Kwadwo Adae

Kwadwo is a Ghanaian-American visual artist and muralist based in New Haven, CT, who brings vibrant creativity to AMP's summer and after-school programs. As director of Adae Fine Art Academy, which he founded in 2005, Kwadwo specializes in individualized drawing and painting instruction for all ages.

An award-winning public artist, Kwadwo has created over thirty murals throughout Greater New Haven since 2014, including four international collaborative projects with children in India, Guatemala, Ecuador, and Finland.

His work purposefully brings art to underserved communities, challenging the notion that art is only for the privileged. Kwadwo's public art addresses social justice, racial equality, women's rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, homelessness, gun violence, police brutality, and environmental awareness, while his international projects amplify Indigenous voices in formerly colonized regions.

Through his teaching at AMP, students will experience art as both a creative outlet and a powerful tool for community connection and positive change.

Liz Allen

Liz started off at Paier School of Art right out of high school, then began working at what was then SNET, where she stayed for 31 years. While at SNET, Liz went back to school at Post College and studied management, but didn’t pursue an MBA; instead, she eventually got a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies with a concentration in art from Wesleyan University. Her plan was early retirement from SNET and then to use her education to become an art teacher after getting a teacher's certification at University of Bridgeport. After hearing about and being inspired by the concept of choice-based art classrooms, Liz attended the TAB Institute, whose philosophy focuses on advancing the creative confidence of all learners through choice and student agency. Liz is a great addition to the AMP teaching crew, bringing her skills with the TAB philosophy as an instructor and mentor to the students in our after-school programs.

Meredith Arcari Luciano

Meredith is a certified teacher and master gardener. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Art Education and Regional Geography. As a teaching artist, Meredith creates inclusive programs that aim to provide students in underserved communities access to the arts. Her programs integrate higher-order thinking while providing opportunities for participants to tell their stories and connect deeply to their artwork.

Meredith grew up in Hartford, CT, where her family cultivated small vegetable gardens in their tiny backyard. Her grandmother instilled in her a love for gardening, and they enjoyed getting their hands dirty in the soil.

 After realizing that even a small space could produce abundant fresh food, Meredith created an edible garden at the New Britain Museum of American Art. Her current focus is rebuilding the soil and preserving native flora and fauna.

Watch Meredith’s AMP video.

Shana Bazelmans

Shana is a visual arts educator with eleven years of experience in the art classroom. She has taught in several different capacities from the public arena to the private sector, with students K–12 and with adults. She has written art curriculum for schools and has designed a sensory-based art curriculum for special education students. She attended The Fashion Institute of Technology and New College of California, and graduated from Ramapo College with a BA in Visual Arts and Art History. Shana believes the key to being a good educator is to always be actively learning. She continues to learn new art forms and hone her skills through classes and is currently enrolled in graduate school. “I want to help build creatively confident learners. Fostering and facilitating the collaborative, creative process is one of the things I was put here to do. In my mind, it’s the little piece that I’m adding into a much bigger framework.” 

Watch Shana’s AMP video.

Sam Guglielmino

Sam is a local Winsted musician, teacher, and performer. He has been playing for over a decade and teaching for 5 years. He runs Mad River Music in Winsted, CT with his dad Frank, repairing guitars and teaching. Sam received a Bachelors degree in music from Western Connecticut State University with a focus on jazz guitar. His biggest influences are The Beatles, Weezer and The Smashing Pumpkins. He also plays drums, piano, ukulele and bass. Sam is always learning and trying to make the learning experience as fun as possible!

Chip Heuer

Chip has been playing in the woods and building things since he was a small child. Growing up on a farm with several old barns full of random materials gave him an environment to express himself through these treasures. Starting with things like forts built out of found materials, he learned how things went together. At fifteen, he built one of the largest skateboard ramps in the Chicago area. He developed a love for the spaces around him and their potential, often redesigning the barns in his head for other uses. He wanted to be an architect and an artist. Now, Chip is a professional woodworker and has built everything from cabinets to guitars. He is involved with the Collinsville Halloween parade, building most of the props (including the candy cannon) and setting them up every year. He has also retained a love for the land and growing things, including select trees to be used by future generations. He gardens extensively and works hard at preservation. “In combining attention to a need (inspiration) and respect of the environment (harmony) with one’s skills, beautiful and useful things result.”

Christine Mitchell

Christine enjoys nothing more than engaging others in the exploration and appreciation of art-making from materials not always considered media for creation. Thirty years as an art teacher and art therapist, she has taught in Montessori and public schools, psychiatric facilities, and museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The New Britain Museum of American Art. In her own work, she derives inspiration from “cave painters from long ago” and explores “an explosion of impressionistic color in a snowstorm or harvest moon. These serve as backdrops for the animals who intertwine allegory and story with the everyday themes of a middle-aged single mom—love, death, divorce, and empty nest.” Her work can be described as a collaboration of the natural and the manmade. “Chunks of rusty steel, discarded brake drums, and I-beams…twigs, leaves, and rocks—these are like clouds in the afternoon sky forming images to inspire [her] painting and sculpture.” Christine seamlessly weaves her connection to the beach after an upbringing on Cape Cod and her modern life as a mother, teacher, and farmer.

Justin Truskauskas

Justin has been a carpenter since he was 13 years old, just like the Outdoor Design & Build kids at AMP. He is also a seasoned sports coach for rec and travel basketball and baseball and a member of the Colebrook Recreation Department. 

When he is not teaching, helping Ellen install art, or constructing things (like AMP’s program room), Justin can be found gardening or fishing on the mighty Farmington River with his family. He’s excited to join Chip and the Summer @AMP teaching team.