Welcome to Cotuit Center for the Arts

I’m a retired educator and business owner and have been painting Fantastic Furniture for 20 years. It all started with a class given by my mentor, Ginny Boylan, at the Marblehead Arts Association. Prior to moving to the Cape, I was the co-owner of Yellow Dog Designs. We created custom work for clients on the Northshore of Boston including painted furniture and floorcloths. Currently I paint for pleasure and for a wonderful non-profit called Painting for a Purpose. They hold an annual auction to benefit the Portland Public Schools. One of my chairs was featured on poster promoting the event. Each year I paint dozens of pieces for the auction.

After decades of teaching drawing and painting to children and adults it is her conviction that thinking you have no ability or so-called “talent” can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Creativity can be learned and this is one of the premises of her classes, to dispel all the misconceptions about art. Her focus is to relax, inspire confidence, encourage and minimize inhibitions while enjoying the journey of creating.

Before moving to Cape Cod she taught painting in her home studio in Millis, Ma. Conducted workshops and classes at Boston Public Library, Copley Society of Boston, art guilds, schools and libraries on Cape Cod, in Rhode Island, the North Shore and New Hampshire.

She was the founder/director of the Stoney Brook Arts Guild at the Stoney Brook Nature Center in Norfolk, Ma. Since moving to the Cape she has taught at Falmouth Arts Guild, Sandwich Arts Alliance, Cape Cod Arts Assoc. Upper Cape Tech. H.S. and Cotuit Center for the Arts where she loves being a part of for the past several years.

Canadian-American artist Jackie Reeves uses mixed media to bring together figurative and abstract elements in her art. She was raised in Montreal by architect parents and studied design art at Concordia University. Her artistic career began as a professional mural painter for corporate, private and public spaces. Concurrently, Reeves co founded the Plymouth Community Art Center. In 2010 she earned her MFA in painting at Massachusetts College of Art and Design at the Fine Art Work Center in Provincetown. She has since exhibited in solo and group shows in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington DC and North Carolina. She has been profiled in numerous publications including WHITEHOT Magazine, the Boston Globe, Art New England and Artscope Magazine.

Reeves is an active member of the Cape Cod community offering mentorship through her art classes, public art and work with youth in creating murals that tackle issues of inclusion, diversity and acceptance.

Jackie works out of the Old Schoolhouse Studios in Barnstable Village and lives with her husband and three daughters in Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Nicole is a certified meditation instructor, sound practitioner, reiki master, and author of A Life Suspended: A Mother and Son’s Story of Autism, Extinction Bursts, and Living a Resilient Life. You can find her work at nhdwrites.com, or for current offerings follow her on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Jessie Nickerson’s love of art began at age 4, when she decided to embellish her family’s walls with crayon “murals” and has been a life-long pursuit ever since. She received her BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and went on to Parsons School of Design to earn her MFA. She has studied at the Museum School in Boston and at the Reitweld Academy in Amsterdam. Her illustrations and surreal images are inspired by fairy tales, elements of nature, and daydreams. She exhibits her work throughout the Cape, the South Coast and the Greater Boston area.  She resides on Cape Cod where the sea continues to provide her with inspiration.