Monica Leap
Monica has been working with clay since 2003. She holds a BFA in Ceramic Arts from Syracuse University, with a minor in Entrepreneurship and a Masters in City and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. She’s attended workshops, classes, and has worked and lived at art centers around the country, all to develop and learn the skills necessary to open a community art center just like this.
Studio 550 is the realization of her family‘s dream. Her parents fled a war-stricken communist Cambodia in the 1980s. They started their lives over, with no money, no language comprehension, and a son not even a year old, in hopes of a better life for their children. As a first generation American, she’s witnessed her parent‘s non-stop hard work to make a life for their family.
This has formed a desire to create a space where people can both play with intention and find camaraderie and community so they don’t feel the need to leave.
Sue DeVeber
Sue’s happy place is in the back room of the studio loading kilns and in the clay room, muddy and helping others experience clay. She loves the woods, birds, fishing, and hand carved ceramics.
Emma Bivona
Emma has been working with clay since 2006.
She has extensive experience working with children of diverse backgrounds through many years of work as a camp counselor in Rhode Island and training to be a History Teacher at UNH.
When not in the studio, you can find tending to her vast collection of succulents and houseplants, belting out the lyrics to her favorite songs, or reading history books.
Mattea Schevey
Always with a process over product mentality, Mattea loves to share the joys of drawing and painting with student young and not so young. With years of experience in preschool and elementary settings, she is patient, joyful, and nurting!
Veronica Killingsworth
Engineer + artist at heart, Veronica loves solving problems, being out on the slopes, hiking trails, and making pots. She likes her kitties, too.
Theresa Caulkins
Theresa first learned copper-foil glasswork in 2009 at Franklin Pierce College. She has been teaching Tiffany-Style Stained Glass since Studio 550 opened in 2013. You might meet her best boy Dodger, a beagle, putzing around the studio on nights she teaches.
Theresa does glasswork full-time: teaches the craft, does repairs, restores Lead-Came architectural windows, creates custom artwork, and sells at craft fair events and various brick-and-mortar gift shops.
Amy Lockwood
Lover of big dogs, clean lines, dark clays, and organizational effectiveness, Amy brings more to the team than just her expertise with clay sculpting!
Sami Beaton
Scientist/Artist/Mother, Sami does it all - pottery, painting, drawing, murals...
Kim Kahn
Kim has an eye for a pop of color and clean crisp edges. She enjoys legos and playing with the fun clay tools her sons 3-D print for her.