Meet the Team | Spark Studio

	Director of Spark Studio
	Suzanne Vesty Dip. Drama, Grad. Dip. Tchg (Secondary: Art & Art History), M.F.A.,M. App. Sci.SE (Distinction), Registered Celebrant, Civil Union Celebrant, A.Th.R., Prof. Mem. ANZATA. Suzanne has 30 years professional experience as an adult educator, therapist, supervisor and mentor in creativity centred human development. She has extensive training in action based, experiential modalities (including the performing and expressive arts). She was the Founding Director of Wings (1988 – 2002), a private school in creativity centred human development; since this time Wings has continued to offer intensive retreats in transpersonal arts therapy. Suzanne has conceived and directed many innovative, experiential creative programmes within all manner of community context working extensively with individuals and with groups. Her work concerns the power of creative thought and endeavour to grow people in their perceptions, thinking and behaviours. She is a practising visual artist and regularly exhibits her work. In her role as the Director of Spark Studio, she provides a wealth of experience and knowledge; she holds a passion for creative expression, visual art education and arts practice as offering a life changing, life enhancing learning experience to Spark artists. In 2009 she was involved with the Stepping up Forum run by the Auckland City Council to initiate leadership development for disabled people. She leads Spark Studio in its transition to become and all inclusive studio environment – and to become a centre for human development in creative process for people of diverse needs and life experience.
	Arts Administrator
	Josie Maskell Josie Maskell joined Spark Studio team in March 2009 following an 8 year stint in London working for a theatrical training company as the business development manager. Her role at Spark involves researching and writing funding applications, public relations, marketing and all administrative tasks.

	Finance Administrator
	Diana McPherson

	Website and Online Co-ordinator
	Allyson Hamblett BA, Dip Libr, Nat. Cert. Computing (Level 2) Allyson has been involved with Spark Studio for 8 years as an artist. She has cerebral palsy, and has a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Education from Auckland University, and a Diploma in Library and Information Studies from Victoria University of Wellington. Allyson has designed websites for the last 10 years, and feels that webdesign and art making are very complimentary fields. She is currently studying for a National Certificate in Computing (Level 3) through MIT.

	Studio Co-ordinator
	Sally Legg M.A.A.T. (Clinical), AthR, Mem. ANZATA, Nat. Cert. Mental HealthSally has been with Spark Studio since the beginning of 2006, and completed her clinical internship for an MA in Arts Therapy within this context. These studies were a progression of her work as a Recovery and Rehabilitation Practitioner and in Intensive Community Support. During her time at Spark, Sally provided Art Therapy at Focus 2000, and also facilitates a community Art Therapy group for Raeburn House on the North Shore. She is Secretary of the Australian and New Zealand Arts Therapy Association and is passionate about seeing the profession develop within New Zealand. In a related area, she helped to create a multi-sensory therapeutic environment within forensic I.D. services, and prior to coming to Spark, facilitated art programmes for young offenders. Sally’s been involved a variety of visual and performance based arts endeavours since her schooldays, and has passion for poetry and prose, but most of all, she values how Spark Studio offers people the opportunity to use the art-making process to communicate their experience and find meaning through creativity.

	Art Tutors
	Amy McDonald BA, Cert. (Art and Craft) Amy has a background in care giving, tutoring workshops, gallery experience and as an exhibiting artist. She believes that the creative process offers opportunity for self discovery and healing, as well as the immense enjoyment and satisfaction creative expression and learning brings. As Art Facilitator and Health Care Worker at Spark Studio, Amy delights in sharing creative knowledge, celebrating diverse and unique perspectives and fostering the community atmosphere present at Spark Studio.
	Ian Moore MFA Ian is a practicing artist, and has works in several collections. He has studied a wide range of techniques with various professional artists and has a Master of Fine Art from RMIT, Melbourne (2004). He has always worked with paint and art materials both commercially with signs and graphics and as a fine artist. Ian has a wide knowledge of theory and practical application of various art media. He provides the opportunity for Spark students to engage in a wide range of art making, providing creative, practical and technical skills to empower and enable students to realise their own potential art making.
	Andrea Gaskin Andrea Gaskin brings a wide variety of experiences to her work at Spark Studio. After completing a Geography degree in England she began a career in the Union movement. Working as a Union Organiser in England and later as National Educator for the Service and Food Workers Union in New Zealand, meant she taught and worked with a wide range of people and cultures in the workplace and in other unions. In England Andrea also worked in a homeless shelter for men in Brighton. Here she introduced painting and drawing sessions for the men and witnessed the therapeutic benefits that they gained from making art. This experience has lead her to consider more study in art therapy in the future. After returning to New Zealand, Andrea took evening classes in art and completed the pre-foundation course at MIT. Andrea also works as a tutor for Artstation teaching after school classes to children.
	Sacha Kronfeld BFA, Grad. Dip. Tchg (Secondary) Sacha Kronfeld graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 1995, majoring in printmaking. After finishing a Post-graduate Diploma in teaching she taught art to secondary school students, working as a sole charge teacher at St Marys College and later at Waitakere High teaching Art History and painting to senior students. During these years she continued to develop her work as an artist exhibiting at Oedipus Rex and in various group shows. Sacha has long been interested in personal development and involved herself in numerous related activities including completing a preliminary year to a Masters in Psychotherapy at AUT, participation in major creativity development programmes with Wings, and extensive training in yoga. In more recent times her creative life has been consumed by the birth of her two children Manawa and Malia. Sacha is excited to be a part of the Spark team and is drawn to teaching Art in an environment where creativity is about community, is inclusive and is therapeutic in approach.
	Abi Raymond BVA, Cert. counselling theoryAbi graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Certificate in Counselling Theory in 2008 and is currently studying towards a Masters of Art in Arts Therapy at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design. Her artistic practice explores and combines photography, printmaking, book making, drawing and mixed media. She has had two public exhibitions of her photographic work and produced a few photographic books, one of which is in the artist book collection at Elam Library. People and their stories fascinate her, this curiosity inspires many of her creative projects that document, investigate and reveal personal narratives. Abi was extremely excited to join the Spark team in August 2009, allowing her to assist and experience alongside the artists at Spark the power of the creative process. She gets great pleasure observing the determination of the artists at Spark and sharing in their delight of their many achievements.
	Jonathan Brown MFA, BAD, Post Grad Fellowship (Art and Design). Dip. Web Design, Flash AnimationJonathan is a practicing artist of 18 years and works in many mediums and techniques. For 12 years he was employed as a printmaking technician and managed the printmaking workshops, along with teaching and instructing classes within the print medium, from basic print to advance printmaking techniques at Auckland University of Technology school of Art and Design. During this time he worked on the coordination and installation of art works from the James Wallace Art Collection within the University campuses which included sole charge responsibility for coordinating and monitoring of a small gallery at the institution called X-Space. In 2004 he became the Coordinating Technical Director for St Pauls St gallery and worked for four years in all aspects of the exhibitions from setting up and installing shows either working individually or within a team to achieve the artists and curators exhibition needs.