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Instructors' Biographies

Stephanie Crowell holds a BFA from Ohio Wesleyan University and received her certification in Art Education K-12 from Edinboro University. She has been a public elementary school art teacher, the Education Coordinator at the Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania, and an art instructor with San Jose Parks and Recreation. She loves teaching art because she believes it teaches compassion and is a terrific tour guide of life.

Laura Hale holds a BFA in painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She has served in both public and independent schools as a board member, development committee constituent, program coordinator, and administrative assistant. Now in her fourteenth year in education, she is intent on investigating best practices in arts education and believes that the arts give students a refined vision.

Juan Luna-Avin is a multi-discipinary artist who holds an MFA in Art Practice from Stanford University and a BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work examines individual and collective identities through the lens of youth cultures and rock n'roll music and has been shown at the Thomas Welton Art Gallery at Stanford, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. He is currently a Lecturer in the Visual and Public Art Department at California State University, Monterey Bay.

Sanaz Mazinani is an artist, curator, and educator based in San Francisco. She holds her undergraduate degree from Ontario College of Art & Design University and her MFA from Stanford University. Her projects have been exhibited in venues such as University of Toronto Art Center, Art & Architecture Library at Stanford University, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Gallery 44 Center for Contemporary Photography, and Paris Photo. Most recently, she was shortlisted for the 2013 Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize, granted the Kala Art Institute Fellowship, and was awarded the San Francisco Arts Commission Art on Market Street commission for 2013/2014.

Michael Pauker is a painter and printmaker. He has taught children's classes at the Cantor since 2001, and he enjoys working with children in the summers as a change of pace from teaching at West Valley College, Skyline College, and other colleges during the school year. Michael's work is in the permanent collections of The New York Public Library and the Achenbach Foundation For Graphic Arts at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, among other public and private collections. He maintains a studio at the Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto. 

James Tantum earned an MFA in New Genres (newer media) at San Francisco Art Institute. He makes photographs, artist books, personal calendars, written publications and videos. He has exhibited in many galleries in the Bay Area including Steven Wolf Fine Arts, New Langton Arts, Southern Exposure and San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. He has also taught classes at Zeum and the San Francisco Art Institute.