Director + Advisory Board

Board of Directors: Executive Committee

President: Tyler Gulden, Tyler Gulden Ceramics Artist/Owner
Vice President:Kerry Strout, Sustainability Manager for the City of Scarborough, Maine
Treasurer: Sandra Henderson, Bar Harbor, Maine
Secretary:Nate Rudy, City Manager, Hallowell, Maine

Board of Directors: Members at Large

Audra Christie, Artist, Art Professor @ University of Maine at Machias
Carole Ann Fer, Dow Studio Artist / Owner, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Assistant Registrar
Jake Hanin, Maine College of Art Admissions Office, Maine Tool Library Director
Kim Reid, Maine Seniors Magazine, Advertising
Shannon Richards, Owner, Hayrunner
Sally Struever 317 Main: Director of Development
Joyce Wethington Knight, Freelance Lawyer & Mediator

Board of Advisors

Lisa Arhontes-Marshall, Beehive Development, owner
Marion Carling, Village Wool, owner
Donna D’Aquino, Donna D’Aquino, artist/owner, Art @ 57 MAINe owner
Stuart Kestenbaum, MECA, Interim Director, Former Executive Director Haystack Mountain School of Craft
John Rohman, WBRC Architects, retired
Cara Romano, KoT Contemporary Craft Owner,  Cara Romano Jewelry Artist/Owner, Executive Director, Heart of Ellsworth
Terrill Waldman, Tandem Glass, artist/owner
Suanne Williams-Lindgren, Spar Cove Consultants, owner/principal consultant

Board of Directors: Who we are

Tyler Gulden, MCA Board President
Tyler Gulden Ceramics, Artist/Owner

Tyler Gulden received a BFA from Alfred University and an MFA from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and has been a studio potter for 20 years. Former director of Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts, Tyler returned full time to his studio practice in 2012. In addition to his studio practice, Tyler builds kilns and teaches at Southern Maine Community College. He has conducted workshops, lectures and demonstrations at art centers and schools around New England, and his functional porcelain and stoneware pieces are exhibited nationally and internationally.

Kerry Strout, Board Vice President
Sustainability Manager for the City of Scarborough, Maine

Kerry Strout grew up on Cape Cod where she developed a life-long appreciation for art and hand-crafted goods. Kerry’s love affair with Maine began in college and she is happy to call Portland home. After gentle encouragement from board director and dear friend, Cara Romano, Kerry joined the board in 2014. Kerry also facilitates multi-stakeholder meetings and guides participants through conflict to reach common goals.

Nate Rudy, MCA Board Secretary
City of Hallowell, City Manager

Nate Rudy is currently the City Manager of Hallowell, ME and the founding executive director the Waterville Creates! non-profit arts collaborative of mid-Maine’s largest city. Formerly the Director of Planning and Development for the City of Gardiner and the Executive Director of the Gardiner Board of Trade, and a regional business development specialist for the State of Maine, Nate is a student of agronomy, engineering, and economics who has worked in state and local government and has managed federal, state, and foundation-funded grant programs.

Audra Christie
Artist, Art Professor @ University of Maine at Machias

Audra Christie is a Maine based artist living rurally in Washington county. Her practice includes installation, printmaking and socially engaged art. Christie’s work focuses in a variety of topics ranging from ethics, craft, localism, conviviality, the rural and community in formats that are widely varied including public installations, bingo, community dinners and a mobile studio. Christie received her BFA in Interdisciplinary fine arts with a concentration in the visual arts at the University of Maine at Machias in 2003. And with her MFA in studio art, at the Maine College of Art in Portland, ME, in May 2015.

Carole Ann Fer
Dow Studio Artist / Owner
Haystack Mountain School of Crafts Assistant Registrar

Carole Ann Fer maintains her studio in Deer Isle, where she moved to 18 winters ago from Cambridge, MA. She has been an activist and served on many boards. Carole co-owns Dowstudio Gallery with wife and metalsmith Ellen Wieske, a Maine hub for studio artists across the United States. Dowstudio is a vital resource showing the work of emerging and established potters and contemporary jewelers, as well as the artists of Spindleworks (who’s center is located in Brunswick, ME.)

Evolution of her craft and a strong personal practice are important factors that keep Carole Ann’s functional pots fresh and vital. She is an active arts educator and on year round staff at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts as Assistant Registrar. It is with pleasure and excitement that she is now part of the MCA BOARD.

Kim Reid
Maine Seniors Magazine, Advertising Manager

Kim is currently the Director Of Marketing & Business Development at Bangor Mall, a Simon Property. She has held this position since 2004 and has had the opportunity to support and represent many Retailers. Kim has strong relationships to the local community, is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and sits on the board for Greater Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau. Being part of the Maine Crafts Association is a gift and one she enjoys very much.

Kim lives in Veazie with her fiance, Abe Chase and their 13 year old daughter, Lydia. Her family has a lake house on Schoodic Lake and it is where they spend most of their free moments with their two dogs, Axel and Stash. Kim’s convictions, her drive, her honesty and generosity were all learned from her parents- True Mainers.

Shannon Richards
Director of Business Development for Caleb Johnson Studio and Woodhull of Maine

Shannon returned to Maine in the early 2000’s after receiving a BFA from Syracuse University, and traveling. She started a studio soon after which melded a cooperative creative space, gallery and workshop, out of which she designed and manufactured custom furniture and fixtures. This business grew to include interior design, architectural design services and general contracting.

Caleb Johnson Studio is an award winning Maine architecture firm that, along with sister construction company, Woodhull of Maine, offers custom design/build services for new homes, renovations, additions, and commercial projects, with noted expertise in completing residential projects at challenging waterfront properties.

Joyce Wethington Knight
Lawyer and mediator

Joyce is a lawyer by training. She spent the first half of her legal career in private practice and the second in-house as general counsel for the US operation of an international insurer. In recent years she has been consulting with mid-size companies to manage their legal costs and mediate disputes. She has extensive for-profit and non- profit board experience. Some of the non-profit boards on which she has served are N.C. Special Olympics, American Insurance Association, Memphis Small Business Chamber, and several Montessori schools. Joyce and her husband recently relocated to Portland from Memphis, TN. They have two children, both living in N.Y.C.