kumamoto is a theatrical lighting and projections designer based in San Jose. He is the resident lighting designer at City Lights Theatre Company and is a member of the Renegade Theatre Ensemble. He attends Santa Clara University pursuing a degree in mathematics. Recent design credits include lighting for City Lights’ production of Amadeus and the Pear Avenue Theatre’s production of Pygmalion, both winners of Silicon Valley Small Theatre Awards, and projections for Palo Alto Players’ production of Big Fish.
Jeffrey Lo
Jeffrey Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director. He is the recipient of the 2012 Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley, the 2012 Theatre Bay Area Director’s TITAN Award and “Artist to Watch for Next Season” at the 2012 Silicon Valley Small Theatre Awards. Recent directing credits include Some Girl(s) at Dragon Productions and The Drunken City at Renegade Theatre Experiment. Jeffrey has worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, TheatreWorks, San Jose Repertory Theatre, and City Lights Theatre Company. He is the FutureWorks Fellow at TheatreWorks, the founding artistic director of The 06 Ensemble in San Jose and a proud alumnus of the UC Irvine Drama Department.
2013 Award Winners
Lauren Baines
Lauren Baines is a dancer and choreographer, who graduated from Santa Clara University and was awarded the Anna Halprin Dance Award her senior year. She has been dancing professionally since 2004 and is currently a member of ahdanco and For Change Dance Collective and has taught dance and creative movement throughout the South Bay. Beyond her dance, she serves as project manager for education and artistic programs at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga and as assistant artistic director for the Cardboard Box Theatre Project.
Jackie Gage
Jackie Gage is a jazz vocalist and songwriter who has been heard with her band, JurassiC, at venues throughout the South Bay, including Blackbird Tavern, Cafe Stritch, 71 St. Peter, Arya Restaurant, Mosaic Lounge and the San Jose Jazz SummerFest. A graduate of Santa Clara University, Jackie also works as a marketing assistant for San Jose Jazz.
Charlotte Kruk
Charlotte Kruk is an innovative teacher and artist from San Jose who creates “wearable sculptures” — dresses, jackets and other clothing made out of colorful wrappers and packaging. A teacher of sculpture art at Lynbrook High School in San Jose since 1998, Charlotte’s work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the Bay Area.