Liz Hopfan, MSEd/ Executive Director

Liz Hopfan began her career in service to children and families in the early 1990s as an elementary school teacher in South Central Los Angeles, where she also first encountered Free Arts. As volunteer in both the PACT and Free Arts Day programs there, Liz saw first hand the positive impact of art in the lives of children. In 1997, Liz returned to the East Coast, where she saw the need for arts programming for at-risk youth in New York City. In 1998, with a budget of $100,000 and a staff of one, Free Arts NYC began bringing its programs to children and families throughout the city.

Today, under Ms. Hopfan’s continued leadership, Free Arts NYC employs a staff of thirteen committed professionals and has an annual operating budget of over $1,400,000. Liz remains actively involved in all areas of the organization’s operations, from program development to fundraising to volunteering. She is also a member of the National Society for Fundraising Executives, the Association of Fundraising Professionals and Art Table, a national nonprofit organization for professional women in the visual arts.

Nina Elan Levit/ Executive Assistant
(nina@freeartsnyc.org)

Nina earned her B.A. in Community Studies with a focus on Women’s Health at UC Santa Cruz. She is fluent in Spanish, and worked with an artisan’s cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico. While there she facilitated literacy and accounting classes for artisans to promote fair trade, and wrote a thesis concentrating on artisans in Southern Mexico. After graduation, she spent several years as a community health educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. While at Oakland’s La Clinica de la Raza, Nina ran a program that provided information and access to undocumented immigrants seeking healthcare. Later, she focused on outreach to queer teens, providing accurate sex education. She also volunteered at Casa Segura (The Safe House), a harm-reduction based model for HIV prevention and education, and for the SF AIDS foundation hotline.

Studying weaving, dyeing and textile-making while in Mexico was powerful, and Nina decided to follow her passion for color, texture and pattern to the California College of Arts and Crafts to earn a B.F.A in Textiles. Post-graduation, she headed east to explore the world of art and design in NYC, working at a textile company that hand dyes and prints fabric for fashion, theater, movies and television, and an eco-textile driven fashion company. She later managed textile development at Ralph Lauren for two years before returning to non-profit work at Free Arts NYC.

Jill Ziccardi, MFA/ Director of Programs and Community Partnerships
(jill@freeartsnyc.org)

Jill Ziccardi holds a BFA in Art (with honors) from Carnegie Mellon University and a MFA in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she was awarded a full-tuition merit scholarship. She has been a painter for 30 years and has been working in arts education and program development for 20 years and is passionate about the relationship of art to the social world.

Although she is a native New Yorker, Jill began her career in Chicago in academia as a Professor of Drawing and Painting at various higher education institutions (The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Valparaiso University, ACM Chicago Arts Program, Columbia College, University of Illinois, among others.) After eight years of working with college students, Jill made an intentional decision to shift her work environment to a community-based setting with grade school kids and teens. Before leaving Chicago, she worked as a Teaching Artist for the Department of Cultural Affairs, Gallery 37 in the Parks and Urban Gateways and spent two years designing and implementing Park Voyagers, a collaborative and award-winning outreach program for kids and families through The Art Institute of Chicago.

Since moving back to NYC in 2001, Jill has worked as an Education Manager for the Police Athletic League, as a Teaching Artist for the Guggenheim Museum and as a Program Director for after-school and camp programs for Oasis. Before coming to Free Arts NYC, Jill was employed for three years with the 1199SEIU Employer Child Care Corporation, where she created summer day camp and teen programs.

In addition to her daily life as an artist and educator (www.redhooktomato.com), Jill believes in the power of art, ethics, hard work, critical thinking, community service, having fun, bike-riding, freedom and giving kids a future.

Kai Fierle-Hedrick/ Weekly Mentor Program Manager
(kai@freeartsnyc.org)

Kai holds an Honors BA in Art History & English Literature from McGill University (Canada), an MPhil in Architecture & the Moving Image from Cambridge University (UK), and in May of 2007 earned a post-graduate certificate in Teaching to Inspire Learning from Royal Holloway, University of London (UK).

Since 2003, Kai has worked to promote collaborative creative practices and their capacity to support positive youth/community development. Before joining Free Arts NYC in August of 2007, Kai lived and worked in the UK for 4 years. First as a Project Assistant for the interdisciplinary consultancy General Public Agency (supporting public art/regeneration projects); and later as a freelance Project Coordinator and Teaching Artist facilitating visual art, digital media and writing workshops for organizations including the East-Side Educational Trust, Creative Partnerships, and Royal Holloway University of London. Kai consulted on the pilot year of Creative Partnerships’ Associate Schools Programme, and in December 2007 co-coordinated the interdisciplinary conference Power & Space: Transforming the Contemporary City (Cambridge, UK).

Kai is also a mixed-media writer and the Managing Editor of How2. Her writing has been published/exhibited in the US, Canada and the UK-and is documented on her website www.orium.org.

Sarah Sabourin/ Free Arts Day Program Manager
(sarah@freeartsnyc.org)

Sarah Sabourin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and Education from St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY. She also received a BFA in ceramics from Alfred School for Ceramic Art in Alfred, NY.

Sarah has managed and taught in community centers focusing on arts education in Plattsburgh, NY at the Plattsburgh Housing Authority Community Center and at the Brookline Adult Education Program in Brookline, MA. Sarah ran the Clay Studio at Bucks Rock Arts Camp where she also taught classes for children and teens. Currently, Sarah teaches Adult Beginning Wheel Throwing at La Mano Pottery in NYC.

Prior to joining Free Arts NYC, Sarah worked at The 92nd Street Y’s Art Center, which offers classes for children and adults in ceramics, jewelry and fine art mediums. She assisted in the overall administration of this large community center in programming and exhibitions.

Carmen Hernandez/ PACT Program Manager
(carmen@freeartsnyc.org)

Carmen J. Hernandez received her B.F.A. in painting and sculpture with an art history minor at the College of New Rochelle in May 2005 and received a multi-subject teacher certification with bilingual and visual arts specialty in NYC shortly after graduating. Her experience of immigrating to NYC at the age of 5 as a non-English speaker shaped her passion for servicing the immigrant community through the visual arts. She taught art at Maritime Academy Elementary School and a pilot Bilingual Science through the Arts curriculum at the Roberto Clemente School in the South Bronx.

Inspired to motivate our youth at a larger scale, she took the position of Coordinator of Education Programs at The Bronx Museum of the Arts where she has gained experience as a leader in art education. Carmen is currently the author of the museum’s resource guide for teachers- an exhibition based publication and manages the museum’s instructors in conjunction with designing and leading workshops for educators.

Carmen joined Free Arts NYC in 2009 as a PACT program facilitator. In January 2010, Carmen was recruited as the PACT Program Manager and continues to work as a visual artist, museum administrator and educator. Carmen has been featured in New York’s Time Out magazine, The Bronx Herald and recently founded and launched the art performance group, Same. (,) Difference.

Vicki Raines/Volunteer Coordinator
(vicki@freeartsnyc.org)

Vicki Raines’s passion for community service and civic engagement began as a student at Wellesley College. Inspired by her alma mater’s motto, “Not to be served, but to serve,” she undertook a Public Policy Internship with the Feminist Majority Foundation in Los Angeles during the summer of her junior year. Gearing up for a massive march in Washington, she helped the organization to provide information and training to area students and interns interested in amplifying their voices in Washington, D.C. Witnessing the commitment and selflessness of committed citizens to bettering the lives of others, their communities, and country spurred her to seek a career in service. Upon graduation she helped to launch a campaign fundraising office in Philadelphia, PA for the 2004 Presidential Election, an opportunity that introduced her to the world of field organizing and volunteer management.

Between 2004 and 2008, Vicki worked in the fields of volunteer management and outreach for progressive political campaigns and candidates, overseeing volunteer recruitment, training, and leadership development. Whether organizing a network of local chapters for MoveOn.org or training hundreds of activists to speak to their neighbors and communities about voting, a continuing joy in her work has been working in partnership with volunteers to provide services and solutions to our common challenges.

Meghan Bulfin/ Materials Coordinator and Program Associate
(meghan@freeartsnyc.org)

Meghan graduated from the University of Vermont in May 2008 with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Studio Art. As an undergraduate student, Meghan worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Psychology Department, as well as a Research Assistant for a study on children with ADHD. She was also involved in a service-learning course at UVM where she tutored “at-risk” youth at Edmunds Middle School in Burlington, VT. During the summer of 2008, Meghan volunteered with Burlington City Art’s Art from the Heart program at Fletcher Allen Hospital, where she administered arts and crafts for the children in the pediatric unit. Meghan is also very involved in art and has spent time studying Jewelry Making in Florence.

Meghan joined Free Arts NYC as a volunteer in the Weekly Mentor Program in 2009. Shortly after, she began as a Program Intern before becoming a staff member.

Ashley Middleton/ Special Events Manager
(ashley@freeartsnyc.org)

Ashley graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Art History and French from Hobart and William Smith Colleges where she attended all four years as an Arts Scholar. Fluent in both French and Italian, she spent time living abroad in France and Italy studying Dance, Art History and Studio Art. Ashley grew up trained in classical ballet and has danced with The Joffrey Ballet, The Boston Ballet, The Atlanta Ballet, and Les Jeune Ballet de France.

Ms. Middleton has worked in New York City in events and publicity for the past 5 years and joins Free Arts NYC from the British fashion company Mulberry, where she was the Public Relations Manager. Throughout her life, she has volunteered with programs such as Camp Amerikids – a mentoring program for underprivileged children affected by HIV/AIDS.

Brooke Connolly/ Manager of Individual and Major Gifts
(brooke@freeartsnyc.org)

Brooke holds a BA in Psychology from Dickinson College and an MA in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan.

Brooke has eight years of non-profit experience, first working to support U.S. Department of Education publications with American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC, then as an educational program evaluator with the California-based research and development group, WestEd. During her time at WestEd, Brooke designed and conducted numerous mixed-method evaluations of educational programs, including evaluations examining the efficacy of arts integrated curriculum, teacher training, as well as nationally-focused and district-wide programs. Prior to joining Free Arts, Brooke served as a Development Associate with Achievement First for over two years, managing institutional giving efforts and supporting annual and capital campaigns. She is an advisory board member for Link Education and a frequent volunteer with various New York City-based charities.

Brooke has a long history in performing arts and attributes much of her professional success and personal growth to the foundation laid during her childhood years exploring music, theatre, and dance. She was also a member of the D-Tones, a co-educational a capella group at Dickinson College.

Bernadette DeAngelis/ Development and Marketing Coordinator
(bernadette@freeartsnyc.org)

Bernadette DeAngelis received her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing and International Business from NYU’s Stern School of Business in May 2006. She also studied Art History, spending time living abroad in Florence. Additionally, Bernadette has avidly pursued several different styles of dance throughout her life.

Originally, Bernadette joined Free Arts as a Development intern during her last year of school, before eventually assuming a full-time position. She taught dance and movement classes for several years in Pennsylvania and was very active in student-run community service organizations throughout both high school and college. She currently volunteers with Free Arts’ Weekly Mentor Program.