GSVA Team

Annie Cacciato

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As Co-Founder and Co-President of GSVA, Annie Cacciato is a proud advocate for the creative development of all individuals. Annie is a University of Cincinnati graduate with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing and Management. Her expertise lies in the strategic development and design of GSVA’s nonprofit education model, as well as for-profit business models in visual art and communication. Currently, Annie co-designs all GSVA in-school and after-school visual arts education programs with our collaborative curriculum teams. She also partners with Kerry as a consultant to education organizations and school districts. Recently, they designed a public high school education model based on the principles of innovation for KnowledgeWorks Foundation funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This school model is now a component of education reform solutions across the nation and has been adopted by Frederick Douglass High School in Baltimore, MD, the alma mater of Thurgood Marshall. Prior to GSVA, Annie had 18 years of experience in marketing and communication strategy within the television industry. During her career she led numerous national advertising and marketing campaigns where the elements of design, aesthetics and the art of persuasion were essential to the campaigns' success. Her experience in marketing to target audiences, including children, brings a unique perspective to the GSVA team. She co-founded GSVA with the intent to provide innumerable opportunities for children and adults to develop their creative courage, the critical foundation to holistic, innovative, artful living in today’s world.

Kerry Dixon

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Kerry Dixon Co-founded GSVA with Annie as a Co-president. She concentrates on in-school and after-school educational programming, specifically curriculum design and fostering arts-based pedagogy and curatorial thinking in non-arts classrooms. Prior to co-founding GSVA, Kerry was a member of the curatorial staff at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art where she curated the Djerassi Gallery’s ongoing exhibition series featuring the works of Paul Klee. She also coordinated many nationally recognized shows such as Keith Haring (his first complete retrospective on the West Coast), Alexander Calder (one of the year’s most widely attended U.S. museum exhibitions), and Fabrications (a joint Architecture and Design exhibition with the Wexner Center in Columbus, OH and the Museum of Modern Art in New York). As a private curator, Kerry acquired artworks and installed new exhibitions for large corporations such as Arthur Andersen, Leo Burnett Advertising and the Reuters’ News Agency. Kerry also taught art history at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and at l’Ecole d’Humanite (Switzerland), a boarding school founded by pioneers in inquiry-based learning and theme-centered interaction. Kerry’s approach to the teaching of visual culture and arts learning is informed not only by experience as an educator in private school, public school, and university settings, but also by her curatorial work, making her contributions foundational to GSVA and the curatorial/exhibition component. She holds a B.A. in Art History and French from Bates College and an M.A. in art history from the University of Chicago. Through GSVA’s partnership on a federally funded initiative to reform teacher training, Kerry recently became a doctoral student, specializing in arts learning, at the Ohio State University, School of Teaching and Learning.

Paul Hamilton

Paul Hamilton is a practicing artist, nationally renowned for his landscape paintings in oil. He also has extensive experience designing interior and exterior retail spaces for clients such as Disney, BMW, eTrade, Microsoft and Sony. Paul’s passion lies in helping people of all ages use art to notice, connect with, and express the beauty of everyday life. His resume includes a long list of gallery and museum shows of his painting, sculpture and installation artworks. Most recently he was awarded the Phil Desind award of excellence through the Butler Institute of American Art. His artwork is included in the collections of the Ohio Governor’s mansion, the Ohio State House and Denison University. The accessibility of Paul’s work, combined with its lyrical qualities and technical excellence, has attracted a multitude of private collectors throughout the U.S., England and South America. Paul holds a Fine Arts Degree from the Columbus College of Art and Design. In his roles as GSVA’s Creative Director and Co-Instructor, Paul infuses GSVA’s programming with an inherently artful way of seeing and making meaning in the world. Paul’s boundless talent, energy, and kindness make him a treasure to our organization.

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Jennifer Pentecost

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Jennifer Pentecost is a graduate of Ohio University, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and a strong background in Art History. As a studio artist, Jenn enjoys printmaking, photography and painting. In May of 2009, Jenn began her journey with GSVA as an intern, and has since become GSVA’s Creative Education Instructor, a full-time Journey Program instructor alongside Paul. Having a strong combination of being both an artist and an art teacher, Jenn’s primary goal as the veteran Creative Education Instructor is to help students find the artist in themselves. She values helping her students to meaningfully utilize their creative and artistic abilities beyond literal realms and across all subject areas, making our logo “Art builds Minds” truly come to life. Jenn’s extraordinary sense of humor, enthusiasm, and upbeat personality are the perfect complement to her teaching philosophy, artistic style, and passionate commitment to her students.

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Rachael Moore

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Rachael Moore is GSVA’s newest addition, having joined the team in February of 2011. Although initially brought in to GSVA to temporarily step in for Jenn during knee surgery, she is now GSVA’s Arts Integration Project Coordinator, working closely with Kerry. Rachael graduated Summa Cum Laude from The Ohio State University in 2008 with her Bachelor of Art Education Degree. Continuing her education, she went on to earn her PreK-12 Visual Arts Teaching License in 2009 and her Master of Arts Degree in 2010, focusing her thesis project on the Transformative Learning Theory. In addition to her educational background, she has taught visual arts in public schools at all grade levels during a combined 3 years experience of student teaching and long-term substitute teaching.  Rachael’s pedagogy, curriculum design and implementation abilities, and organization skills made her an outstanding addition to GSVA’s in-school arts learning efforts.

Additional GSVA Team Members

Burt Hafkin, bookkeeping and finance

Amy Mock, grant writing

Elena Speridokas, marketing and website support

Lee Anne Faler, project management

Nan Steyn, public relations support

Rob Cathcart, website design/maintenance and marketing support

Todd Jones, IT support

Mike Yearling, film director

Todd Hickerson, guest ceramic artist and instructor

Jenny Reynolds, guest artist and adult instructor

Current Board Members

Kerry Dixon

Annie Cacciato

William McConnell

Robert Abbott

Seth Chin-Parker

Paul Hamilton

Leslee Herro

Ryan Mills

Elisa Wolfe

Founding Board Members

Kerry Dixon

Annie Cacciato

Karin Dahl

Jane Heller

Nannette Maciejunes

Nancy Pistone