Director     Judith Toy
Art Director   Theresa Coté
Web Designer   Deborah Ellington

Although she studied education in college, Judith Toy began her teaching career as a visiting poet in the schools while still raising two daughters and two stepsons. Prior to that, she and her husband, Philip, ran their own public relations firm for ten years. While Judith was teaching as a visiting poet, she also studied puppetry with the world-renowned Peter Schumann, of Vermont's Bread & Puppet Theater, a specific art form that set Judith on fire.

She has made her living as a writer and editor, as crew on a whale watching boat in the North Atlantic, and as a columnist. She has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for Creative Arts, won the Dylan Thomas Award at the New School for Social Research in NYC, and was nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize in literature. Judith has been the recipient of many grants. She worked for ten years as a museum teacher, taught college poetry courses and graduate workshops for teachers, taught art to orphaned children in Romania, organized a giant puppet show for a Full Moon Festival in the South of France, has edited 30 books of children's poetry and prose, founded the Gifted Young Writers' Summer Conference, taught full time, K-2, in North Carolina, and worked with folks of all ages. Judith feels that she brings all of her talents to bear on the joyful project of Open Art.

Art Director Theresa Coté studied commercial and fine art in college and then went on to be a founding member of Colourfield Art and Design Studio. A proficient artist in print, digital and traditional media, she is widely traveled and has works in private collections in Michigan, Washington and Alaska.

Web Designer Deborah Ellington, of Durham, NC, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in August of 2002 with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communication, specializing in Multimedia and Web Design. Deborah was a visual journalism fellow at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies last year, and is currently employed as a Multimedia Developer for Elon University.

Special Thanks and continuing hurrahs to Marilyn Sobanski, Mary Lounsbury and and Judith Bush, who, with Judith Toy and Theresa Cote, founded Open Art.


 

 

 


Adventures on the
rigid heddle loom.