About the Center


We are a community-based not-for-profit that educates, encourages, and inspires all people to create and enjoy the visual arts. The Flower City Arts Center celebrated 50 years in 2020. Established in 1970, The Flower City Arts Center is located in a historic firehouse, constructed in 1895-1905 (Try to find evidence of the fire poles next time you're here!). We are the only community visual arts center conveniently located within the City of Rochester. In 1973, the Arts Center was incorporated as a 501(c)3 not-for-profit educational institution.

The Flower City Arts Center offers educational programs in a variety of visual arts with an emphasis on three areas: Printmaking & Book Arts, Ceramics, and Photography & Digital Arts. We produce youth programs, classes, and workshops, provide facilities to our studio artists, and exhibit work in our galleries. We collaborate with community groups for the benefit of all. Our photography, ceramics, and book arts programs are available to community members of all ages, incomes, and backgrounds.

At Flower City Arts Center we have an ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We value and cultivate an environment composed of a variety of backgrounds, skills, and views. We believe that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion provide a platform for ongoing innovation in art education and acknowledge the importance of diverse representation in the field of visual arts. We are a community that encourages all people to be respected, valued, included, and free to be one’s authentic selves. We are committed to Art for All People.

Flower City Arts Center's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

The Flower City Arts Center is an Institutional Member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education.


Board of Directors

Dorothy Roach, President
Jen Perena, Vice President
Jennifer Genter, Treasurer

Jillian Cook, Director
Kathryn DeLaVergne, Director
James DeLuca, Director
Sarah Viggiani, Director
Jacob Zoghlin, Director

Staff


Ceramics Studio Manager

Email: klascelle@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5183 ext. 3

Kyle Lascelle is a potter who works primarily in stoneware and fires in soda. He received his MFA in ceramics from RIT and received a BA in Philosophy from Arcadia University. Kyle serves as a studio technician in our ceramics department at Flower City Arts Center. His passion for clay is making and relating to historic pottery and how it relates to ideas of utility, intimacy, people, and the contemporary art world.

Finance Director

Email: clombard@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730 ext. 0

A lifelong Rochestarian, Carole earned her BS in Accounting from St. John Fisher College and earned her CPA license soon after. She’s enjoyed working in various Rochester for-profit and nonprofit organizations, but finds her greatest satisfaction serving the needs of local nonprofit organizations. In her spare time, Carole and her husband enjoy travel, hiking, and geocaching.

Development Director

Email: jmangano@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730 ext. 4

Joe Mangano is a Rochester, NY native with extensive experience in the arts, education, and nonprofit arenas. Throughout his 17 years working as a teaching artist and music producer in Rochester, he has taught a wide array of subjects including music production, vocal performance, musical theater, spoken word and slam poetry, digital media, and core academic subjects infused with original and fully arts-integrated curriculum across grade levels ranging from early pre-k up through college. His art and his pedagogy are centered around the concepts of social justice, political activism, personal transformation, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, social consciousness, positive social change, and healing. While working as a teacher, Joe attended SUNY Empire State College where he earned a BA in Psychology.

In addition to the arts, Joe has a passion for the natural world and enjoys hobbies such as mountaineering, wilderness survival, meteorology, and storm chasing.

Marketing & Communications Director

Email: mmcmahon@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730 ext. 7

Originally from Connecticut, Mev McMahon fell in love with the Rochester area while earning her BFA in Photojournalism at RIT. Her passion for photography developed in tandem with her appreciation for history. Growing up, she traveled with her archaeologist parents to numerous historical sites with a camera in hand. During college, she researched, acquired, and sequenced thousands of images while working as a Picture Editor for major publications such as TV Guide Magazine and NBCNews.com. Not one for NYC living, she moved back to her adopted home to give back in the best way she knows how: using visual storytelling to showcase the work of local nonprofit organizations.

Photography & Digital Arts Director

Email: jmuniz@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5920 ext. 1

Juliana Muniz is a photographer born and raised in Rochester, NY. She earned her BFA in fine art photography at Rochester Institute of Technology and MFA at Visual Studies Workshop.

Teaching Artist & Education Coordinator

Email: knewcomer@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5920 ext. 1

Kylie teaches various photography, and digital art, based classes, workshops and programs at the Center. Kylie earned her BFA with a concentration in Photography from the State University of New York College at Brockport. A Rochester native, Kylie was taught black and white film photography locally, by Bruce Elling, in high school. She has produced, and locally exhibited, her work ever since, gaining experience in digital art along the way.

Community Outreach Director

Email: rparker@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-4617 ext. 8

Richard (Rashaad) Parker is from Rochester, NY and earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York College at Brockport in Communications and Afro-African American Studies where he has presented research on African American Male Cultural Identity at the University of Maryland and the University of Buffalo Colleges. Currently, he is finishing up a Master’s degree in Fine Arts and Public Administration at Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY., where his artwork focuses on Afro-futuristic mixed media assemblages, incorporating metals and found objects, 16mm film, videography, sound, sculpture, photo collage, textiles, and film as a substrate. He has also worked with school-aged children at the Charles Settlement House as a Youth Development Specialist and has served as an advocate for education, peace, and social justice as a Commissioner for the Greater Rochester Martin Luther King Jr. Commission since 2011.

Executive Director

Email: krisrapp@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-585-244-1730 ext. 4

Kristin Rapp has woven together a colorful array of arts, education, healing and leadership experiences. She attended RIT for graphic design, SUNY Geneseo for Special Ed and Psychology (BA) and Syracuse University, where she became a Licensed Master of Social Work (LMSW). Rapp is an accomplished social entrepreneur, therapist, published author, and artist with a Certificate in Strategic Nonprofit Leadership.

She founded and ran a nonprofit organization that educated and employed through arts, technology, and creative entrepreneurship and a private therapy and wellness practice for individuals and couples. Kris actively engages in mixed media arts, photography, dance, yoga, meditation, and singing. She has a passion for creating impact and meaningful social change using principles of restorative practices, transformational justice, and emergent strategy. Kris has lived in the City of Rochester since college and loves the arts, culture, and natural wonders of this area. She has two adult kids, both graduates of School of the Arts, who live, work and create here too.

Ceramics Office Coordinator

Email: brishores@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5183 ext. 6

Bri Shores is from Kansas where she attended Fort Hays State University, receiving her BFA with emphasis in Ceramics in 2018. She then moved to Missoula and earned her post-baccalaureate from the University of Montana. The following year she interned at the Archie Bray Foundation. She currently lives in Rochester, NY and has started her residency at Flower City Arts Center. Website: brishoresceramics.com

Printmaking & Book Arts Director

Email: msullivan@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730 ext. 5

Megan is a multimedia artist working in video, photography, book arts and printmaking. She received a BA in Visual Arts & New Media from SUNY Fredonia in 2010 and MFA from Visual Studies Workshop in 2013. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and she has taught classes and workshops to students of all ages throughout New York State.

Printmaking & Book Arts Teaching Artist & Studio Assistant

Email: htaylor@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730 ext. 5

Hope Taylor is a multidisciplinary teaching artist currently based in Rochester, NY. They earned an MFA at the Visual Studies Workshop in 2012. With over 15 years of teaching experience in visual arts for all ages, their work often incorporates a variety of processes including; drawing, printmaking, sewing, photography, painting, video, sculpture, collage, natural dyes and papermaking.

Building & Facilities Manager

Email: dvarenka@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-244-1730

Dan Varenka is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Rochester, NY. Combining his DIY upbringing and commercial screen-printing practice, his work usually takes the form of books and zines. He received a BS in Art Education from Nazareth College of Rochester in 2003 and MFA from Visual Studies Workshop in 2012. He prints and publishes as Zaftig Press.

Youth Program Coordinator - Photography & Digital Arts

Email: lwebster@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5920 ext. 2

Liz Webster received a BFA in Visual Arts with a concentration in Photography from the State University of New York at Oswego. Originally from Syracuse she moved to Rochester to teach in the Studio 678 program. She took over administration of the program in 2018. Liz continues to work on personal photographic projects, focusing on silver gelatin printing, cyanotypes, and instant photography.

Ceramics Director

Email: kwhorton@flowercityarts.org

Phone: 585-271-5183 ext. 3

Kate has a BFA in ceramic sculpture and an MFA in Art Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. She and her husband Jim moved up from Tennessee when he began teaching creative writing at SUNY Brockport, and Kate begin as a studio artist at the pottery. She became the ceramics program director in 2006. She and her husband have two daughters and live in Brighton.