Administrative team
Kristin Melkin
Founder & Executive Director
Teaching Artist
Mentors
Kerry Cox
Erin Dunn
Paul DeMuro
Jeff Hopkins
Kristin Melkin
Molly O'Brien
Harriet Tebbetts
Teaching Artists
Harriet Tebbets
Leah Meshnick
Eva Rosenfeld
Ellie Suchmann
Board of Directors
Jessica Demler
Alexandra Hankovszky
Kristin Melkin
Molly O'Brien
Antonia Perez
About our teaching artists
Ashley E. Chapman is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and art historian. Ashley loves collaborating with students and colleagues, investigating what it all really means. She finds teaching in her community especially rewarding. Ashley approaches her teaching practice through many conceptual and visual angles. She has taught dance, assisted for the Guggenheim’s Learning Through Art program, and had a past life as a photojournalist. Additionally, she has interned in archiving with the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and completed a summer curatorial internship at the Brooklyn Museum. Ashley is currently pursuing her master's degree in Art History at Hunter College, where she double majored in studio art and art history as an undergraduate. She also has a degree in journalism with a photojournalism emphasis from The University of Georgia.
Kristin Melkin is a Greenpoint-based artist who believes exposure to art provides children with a critical means for engaging their world. She explains, "When students look at art honestly and subjectively, they have the opportunity to make discoveries that are personal. When students explore art processes and materials, they build their own system of understanding cause and effect. When students complete a work of art, they have created something that has a unique place in the world. When I teach, my goal is to create an environment where students learn to trust their own observations, create their own solutions, and understand their power as artists and humans." Kristin founded Eckford Street Studio in 2013. For over fifteen years she has been fostering art experiences for students of all ages in a variety of settings, including museums, public schools and non-profit organizations. She has worked as a Teaching Artist for the Guggenheim Museum’s Learning Through Art program, and was a Gallery Educator at the Noguchi Museum.
Harriet Tebbetts is a New York City-based artist and educator originally from London, England. She works across many different mediums and techniques including painting, photography, and sculpture, considering memory mapping and the conversations that occur through proximity and juxtaposition. She holds a BFA from Central Saint Martins - University of the Arts London, and has exhibited her work internationally. Harriet has ten years of experience working with children of all ages and abilities, and has been at Eckford Street Studio for the past two. She teaches across ESScp programs including ARTLAB, Art After School, Summer Art Workshops, and our Artist/Family Partnerships. She believes art is something anyone and everyone should be able to experience!