MEMBERS

PRESIDENT

Louis Holstein is a creator and community builder who believes in the power of art and the strength of community. A collaborator at heart, Louis enjoys working with artists and creatives who long to build a world where everyone has a place to belong, space to grow, and the ability to thrive. His art reflects the importance of being bolstered by community and deep conviction that art is the bridge from intolerance to empathy. Playing in various mediums, Louis’ artistic voice is communicated through abstract expressionist paintings,  writing, and co-hosting the Casa de Arte Podcast with his wife, Ashley. 

Find him at louisholstein.com,  or on Instagram @louisholstein

VICE PRESIDENT

Delanyo Mensah is a multidisciplinary artist, curator, and advocate whose work bridges art, justice, and community. As a queer, first-generation Ghanaian-American, Mensah’s creativity draws from her rich heritage and lived experiences, centering Black women and queer people of color. Her artistic practice—spanning photography, poetry, and mixed media—boldly challenges conventions and invites viewers on a journey of self-discovery and connection. She weaves together the past and present through cultural elements like adinkra symbols, offering new meanings that reflect her intersectional identity.

SECRETARY

A tapestry that can visually endure, reflecting nostalgia, potential, security and beauty - painted materials, pieced fabrics, ribbons, fragments, are assembled and stitched with embellishment techniques, layering paint on pattern. Wild, untamed green spaces inspire through a similar unraveling and rebuilding process. Theresa Buffo received a BA from The Colorado College with honors in Painting. A longtime Chicagoan, she recently relocated to Nashville with her husband and two sons. As a COOP member she enjoys curating, grant writing and community building at the gallery. When not in the studio (@studiobuffo11), you will likely find her planning or working in a garden (@sparrowandvines)

TREASURER

Beth Reitmeyer is a visual artist who likes to make people happy with her colorful installations. Her work investigates landscapes and the joy of unexpected yet beautiful spaces and places discovered as one explores the land: clouds, rivers, caves, geodes, and stars. These environments allow viewers to explore the land and get to know one another in a profound way, providing space for renewal and persevering. Reitmeyer’s work has recently been exhibited at the Frist Art Museum; ChaShaMa, NY; OZ Arts; Zg Gallery, Chicago. Beth has been an artist-in-residence at The Studios at MASS MoCA, ChaNorth, the Golden Foundation, and ChaNorth.

DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD

Caitlin Blomstrom (she/her) is an artist and arts professional with a BFA in Painting + Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. She was an artist-in-residence at Penland School of Craft in 2023 and at Kunstraum in Brooklyn, NY in 2022. She was featured in New American Paintings in 2018. Caitlin is also a curator and loves to collaborate with artists and friends. She currently lives and works in Nashville, TN. Caitlin creates paintings and art objects as a way to interpret her surroundings and is interested in re-contextualizing everyday encounters.

Find her at: caitlinblomstrom.com

CURATORIAL DIRECTOR

Sai Clayton is a visual artist and curator in Nashville, TN. Her work exploits the self-portrait as a vessel for racial representation and as a personification for female sexuality and Asian biraciality. She is currently an American for the Arts Diversity in Arts Leadership intern at OZ Arts in Nashville, TN., and was the 2021-22 Curatorial Fellow at the Frist Art Museum. She holds a B.A. in Visual Arts and minors in Dance and Japanese from Middle Tennessee State University.

Find her at: saiclayton.com

MICRO-CINEMA TEAM LEAD

Evelyn Thoen is a multimedia artist and art teacher based in Nashville, TN. Her work explores time, memory, and place through printmaking, collage, drawing, and film photography.

Her recent work investigates the ways humans overlap and interact with the earth. The Lake Topographies series combines film photography, free-motion sewing, collage, and watercolor to reflect on how we engage with the physical landscape via walking trails. Her Winter Body series uses double-exposure film photographs to explore the self through the lens of the natural and built environment.

Find her at evelynthoen.com and on Instagram @evelyn_thoen_art

MEMBER

Amanda Lomax is a lens-based visual artist living and working in Nashville, TN. Amanda’s work promotes sensitivity to color by exploring hard-edge color fields in digital photographic printmaking. Her 2023 exhibitions include Galerie Tangerine, James May Gallery, and Folkestone Art Gallery. Her work is held in the permanent art collection of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Minted.com. She is represented by TurningArt.com and ArtBeat Nashville. She is a recipient of the 2020 Tennessee TriStar Arts Award, a graduate of the 2018 Periscope Arts Program, and currently serves on the Curatorial committee of COOP Gallery. She has been working with the photographic medium since 1998.

Find her at amandalomaxart.com and on Instagram @amandalomaxart

MEMBER

Amy Hoskins is a poet and visual artist creating with disabilities from her home studio in South Nashville, TN. Amy conducted a Spoken Word Immersion Program funded by Nashville Metro Arts, every other Monday at Harvest Hands Development Corporation during the 2017-18 school year. Amy also hosted an all-languages poetry open mic in 2017 with Conexion Americas, from April through June 2017. The all languages welcome open mic moved to Flatrock Coffee, Tea, and More. The Flatrock Poetry Open Mic was held monthly from June 2017 to June 2018. Since then, Amy has hosted a monthly Gestalt Poetry Open Mic, which has been virtual since COVID-19.

Find her at amyhoskins.com

MEMBER

Anna specializes in mixed media and oil. Her beautifully chaotic paintings explore creative identity and celebrate idiosyncrasies that make that make us one of a kind. A peculiar mix of surrealism and magical realism, her paintings have been described as ethereal, vibrant, and empowering. She describes her work as "pretty paintings with gritty undertones."

Anna currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is grateful for her success in selling to private art collectors as well as having regular art shows and participating in art fairs. When not in the studio, she enjoys playing music, traveling, and spending time with her husband and their furry posse of dogs, cats, and chickens.

Find her at annathewiser.com

MEMBER

Ashleigh York is an abstract artist living and working in Nashville, TN. With a unique artistic voice and a playful and evocative exploration of planet Earth’s color palette, they strive to inspire through inventive and experimental work. Their practice explores the interplay of abstract textures and vibrant colors to create immersive artworks that evoke energy, joy, and exploration, inviting viewers to engage with their senses and embrace the expressive power of art as a source of inspiration and personal exploration. She incorporates recycled materials into her practice as much as possible and partners with local organizations to help promote sustainable practices and reuse.

Find her at ashleighyorkart.com and on Instagram @ashleighyorkart

MEMBER

Ashley Mayfield is a figurative ceramic sculptor and educator, working in Nashville, TN. She received her bachelor of fine arts degree in painting, with an emphasis in both sculpture and fiber arts, from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She continued her graduate studies in ceramic sculpture, attending classes and workshops nationwide. She has worked as an art educator at the Frist Art Museum and with the Art Embrace program. Her work has been featured in publications including 500 figures in clay Volume 2 and Joomchi & Beyond. Ashley’s work can be seen locally at the Shimai Gallery of Contemporary Craft.

Find her at http://ashleymayfield.etsy.com

MEMBER

Bethany Yankie is a queer disabled artist and Nashville native. They are self-taught, with creating becoming the way they process and imagine new worlds. Bethany sees art, both making it and viewing it, as therapy, exploration, and a communal point of connection. Creating art has served in their life as a way to process and heal from traumatic experiences, empowering them through despair, chronic pain, and disability.

Bethany creates with paper in both 2D and 3D and often combines drawings or paintings with collage and sculpture, sometimes incorporating poetry. Their art materials are strange little scraps they've collected over the years, supplemented by creative reuse exchanges. Bethany's art reflects a certain kind of loner surrealism and it is the one place they feel most truly theirself.

MEMBER

Cara Anne Greene is an artist and small business operator based in Nashville, TN. Her arts practice is rooted in process and materiality experimentation utilizing textiles, ceramics, and glass. She draws inspiration from both family craft practices and the reuse material movement. Raised in Nashville with deep family roots in Tennessee, she is passionate about fostering experimental arts in the South. In addition to being a member of COOP, she is also the current COO of Dryden Studio and a board member of the Arts and Business Council.

MEMBER

Living in Tennessee, nature is integral to being.

There is an intentional focus in my art - on the tree itself, the graceful extension of the branches.

Since our neighborhood was devastated by a tornado in 2020, trees - those that survived– have new meaning to me. Like humans in their endurance, in their grace, and their frailty.

The various tree studies are the foundation that I weave my color experimentation upon. The branches flow in and out within the composition, at times more prominent while other times more subtle. I feel that the paintings are tapestries of color.

My work currently is not any overarching theme but a quiet contemplation of the moment

MEMBER

Jon Jarrett Kinsland is a Tennessee artist working in ceramics and mixed media. He holds a BFA in sculpture and ceramics from Murray State University of KY and has exhibited his work across the southeastern United States. Spontaneity, biomorphism, pareidolia, and the belief that perfection gets in the way of fun, are subjects that energize his creative pursuits. When not in the studio you can find him reading forgotten lore, spending time with his wife, and experimenting in the kitchen.

MEMBER

Kelly Ann Graff is a writer, fiber artist, and educator. Her work has been featured in group shows in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. She holds a Master’s of Education from Vanderbilt University. Her writing has been published in Bible Belt Queers, Wussy Magazine, and The Salt Weekly.

MEMBER

I am an artist and art educator from East Tennessee. I recently completed my MFA in Studio Practices form the University of Colorado Boulder and I am moving back to Tennessee to teach Ceramics at the University School of Nashville.

My work is inspired by the traditional handcraft techniques, like sewing, knitting, smocking, and quilting, that I learned from my grandmother who is an expert seamstress. I take various elements from those traditions, whether they are aesthetic qualities or specific processes, and translate them into other materials, like clay, paper, and plastic landscaping tarps, that aren't associated with those crafts.

My work reveals an obsession with texture and handwork. My highly textured surfaces, though orderly in one sense, contain enough variability to implicate the slow work of hands as opposed to machines. These multi-layered, dimensional surfaces resist a flattening or simplification of complex experiences; instead, they offer a space with physical depth for more complicated considerations.

MEMBER

Nija Woods, as an abstract expressionist, channels her unique artistic style across various mediums, from fine art to journals and sculptures. In each piece, she masterfully combines colors with a deliberate choice that encourages reflection, acknowledgment, and transformation. This distinctive approach goes beyond aesthetics; it delves into the realm of color psychology, triggering profound emotions that pave the way for passive changes in overall health. Nija is also Certified in Color Therapy, Yoga Therapy, Meditation, and as a Therapeutic Art Life Coach Whether it's a canvas, a journal page, or a sculpted form, Nija's art invites individuals to engage in a transformative journey of self-discovery and well-being through the thoughtful interplay of colors.

MEMBER

Pallas Lane Umbra is an interdisciplinary artist, who incorporates painting, photography, and various mixed media approaches into their practice. They utilize the process of mythmaking through the creation of personal iconographies to explore various facets of their human experience.

Raised in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee, Pallas went on to receive their BFA in Studio Art from the Watkins College of Art at Belmont University. They have exhibited in solo and juried exhibitions as well as several group shows since 2019. As of 2024, Pallas is a member of the COOP Gallery in Nashville, TN. Currently serving as the Community Education Coordinator for the Watkins Community Education Program, Pallas strives to provide a creative space that fosters community learning through artist-to-artist engagement.

MEMBER

Sarah Budeski is a letterpress artist and designer based in Nashville, TN. She is a Designer / Printer at Hatch Show Print, a letterpress print shop located in downtown Nashville. In her fine arts practice, she explores identity through the printed word and book arts. Sarah grew up in Montana where she was raised on river and mountain time. The beautiful state encouraged her to stay for college where she received her B.F.A.’s in Printmaking and Graphic Design at Montana State University, as well as a minor in Art History with a focus on contemporary curatorial practices.

Find her at: sjbudeski.com

MEMBER

Shaun Giles is an artist and museum educator. As the Frist Art Museum’s community engagement director, he manages community partnerships, curates community exhibitions, and supervises educational outreach programs. He holds a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Tennessee State University and has been with the Frist Art Museum since 2005. Shaun was recognized by the Tennessee Art Education Association as the 2015 Museum Educator of the Year. He also serves on the Governing Board of Tennessee Craft and the Public Art Committee for Metro Arts: Nashville Office of Arts and Culture.

MEMBER

Taylor Walton's passion for creativity has been evident since his upbringing in small-town Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was always sketching and experimenting with different artistic mediums. Recently, he relocated to the vibrant city of Nashville, seeking to establish himself in its bustling art scene. As a freelancer, Walton has created numerous opportunities to showcase his talents in a variety of venues. In July 2022, Walton made his debut as a featured artist at the EPHEMERA show held at NKA Gallery, which was met with great acclaim. His next exhibition titled, 'I'M NOT SCARED OF YOU MFKAZ,' debuted in December 2022. Walton is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design, refining his skills and developing his creative voice. With his enthusiasm and dedication, Walton is well on his way to establishing himself as a prominent figure in the art world.