ANN MICELI TEED

Founder, Owner, Artist, Musician

Ann Teed is a doctoral student at Columbia University, NY, focusing on Holistic, Expressive Arts For Resilience and Well-being. She holds a National Parents Choice Gold Award for her family music album: The Shooting Star Express - A Journey to the Land of Imagination and has toured the tri-state area sharing her original music comedy with audiences of all ages. Nicknamed, "Hurricane Annie", she is a musician and lead vocalist for "Annie and the Attaboys", a regional band of the Hudson Valley stirring up the mix with some soulful, rhythmic, rocking tunes. 

Twice, Ann has been at the helm for breaking the Guinness Book of World Records for the Largest Finger Painting. (2001 and 2007) For the past 14 years, she has worked in higher education and in 2010 received the Distinguished Teacher of the Year - Alumni at the State University of New York at New Paltz. Ann has worked and designed educational programs for many prestigious arts organizations such as Mill Street Loft, Dia Beacon, The Omega Institute, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, American Museum of Natural History, World Values Day, Vassar College, Lincoln Center Institute, Columbia University among others. She is currently an instructor at Adelphi University as well as a college supervisor at Teachers College - Columbia University, NY.  Ann is the owner of Dancing Willow Arts where she creates, teaches, and focuses on joyful and meaningful art-making within the Hudson Valley as well as on a virtual/international platform.

Ann has studied with renowned holistic, Expressive Arts Therapy pioneers such as Dr. Lucia Capacchione, Dr. Lucy Barbera, and Dr. Lisa Miller. She continues to research and train within the field of art for the spirit, mind, and body and continues to develop workshops for others sharing this vital and therapeutic work.

NINA TANTILLO ELTON

Artist, Educator, Healing Arts Practitioner

Nina Tantillo Elton has worked as a professional arts/healing arts practitioner in partnership with Arts Horizons Healing Arts Program, Mill Street Loft’s Healing Arts Program, and Doing Art Together in conjunction with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York City Board Education. Nina is an adjunct professor at Adelphi University, NY State University at New Paltz, The College of Mount St. Vincent, and has supervised and mentored students at Columbia University.

Ninaʼs expressive arts therapy practice began when she developed programs that integrated creative arts therapy with the visual arts, sandplay, creative movement for children and adults of all ages and diverse populations either in public school venues and in private practice. Certificates:  -The Trauma Informed Creative Arts Therapy Certificate Program for Mental Health Professionals, University of Albany  -Certificate of Completion/Creative Arts Therapy Certificate Program/Ulster Country BOCES -Certified Katonah Yoga Instructor  -Certified Reiki Practitioner -Completion of Eurythmy Program, Eurythmy School, Spring Valley Awards and Appointments: -Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, 2018 -Who’s Who in World 2020 -The Society of Publications Designers  -Peace Corps appointment and Temporary Foreign Service Officer for the US State Department.

LISA BROWN

Artist, Author, BA in Art, a MA in Creative Arts, Certified East Coast supervisor and Regional Coordinator for the Creative Journal Expressive Arts

About Lisa: I am a self-taught artist who has spent many years experimenting in mixed media while exhibiting and selling work in shows in NY and NJ. I have been teaching classes for over 35 years and developed a series of “art-as-therapy” workshops for those suffering with illness and adversity. I began these workshops while suffering myself with Lyme disease for many years and finding the only relief in the time I spent in the process of creating. I have dedicated my life to the belief that art is therapeutic and can help you speak words hard to say, relieve stress and suffering, and allow you to escape for a few hours.
I have a BA in Art, a MA in Creative Arts and I am the certified East Coast supervisor and Regional Coordinator for the Creative Journal Expressive Arts (a program that incorporates art with journaling). This includes being trained as a Visioning® workshop facilitator and writing “Beyond the Books” which includes ice breakers and workshops for facilitators.  I have facilitated programs for support groups (cancer, brain-injured, and bereavement) at the local hospitals, cancer centers, high schools, and (CEU’s) colleges, conferences, as well as offering a variety of workshops in my studio. I have taken my unique teaching skills across the United States and to England, Ireland, and Mexico.