Monica Hampton has had a life­long inter­est in the arts and educa­tion. Her back­ground is a combi­na­tion of fine arts, art history, educa­tion, and public outreach, with an empha­sis on program devel­op­ment for museums and orga­ni­za­tions special­iz­ing in history, fine art, craft, and design. 

As an inde­pen­dent consul­tant, she produced the Amer­i­can Craft Coun­cil’s 2016 confer­ence. Monica served as the Direc­tor of Educa­tion at The Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths (SNAG) and was formerly the Direc­tor of Educa­tion at the Amer­i­can Craft Council (ACC).

Past posi­tions include working with the Society for Envi­ron­men­tal Graphic Design (SEGD), Metrop­o­lis Maga­zine, and the Cooper-Hewitt.

She studied fine arts and art history at Bard College, received a dual fine arts/​art history BA degree from George Wash­ing­ton Univer­sity, and holds an MS in Museum Educa­tion from Bank Street.

Over 15 years as an educa­tor in museums and schools has given Jessica Balden­hofer a unique perspec­tive on design­ing program­ming for specific audi­ences around an insti­tu­tion’s collec­tion or content. Currently, Jessica works as a museum consul­tant and previ­ously at the New-York Histor­i­cal Society, Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, The Solomon R. Guggen­heim Museum, Museum of Contem­po­rary Craft and the Museum of Modern Art. As a consul­tant, Jessica works closely with museums and schools to ensure quality of program­ming, inter­pre­ta­tion and curriculum. 

German-born and the daugh­ter of two ballet dancers, Erika Diamond is a textile artist, curator, and arts admin­is­tra­tor. She received a BFA in Sculp­ture from RISD and an MFA in Fiber from Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity. She has exhib­ited nation­ally and inter­na­tion­ally and her costumes have been commis­sioned by Char­lotte Ballet. Resi­den­cies include McColl Center for Visual Art (NC); STAR­works (NC); ABK Weaving Center (WI); and Platte Forum (CO). She received a Regional Artist Project Grant in 2015 from the Arts & Science Council of NC and a recent Adjunct Faculty Grant from VCU Arts to create new work using bullet­proof Kevlar fabric. Diamond has taught at Virginia Common­wealth Univer­sity (VA) in the Craft/​Material Studies Depart­ment and Rocky Moun­tain College of Art and Design (CO). She spends her summers as Assis­tant Direc­tor of Galleries at Chau­tauqua Insti­tu­tion (NY). www​.erika​di​a​mond​.com

Katrina Duper­ree is a Western Penn­syl­va­nia based artist and furni­ture maker. She received a BFA from Edin­boro Univer­sity in 2016 and appren­ticed in Egg Collective’s Brook­lyn based studio the follow­ing year. She is a recip­i­ent of the Windgate Fellow­ship and Ruth Clark Schol­ar­ship for furni­ture design. She currently spends the major­ity of her creative prac­tice build­ing a tiny with her fiancé. 

Lori James is an indus­trial designer and musi­cian that hails from South Texas. She is currently working on an M.F.A. in furni­ture design at Savan­nah College of Art and Design while learn­ing a few tricks of the trade as an intern at Williams Uphol­stery in Savan­nah, GA.