Arts Unbound -- About Us

Susan Lisbin

Susan Lisbin has taught both adults and children. She is a certified art teacher and has a Masters in Art. Susan has been an art teacher in the Millburn School District for the last ten years, before that she worked for Bergen County Special Services as an art teacher. Ms. Lisbin’s work is abstract and she does both painting and sculpture. She has had solo shows and has exhibited her work in New Jersey and New York.   In 2005, she received a fellowship to attend the Vermont Studio Center. Her work can be seen on line at http://www.susanlisbin.com.

Stephen McKenzie

Stephen McKenzie is an artist, printmaker, educator and administrator. Originally from the Midwest, he arrived in the East by way of Rome, after a year of study through Temple University, Tyler School of Art Abroad program. His MFA degree were completed at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Brunswick, New Jersey. During that time his major focus was on drawing and printmaking taking courses with Judith Brodsky and Leon Golub, each influential within their field at that time. Since graduation in 1984 he has continued to work in printmaking and drawing using a variety of media. Professionally, he has been an adjunct instructor, worked as an assistant master printer at the Center for Innovative Printmaking at Rutgers University under the supervision of Judith Brodsky, participated as a Printer for several Monothons held at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk, CT and gained administrative experience as an Administrative Director at the Printmaking Council of New Jersey. Presently he is in the position of Manager for The Newark Museum Arts Workshop, where he oversees the adult studio programs in the arts as well as the Joseph A. Konrad Artist-in-Residence program.   Traveling has informed his background as an artist, where in addition to having traveled to portions of Europe, he has also visited western parts of Canada and the USA such as: The University of Saskatchewan and The Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada and The Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado and most recently Berlin, Germany. Each location featured printmaking facilities and provided scholarships permitting him time to develop new work, perfect his printing skills and meet artists such as Jim Dine. His work in printmaking combines knowledge of the medium with imagery that evokes possible figures from past cultures,alien species or invented beings. The monumental stone works on Easter Island and transformer toys are some influences in the conceptual exploration of his latest series of woodblock prints entitled Sentient Beings.

Sherri Zuckerman

Sherri Zuckerman holds a BFA in graphic design from SUNY Purchase, New York, and a MFA in photography from the California Institute of the Arts, California. She spent nine years living in Los Angeles where she taught photography at various colleges and continued to show her work locally and nationally. Her work has been purchased by private and corporate collections including the Bank of America, Carnation Corporation, and The Peter Norton Foundation. For the past four years she has concentrated on transferring her prior college teaching experience towards working with younger students. In 2009 she began teaching jewelry making classes to special education students at Essex County public schools through Arts Unbound, in addition to a comics drawing class held at the Ridgewood YMCA. She looks forward to continuing to share her love for creating art with special needs students.

Jason Robinson

When Jason isn't molding pixels into poems, he's probably adjusting his geek-chic glasses, thinking about the typeface used on that sign, and daydreaming. His 2005 graduation (with honors) from Northern Arizona University netted him a BFA in Visual Communication, but his experience in the field goes all the way back to 1998, when he obtained his first graphic design job, developing interfaces for online university courses. In the time since, he's kept busy doing pre-press work for a state-of-the-art print house, designing for two years at a fashionable SoHo marketing & branding firm, digging freshwater wells in the farthest reaches of the Brazilian Amazon, and negotiating freelance print, web, and multimedia contracts with clients in LA, New York, and abroad. In his spare time, he enjoys teaches Arts Unbound students how to use Photoshop to bring their dreams to life. With one foot planted firmly in traditional print design and the other dancing in all kinds of New Media, Jason is first and foremost a lover of people, and the way art can bring them together.

Richard Toglia

Richard is a graduate of the Newark School of Fine And Industrial Arts. He received a scholarship at Pratt Graphics, and has been an illustrator for Hearst magazines, Fairchild publications, children’s workbooks, language teaching books, home furnishing ads, as well as created visualizations for both highway engineers and interior designers.   He has served as an instructor at the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, Montclair Adult School, Caldwell Adult School, and the Art Workshop at the Brookdale Reformed Church, which has lasted for the past 14 years (without funding) for well seasoned painters and absolute beginners; he is also an individual instructor for Traumatic Brain Injury of NJ (through Arts Unbound). As a painter, Richard has had one-person shows in NYC and NJ, and has been featured in many group shows.

“I view fine arts instruction as a collaboration between instructor and artist. I usually let the painter take the lead while I give suggestions on color, placement, realistic rendering (if desired) and perspective (if desired). Giving sincere encouragement is the most important aspect of teaching a painter.”

Paintings are online at http://rtoglia-gallery.blogspot.com


	Arts Unbound was established in 2002 in Northern New Jersey as a non-profit organization whose sole mission is to provide artistic and vocational opportunities in the visual arts to people living with developmental, physical, and mental disabilities. Since that time, we have been able to showcase the creative expression and joyful activity of our disabled artists to you and our community, thanks to our many supporters, friends, and sponsors! The Arts Unbound studio, gallery, and instructional spaces are located at 542 and 544 Freeman Street in the valley area of Orange, just a block from the Highland Avenue Train Station. AU has been a long-time partner of HANDS, Inc., the sponsor of a larger arts movement designed to breathe new life into Orange. Together—as a team of performers, organizations, crafts people, and fine artists—Arts Unbound expands the scope of its impact on the disabled to include neighborhood revitalization and real social change. This is an exciting time for AU. Take a few moments to meet some of our artists and find out what the next few months have in store. And come down to the studio and gallery to check out our services and products, including fine art, clothing accessories, home décor items, jewelry, and greeting cards. HOURS OF OPERATION Monday – Friday: 10:30 AM – 2:30 PM Saturday: 12:30 PM – 5:00 PM or by appointment Classes and Exhibits are arranged flexibly based on the needs of the student, group or organization.


	*Leonard Bornstein (Essex County) - Chair, AU Board of Governors* Lenny is director of Lenny Bornstein Entertainment (Millburn, NJ) and has served in many positions in the education field and in non profit management over the years. He is a lover of the arts and has offered to advise and guide Arts Unbound as it seeks support from art donors and promotes its product and vision to the arts community. Lenny is the chairman of the newly-established Arts Unbound Board of Governors. The mission of the Board is to raise funds from the private sector to enable the organization to reach its strategic goals. Lenny has hosted special events for Arts Unbound and continues to seek ways in which our organization can extend its reach and find new audiences. Russell Klein (Bergen County) Russell Klein was the founder and president of Legacy Unlimited, Inc. with its primary concentration in the fashion industry. He has spent the last two decades creating and implementing marketing strategies and new brand launches to achieve established goals and objectives for the client. He has successfully promoted events featuring products in the food, clothing and entertainment arenas. Russell is guiding Arts Unbound on creating successful strategies for promotion of its art products to the general public. Joe Ruggiero (Union County) Joe is the director of Ruggiero AV Services, which provides personal computer technical support and web-based assistance in all areas of technology. He is also a technology instructor in a local Union County school district. Joe is responsible for maintaining as well as enhancing the Arts Unbound website and for developing the organization’s capabilities in creating contact lists, databases, the agency calendar, and web-based store and helping maintain an up to date online presence. Michelle Ballan (Bergen County) Dr. Ballan is a professor at Columbia University and works in the areas of policy, quality assurance practices, and rights of adults with disabilities.


	Gail Levinson, Executive Director Gail has worked in the State of New Jersey for over 25 years on policy, training and planning initiatives for adults and children with special needs. She is a lover of the arts and is excited to take the helm at Arts Unbound to extend its reach geographically and to further its mission of providing quality arts education and vocational training in the visual arts to students with disabilities. Kathleen Heron, Program Coordinator and Lead Instructor Kathleen Heron is an award-winning collage/assemblage artist working in the Valley Arts District of Orange, NJ. She has returned to her first love of teaching art to persons with emotional and developmental disabilities - her first stint was as a teen Red Cross volunteer at the psychiatric facility, Essex County Hospital Center, in the Art Therapy Department. She later worked with patients in the psychiatric hospital, bringing art materials to work with the clients, as an alternative to TV. Kathleen has attended Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, The School of Visual Arts and the New School, all in NYC. "I give my mom a lot of credit for my love of this work. She was an RN at Kessler Institute and she would bring me there as a child to meet and talk with the patients. She always encouraged me to pursue my love of art." Stefanie Garwin - Program Coordinator and Intructor, Senior Division Stefanie Garwin is the coordinator and lead art teacher for the Arts Unbound Senior Division, Generations. She directs the senior program, which provides arts education classes to senior citizens with disabilities in Morris, Union and Essex Counties, through grants from the Grotta and Wallerstein Foundations as well as the United Way of Essex and West Hudson. She is also a gifted jewelry designer and crafts maker. Stefanie originally joined Arts Unbound as a client artist in a one-on-one mentoring program. She lives with a physical disability, having suffered from a brain tumor as a teenager. Now she uses a wheel-chair and copes with several physical challenges that impede her mobility. In a rehabilitation program after her brain surgery, Stefanie was taught jewelry making. Now, she has created a successful jewelry business selling her hand strung beaded jewelry. She uses top quality display equipment and utilizes a professional catalogue. Stefanie donates a portion of her proceeds to a brain injury organization. She is completing her studies in Therapeutic Recreation and incorporates these skills into the arts education classes. Robert Ramos, Gallery Director Robert Ramos has been a professional artist for twenty five years with a number of one man and group shows in NY and NJ. He is in the permanent collection of the Newark Museum, and corporate collections including I.B.M., AT&T, Nabisco, and the New York Stock Exchange. Past commissions include work for Lee Iaccoca and Lawrence Grossman as well as several large scale sculptures for many corporate headquarters. Robert is a curator and designer whose talents have graced the Arts Unbound gallery for the past two years. Tashea Patterson, Office Manager