Art and History Instructors
Visual Arts, History and Specialty
Alex Ruff
Alex has been working with clay for 2 decades now. As an avid DIYer, I find the entire practice of pottery incredibly fulfilling, with new opportunities to learn around every corner. The functionality of finished ceramics in all forms knows no bounds, and I take great pleasure in using handmade pots every day. For me, the processes involved in getting the clay to that final fired state are joyfully meticulous, challenging, and sometimes heartbreaking, but it's that challenge that makes the moment of unloading a truly unique masterpiece from a still warm kiln nothing short of magical. Knowing that my work will likely last generations inspires me to create very intentionally, striving to produce pots that friends and family will enjoy for years to come.
Angel Estrada
Angel is a Denver based Artist and Educator. With degrees in visual art and art education he has been teaching art at the high school level as well with adults and children with different backgrounds through city and summer camp institutions. He is a current studio artist and member at Globeville Riverfront Art cent (Grace) studios. Angel has done various city art programs and has been a feature artist with the Denver Art Museum as well as the Bi-annual Month of Printmaking festivities. He specializes in Printmaking techniques and teaches book arts, book binding and metal smithing at the high school and adult levels.
Specializing in printmaking, Angel has a particular love for landscapes and a passion love of teaching everyone how they can make fun, fast, beautiful work, with even the simplest of tools. In addition to printmaking, Angel teaches book-arts classes as well as metalsmithing!
Anita Deen
Anita has loved the fiber arts for most of her life, starting early with knitting and crochet. Later, she learned to weave while living in British Columbia, Canada and, to spin. Teaching allows her to share her crafts without reserve and she has been teaching for over 30 years.
Cathy Jacobus
Cathy Jacobus has been weaving for about 25 years and has more looms than one mortal can possibly use. She also spins, makes felt, embroiders and is an avid natural dyer.
Christine O’Dea
Christine has an education degree from the University of Maine and a fine arts degree from Metropolitan State College of Denver. She shows her ceramic/mixed media installations in local galleries.
Daniel Granitto
Daniel M. Granitto returned to his hometown of Lakewood, Colorado in 2016 after living and working in Chicago, Illinois for six years where he received his BFA in painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Granitto’s works have been exhibited in galleries and museums spanning the western United States. Daniel currently works out of his home studio in Lakewood where he lives his wife and three kids.
Diana Harper
Diana Harper is a Denver-based fiber artist who creates colorful and functional rugs and home textiles. Diana has a BFA in Sculpture and Expanded Media from Kent State University. There she discovered fiber arts-and her passion for yarn has only grown. The only thing that Diana loves more than yarn is dancing. When she isn't at the studio making rugs, you can find her out swing dancing or curled up with a romance novel.
Diana Pemberton
Diana is a Texas native studio artist now based in Lakewood, CO. She received her BFA Magna Cum Laude from Texas Tech University where she studied jewelry design and metalsmithing. During this time, she studied abroad in Florence, Italy where she took her first weaving class and became obsessed! After finishing her undergraduate studies, she moved to Japan where she taught English as a Second Language from 2015-2017. It was there she was introduced to and studied SAORI weaving which heavily influences her work today. In 2020, she graduated with her MFA from the textiles program at Kent State University. While in the program she was the Graduate Teaching Assistant and became Adjunct in fall 2021. Diana has exhibited her work nationally and internationally; most recently she was part of an invitation to show work at the Young Textile Art Triennial in Lodz, Poland. She currently teaches in the fibers program at WHAC as well as manages and makes for her small textile business Diana Ruth Designs.
Dustin Hardgrove
Dustin discovered art practice at nearly 30 years old, after years spent interested in philosophy and critical theory. Art appeared as a new avenue to explore ideas of nature, form and matter. His main interest is in oil painting and charcoal representation of landscape, the human figure, and still life. As a working-class artist, the ethics of hard work and precise craftsmanship have all transferred into his practice as a studio and outdoor painter. Sharing his excitement about art and painting has led to teaching oil painting and plein techniques.
Gail Firmin
Gail mentors for Developmental Disability Resources Center’s Art and Soul program, teaching art classes to disabled adults. She teaches drawing and watercolor classes for the City of Lakewood. She is active with the Lakewood Arts Council and a member of its co-op gallery, exhibiting her work in graphite, watercolor, pastels and mixed media.
Holly Causey
Holly has been learning and teaching art, fiber arts, cooking, sewing, crafts and quilting for many years. In working with children she has found joy and fun, and, loves to explore their world and their openness to creativity. Holly approaches these subjects not just as a project but as a passion.
Ian Widmann
Ian is a musician and educator from the Denver Metro area. He holds a B.A. in Music from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, where he was the recipient of the Marie Clough Gillis Award for Excellence in Vocal Music, and is excited to be back teaching music in the local community! In addition to instructing music classes at the Lakewood Cultural Center, they are currently leading the Rocky Mountain Ukulele Orchestra and the Denver Guitar Orchestra, and participating in a variety of other music and educational endeavors throughout the city. Ian is a firm believer that music education should be accessible to anyone and everyone, and he strives to support his students in their goals as both musicians and people, and to create opportunities for musicians of all skill levels to thrive.
Ismael Lozano
**Bi-lingual (English and Spanish)
Ismael “Izzy” is a Colorado native and has worked in the Denver Public School system for over 17 years at every grade level as well as the collegiate level at Metropolitan State University. He has taught for the Art Students League of Denver and has taught classes at the Smithsonian Latino Center in Washington. He has worked as an oil painter for over 22 years. His work currently hangs in collections as far east as Philadelphia, and has shown as far west as Diablo College, in California.
James McLellan
James has been working in ceramics for more than 18 years. Since receiving his BFA s from Metropolitan State College of Denver, where he has continued teaching and showing his work in Denver and out of state. James enjoys working in all the ceramic arts and teaching beginners on the pottery wheel.
Joseph Sikora
Joseph was trained in traditional wood carving in Bavaria, Germany. He worked for 10 years as a freelance carver while in Bavaria and returned to the United States in 1991. He displays and sells his pieces at Sikora Woodcarving in Louisville.
Kate Ceurvorst
Before moving to Colorado in 2018, I lived in the St. Louis area and went to school at Southern Illinois University: Edwardsville and I received my Bachelor of Science in Art: Ceramics and Glassblowing in 2014. I am very passionate about art, community, and working particularly with beginners. I enjoy seeing students work through learning something new and becoming proud of the work they create. I have taught beginners glassblowing, painting, and ceramics and I have been a guest speaker at the CAEA conference in 2019, 2021, 2022, and 2024, where I created pottery lesson plans and workshops for Colorado teachers. I have been a participant in various galleries and shows in the Denver metro area including "Viva Casa Bonita" (2019) with the 40West Art District, "Mugshot" (2024) at the Arvada Center and "delecTABLE" (2025) at Art Student League Denver. Being a part of a supportive, encouraging art community brings me so much happiness and joy and I want to share that experience with my students.
Katrina Hoing
Katrina Hoing has lived in Lakewood since 2001 with her husband, who is a lifelong Lakewood resident. She is a self-taught cold process soap maker and mom to a teenage boy and four cats. Katrina has been making soap, bath fizzies and other personal items for about eight years and began teaching classes for the city in 2019. Katrina believes it is extremely gratifying to make the things we use every day with our very own hands.
La’llea Ryan
La’llea is a Colorado native. After graduating from The Academy Charter School, she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina for a year to pursue a degree in Art Therapy at Guilford Tech. She then moved back to Colorado and continued her studies at Front Range Community College and the University of Denver, working on degrees in Studio Art and Psychology while also working as a Registered Behavioral Tech in training in Thornton. During the summer of 2024, she took part in an internship with the nonprofit DITA (Diversity In The Arts) at the Lakewood Cultural Center as a Lead Camp Counselor. This led to the opportunity to instruct summer camp classes and art classes such a Open Studio, Mixed Media, and Digital Illustration for the youth throughout the year.
Laurey Patten
Laurey is a certified PMC jewelry artist, potter and fiction writer who thoroughly enjoys teaching. She developed her lifelong interest in clay rift after grad school, while working on an archaeological dig in England. Her work has been shown in Washington D.C. Virginia, and Colorado. In her spare time, Laurey enjoys writing fantasy novels, jewelry design, herbology and travel.
Lauren Kingsland
Lauren is a fiber artist and teacher focusing on quilt making as a form of creative expression. As a recent transplant to Lakewood, she is delighted to offer in-person quilt making classes through Lakewood Rec. Dept. Her artwork has been exhibited locally at The Lab on Santa Fe gallery. She uses traditional and modern techniques with sustainable materials in designs inspired by artistic traditions around the world. Formerly in Maryland, her public studios there were gathering places for creating individual quilts and public participation projects. She also teaches on-line through the Georgetown Lombardi Arts & Humanities program,
Michael Bowe
Michael Is a student of both functional and decorative ceramic work and has a special interest in low fire methods and techniques. Michael is a performing artist and writer who happily discovered a love for ceramic art in the not-too-distant past.
Norbert Nagel
Norbert has served as co-president of the Pastel Society of Colorado. Most of his work is done plein air, working to capture the feeling of a landscape more than copying it. His background includes working with regional pastel artists and at Metropolitan State College of Denver and Colorado State University. He has won several awards for his plein air paintings.
Pamela Bliss
Pamela has been weaving for about 25 years and teaching locally for 20 years. As a teacher, she is known for her sense of humor and warmth. One student said, “Pamela takes the fear out of learning something new.” She continually strives to improve her technique and broaden her knowledge so that she can share these with her students. In addition to teaching, she creates and sells her own woven and hand-dyed items at various venues.
Pam Farris
Pam is a Lakewood based artist with 30 years of teaching experience of all ages. She has an Art Education degree from University of Northern Colorado and masters in technology education from Lesley University. Students of all ages (especially middle school) have benefited from her teaching experience in Jefferson County Public Schools. Pam has retired from teaching in public schools and has turned her love of teaching to the City of Lakewood. Classes include day camps, mosaic, picture framing and digital art at both Washington Heights and Lakewood Cultural Center. Pam is also the Assistant Director of Next Gallery in the Lakewood 40 West Arts District where she has been a member since 2017. The medium of mosaic has been her passion for 10 years and is reflected in her narrative solo shows at Next Gallery.
Robin Wilton
Robin earned a B.F.A. with a concentration in weaving for Colorado State University. She’s been weaving for over 50 years. Robin has been teaching inkle weaving, rigid heddle weaving and beginning weaving at Washington Heights for almost 5 years. Robin has taught inkle weaving for shops and weaving guilds throughout the Front Range for many years.
Romina Jeffries
Romina is a Uruguay-born, Colorado-based visual artist and educator specializing in portraiture and the figure. Working primarily in graphite, charcoal, and oil paint, she focuses on capturing expression, form, and the subtleties of human emotion. She refined her technical skills under the instruction of prolific artists Thomas Key and Slawa Radziszewska, developing a strong foundation in traditional drawing and painting techniques. In addition to her practice as an artist, Romina has a background in ESL education, holding a teaching certification from the University of Cambridge. As a bilingual educator, she is committed to creating an inclusive learning environment where students of all backgrounds feel empowered to express themselves. At Lakewood Cultural Center, you can find Romina teaching Create with Me, Art Explorers, and Drawing and Painting classes, where she encourages young artists to develop their observational skills, technical abilities, and artistic voice. Outside of work, Romina enjoys spending time with her family, reading, baking and knitting
Ratha Sok
Ratha is a self-taught Colorado native mural artist who sought mentorship through his connections and community. As a West High School Alumni, Ratha was the founder of their inaugural mural club. His experiences have grown from graffiti art, gallery experience, and murals, both domestic and international. His current styles include a mix of abstract and realism and he enjoys highlighting both local nature elements and the vibrant natural colors of Colorado. As an artist, Ratha is most proud of his resilience as a first-generation Cambodian American breaking barriers in the arts. Some of his hobbies include sketching, skateboarding, and sometimes cooking. Sharing his experiences through teaching the youth is also a passion of his. He has taught graffiti summer camp sessions for the last several years.
Slawa Radziszewska
**bi-lingual (English and Polish)
Slawa specializes in realistic portraiture, figure painting and other representational imagery. In her classes she does art demos, which are very helpful for her students in developing drawing and painting skills. Her art in the making was presented in the “International Artist” magazine April/May 2019. She believes that we all have gifts to be shared with the World and in the process of creating art we can bring them to fruition and fulfill our potential. Painting portraits might be challenging, but it is also a very satisfying and a joyful process.
Susan Michalakes
Susan has been an avid crafter most of her life and enjoys dabbling in a variety of different crafts. Her passions include Zentangle inspired art and knitting/spinning. She was fortunate to be able to travel to Providence, Rhode Island in April 2017 to obtain her certification as a Zentangle teacher. Professionally, she has worked in the field of developmental disabilities for over 30 years and truly enjoys the wide variety of people she's been able to meet over the years.
Zoey Chapin
Zoey has always had a love for art and teaching. After teaching in public schools in Massachusetts for 6 years, she moved to Colorado and has loved working with the wonderful ceramics community and students of all ages. She studied sculpture and art education at Montserrat College of Art and received her master’s in art education from Boston University. Zoey is passionate about sharing her love of ceramics and art exploration with others.