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.

Pam Robin­son is a Chicago-based Jeweler, Artist, Educa­tor, and Arts Administrator.

She was the Direc­tor of Educa­tion and the Jewelry & Glass depart­ments at a large art center in Chicago.

She is a member of The Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths (SNAG) and served on their Board of Direc­tors. As their confer­ence liaison, she was instru­men­tal in orga­niz­ing, plan­ning, editing, and sched­ul­ing confer­ences. In 2019 she received the SNAG Volun­teer Recog­ni­tion Award for her service.

Pam is currently on the board of the Women’s Jeweler’s Asso­ci­a­tion (WJA) — Chicago chapter as their Program­ming VP and received their pres­ti­gious Shining Star Award for volun­teerism. She was also a found­ing member of The Chicago Metals Art Guild (CMAG).

Pam earned her BFA from The School of the Art Insti­tute of Chicago, minored in art history, and studied at The Gemo­log­i­cal Insti­tute of America. She is proud of her commu­nity outreach work, has exhib­ited her work nation­wide, published in books and maga­zines, and is happi­est when she’s in her studio creat­ing and sharing her passion with others.

Centered on entre­pre­neur­ship in the arts, Alaina spends her time as a metal­smith and busi­ness expe­ri­ence strate­gist near Detroit, MI. Her philos­o­phy stems from an entre­pre­neur­ial mindset and believes all artists should have access to a compre­hen­sive under­stand­ing of lead­er­ship, busi­ness, and their ability to lever­age the skills and knowl­edge gained as an artist and be able to apply it to all profes­sional situ­a­tions in life.

Alaina earned a BFA in Metal­smithing and Jewelry and MPA in Public Admin­is­tra­tion: Nonprofit Manage­ment and Lead­er­ship from Grand Valley State Univer­sity. She is passion­ate about culti­vat­ing a diverse, equi­table envi­ron­ment for all artists through educa­tion and dialogue, provid­ing clients and students with creative problem-solving skills in an ever-evolving market.

As a coach and free­lancer, she has worked with multi­ple orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing, Living Arts, Detroit Horse Power, and the Capuchins; small busi­nesses like Elaine B. Jewelry, Dove­tail Design & Cabi­netry Inte­rior Design Firm, and many indi­vid­ual artists; and large corpo­ra­tions such as Volk­swa­gen, AAA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. She has also teamed up with market­ing and event agen­cies, like MVP Collab­o­ra­tive, Special D Events, and 2Fly Produc­tions to provide project manage­ment and event support. She is currently serving as the Vice Pres­i­dent of the Michi­gan Silver­smith Guild where she orga­nizes work­shops and lectures for the members and community.

Other past orga­ni­za­tions include The Society of North Amer­i­can Gold­smiths, The Center for Entre­pre­neur­ship and Inno­va­tion at Grand Valley State Univer­sity, the West Michi­gan Center for Arts + Tech­nol­ogy, Fred­er­ick Meijer Gardens and Sculp­ture Park, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp.

www​.gemcre​ativemi​.com, @a.clarkemetalsmith, @gemcreativemi, Face­book, LinkedIn

Alexan­der Zimmer­man is an artist, musi­cian, YouTu­ber, podcaster and father. He likes to define himself as a creative as he does not align with any one partic­u­lar form of creativ­ity. Currently he is a MFA candi­date at San Diego State Univer­sity school of Art and Design. When he is not working on a project you can find him watch­ing the Seattle Seahawks, watch­ing Marvel movies, hanging out with his kids, or taking naps.

Check out Alex’s work on:

His Website, YouTube, TikTok, Insta­gram, Face­book, Twitter