Board of Directors
The Redwood Art Association is governed by a Board of Directors responsible for management of the affairs of the organization, coordinating activities and making decisions about how the organization can best serve the membership and the community. It is a working board and members donate their time, skills and energy to present successful events and worthwhile activities. All decisions are made in accordance with our member approved bylaws.
The Board meets at 10:30AM on the third Wednesday of each month at the RAA Gallery or via Zoom. If you would like to communicate with the Board or a Board Member, you may send an email to info@redwoodart.us and your message will be forwarded.
If you wish to be a Director, please complete this form and email to president@redwoodart.net.
The Officers and Directors for 2025 are:
Sara Kimber, President
Former large scale project manager, recognized for her leadership, community building and team development. Enjoying supporting our member community while pursuing new learning and growth in a life filed with art. BFA in Sculpture from HSU, currently working on an MFA in Ceramics. Primarily a figurative ceramic sculptor using clay and bronze enhanced with wood and found objects..
Barrie Love, Vice President
Barrie moved to Humboldt in 2000 and opened a retail lighting store in Eureka called Love Lights. Since closing in 2022 she has been involved with her mixed media art photography and volunteering as a docent at RAA. She has received many awards in shows at RAA and also had a solo show at Morris Graves Museum in April of 2022. Prior to moving to Humboldt she was a freelance photographer and also worked in a small company doing photo retouching for advertising companies in San Francisco, this was pre-photoshop, meaning all my hand. She went to College of Marin and Indian Valley college, focusing mostly on art, photography and dance.
Natascha Pearson, Secretary
Natascha Pearson is a multi-media fantasy surrealist artist. She has a small business, Humboldt County Lifestyle blog and Etsy store called Little Lost Forest. She draws inspiration from mythology, nature, and paganism.
Catherine Dean, Treasurer
I started learning to paint when I got a paint-by-numbers set for Christmas and then my dad made an easel for me. I took a few art classes in college. Then life and husbands and kids got in the way. I came to Humboldt to study biology at Humboldt State. Then I bought a store called Strictly for the Birds which I operated for 12 years. I retired and wanted to start painting again. I joined some other ladies painting at Plum Blossom Studio with Thao Le Khac. My husband passed away and I joined Redwood Art Association and started volunteering. I love the people and the organization.
Nancy Flemming
Former Eureka Mayor, Exec. Dir., Sequoia Humane Society, local artist and avid supporter of the Arts. She served on the boards of Humboldt Arts Council, Redwood Arts Association, Representative Art League, and currently North Coast Dance. She has studied with Michael Hayes, Jim McVicker, Randy Sexton, Terry Miura, and Stock Schleuter in California workshops, and with Julian Merrow-Smith in Provence. Her paintings are in private collections in across the United States and Humboldt County. She has been featured in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, Humboldt Beacon, The Journal, and the Times Standard.
Myra J. Kahan
Retired artist living in Humboldt since 2016. A former Creative Dir. for XMi and InfoAdvantage, Dir. Web Development Women in Technology of Tennessee, Project manager and 2D designer for Woman Suffrage Memorial at Market Square in Knoxville, Artistic Dir. and Associate Producer for the musical documentary “How Southern Women Won the Vote”. She also owned a small media solutions business for over 10 years and was Art Dir. and animator for an international film effects company.
Lindsay Lacewell Kessner
Prior to teaching at College of the Redwoods, Kessner worked for ten years at The Armory Center for the Arts and other institutions in the Los Angeles area, where she developed and led programs to engage young students in art-making as a way of exploring nature, strengthening community, fostering academic extension, and exploring identity and personal agency.
Jeff McCallay
Street and travel photographer living in Eureka. Private pilot with degree in Airport Management. Retired from the FAA as air traffic controller in 2005. Part-time ATC instructor at the Aeronautical Center in OKC.
Lynn Niekrasz
Retired from a 29-year career salon business. After eight years of studio and plein air study including workshops with Jim McVicker, she joined RAA and continues to learn from many of Humboldt’s gifted artists.
Berit Potter, Ph.D.
Berit is Assistant Professor of Art History and Museum Studies at Cal Poly Humboldt, where she oversees the Museum and Gallery Practices Certificate. Before moving to Humboldt, she held a fellowship at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and taught at California College of the Arts, Mills College, San Francisco Art Institute and University of San Francisco. She received a M.A. in Museum Studies and Ph.D. in Art History from New York University.
Van Shields
Van fulfilled his dream to work in the arts when he joined the staff of New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image in 1991. His museum career continued as executive director of South Carolina’s Culture and Heritage Museums and the Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts, before retiring in 2018. He has served on more than 30 boards and commissions related to the arts, planning, social services, tourism, economic development, and media. He and his spouse, artist Peggy Rivers, live in Humboldt County, California. He enjoys making ceramic arts, as well as rekindling old friendships and making new friends.
Courtney Slider
Courtney Slider moved to Humboldt County in 2002. She is an alumnus of HSU. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art, an AA in Graphic Design, as well as three teaching credentials. She currently is an Education Specialist for Bridgeville School, and a has an art studio in the C Street Studios in Old Town.
James F. Woglom
An artist/educator and Associate Professor of Art Education at Humboldt State University. He received his PhD from the University of Georgia, where he studied arts-based research methodologies and socially engaged practices. His co-authored graphic novel on social justice-oriented teacher education, On Mutant Pedagogies, was awarded the American Education Research Association’s Qualitative Research Group’s Outstanding Book Award and the Society of Professors of Education Book Award in 2017. He loves to paint and teach.